Deuteronomy 10:12–12:10
12 And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of yout but to fearu the Lord your God, to walkv in obedience to him, to love him,w to serve the Lordx your God with all your hearty and with all your soul,z 13 and to observe the Lord’s commandsa and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?b
14 To the Lord your God belong the heavens,c even the highest heavens,d the earth and everything in it.e 15 Yet the Lord set his affection on your ancestors and lovedf them, and he chose you,g their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today.h 16 Circumcisei your hearts,j therefore, and do not be stiff-neckedk any longer. 17 For the Lord your God is God of godsl and Lord of lords,m the great God, mighty and awesome,n who shows no partialityo and accepts no bribes.p 18 He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow,q and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.r 19 And you are to loves those who are foreigners,t for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.u 20 Fear the Lord your God and serve him.v Hold fastw to him and take your oaths in his name.x 21 He is the one you praise;y he is your God, who performed for you those greatz and awesome wondersa you saw with your own eyes. 22 Your ancestors who went down into Egypt were seventy in all,b and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.c
11 Loved the Lord your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always.e 2 Remember today that your childrenf were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the Lord your God:g his majesty,h his mighty hand, his outstretched arm;i 3 the signs he performed and the things he did in the heart of Egypt, both to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his whole country;j 4 what he did to the Egyptian army, to its horses and chariots,k how he overwhelmed them with the waters of the Red Seaa l as they were pursuing you, and how the Lord brought lasting ruin on them. 5 It was not your children who saw what he did for you in the wilderness until you arrived at this place, 6 and what he didm to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth openedn its mouth right in the middle of all Israel and swallowed them up with their households, their tents and every living thing that belonged to them. 7 But it was your own eyes that saw all these great things the Lord has done.o
8 Observe therefore all the commandsp I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess,q 9 and so that you may live longr in the land the Lord swores to your ancestors to give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.t 10 The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt,u from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. 11 But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleysv that drinks rain from heaven.w 12 It is a land the Lord your God cares for; the eyesx of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.
13 So if you faithfully obeyy the commands I am giving you today—to lovez the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soula—14 then I will send rainb on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains,c so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil. 15 I will provide grassd in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.e
16 Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them.f 17 Then the Lord’s angerg will burn against you, and he will shut uph the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce,i and you will soon perishj from the good land the Lord is giving you. 18 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.k 19 Teach them to your children,l talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.m 20 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates,n 21 so that your days and the days of your children may be manyo in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.p
22 If you carefully observeq all these commands I am giving you to follow—to lover the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him and to hold fasts to him—23 then the Lord will drive outt all these nationsu before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you.v 24 Every place where you set your foot will be yours:w Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates Riverx to the Mediterranean Sea. 25 No one will be able to stand against you. The Lord your God, as he promised you, will put the terrory and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go.z
26 See, I am setting before you today a blessinga and a curseb—27 the blessingc if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; 28 the curse if you disobeyd the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods,e which you have not known. 29 When the Lord your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizimf the blessings, and on Mount Ebalg the curses.h 30 As you know, these mountains are across the Jordan, westward, toward the setting sun, near the great trees of Moreh,i in the territory of those Canaanites living in the Arabah in the vicinity of Gilgal.j 31 You are about to cross the Jordan to enter and take possessionk of the land the Lord your God is givingl you. When you have taken it over and are living there, 32 be sure that you obey all the decrees and laws I am setting before you today.
12 These are the decreesm and laws you must be careful to follow in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess—as long as you live in the land.n 2 Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains,o on the hills and under every spreading tree,p where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods. 3 Break down their altars, smashq their sacred stones and burnr their Asherahs poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their namest from those places.
4 You must not worship the Lord your God in their way.u 5 But you are to seek the place the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his Namev there for his dwelling.w To that place you must go; 6 there bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithesx and special gifts, what you have vowedy to give and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks.z 7 There, in the presencea of the Lord your God, you and your families shall eat and shall rejoiceb in everything you have put your hand to, because the Lord your God has blessed you.
8 You are not to do as we do here today, everyone doing as they see fit,c 9 since you have not yet reached the resting placed and the inheritancee the Lord your God is giving you. 10 But you will cross the Jordan and settle in the land the Lord your God is givingf you as an inheritance, and he will give you restg from all your enemies around you so that you will live in safety.