Israel Urged to Obey God’s Law

1“Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I am teaching you to perform, so that you will live and go in and take possession of the land which the LORD, 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, so that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I am commanding you. 3Your eyes have seen what the LORD has done in the case of Baal-peor, for all the men who followed Baal-peor, the LORD your God has destroyed [a]them from among you. 4But you who clung to the LORD your God are alive today, every one of you.

5“See, I have taught you statutes and judgments just as the LORD my God commanded me, that you are to do these things in the land where you are entering to take possession of it. 6So 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 the LORD 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 be careful for yourself and watch over your soul diligently, so that you do not forget the things which your eyes have seen and they do not depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your sons and your grandsons. 10Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when the LORD said to me, ‘Assemble the people to Me, that I may have them hear My words so that they may learn to [b]fear Me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.’ 11You came forward and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire to the heart of the heavens: darkness, cloud, and thick gloom. 12Then the LORD spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but you saw no form—there was only a voice. 13So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten [c]Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone. 14The LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, so that you would perform them in the land where you are going over to take possession of it.

15“So be very careful [d]yourselves, since you did not see any form on the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, 16so that you do not act corruptly and make a carved image for yourselves in the form of any figure, a representation of male or female, 17a representation of any animal that is on the earth, a representation of any winged bird that flies in the sky, 18a representation of anything that crawls on the ground, or a representation of any fish that is in the water below the earth. 19And be careful not to raise your eyes to heaven and look at the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the heavenly [e]lights, and allow yourself to be drawn away and worship them and serve them, things which the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. 20But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be a people of His own possession, as today.

21“Now the LORD was angry with me on your account, and He swore that I would not cross the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance. 22For I am going to die in this land; I am not crossing the Jordan, but you are going to cross, and you will take possession of this good land. 23So be careful [f]yourselves, that you do not forget the covenant of the LORD your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything against which the LORD your God has commanded you. 24For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

25“When you father children and have [g]grandchildren, and you grow old in the land, and you act corruptly, and make [h]an idol in the form of anything, and do what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God to provoke Him to anger, 26I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today, that you will certainly perish quickly from the land where you are going over the Jordan to take possession of it. You will not [i]live long on it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27The LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD drives you. 28There you will serve gods, the work of human hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear, nor eat nor smell anything. 29But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul. 30When you are in distress and all these things happen to you, in the latter days you will return to the LORD your God and listen to His voice. 31For the LORD your God is a compassionate God; He will not abandon you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.

32“Indeed, ask now about the earlier days that were [j]before your time, since the day that God created [k]mankind 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 survived? 34Or has a god ventured to go to take for himself a nation from within another nation by trials, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, [l]just as the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35You were shown these things so that you might know that the LORD, He is God; there is no other besides Him. 36Out of the heavens He let you hear His voice to discipline you; and on earth He let you see His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire. 37Because He loved your fathers, He chose [m]their descendants after them. And He [n]personally brought you from Egypt by His great power, 38driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in and to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is today. 39Therefore know today, and take it to your heart, that the LORD, 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 [o]giving you today, so that it may go well for you and for your children after you, and that you may [p]live long on the land which the LORD your God is giving you for all time.”

41Then Moses set apart three cities across the Jordan to the [q]east, 42for [r]one to flee there who unintentionally killed his neighbor, without having hatred for him in time past; and by fleeing to one of these cities he might live: 43Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau for the Reubenites, 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 ordinances which Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, when they came out of Egypt, 46across 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 sons of Israel [s]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 across the Jordan to the [t]east, 48from Aroer, which is on the edge of the [u]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, [v]at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah.