| International Standard Version | NET Bible |
| 1"Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and the ordinances that I'm teaching you to observe so you may live and go in to take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is about to give you. | 1Now, Israel, pay attention to the statutes and ordinances I am about to teach you, so that you might live and go on to enter and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. |
| 2Do not add or subtract a thing to what I'm commanding you. Observe the commands of the LORD your God. | 2Do not add a thing to what I command you nor subtract from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I am delivering to you. |
| 3You saw with your own eyes what he did in Baal Peor. The LORD your God exterminated from among you every man who followed Baal of Peor. | 3You have witnessed what the LORD did at Baal Peor, how he eradicated from your midst everyone who followed Baal Peor. |
| 4But all of you who are clinging to the LORD your God are alive today. | 4But you who remained faithful to the LORD your God are still alive to this very day, every one of you. |
| 5See! I taught you the statutes and the ordinances, just as the LORD God commanded. Therefore, observe them when you enter the land you are about to possess. | 5Look! I have taught you statutes and ordinances just as the LORD my God told me to do, so that you might carry them out in the land you are about to enter and possess. |
| 6Observe them carefully, because this will show your wisdom and discernment in the eyes of people who'll listen to all these decrees. Then they'll say: 'Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people.' | 6So be sure to do them, because this will testify of your wise understanding to the people who will learn of all these statutes and say, "Indeed, this great nation is a very wise people." |
| 7For what great nation has a god so near like the LORD our God whenever we call on him? | 7In fact, what other great nation has a god so near to them like the LORD our God whenever we call on him? |
| 8And what great nation has all the decrees and righteous ordinances like all this teaching that I'm giving you today? | 8And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this whole law that I am about to share with you today? |
| 9Only guard yourselves carefully so you won't forget the things that you saw and let them slip from your mind for the rest of your life. Tell them to your children and to your grandchildren. | 9Again, however, pay very careful attention, lest you forget the things you have seen and disregard them for the rest of your life; instead teach them to your children and grandchildren. |
| 10The day you stood in the presence of the LORD your God in Horeb, the LORD told me, 'Gather the people before me so they may hear my words, learn to revere me the whole time that they live in the land, and teach them to their children.'" | 10You stood before the LORD your God at Horeb and he said to me, "Assemble the people before me so that I can tell them my commands. Then they will learn to revere me all the days they live in the land, and they will instruct their children." |
| 11"When you approached and stood at the foot of the mountain—a mountain that was blazing with fire at its core while the sky was covered with thick, dark clouds— | 11You approached and stood at the foot of the mountain, a mountain ablaze to the sky above it and yet dark with a thick cloud. |
| 12the LORD your God spoke from the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but you saw no form; there was only a voice. | 12Then the LORD spoke to you from the middle of the fire; you heard speech but you could not see anything--only a voice was heard. |
| 13He declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to observe—the Ten Commandments that he wrote on two stone tablets. | 13And he revealed to you the covenant he has commanded you to keep, the ten commandments, writing them on two stone tablets. |
| 14The LORD commanded me at that time to teach you to observe the statutes and ordinances in the land after you cross over to take possession of it. | 14Moreover, at that same time the LORD commanded me to teach you statutes and ordinances for you to keep in the land which you are about to enter and possess. |
| 15"Therefore, for your own sake, be very careful, since you did not see any form on the day that the LORD your God spoke to you in Horeb from the midst of the fire. | 15Be very careful, then, because you saw no form at the time the LORD spoke to you at Horeb from the middle of the fire. |
| 16Be careful! Otherwise, you will be destroyed when you make carved images for yourself—all sorts of images in the form of man, woman, | 16I say this so you will not corrupt yourselves by making an image in the form of any kind of figure. This includes the likeness of a human male or female, |
| 17any animal on earth, any winged bird that flies in the sky, | 17any kind of land animal, any bird that flies in the sky, |
| 18any creeping thing on the ground, or any fish in the sea. | 18anything that crawls on the ground, or any fish in the deep waters of the earth. |
| 19Do not gaze toward the heavens and observe the sun, the moon, the stars—the entire array of the sky—with the intent to worship and serve what the LORD your God gave every nation. | 19When you look up to the sky and see the sun, moon, and stars--the whole heavenly creation--you must not be seduced to worship and serve them, for the LORD your God has assigned them to all the people of the world. |
| 20For the LORD took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace—out of Egypt—to be the people of his inheritance, as you are today. | 20You, however, the LORD has selected and brought from Egypt, that iron-smelting furnace, to be his special people as you are today. |
| 21"But the LORD was angry with me because of you. So he swore that I'll never cross the Jordan River to enter the good land that the LORD your God is about to give you as an inheritance. | 21But the LORD became angry with me because of you and vowed that I would never cross the Jordan nor enter the good land that he is about to give you. |
| 22I'm going to die in this land and I won't cross the Jordan River, but you're about to cross over to possess that good land. | 22So I must die here in this land; I will not cross the Jordan. But you are going over and will possess that good land. |
| 23Be careful! Otherwise, you will forget the covenant of the LORD your God, who established that covenant with you. Don't make carved images of any likeness in violation of everything that you were commanded by the LORD your God. | 23Be on guard so that you do not forget the covenant of the LORD your God that he has made with you, and that you do not make an image of any kind, just as he has forbidden you. |
| 24Indeed, the LORD your God is a consuming fire. He is a jealous God." | 24For the LORD your God is a consuming fire; he is a jealous God. |
| 25"After you've borne children and grandchildren, have been there for a long time in the land, have become so corrupted that you make images of any form, and have done evil in the eyes of the LORD your God, you will provoke him to anger. | 25After you have produced children and grandchildren and have been in the land a long time, if you become corrupt and make an image of any kind and do other evil things before the LORD your God that enrage him, |
| 26Heaven and earth will testify against what has occurred today: you'll surely and swiftly be destroyed from the land that you are about to possess by crossing the Jordan River. You won't live long in it, because you'll certainly be exterminated. | 26I invoke heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that you will surely and swiftly be removed from the very land you are about to cross the Jordan to possess. You will not last long there because you will surely be annihilated. |
| 27Moreover, the LORD will scatter you among the nations, and you'll be fewer in number in the nations where the LORD your God will drive you. | 27Then the LORD will scatter you among the peoples and there will be very few of you among the nations where the LORD will drive you. |
| 28There you'll serve gods made by human hands, serving trees and stones that cannot see, hear, eat, nor smell. | 28There you will worship gods made by human hands--wood and stone that can neither see, hear, eat, nor smell. |
| 29If from there you will seek the LORD your God, then you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and soul. | 29But if you seek the LORD your God from there, you will find him, if, indeed, you seek him with all your heart and soul. |
| 30In your distress, when all these things happen to you in days to come and you return to the LORD your God, then you will hear his voice. | 30In your distress when all these things happen to you in the latter days, if you return to the LORD your God and obey him |
| 31For God is compassionate. The LORD your God won't fail you. He won't destroy you or forget the covenant that he confirmed with your ancestors." | 31(for he is a merciful God), he will not let you down or destroy you, for he cannot forget the covenant with your ancestors that he confirmed by oath to them. |
| 32"Indeed, ask from one end of the heavens to the other about days of old, before your time, when God created mankind on the earth. Did we ever have anything as great as this, or ever hear of anything like it? | 32Indeed, ask about the distant past, starting from the day God created humankind on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether there has ever been such a great thing as this, or even a rumor of it. |
| 33Has any people heard the voice of God speaking from the middle of a fire just as you did, and survived it? | 33Have a people ever heard the voice of God speaking from the middle of fire, as you yourselves have, and lived to tell about it? |
| 34Or has any god ever taken for himself one nation out from another nation with testings, signs, wonders, wars, awesome power, and magnificent, terrifying deeds as the LORD your God did in Egypt before your eyes? | 34Or has God ever before tried to deliver a nation from the middle of another nation, accompanied by judgments, signs, wonders, war, strength, power, and other very terrifying things like the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? |
| 35"You have been shown this in order to know that 'the LORD is God' and there is no one like him. | 35You have been taught that the LORD alone is God--there is no other besides him. |
| 36You have been made to hear his voice from heaven so you may be instructed. And he showed you his great fire here on earth, and you heard his voice from the middle of that fire. | 36From heaven he spoke to you in order to teach you, and on earth he showed you his great fire from which you also heard his words. |
| 37Moreover, he loved your ancestors, chose their descendants after them, and brought you out of Egypt, accompanied by his presence and great power, | 37Moreover, because he loved your ancestors, he chose their descendants who followed them and personally brought you out of Egypt with his great power |
| 38in order to drive out nations that are stronger and more powerful than you, to bring you into this land, and to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is today. | 38to dispossess nations greater and stronger than you and brought you here this day to give you their land as your property. |
| 39"May you acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in the heavens above and over the earth below—there is no other God. | 39Today realize and carefully consider that the LORD is God in heaven above and on earth below--there is no other! |
| 40May you observe his statutes and keep his commands that I'm giving you today, so that life may go well for you and for your descendants after you. That way, you'll live a long life in the land that the LORD your God is about to give you permanently." | 40Keep his statutes and commandments that I am setting forth today so that it may go well with you and your descendants and that you may enjoy longevity in the land that the LORD your God is about to give you as a permanent possession. |
| 41Then Moses designated three cities on the east side of the Jordan, | 41Then Moses selected three cities in the Transjordan, toward the east. |
| 42where a person who accidentally killed someone could flee, if he killed his neighbor without having enmity toward him in the past. He may flee to one of these cities and live: | 42Anyone who accidentally killed someone without hating him at the time of the accident could flee to one of those cities and be safe. |
| 43Bezer in the desert plain for the descendants of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead for the descendants of Gad, and Golan in Bashan for the descendants of Manasseh. | 43These cities are Bezer, in the desert plateau, for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for the Manassehites. |
| 44This is the Law that Moses reviewed in the presence of the Israelis. | 44This is the law that Moses set before the Israelites. |
| 45These are the instructions, decrees, and ordinances that Moses declared to the Israelis when they came out of Egypt. | 45These are the stipulations, statutes, and ordinances that Moses spoke to the Israelites after he had brought them out of Egypt, |
| 46He did this east of the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and whom Moses and the Israelis defeated after leaving Egypt. | 46in the Transjordan, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, in the land of King Sihon of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon. (It is he whom Moses and the Israelites attacked after they came out of Egypt. |
| 47So they took possession of his land, as well as the land of King Og of Bashan. Both Amorite kings lived east of the Jordan— | 47They possessed his land and that of King Og of Bashan--both of whom were Amorite kings in the Transjordan, to the east. |
| 48from Aroer on the edge of the Wadi Arnon as far as Mount Sirion, which is also called Hermon, | 48Their territory extended from Aroer at the edge of the Arnon valley as far as Mount Siyon--that is, Hermon-- |
| 49and all the Arabah east of the Jordan as far as the Dead Sea below the slopes of Pisgah. | 49including all the Arabah of the Transjordan in the east to the sea of the Arabah, beneath the watershed of Pisgah.) |
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