Keep the Commandments of Yahweh

1“So now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I am teaching you to do, so that you may live and go in and take possession of the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, is giving you. 2You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh your God which I am commanding you. 3Your eyes have seen what Yahweh has done in the case of Baal-peor, for all the men who walked after Baal-peor, Yahweh your God has destroyed [†]them from among you. 4But you who clung to Yahweh your God are alive today, every one of you.

5“See, I have taught you statutes and judgments just as Yahweh my God commanded me, that you should do thus in the land where you are entering to possess it. 6You shall keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight 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 is Yahweh our God whenever we call on Him? 8Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today?

9“Only keep yourself and keep your soul very carefully, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. But make them known to your sons and to your grandsons. 10Remember the day you stood before Yahweh your God at Horeb, when Yahweh said to me, ‘Assemble the people to Me, that I may cause them to hear My words so they may learn to [†]fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.’ 11And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the very heart of the heavens: darkness, cloud, and dense 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. 13So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to do, that is, the Ten [†]Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone. 14And Yahweh commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it.

15“So keep your souls very carefully, since you did not see any form on the day Yahweh spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, 16lest you act corruptly and make a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the 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 sky, 18the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water below the earth, 19and lest you lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which Yahweh your God has apportioned for all the peoples under the whole heaven. 20But Yahweh has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be a people for His own inheritance, as today.

21“Now Yahweh was angry with me on your account and swore that I would not cross the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance. 22For I will die in this land, I shall not cross the Jordan, but you shall cross and take possession of this good land. 23So keep yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of Yahweh your God which He cut with you and make for yourselves a graven image in the form of anything against which Yahweh your God has commanded you. 24For Yahweh your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

25“When you [†]become the father of children and children’s children and remain long in the land and act corruptly and make [†]a graven image in the form of anything and do that which is evil in the sight of Yahweh your God so as to provoke Him to anger, 26I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will surely perish quickly from the land where you are going over the Jordan to possess it. You shall not prolong your days on it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27And Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you will remain few in number among the nations where Yahweh drives you. 28And there you will serve gods, the work of man’s 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, for you will search for Him with all your heart and all your soul. 30When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you, in the last days you will return to Yahweh your God and listen to His voice. 31For Yahweh your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.

32“Indeed, ask now concerning the former days which were before you, since the day that God created [†]man on the earth, and inquire from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything been done like this great thing, or has anything been heard like it? 33Has any people heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you have heard it, and lived? 34Or has a god tried to go to take for himself a nation from within another nation with trials, with signs and wonders and with war and with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with great terrors, [†]as Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35To you it was shown that you might know that Yahweh, He is God; there is no other besides Him. 36Out of the heavens He caused you to hear His voice to discipline you; and on earth He caused you to see His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire. 37[†]Because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their seed after them. And He [†]personally brought you from Egypt by His great power, 38dispossessing before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in and to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is today. 39Know therefore today, and take it to your heart, that Yahweh, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other. 40So you shall keep His statutes and His commandments which I am commanding you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days on the land which Yahweh your God is giving you for all the days.”

41Then Moses set apart three cities across the Jordan to the east toward the sunrise, 42that a manslayer might flee there, who slew his neighbor [†]without premeditation, [†]not hating him previously; so he shall flee to one of these cities that he might live: 43Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau for the Reubenites, and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.

44Now this is the law which Moses set before the sons of Israel; 45these are the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments which Moses spoke to the sons of Israel when they came out from Egypt, 46across the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the sons of Israel struck down when they came out from Egypt. 47And they took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who were across the Jordan to the east toward the sunrise, 48from Aroer, which is on the edge of the [†]valley of Arnon, even as far as Mount Sion (that is, Hermon), 49with all the Arabah across the Jordan to the east, even as far as the sea of the Arabah, [†]at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah.