The Greatest Commandment

¹These are the commandments and statutes and ordinances that the LORD your God has instructed me to teach you to follow in the land that you are about to enter and possess,

²so that you and your children and grandchildren may fear the LORD your God all the days of your lives by keeping all His statutes and commandments that I give you, and so that your days may be prolonged.

³Hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe them, so that you may prosper and multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you.

⁴Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One.

⁵And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

⁶These words I am commanding you today are to be upon your hearts.

⁷And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

⁸Tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

⁹Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.

¹⁰And when the LORD your God brings you into the land He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that He would give you—a land with great and splendid cities that you did not build,

¹¹with houses full of every good thing with which you did not fill them, with wells that you did not dig, and with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant—and when you eat and are satisfied,

¹²be careful not to forget the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

¹³Fear the LORD your God, serve Him only, and take your oaths in His name.

¹⁴Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you.

¹⁵For the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God. Otherwise the anger of the LORD your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth.

¹⁶Do not test the LORD your God as you tested Him at Massah.

¹⁷You are to diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God and the testimonies and statutes He has given you.

¹⁸Do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD, so that it may be well with you and that you may enter and possess the good land that the LORD your God swore to give your fathers,

¹⁹driving out all your enemies before you, as the LORD has said.

Teach Your Children

²⁰In the future, when your son asks, “What is the meaning of the decrees and statutes and ordinances that the LORD our God has commanded you?”

²¹then you are to tell him, “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

²²Before our eyes the LORD inflicted great and devastating signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his household.

²³But He brought us out from there to lead us in and give us the land that He had sworn to our fathers.

²⁴And the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes and to fear the LORD our God, that we may always be prosperous and preserved, as we are to this day.

²⁵And if we are careful to observe every one of these commandments before the LORD our God, as He has commanded us, then that will be our righteousness.”

Obedience and Discipline

¹You shall therefore love the LORD your God and always keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments.

²Know this day that it is not your children who have known and seen the discipline of the LORD your God: His greatness, His mighty hand, and His outstretched arm;

³the signs and works He did in Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and all his land;

⁴what He did to the Egyptian army and horses and chariots when He made the waters of the Red Seaengulf them as they pursued you, and how He destroyed them completely, even to this day;

⁵what He did for you in the wilderness until you reached this place;

⁶and what He did in the midst of all the Israelites to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing that belonged to them.

⁷For it is your own eyes that have seen every great work that the LORD has done.

God’s Great Blessings

⁸You shall therefore keep every commandment I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and possess the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess,

⁹and so that you may live long in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.

¹⁰For the land that you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated on foot, like a vegetable garden.

¹¹But the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks in the rain from heaven.

¹²It is a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning to the end of the year.

¹³So if you carefully obey the commandments I am giving you today, to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul,

¹⁴then I will providerain for your land in season, the autumn and spring rains, that you may gather your grain, new wine, and oil.

¹⁵And I will provide grass in the fields for your livestock, and you will eat and be satisfied.

¹⁶But be careful that you are not enticed to turn aside to worship and bow down to other gods,

¹⁷or the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you. He will shut the heavens so that there will be no rain, nor will the land yield its produce, and you will soon perish from the good land that the LORD is giving you.

Remember God’s Words

¹⁸Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

¹⁹Teach them to your children, speaking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

²⁰Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates,

²¹so that as long as the heavens are above the earth, your days and those of your children may be multiplied in the land that the LORD swore to give your fathers.

²²For if you carefully keep all these commandments I am giving you to follow—to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him—

²³then the LORD will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and stronger than you.

²⁴Every place where the sole of your foot treads will be yours. Your territory will extend from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the Western Sea.

²⁵No man will be able to stand against you; the LORD your God will put the fear and dread of you upon all the land, wherever you set foot, as He has promised you.

A Blessing and a Curse

²⁶See, today I am setting before you a blessing and a curse—

²⁷a blessing if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am giving you today,

²⁸but a curse if you disobey the commandments of the LORD your God and turn aside from the path I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.

²⁹When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.

³⁰Are not these mountains across the Jordan, west of the road toward the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah opposite Gilgal near the Oakof Moreh?

³¹For you are about to cross the Jordan to enter and possess the land that the LORD your God is giving you. When you take possession of it and settle in it,

³²be careful to follow all the statutes and ordinances that I am setting before you today.

An Exhortation to Obedience

¹Hear now, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances I am teaching you to follow, so that you may live and may enter and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.

²You must not add to or subtract from what I command you, so that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I am giving you.

³Your eyes have seen what the LORD did at Baal-peor, for the LORD your God destroyed from among you all who followed Baal of Peor.

⁴But you who held fast to the LORD your God are alive to this day, every one of you.

⁵See, I have taught you statutes and ordinances just as the LORD my God has commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land that you are about to enter and possess.

⁶Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the peoples, who will hear of all these statutes and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”

⁷For what nation is great enough to have a god as near to them as the LORD our God is to us whenever we call on Him?

⁸And what nation is great enough to have righteous statutes and ordinances like this entire law I set before you today?

⁹Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen, and so that they do not slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and grandchildren.

¹⁰The day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb,the LORD said to me, “Gather the people before Me to hear My words, so that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach them to their children.”

¹¹You came near and stood at the base of the mountain, a mountain blazing with fire to the heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness.

¹²And the LORD spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of the words but saw no form; there was only a voice.

¹³He declared to you His covenant, which He commanded you to follow—the Ten Commandmentsthat He wrote on two tablets of stone.

¹⁴At that time the LORD commanded me to teach you the statutes and ordinances you are to follow in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.

A Warning against Idolatry

¹⁵So since you saw no form of any kind on the day the LORD spoke to you out of the fire at Horeb, be careful

¹⁶that you do not act corruptly and make an idol for yourselves of any form or shape, whether in the likeness of a male or female,

¹⁷of any beast that is on the earth or bird that flies in the air,

¹⁸or of any creature that crawls on the ground or fish that is in the waters below.

¹⁹When you look to the heavens and see the sun and moon and stars—all the host of heaven—do not be enticed to bow down and worship what the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.

²⁰Yet the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of His inheritance, as you are today.

²¹The LORD, however, was angry with me on account of you, and He swore that I would not cross the Jordan to enter the good land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

²²For I will not be crossing the Jordan, because I must die in this land. But you shall cross over and take possession of that good land.

²³Be careful that you do not forget the covenant of the LORD your God that He made with you; do not make an idol for yourselves in the form of anything He has forbidden you.

²⁴For the LORD your God is a consuming fire,a jealous God.

²⁵After you have children and grandchildren and you have been in the land a long time, if you then act corruptly and make an idol of any form—doing evil in the sight of the LORD your God and provoking Him to anger—

²⁶I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live long upon it, but will be utterly destroyed.

²⁷Then the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the LORD will drive you.

²⁸And there you will serve man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.

²⁹But if from there you will seek the LORD your God, you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

³⁰When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the LORD your God and listen to His voice.

³¹For the LORD your God is a merciful God; He will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers, which He swore to them by oath.

The LORD Alone Is God

³²Indeed, ask now from one end of the heavens to the other about the days that long preceded you, from the day that God created man on earth: Has anything as great as this ever happened or been reported?

³³Has a people ever heard the voice of Godspeaking out of the fire, as you have, and lived?

³⁴Or has any god tried to take as his own a nation out of another nation—by trials, signs, wonders, and war, by a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors—as the LORD your God did for you in Egypt, before your eyes?

³⁵You were shown these things so that you would know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides Him.

³⁶He let you hear His voice from heaven to discipline you, and on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the fire.

³⁷Because He loved your fathers, He chose their descendants after them and brought you out of Egypt by His presence and great power,

³⁸to drive out before you nations greater and mightier than you, and to bring you into their land and give it to you for your inheritance, as it is this day.

³⁹Know therefore this day and take to heart that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other.

⁴⁰Keep His statutes and commandments, which I am giving you today, so that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may live long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for all time.

Cities of Refuge

⁴¹Then Moses set aside three cities across the Jordan to the east

⁴²to which a manslayer could flee after killing his neighbor unintentionally without prior malice.To save one’s own life, he could flee to one of these cities:

⁴³Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau belonging to the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead belonging to the Gadites, or Golan in Bashan belonging to the Manassites.

Introduction to the Law

⁴⁴This is the law that Moses set before the Israelites.

⁴⁵These are the testimonies, statutes, and ordinances that Moses proclaimed to them after they had come out of Egypt,

⁴⁶while they were in the valley across the Jordan facing Beth-peor in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon and was defeated by Moses and the Israelites after they had come out of Egypt.

⁴⁷They took possession of the land belonging to Sihon and to Og king of Bashan—the two Amorite kings across the Jordan to the east—

⁴⁸extending from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Valley as far as Mount Siyon(that is, Hermon),

⁴⁹including all the Arabah on the east side of the Jordan and as far as the Sea of the Arabah,below the slopes of Pisgah.

To Your Name Be the Glory

¹Not to us, O LORD, not to us,but to Your name be the glory,because of Your loving devotion,because of Your faithfulness.

²Why should the nations say,“Where is their God?”

³Our God is in heaven;He does as He pleases.

⁴Their idols are silver and gold,made by the hands of men.

⁵They have mouths, but cannot speak;they have eyes, but cannot see;

⁶they have ears, but cannot hear;they have noses, but cannot smell;

⁷they have hands, but cannot feel;they have feet, but cannot walk;they cannot even clear their throats.

⁸Those who make them become like them,as do all who trust in them.

⁹O Israel,trust in the LORD!He is their help and shield.

¹⁰O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD!He is their help and shield.

¹¹You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD!He is their help and shield.

¹²The LORD is mindful of us;He will bless us.He will bless the house of Israel;He will bless the house of Aaron;

¹³He will bless those who fear the LORD—small and great alike.

¹⁴May the LORD give you increase,both you and your children.

¹⁵May you be blessed by the LORD,the Maker of heaven and earth.

¹⁶The highest heavens belong to the LORD,but the earth He has given to mankind.

¹⁷It is not the dead who praise the LORD,nor any who descend into silence.

¹⁸But it is we who will bless the LORD,both now and forevermore.Hallelujah!