Israel Urged to Obey God’s Law

1 “Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which aI am teaching you to perform, so that byou may live and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you.

2 “aYou shall not add to the word which bI am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.

3 “aYour eyes have seen what the Lord has done in the case of Baal-peor, for all the men who followed Baal-peor, the Lord your God has destroyed 1them from among you.

4 “But you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive today, every one of you.

5 “See, I have taught you statutes and judgments ajust as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do thus in the land where you are entering to possess it.

6 “So keep and do them, afor that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’

7 “For awhat great nation is there that has a god bso near to it as is the Lord our God cwhenever we call on Him?

8 “Or what great nation is there that has astatutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today?

9 “Only agive heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, so that you do not forget the things which your eyes have seen and they do not depart from your heart ball the days of your life; but cmake them known to your sons and your grandsons.

10 “Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me, ‘Assemble the people to Me, that I may let them hear My words aso they may learn to 1fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may bteach their children.’

11 “You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, aand the mountain burned with fire to the very heart of the heavens: darkness, cloud and thick gloom.

12 “Then the Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but you saw no form—only a voice.

13 “So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, that is, athe Ten 1Commandments; and bHe wrote them on two tablets of stone.

14 “The Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might perform them in the land where you are going over to possess it.

15 “So awatch yourselves carefully, since you did not see any bform on the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire,

16 so that you do not aact corruptly and bmake a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female,

17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of aany winged bird that flies in the sky,

18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water below the earth.

19 “And beware not to lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, aall the host of heaven, band be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.

20 “But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of athe iron furnace, from Egypt, to bbe a people for His own possession, as today.

21 “aNow the Lord was angry with me on your account, and swore that I would not cross the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

22 “For aI will die in this land, I shall not cross the Jordan, but you shall cross and take possession of this bgood land.

23 “So watch yourselves, athat you do not forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, and bmake for yourselves a graven image in the form of anything against which the Lord your God has commanded you.

24 “For the Lord your God is a aconsuming fire, a bjealous God.

25 “When you 1become the father of children and children’s children and have remained long in the land, and aact corruptly, and bmake an 2idol in the form of anything, and cdo that which is evil in the sight of the Lord your God so as to provoke Him to anger,

26 I acall heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will bsurely perish quickly from the land where you are going over the Jordan to possess it. You shall not 1live long on it, but will be utterly destroyed.

27 “The Lord will ascatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord drives you.

28 “aThere you will serve gods, the work of man’s hands, bwood and stone, cwhich neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.

29 “aBut from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him bwith all your heart and all your soul.

30 “When you aare in distress and all these things have come upon you, bin the latter days cyou will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice.

31 “For the Lord your God is a acompassionate God; bHe will not fail you nor cdestroy you nor dforget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.

32 “Indeed, aask now concerning the former days which were before you, since the bday that God created 1man on the earth, and inquire cfrom one end of the heavens to the other. dHas anything been done like this great thing, or has anything been heard like it?

33 “aHas any people heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you have heard it, and survived?

34 “aOr has a god tried to go to take for himself a nation from within another nation bby trials, by signs and wonders and by war and cby a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm and by great terrors, 1as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

35 “To you it was shown that you might know that the Lord, He is God; athere is no other besides Him.

36 “aOut of the heavens He let you hear His voice bto discipline you; and on earth He let you see His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire.

37 “1aBecause He loved your fathers, therefore He chose 2their descendants after them. And He 3bpersonally brought you from Egypt by His great power,

38 driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in and ato give you their land for an inheritance, as it is today.

39 “Know therefore today, and take it to your heart, that athe Lord, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other.

40 “aSo you shall keep His statutes and His commandments which I am 1giving you today, that bit may go well with you and with your children after you, and cthat you may 2live long on the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”

41 aThen Moses set apart three cities across the Jordan to the 1east,

42 that a manslayer might flee there, who unintentionally slew his neighbor without having enmity toward him in time past; and by fleeing to one of these cities he might live:

43 aBezer in the wilderness on the plateau for the Reubenites, and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.