Deuteronomy 6–8

The Greatest Commandment

6“Now this is ^zthe commandment—the statutes and the rules¹—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, ²that ^ayou may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and ^bthat your days may be long. ³Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, ^cas the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.

⁴“Hear, O Israel: ^dThe Lord our God, the Lord is one.^{2 5}You ^eshall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ⁶And ^fthese words that I command you today shall be on your heart. ^7gYou 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. ^8hYou shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ⁹ⁱYou shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

¹⁰“And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities ^jthat you did not build, ¹¹and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, ^12kthen take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ¹³It is ^lthe Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and ^mby his name you shall swear. ¹⁴You shall not ⁿgo after other gods, ^othe gods of the peoples who are around you— ¹⁵for ^pthe Lord your God in your midst ^qis a jealous God—^rlest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.

^16s“You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, ^tas you tested him at Massah. ¹⁷You shall ^udiligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies and his statutes, which he has commanded you. ^18vAnd you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with you, and that you may go in and take possession of the good land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers ^19wby thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has promised.

^20x“When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?’ ²¹then you shall say to your son, ^y‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²²And ^zthe Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. ²³And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. ²⁴And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, ^ato fear the Lord our God, ^bfor our good always, that ^che might preserve us alive, as we are this day. ²⁵And ^dit will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.’

A Chosen People

7“When the ^eLord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, ^fthe Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations ^gmore numerous and mightier than you, ^2hand when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must ⁱdevote them to complete destruction.^{1 j}You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. ^3kYou shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, ⁴for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. ^lThen the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you ^mquickly. ⁵But thus shall you deal with them: ⁿyou shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their ⁿpillars and chop down their ⁿAsherim and ^oburn their carved images with fire.

⁶“For ^pyou are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be ^pa people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. ⁷It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, ⁸but ^qit is because the Lord loves you and is keeping ^rthe oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ⁹Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, ^sthe faithful God ^twho keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, ¹⁰and ^urepays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. ^vHe will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. ^11wYou shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.

^12x“And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the Lord your God will keep with you ^ythe covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers. ¹³He will ^zlove you, bless you, and multiply you. ^aHe will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you. ¹⁴You shall be blessed above all peoples. ^bThere shall not be male or female barren among you or among your livestock. ¹⁵And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and none of the evil ^cdiseases of Egypt, which you knew, will he inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you. ¹⁶And ^dyou shall consume all the peoples that the Lord your God will give over to you. ^eYour eye shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be ^fa snare to you.

¹⁷“If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I. How can I dispossess them?’ ^18gyou shall not be afraid of them but you shall ^hremember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, ¹⁹the great trials that your eyes saw, ⁱthe signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which the Lord your God brought you out. So will the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. ²⁰Moreover, ^jthe Lord your God will send hornets among them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you are destroyed. ²¹You shall not be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is ^kin your midst, ^la great and awesome God. ^22mThe Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little. You may not make an end of them at once,² lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you. ²³ⁿBut the Lord your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed. ²⁴And ^ohe will give their kings into your hand, and you shall ^pmake their name perish from under heaven. ^qNo one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them. ²⁵The carved images of their gods ^ryou shall burn with fire. You ^sshall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be ^tensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. ²⁶And you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house and become devoted to destruction³ like it. You shall utterly detest and abhor it, ^ufor it is devoted to destruction.

Remember the Lord Your God

8“The whole commandment that I command you today ^vyou shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers. ²And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you ^wthese forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, ^xtesting you ^yto know what was in your heart, ^zwhether you would keep his commandments or not. ³And he humbled you and ^alet you hunger and ^bfed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that ^cman does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word¹ that comes from the mouth of the Lord. ^4dYour clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. ⁵Know then in your heart that, ^eas a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. ⁶So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. ⁷For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, ^fa land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, ⁸a land of wheat and barley, ^gof vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, ⁹a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. ¹⁰And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.

¹¹“Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, ^12hlest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, ¹³and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, ¹⁴ⁱthen your heart be lifted up, and you ^jforget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, ¹⁵who ^kled you through the great and terrifying wilderness, ^lwith its fiery serpents and scorpions ^mand thirsty ground where there was no water, ⁿwho…