1And now, Israel, listen to the statutes and to the judgments that I am teaching you to do, so that you may live and go in and take possession of the land that Yahweh, the God of your fathers, is giving to you.
2You shall not add to the word that I am commanding you, nor shall you take away from it, so as to keep the commandments of Yahweh your God that I am commanding you.
3Your eyes are the ones that saw what Yahweh did at Baal-peor, for every man who went after Baal-peor — Yahweh your God destroyed him from your midst.
4But you who held fast to Yahweh your God are all alive today.
5See, I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as Yahweh my God commanded me, to do so in the midst of the land into which you are entering to take possession of it.
6So keep them and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the eyes of the peoples, who will hear all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’
7For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as Yahweh our God is whenever we call out to him?
8And what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law that I am setting before you today?
9Only take care for yourself and guard your self diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; and make them known to your children and to your children’s children —
10the day that you stood before Yahweh your God at Horeb, when Yahweh said to me, ‘Assemble the people to me, and I will let them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live upon the ground, and that they may teach their children.’
11And you drew near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain was burning with fire up to the heart of the heavens — darkness, cloud, and thick gloom.
12Then Yahweh spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but you saw no form — only a voice.
13And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to do — the Ten Words — and he wrote them on two tablets of stone.
14And Yahweh commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, for you to do them in the land into which you are crossing over to take possession of it.
15So guard yourselves diligently — for you saw no form on the day Yahweh spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire —
16lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves an idol, a form of any figure, the likeness of male or female,
17the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the heavens,
18the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth.
19And lest you lift up your eyes to the heavens and see the sun and the moon and the stars — all the host of heaven — and be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, which Yahweh your God has allotted to all the peoples under all the heavens.
20But you — Yahweh took, and he brought you out from the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be for him a people of inheritance, as it is this day.
21Now Yahweh was angry with me on account of your words, and he swore that I would not cross the Jordan and would not enter the good land that Yahweh your God is giving to you as an inheritance.
22For I am to die in this land; I am not crossing the Jordan. But you are crossing over, and you shall take possession of that good land.
23Take care for yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of Yahweh your God that he cut with you, and make for yourselves an idol, a form of anything, which Yahweh your God has forbidden you.
24For Yahweh your God is a consuming fire; he is a jealous God.
25When you father children and children’s children, and you have grown old in the land, and you act corruptly and make an idol, a form of anything, and do what is evil in the eyes of Yahweh your God so as to provoke him,
26I call to witness against you today the heavens and the earth, that you will surely perish quickly from the land into which you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of it. You will not prolong your days upon it, for you will surely be destroyed.
27And Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations to which Yahweh will drive you.
28And there you will serve gods, the work of human hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.
29But from there you will seek Yahweh your God, and you will find him, if you search for him with all your heart and with all your self.
30In your distress, when all these things have found you, in the latter days you will return to Yahweh your God and listen to his voice.
31For Yahweh your God is a merciful God; he will not fail you nor destroy you, nor will he forget the covenant of your fathers that he swore to them.
32For ask now about former days, which were before you, from the day that God created humankind upon the earth, and from one end of the heavens to the other end of the heavens: has anything like this great thing ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard?
33Has a people ever heard the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and lived?
34Or has any god ever attempted to come and take for himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs and by wonders, and by war, and with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
35You were shown these things, so that you might know that Yahweh, he is God; there is no other besides him.
36From the heavens he made you hear his voice, to discipline you, and upon the earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire.
37And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them, he brought you out from Egypt by his presence, by his great power,
38to drive out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day.
39Know therefore this day, and take it to your heart, that Yahweh, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.
40And you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I am commanding you today, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days upon the land that Yahweh your God is giving you for all time.
41Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan, toward the rising of the sun,
42so that a manslayer might flee there, one who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without having hated him previously; he may flee to one of these cities and live.
43Bezer in the wilderness, in the tableland, for the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead, for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, for the Manassites.
44And this is the law that Moses set before the Israelites.
45These are the testimonies and the statutes and the ordinances that Moses spoke to the Israelites when they came out of Egypt,
46beyond the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, whom Moses and the Israelites defeated when they came out of Egypt.
47And they took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, toward the rising of the sun,
48from Aroer, which is on the edge of the wadi of Arnon, as far as Mount Sion (that is, Hermon),
49and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan eastward, as far as the Sea of the Arabah, beneath the slopes of Pisgah.
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