Deuteronomy 6–8

Chapter 6

These are the precepts, and ceremonies, and judgments, which the Lord your God commanded that I should teach you, and that you should do them in the land into which you pass over to possess it:

²That thou mayst fear the Lord thy God, and keep all his commandments and precepts, which I command thee, and thy sons, and thy grandsons, all the days of thy life, that thy days may be prolonged.

³Hear, O Israel, and observe to do the things which the Lord hath commanded thee, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayst be greatly multiplied, as the Lord the God of thy fathers hath promised thee a land flowing with milk and honey.

⁴Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.

⁵Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength.

⁶And these words which I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart:

⁷And thou shalt tell them to thy children, and thou shalt meditate upon them sitting in thy house, and walking on thy journey, sleeping and rising.

⁸And thou shalt bind them as a sign on thy hand, and they shall be and shall move between thy eyes.

⁹And thou shalt write them in the entry, and on the doors of thy house.

¹⁰And when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land, for which he swore to thy fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: and shall have given thee great and goodly cities, which thou didst not build,

¹¹Houses full of riches, which thou didst not set up, cisterns which thou didst not dig, vineyards and oliveyards, which thou didst not plant,

¹²And thou shalt have eaten and be full:

¹³Take heed diligently lest thou forget the Lord, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and shalt serve him only, and thou shalt swear by his name.

¹⁴You shall not go after the strange gods of all the nations, that are round about you:

¹⁵Because the Lord thy God is a jealous God in the midst of thee: lest at any time the wrath of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee, and take thee away from the face of the earth.

¹⁶Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God, as thou temptedst him in the place of temptation.

¹⁷Keep the precepts of the Lord thy God, and the testimonies and ceremonies which he hath commanded thee.

¹⁸And do that which is pleasing and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with thee: and going in thou mayst possess the goodly land, concerning which the Lord swore to thy fathers,

¹⁹That he would destroy all thy enemies before thee, as he hath spoken.

²⁰And when thy son shall ask thee to morrow, saying: What mean these testimonies, and ceremonies and judgments, which the Lord our God hath commanded us?

²¹Thou shalt say to him: We were bondmen of Pharao in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand.

²²And he wrought signs and wonders great and very grievous in Egypt against Pharao, and all his house, in our sight,

²³And he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in and give us the land, concerning which he swore to our fathers.

²⁴And the Lord commanded that we should do all these ordinances, and should fear the Lord our God, that it might be well with us all the days of our life, as it is at this day.

²⁵And he will be merciful to us, if we keep and do all his precepts before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us.

Chapter 7

When the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land, which thou art going in to possess, and shall have destroyed many nations before thee, the Hethite, and the Gergezite, and the Amorrhite, and the Chanaanite, and the Pherezite, and the Hevite, and the Jebusite, seven nations much more numerous than thou art, and stronger than thou:

²And the Lord thy God shall have delivered them to thee, thou shalt utterly destroy them. Thou shalt make no league with them, nor shew mercy to them:

³Neither shalt thou make marriages with them. Thou shalt not give thy daughter to his son, nor take his daughter for thy son:

⁴For she will turn away thy son from following me, that he may rather serve strange gods, and the wrath of the Lord will be kindled, and will quickly destroy thee.

⁵But thus rather shall you deal with them: Destroy their altars, and break their statues, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven things.

⁶Because thou art a holy people to the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen thee, to be his peculiar people of all peoples that are upon the earth.

⁷Not because you surpass all nations in number, is the Lord joined unto you, and hath chosen you, for you are the fewest of any people:

⁸But because the Lord hath loved you, and hath kept his oath, which he swore to your fathers: and hath brought you out with a strong hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, out of the hand of Pharao the king of Egypt.

⁹And thou shalt know that the Lord thy God, he is a strong and faithful God, keeping his covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments, unto a thousand generations:

¹⁰And repaying forthwith them that hate him, so as to destroy them, without further delay immediately rendering to them what they deserve.

¹¹Keep therefore the precepts and ceremonies and judgments, which I command thee this day to do.

