Deuteronomy 11:1–26:19

The Lord’s Greatness

11 “Love the Lord your God and always obey all his laws. 2Remember today what you have learned about the Lord through your experiences with him. It was you, not your children, who had these experiences. You saw the Lord’s greatness, his power, his might, 3*and his miracles. You saw what he did to the king of Egypt and to his entire country. 4*You saw how the Lord completely wiped out the Egyptian army, along with their horses and chariots, by drowning them in the Red Seak when they were pursuing you. 5You know what the Lord did for you in the desert before you arrived here. 6*You recall what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab of the tribe of Reuben. In the sight of everyone the earth opened up and swallowed them, along with their families, their tents, and all their servants and animals. 7Yes, you are the ones who have seen all these great things that the Lord has done.

The Blessings of the Promised Land

8 “Obey all the laws that I have given you today. Then you will be able to cross the river and occupy the land that you are about to enter. 9And you will live a long time in the rich and fertile land that the Lord promised to give your ancestors and their descendants. 10The land that you are about to occupy is not like the land of Egypt, where you lived before. There, when you sowed seed, you had to work hard to irrigate the fields; 11but the land that you are about to enter is a land of mountains and valleys, a land watered by rain. 12The Lord your God takes care of this land and watches over it throughout the year.

13 *“So then, obey the commands that I have given you today; love the Lord your God and serve him with all your heart. 14*If you do, he will send rain on your land when it is needed, in the autumn and in the spring, so that there will be corn, wine, and olive oil for you, 15*and grass for your livestock. You will have all the food you want. 16*Do not let yourselves be led away from the Lord to worship and serve other gods. 17*If you do, the Lord will become angry with you. He will hold back the rain, and your ground will become too dry for crops to grow. Then you will soon die there, even though it is a good land that he is giving you.

18 *“Remember these commands and cherish them. Tie them on your arms and wear them on your foreheads as a reminder. 19*Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you are resting and when you are working. 20*Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates. 21Then you and your children will live a long time in the land that the Lord your God promised to give to your ancestors. You will live there as long as there is a sky above the earth.

22 “Obey faithfully all the laws that I have given you: Love the Lord your God, do everything he commands, and be faithful to him. 23Then he will drive out all those nations as you advance, and you will occupy the land belonging to nations greater and more powerful than you. 24*All the ground that you march over will be yours. Your territory will extend from the desert in the south to the Lebanon Mountains in the north, and from the River Euphrates in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. 25*Wherever you go in that land, the Lord your God will make the people fear you, as he has promised, and no one will be able to stop you.

26 “Today I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse- 27a blessing, if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; 28but a curse, if you disobey these commands and turn away to worship other gods that you have never worshipped before. 29*When the Lord brings you into the land that you are going to occupy, you are to proclaim the blessing from Mount Gerizim and the curse from Mount Ebal. 30(These two mountains are west of the River Jordan in the territory of the Canaanites who live in the Jordan Valley. They are towards the west, not far from the sacred trees of Moreh near the town of Gilgal.) 31You are about to cross the River Jordan and occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you. When you take it and settle there, 32be sure to obey all the laws that I am giving you today.

The One Place for Worship

12 “Here are the laws that you are to obey as long as you live in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. Listen to them! 2In the land that you are taking, destroy all the places where the people worship their gods on high mountains, on hills, and under green trees. 3*Tear down their altars and smash their sacred stone pillars to pieces. Burn their symbols of the goddess Asherah and chop down their idols, so that they will never again be worshipped at those places.

4 “Do not worship the Lord your God in the way that these people worship their gods. 5Out of the territory of all your tribes the Lord will choose the one place where the people are to come into his presence and worship him. 6There you are to offer your sacrifices that are to be burnt and your other sacrifices, your tithes and your offerings, the gifts that you promise to the Lord, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your cattle and sheep. 7There, in the presence of the Lord your God, who has blessed you, you and your families will eat and enjoy the good things that you have worked for.

8 “When that time comes, you must not do as you have been doing. Until now you have all been worshipping as you please, 9because you have not yet entered the land that the Lord your God is giving you, where you can live in peace. 10When you cross the River Jordan, the Lord will let you occupy the land and live there. He will keep you safe from all your enemies, and you will live in peace. 11The Lord will choose a single place where he is to be worshipped, and there you must bring to him everything that I have commanded: your sacrifices that are to be burnt and your other sacrifices, your tithes and your offerings, and those special gifts that you have promised to the Lord. 12Be joyful there in his presence, together with your children, your servants, and the Levites who live in your towns; remember that the Levites will have no land of their own. 13You are not to offer your sacrifices wherever you choose; 14you must offer them only in the one place that the Lord will choose in the territory of one of your tribes. Only there are you to offer your sacrifices that are to be burnt and do all the other things that I have commanded you.

15 “But you are free to kill and eat your animals wherever you live. You may eat as many as the Lord gives you. All of you, whether ritually clean or unclean, may eat them, just as you would eat the meat of deer or antelope. 16*But you must not use their blood as food; you must pour it out on the ground like water. 17Nothing that you offer to the Lord is to be eaten in the places where you live: neither the tithes of your corn, your wine, or your olive oil, nor the firstborn of your cattle and sheep, the gifts that you promise to the Lord, your freewill offerings, or any other offerings. 18You and your children, together with your servants and the Levites who live in your towns, are to eat these offerings only in the presence of the Lord your God, in the one place of worship chosen by the Lord your God. And you are to be happy there over everything that you have done. 19Be sure, also, not to neglect the Levites, as long as you live in your land.

20 “When the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he has promised, you may eat meat whenever you wish. 21If the one place of worship is too far away, then, whenever you wish, you may kill any of the cattle or sheep that the Lord has given you, and you may eat the meat at home, as I have told you. 22Anyone, ritually clean or unclean, may eat that meat, just as he would eat the meat of deer or antelope. 23*Only do not eat meat with blood still in it, for the life is in the blood, and you must not eat the life with the meat. 24*Do not use the blood for food; instead pour it out on the ground like water. 25If you obey this command, the Lord will be pleased, and all will go well for you and your descendants. 26Take to the one place of worship your offerings and the gifts that you have promised the Lord. 27Offer there the sacrifices which are to be completely burnt on the Lord’s altar. Also offer those sacrifices in which you eat the meat and pour the blood out on the altar. 28Obey faithfully everything that I have commanded you, and all will go well for you and your descendants for ever, because you will be doing what is right and what pleases the Lord your God.

Warning against Idolatry

29 “The Lord your God will destroy the nations as you invade their land, and you will occupy it and settle there. 30After the Lord destroys those nations, make sure that you don’t follow their religious practices, because that would be fatal. Don’t try to find out how they worship their gods, so that you can worship in the same way. 31Do not worship the Lord your God in the way they worship their gods, for in the worship of their gods they do all the disgusting things that the Lord hates. They even sacrifice their children in the fires on their altars.

32 *“Do everything that I have commanded you; do not add anything to it or take anything from it.

13 “Prophets or interpreters of dreams may promise a miracle or a wonder, 2in order to lead you to worship and serve gods that you have not worshipped before. Even if what they promise comes true, 3do not pay any attention to them. The Lord your God is using them to test you, to see if you love the Lord with all your heart. 4Follow the Lord and honour him; obey him and keep his commands; worship him and be faithful to him. 5But put to death any interpreters of dreams or prophets who tell you to rebel against the Lord, who rescued you from Egypt, where you were slaves. Such people are evil and are trying to lead you away from the life that the Lord has commanded you to live. They must be put…