Moses Commands Obedience

¹“And now, O Israel, listen to wthe statutes and the rules1 that I am teaching you, and do them, xthat you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. ²yYou shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you. ³Your eyes have seen what the Lord did zat Baal-peor, for the Lord your God destroyed from among you all the men who followed the Baal of Peor. ⁴But you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today. ⁵See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. ⁶aKeep them and do them, for bthat will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ ⁷For cwhat great nation is there that has da god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? ⁸And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so erighteous as all this law that I set before you today?

⁹f“Only take care, and gkeep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. hMake them known to your children and your children's children— ¹⁰how on ithe day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, j‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, kso that they may learn to fear lme all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’ ¹¹And myou came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while nthe mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom. ¹²Then othe Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, pbut saw no form; qthere was only a voice. ¹³rAnd he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, sthe Ten Commandments,2 tand he wrote them on two tablets of stone. ¹⁴And uthe Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and rules, that you might do them in the land that you are going over to possess.

Idolatry Forbidden

¹⁵v“Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since wyou saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, ¹⁶beware xlest you act corruptly yby making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, zthe likeness of male or female, ¹⁷the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, ¹⁸the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. ¹⁹And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see athe sun and the moon and the stars, ball the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. ²⁰But the Lord has taken you and cbrought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, dto be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day. ²¹Furthermore, ethe Lord was angry with me because of you, and he swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and that I should not enter the good land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance. ²²For I must die in this land; fI must not go over the Jordan. But you shall go over and take possession of gthat good land. ²³hTake care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and imake a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you. ²⁴For jthe Lord your God is a consuming fire, ka jealous God.

²⁵“When you father children and children's children, and have grown old in the land, lif you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and mby doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger, ²⁶I ncall heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. ²⁷And the Lord owill scatter you among the peoples, pand you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. ²⁸And qthere you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, rthat neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. ²⁹sBut from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. ³⁰When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you tin the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. ³¹For the Lord your God is ua merciful God. vHe will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.

The Lord Alone Is God

³²“For wask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. ³³xDid any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? ³⁴Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, yby signs, by wonders, and zby war, aby a mighty hand and ban outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? ³⁵To you it was shown, cthat you might know that the Lord is God; dthere is no other besides him. ³⁶eOut of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and xyou heard his words out of the midst of the fire. ³⁷And because fhe loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them3 and brought you out of Egypt gwith his own presence, by his great power, ³⁸hdriving out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day, ³⁹know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that ithe Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; jthere is no other. ⁴⁰kTherefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, lthat it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”

Cities of Refuge

⁴¹Then Moses mset apart three cities in the east beyond the Jordan, ⁴²that nthe manslayer might flee there, anyone who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without being at enmity with him in time past; he may flee to one of these cities and save his life: ⁴³oBezer in the wilderness on the ptableland for the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.

Introduction to the Law

⁴⁴This is the law that Moses set before the people of Israel. ⁴⁵These are the testimonies, the statutes, and the rules, which Moses spoke to the people of Israel when they came out of Egypt, ⁴⁶beyond the Jordan qin the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, rwhom Moses and the people of Israel defeated when they came out of Egypt. ⁴⁷And they took possession of his land and the land sof Og, the king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who lived to the east beyond the Jordan; ⁴⁸tfrom Aroer, which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon, as far as Mount uSirion4 (that is, vHermon), ⁴⁹together with all the Arabah on the east side of the Jordan as far as wthe Sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.