¹²If after thou hast heard these judgments, thou keep and do them, the Lord thy God will also keep his covenant to thee, and the mercy which he swore to thy fathers:

¹³And he will love thee and multiply thee, and will bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy vintage, thy oil, and thy herds, and the flocks of thy sheep upon the land, for which he swore to thy fathers that he would give it thee.

¹⁴Blessed shalt thou be among all people. No one shall be barren among you of either sex, neither of men nor cattle.

¹⁵The Lord will take away from thee all sickness: and the grievous infirmities of Egypt, which thou knowest, he will not bring upon thee, but upon thy enemies.

¹⁶Thou shalt consume all the people, which the Lord thy God will deliver to thee. Thy eye shall not spare them, neither shalt thou serve their gods, lest they be thy ruin.

¹⁷If thou say in thy heart: These nations are more than I, how shall I be able to destroy them?

¹⁸Fear not, but remember what the Lord thy God did to Pharao and to all the Egyptians,

¹⁹The exceeding great plagues, which thy eyes saw, and the signs and wonders, and the strong hand, and the stretched out arm, with which the Lord thy God brought thee out: so will he do to all the people, whom thou fearest.

²⁰Moreover the Lord thy God will send also hornets among them, until he destroy and consume all that have escaped thee, and could hide themselves.

²¹Thou shalt not fear them, because the Lord thy God is in the midst of thee, a God mighty and terrible:

²²He will consume these nations in thy sight by little and little and by degrees. Thou wilt not be able to destroy them altogether: lest perhaps the beasts of the earth should increase upon thee.

²³But the Lord thy God shall deliver them in thy sight: and shall slay them until they be utterly destroyed.

²⁴And he shall deliver their kings into thy hands, and thou shalt destroy their names from under Heaven: no man shall be able to resist thee, until thou destroy them.

²⁵Their graven things thou shalt burn with fire: thou shalt not covet the silver and gold of which they are made, neither shalt thou take to thee any thing thereof, lest thou offend, because it is an abomination to the Lord thy God.

²⁶Neither shalt thou bring any thing of the idol into thy house, lest thou become an anathema, like it. Thou shalt detest it as dung, and shalt utterly abhor it as uncleanness and filth, because it is an anathema.

Chapter 8

All the commandments, that I command thee this day, take great care to observe: that you may live, and be multiplied, and going in may possess the land, for which the Lord swore to your fathers.

²And thou shalt remember all the way through which the Lord thy God hath brought thee for forty years through the desert, to afflict thee and to prove thee, and that the things that were known in thy heart might be made known, whether thou wouldst keep his commandments or no.

³He afflicted thee with want, and gave thee manna for thy food, which neither thou nor thy fathers knew: to shew that not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God.

⁴Thy raiment, with which thou wast covered, hath not decayed for age, and thy foot is not worn, lo this is the fortieth year,

⁵That thou mayst consider in thy heart, that as a man traineth up his son, so the Lord thy God hath trained thee up.

⁶That thou shouldst keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways, and fear him.

⁷For the Lord thy God will bring thee into a good land, of brooks and of waters, and of fountains: in the plains of which and the hills deep rivers break out:

⁸A land of wheat, and barley, and vineyards, wherein fig trees and pomegranates, and oliveyards grow: a land of oil and honey.

⁹Where without any want thou shalt eat thy bread, and enjoy abundance of all things: where the stones are iron, and out of its hills are dug mines of brass:

¹⁰That when thou hast eaten, and art full, thou mayst bless the Lord thy God for the excellent land which he hath given thee.

¹¹Take heed, and beware lest at any time thou forget the Lord thy God, and neglect his commandments and judgments and ceremonies, which I command thee this day:

¹²Lest after thou hast eaten and art filled, hast built goodly houses, and dwelt in them,

¹³And shalt have herds of oxen and flocks of sheep, and plenty of gold and of silver, and of all things,

¹⁴Thy heart be lifted up, and thou remember not the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage:

¹⁵And was thy leader in the great and terrible wilderness, wherein there was the serpent burning with his breath, and the scorpion and the dipsas,…