Deuteronomy 6–8

¹‘And this is the command, the statutes and the judgments which Jehovah your God hath commanded to teach you, to do in the land which ye are passing over thither to possess it, ²so that thou dost fear Jehovah thy God, to keep all His statutes and His commands, which I am commanding thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all days of thy life, and so that thy days are prolonged.

³‘And thou hast heard, O Israel, and observed to do, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest multiply exceedingly, as Jehovah, God of thy fathers, hath spoken to thee, in the land flowing with milk and honey.

⁴‘Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah; ⁵and thou hast loved Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might, ⁶and these words which I am commanding thee to-day have been on thine heart, ⁷and thou hast repeated them to thy sons, and spoken of them in thy sitting in thine house, and in thy walking in the way, and in thy lying down, and in thy rising up, ⁸and hast bound them for a sign upon thy hand, and they have been for frontlets between thine eyes, ⁹and thou hast written them on door-posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

¹⁰‘And it hath been, when Jehovah thy God doth bring thee in unto the land which He hath sworn to thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to thee—cities great and good, which thou hast not built, ¹¹and houses full of all good things which thou hast not filled, and wells digged which thou hast not digged, vineyards and olive-yards which thou hast not planted, and thou hast eaten, and been satisfied;

¹²‘Take heed to thyself lest thou forget Jehovah who hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of a house of servants; ¹³Jehovah thy God thou dost fear, and Him thou dost serve, and by His name thou dost swear; ¹⁴ye do not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who are round about you; ¹⁵for a zealous God is Jehovah thy God in thy midst—lest the anger of Jehovah thy God burn against thee, and He hath destroyed thee from off the face of the ground.

¹⁶‘Ye do not try Jehovah your God as ye tried in Massah.

¹⁷Ye do diligently keep the commands of Jehovah your God, and His testimonies, and His statutes which He hath commanded thee, ¹⁸and thou hast done that which is right and good in the eyes of Jehovah, so that it is well with thee, and thou hast gone in and possessed the good land which Jehovah hath sworn to thy fathers, ¹⁹to drive away all thine enemies from thy presence, as Jehovah hath spoken. ²⁰‘When thy son asketh thee hereafter, saying, What are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which Jehovah our God hath commanded you? ²¹then thou hast said to thy son, Servants we have been to Pharaoh in Egypt, and Jehovah bringeth us out of Egypt by a high hand; ²²and Jehovah giveth signs and wonders, great and sad, on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his house, before our eyes; ²³and us He hath brought out thence, in order to bring us in, to give to us the land which He had sworn to our fathers. ²⁴And Jehovah commandeth us to do all these statutes, to fear Jehovah our God, for good to ourselves all the days, to keep us alive, as at this day; ²⁵and righteousness it is for us, when we observe to do all this command before Jehovah our God, as He hath commanded us.

Chapter 7

¹‘When Jehovah thy God doth bring thee in unto the land whither thou art going in to possess it, and He hath cast out many nations from thy presence, the Hittite, and the Girgashite, and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, seven nations more numerous and mighty than thou, ²and Jehovah thy God hath given them before thee, and thou hast smitten them—thou dost utterly devote them—thou dost not make with them a covenant, nor dost thou favour them.

³‘And thou dost not join in marriage with them; thy daughter thou dost not give to his son, and his daughter thou dost not take to thy son, ⁴for he doth turn aside thy son from after Me, and they have served other gods, and the anger of Jehovah hath burned against you, and hath destroyed thee hastily.

⁵‘But thus thou dost to them: their altars ye break down, and their standing pillars ye shiver, and their shrines ye cut down, and their graven images ye burn with fire; ⁶for a holy people art thou to Jehovah thy God; on thee hath Jehovah thy God fixed, to be to Him for a peculiar people, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the ground.

⁷‘Not because of your being more numerous than any of the peoples hath Jehovah delighted in you, and fixeth on you, for ye are the least of all the peoples, ⁸but because of Jehovah’s loving you, and because of His keeping the oath which He hath sworn to your fathers, hath Jehovah brought you out by a strong hand, and doth ransom you from a house of servants, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

⁹‘And thou hast known that Jehovah thy God He is God, the faithful God, keeping the covenant, and the kindness, to those loving Him, and to those keeping His commands—to a thousand generations, ¹⁰and repaying to those hating Him, unto their face, to destroy them; He delayeth not to him who is hating Him—unto his face, He repayeth to him— ¹¹and thou hast kept the command, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I am commanding thee to-day to do them.

¹²‘And it hath been, because ye hear these judgments, and have kept, and done them, that Jehovah thy God hath kept to thee the covenant and the kindness which He hath sworn to thy fathers, ¹³and hath loved thee, and blessed thee, and multiplied thee, and hath blessed the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, thy corn, and thy new wine, and thine oil, the increase of thine oxen, and the wealth of thy flock, on the ground which He hath sworn to thy fathers to give to thee.

¹⁴‘Blessed art thou above all the peoples, there is not in thee a barren man or a barren woman—nor among your cattle; ¹⁵and Jehovah hath turned aside from thee every sickness, and none of the evil diseases of Egypt (which thou hast known) doth He put on thee, and He hath put them on all hating thee.

¹⁶‘And thou hast consumed all the peoples whom Jehovah thy God is giving to thee; thine eye hath no pity on them, and thou dost not serve their gods, for a snare it is to thee.

¹⁷‘When thou sayest in thine heart, These nations are more numerous than I, how am I able to dispossess them?— ¹⁸thou art not afraid of them; thou dost surely remember that which Jehovah thy God hath done to Pharaoh, and to all Egypt, ¹⁹the great trials which thine eyes have seen, and the signs, and the wonders, and the strong hand, and the stretched-out arm, with which Jehovah thy God hath brought thee out; so doth Jehovah thy God to all the peoples of whose presence thou art afraid.

²⁰‘And also the locust doth Jehovah thy God send among them, till the destruction of those who are left, and of those who are hidden from thy presence; ²¹thou art not terrified by their presence, for Jehovah thy God is in thy midst, a God great and fearful.

²²‘And Jehovah thy God hath cast out these nations from thy presence little by little, (thou art not able to consume them hastily, lest the beast of the field multiply against thee), ²³and Jehovah thy God hath given them before thee, and destroyed them—a great destruction—till their destruction; ²⁴and He hath given their kings into thy hand, and thou hast destroyed their name from under the heavens; no man doth station himself in thy presence till thou hast destroyed them.

²⁵‘The graven images of their gods ye do burn with fire; thou dost not desire the silver and gold on them, nor hast thou taken it to thyself, lest thou be snared by it, for the abomination of Jehovah thy God it is; ²⁶and thou dost not bring in an abomination unto thy house—or thou hast been devoted like it;—thou dost utterly detest it, and thou dost utterly abominate it; for it is devoted.

Chapter 8

¹‘All the command which I am commanding thee to-day ye observe to do, so that ye live, and have multiplied, and gone in, and possessed the land which Jehovah hath sworn to your fathers; ²and thou hast remembered all the way which Jehovah thy God hath caused thee to go these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble thee to try thee, to know that which is in thy heart, whether thou dost keep His commands or not.

³‘And He doth humble thee, and cause thee to hunger and doth cause thee to eat the manna (which thou hast not known, even thy fathers have not known), in order to cause thee to know that not by bread alone doth man live, but by every produce of the mouth of Jehovah man doth live.

⁴‘Thy raiment hath not worn out from off thee, and thy foot hath not swelled these forty years, ⁵and thou hast known, with thy heart, that as a man chastiseth his son Jehovah thy God is chastising thee, ⁶and thou hast kept the commands of Jehovah thy God, to walk in His ways, and to fear Him.

⁷‘For Jehovah thy God is bringing thee in unto a good land, a land of brooks of waters, of fountains, and of depths coming out in valley and in mountain: ⁸a land of wheat, and barley, and vine, and fig, and pomegranate; a land of oil olive and honey; ⁹a land in which without scarcity thou dost eat bread, thou dost not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of its mountains thou dost dig brass.

¹⁰And thou hast eaten, and been satisfied, and hast blessed Jehovah thy God, on the good land which he hath given to thee. ¹¹‘Take heed to thyself, lest thou forget Jehovah thy God so as not to keep His commands, and His judgments, and His statutes which I am commanding thee to-day; ¹²lest thou eat, and hast been satisfied, and good houses dost build, and hast inhabited; ¹³and thy herd and thy flock be multiplied, and silver and gold be multiplied to thee; and all that is thine be multiplied:

¹⁴‘And thy heart hath been high, and thou hast forgotten Jehovah thy God (who is bringing thee out of the land of Egypt, out of a house of servants; ¹⁵who is causing thee to go in the great and…