Moses Commands Obedience
1 “Now, O Israel, listen tothe statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live, and go in and possess the land which theLordGod of your fathers is giving you.
2 You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of theLordyour God which I command you.
3 Your eyes have seen what theLorddid atBaal Peor; for theLordyour God has destroyed from among you all the men who followed Baal of Peor.
4 But you who held fast to theLordyour Godarealive today, every one of you.
5 “Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as theLordmy God commanded me, that you should act accordingtothemin the land which you go to possess.
6 Therefore be careful to observethem;for thisisyour wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, ‘Surely this great nationisa wise and understanding people.’
7 “Forwhat great nationistherethat hasGodsonear to it, as theLordour Godisto us, for whateverreasonwe may call upon Him?
8 And what great nationistherethat hassuchstatutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day?
9 Only take heed to yourself, and diligentlykeep yourself, lest youforget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Andteach them to your children and your grandchildren,
10 especiallyconcerningthe day you stood before theLordyour God in Horeb, when theLordsaid to me, ‘Gather the people to Me, and I will let them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, andthatthey may teach their children.’
11 “Then you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the midst of heaven, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness.
12 And theLordspoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words, but saw no form;youonlyhearda voice.
13 So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform,the Ten Commandments; andHe wrote them on two tablets of stone.
14 AndtheLordcommanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might observe them in the land which you cross over to possess.
Beware of Idolatry
15 “Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw noform when theLordspoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire,
16 lest youact corruptly andmake for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure:the likeness of male or female,
17 the likeness of any animal thatison the earth or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air,
18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground or the likeness of any fish thatisin the water beneath the earth.
19 Andtakeheed,lest youlift your eyes to heaven, andwhenyou see the sun, the moon, and the stars,all the host of heaven, you feel driven toworship them and serve them, which theLordyour God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage.
20 But theLordhas taken you andbrought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to beHis people, an inheritance, as you are this day.
21 FurthermoretheLordwas angry with me for your sakes, and swore thatI would not cross over the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which theLordyour God is giving you as an inheritance.
22 ButI must die in this land,I must not cross over the Jordan; but you shall cross over and possessthat good land.
23 Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of theLordyour God which He made with you,and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which theLordyour God has forbidden you.
24 FortheLordyour Godisa consuming fire,a jealous God.
25 “When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, anddo evil in the sight of theLordyour God to provoke Him to anger,
26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess; you will not prolongyourdays in it, but will be utterly destroyed.
27 And theLordwill scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where theLordwill drive you.
28 Andthere you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone,which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.
29 But from there you will seek theLordyour God, and you will findHimif you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
30 When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in thelatter days, when youturn to theLordyour God and obey His voice
31 (for theLordyour Godisa merciful God), He will not forsake you nordestroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.
32 “Forask now concerning the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, andaskfrom one end of heaven to the other, whetheranygreatthinglike this has happened, oranythinglike it has been heard.
33 Didanypeopleeverhear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live?
34 Or did Godevertry to goandtake for Himself a nation from the midst ofanothernation,by trials,by signs, by wonders, by war,by a mighty hand andan outstretched arm,and by great terrors, according to all that theLordyour God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
35 To you it was shown, that you might know that theLordHimselfisGod;thereisnone other besides Him.
36 Out of heaven He let you hear His voice, that He might instruct you; on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire.
37 And becauseHe loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them; andHe brought you out of Egypt with His Presence, with His mighty power,
38 driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their landasan inheritance, asitisthis day.
39 Therefore know this day, and consideritin your heart, thattheLordHimselfisGod in heaven above and on the earth beneath;thereisno other.
40 You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolongyourdays in the land which theLordyour God is giving you for all time.”
Cities of Refuge East of the Jordan
41 Then Mosesset apart three cities on this side of the Jordan, toward the rising of the sun,
42 that the manslayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without having hated him in time past, and that by fleeing to one of these cities he might live:
43 Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau for the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.
Introduction to God’s Law
44 Now thisisthe law which Moses set before the children of Israel.
45 Thesearethe testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which Moses spoke to the children of Israel after they came out of Egypt,
46 on this side of the Jordan,in the valley opposite Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israeldefeated after they came out of Egypt.
47 And they took possession of his land and the landof Og king of Bashan, two kings of the Amorites, whowereon this side of the Jordan, toward the rising of the sun,
48 from Aroer, whichison the bank of the River Arnon, even to Mount Sion (that is,Hermon),
49 and all the plain on the east side of the Jordan as far as the Sea of the Arabah, below theslopes of Pisgah.