Deuteronomy 6–8

Love the Lord Your God

6The Lord your God has directed me to teach you his commands, rules and laws. Obey them in the land you will take over when you go across the Jordan River. ²Then you, your children and their children after them will have respect for the Lord your God as long as you live. Keep all of his rules and commands I’m giving you. If you do, you will enjoy long life.

³Israel, listen to me. Make sure you obey me. Then things will go well with you. Your numbers will increase greatly in a land that has plenty of milk and honey. That’s what the Lord, the God of your parents, promised you.

⁴Israel, listen to me. The Lord is our God. The Lord is the one and only God. ⁵Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Love him with all your strength.

⁶The commandments I give you today must be in your hearts. ⁷Make sure your children learn them. Talk about them when you are at home. Talk about them when you walk along the road. Speak about them when you go to bed. And speak about them when you get up. ⁸Write them down and tie them on your hands as a reminder. Also tie them on your foreheads. ⁹Write them on the doorframes of your houses. Also write them on your gates.

¹⁰The Lord your God will bring you into the land of Canaan. He took an oath. He promised he would give the land to your fathers. He promised it to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

The land has large, wealthy cities you didn’t build. ¹¹It has houses that are filled with all kinds of good things you didn’t provide. It has wells you didn’t dig. And it has vineyards and groves of olive trees you didn’t plant. You will have plenty to eat.

¹²But be careful that you don’t forget the Lord. Remember that he brought you out of Egypt. That’s the land where you were slaves.

¹³Worship the Lord your God. He is the only one you should serve. When you make promises, take your oaths in his name. ¹⁴Don’t follow other gods. Don’t worship the gods of the nations that are around you.

¹⁵The Lord your God is among you. He is a jealous God. If you worship other gods, his anger will burn against you. And he will destroy you from the face of the land. ¹⁶Don’t put the Lord your God to the test as you did at Massah.

¹⁷Be sure to obey the Lord’s commands. Follow the terms and rules he has given you. ¹⁸Do what is right and good in the Lord’s eyes. Then things will go well with you. You will go in and take over the land. It’s the good land the Lord promised with an oath to your people long ago. ¹⁹You will drive out all of your enemies to make room for you. That’s what the Lord said would happen.

²⁰Later on, your son might ask you, “What is the meaning of the terms, rules and laws the Lord our God has commanded you to obey?”

²¹If he does, tell him, “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. But the Lord used his mighty hand to bring us out of Egypt. ²²With our own eyes we saw the Lord send miraculous signs and wonders. They were great and terrible. He sent them on Egypt and Pharaoh and everyone in his house.

²³“But the Lord brought us out of Egypt. He planned to bring us into the land of Canaan and give it to us. It’s the land he promised with an oath to our people long ago.

²⁴“The Lord our God commanded us to obey all of his rules. He commanded us to have respect for him. If we do, we will always succeed and be kept alive. That’s what is happening today. ²⁵We must make sure we obey the whole law in the sight of the Lord our God. That’s what he has commanded us to do. If we obey his law, we’ll be doing what he requires of us.”

The Lord Will Drive Many Nations Out

7The Lord your God will bring you into the land. You are going to enter it and take it as your own. He’ll drive many nations out to make room for you. He’ll drive out the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Those seven nations are larger and stronger than you are.

²The Lord your God will hand them over to you. You will win the battle over them. You must completely destroy them. Don’t make a peace treaty with them. Don’t show them any mercy. ³Don’t get married to any of them. Don’t give your daughters to their sons. And don’t take their daughters for your sons. ⁴If you do, those people will turn your children away from following the Lord. Then your children will serve other gods. The Lord’s anger will burn against you. It will quickly destroy you.

⁵So here is what you must do to those people. Break down their altars. Smash their sacred stones. Cut down the poles they use to worship the goddess Asherah. Burn the statues of their gods in the fire.

⁶You are a holy nation. The Lord your God has set you apart for himself. He has chosen you to be his special treasure. He chose you out of all of the nations on the face of the earth to be his people.

⁷The Lord chose you because he loved you very much. He didn’t choose you because you had more people than other nations. In fact, you had the smallest number of all.

⁸The Lord chose you because he loved you. He wanted to keep the promise he had made with an oath to your people long ago. That’s why he brought you out of Egypt with a mighty hand. He bought you back from the land where you were slaves. He set you free from the power of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.

⁹So I want you to realize that the Lord your God is God. He is the faithful God. He keeps his covenant for all time to come. He keeps it with those who love him and obey his commands. He shows them his love. ¹⁰But he will pay back those who hate him. He’ll destroy them. He’ll quickly pay back those who hate him. ¹¹So be careful to follow the commands, rules and laws I’m giving you today.

¹²Pay attention to the laws of the Lord your God. Be careful to obey them. Then he will keep his covenant of love with you. That’s what he promised with an oath to your people long ago.

¹³The Lord will love you and bless you. He’ll increase your numbers. He’ll give you many children. He’ll bless the crops of your land. He’ll give you plenty of grain, olive oil and fresh wine. He’ll bless your herds with many calves. He’ll give your flocks many lambs. He’ll do all of those things for you in the land of Canaan. It’s the land he promised your people long ago that he would give you. ¹⁴He will bless you more than any other nation. All of your men and women will have children. All of your livestock will have little ones.

¹⁵The Lord will keep you from getting sick. He won’t send on you any of the horrible sicknesses you saw all around you in Egypt. But he’ll send them on everyone who hates you.

¹⁶You must destroy all of the nations the Lord your God hands over to you. Don’t feel sorry for them. Don’t serve their gods. If you do, they will be a trap for you.

¹⁷You might say to yourselves, “These nations are stronger than we are. How can we drive them out?” ¹⁸But don’t be afraid of them.

Be sure to remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and all of the Egyptians. ¹⁹With your own eyes you saw what the Lord did to them. You saw his miraculous signs and wonders. He reached out his mighty hand and powerful arm. The Lord your God used all of those things to bring you out. He will do the same things to all of the nations you are now afraid of.

²⁰The Lord your God will also send hornets among them. Some of the people who are left alive will hide from you. But even they will die. ²¹So don’t be terrified by them. The Lord your God is with you. He is a great and wonderful God.

²²The Lord your God will drive out those nations to make room for you. But he will do it little by little. You won’t be allowed to get rid of them all at once. If you did, wild animals would multiply all around you.

²³But the Lord your God will hand those nations over to you. He will throw them into a panic until they are destroyed. ²⁴He will hand their kings over to you. You will wipe out their names from the earth. No one will be able to stand up against you. You will destroy them.

²⁵Burn the statues of their gods in the fire. Don’t long for the silver and gold that is on those statues. Don’t take it for yourselves. If you do, it will be a trap for you. The Lord your God hates it. ²⁶Don’t bring anything he hates into your house. If you do, you will be completely destroyed along with it. So hate it with all your heart. It is set apart to be destroyed.

Remember What the Lord Has Done

8Make sure you follow every command I’m giving you today. Then you will live. You will increase your numbers. You will enter the land and take it as your own. It’s the land the Lord promised with an oath to your people long ago.

²Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way. He guided you in the desert for these 40 years. He wanted to take your pride away. He wanted to put you to the test and know what was in your hearts. He wanted to see whether you would obey his commands.

³He took your pride away. He let you go hungry. Then he gave you manna to eat. You and your parents had never even known anything about manna before. He tested you to teach you that man doesn’t live only on bread. He also lives on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. ⁴Your clothes didn’t wear out during these 40 years. Your feet didn’t swell.

⁵Here is what I want you to know in your hearts. The Lord your God trains you, just as parents train their children.

⁶Obey the commands of the Lord your God. Live as he wants you to live. Have respect for him.

⁷The Lord your God is bringing you into a good land. It has streams and pools of water. Springs flow in its valleys and hills. ⁸It has wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey. ⁹There is plenty of food in that land. You will have everything you need. Its rocks have iron in them. And you can dig copper out of its hills.

¹⁰When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God. Praise him for the good land he has given you. ¹¹Make sure you don’t forget the Lord your God. Don’t fail to obey his commands, laws and rules. I’m giving them to you today.

¹²But suppose you don’t obey his…