1 "Now, Israel, listen to the rules and to the regulations that I [am] teaching you to do, in order that you may live and you may go [in] and you may take possession of the land that Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, [is] giving to you.
2 You must not add to the word that I [am] commanding you, and you shall not take away from it [in order] to keep the commands of Yahweh your God that I [am] commanding you [to observe].
3 Your eyes have seen what Yahweh did with [the case of] Baal Peor, for {each} man that followed after Baal Peor Yahweh your God destroyed from your midst.
4 But you, the [ones] holding fast to Yahweh your God, [are] all alive {today}.
5 See, I now teach you rules and regulations [just] as Yahweh my God has commanded me, to observe [them] [just] so in the midst of the land where you [are] going, to take possession of it.
6 And {you must observe them diligently}, for that [is] your wisdom and your insight before the eyes of the people, who will hear all [of] these rules, and they will say, 'Surely this great nation [is] a wise and discerning people.'
7 For what great nation [has] for it a god near to it as Yahweh our God, whenever we call [upon] him?
8 And what [other] great nation has for it just rules and regulations just like {this whole} law that I [am] setting {before} you {today}?
9 "However, {take care} for yourself and watch your inner self closely, so that you do not forget the things that your eyes have seen, so that they do not slip from your mind all the days of your life; and you shall make them known to your children and to {your grandchildren}.
10 [Remember] the day that you stood {before} Yahweh your God at Horeb {when Yahweh said to me}, 'Summon for me the people so that I can tell them my words, that they may learn to fear me all [of] the days they [are] alive on the earth and so [that] they may teach their children.'
11 And [so] you came near, and you stood under the mountain, and the mountain [was] burning with fire up to the heart of the heaven, {dark with a very thick cloud}.
12 And Yahweh spoke to you from the midst of the fire; {you heard} a sound of words, but {you did not see} a form--only a voice.
13 And he declared to you his covenant, {the Ten Commandments}, which he charged you {to observe}, and he wrote them on [the] two tablets of stone.
14 And Yahweh charged me at that time to teach you rules and regulations {for your observation of them} in the land that you [are] {about to cross into} to take possession of it.
15 "So {you must be very careful for yourselves}, because you did not see any form on the day Yahweh spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire,
16 so that you [do] not {ruin yourselves} and make for yourselves a divine image [in] a form of any image, a replica of male or female,
17 a replica of any animal that [is] upon the earth, a replica of any winged bird that flies in the air,
18 a replica of any creeping thing on the ground, a replica of any fish that [is] in the water {below} the earth.
19 {And do this so that you do not lift} your eyes [toward] heaven and {observe} the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of the heaven, and be led astray and bow down to them and serve them, things that Yahweh your God has allotted to all [of] the peoples under all [of] the heaven.
20 But Yahweh has taken you and brought you out from the furnace of iron, from Egypt, to be a people of inheritance to him, {as it is this day}.
21 "And Yahweh was angry with me {because of you}, and he swore {that I would not cross the Jordan} and {that I would not go to the good land} that Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance.
22 For I [am] going to die in this land; I am not going to cross the Jordan, but you [are] going to cross, and you are going to take possession of this good land.
23 Watch [out] for yourselves so that you do not forget the covenant of Yahweh your God that he had {made} with you and make for yourselves a divine image [of] the form of anything that Yahweh your God {has forbidden},
24 for Yahweh your God [is] a devouring fire, a jealous God.
25 "When you have had children and {grandchildren} and you have grown old in the land and you act corruptly and you make a divine image [of] the form of anything and you do evil in the eyes of Yahweh your God, [thus] provoking him to anger,
26 I call to witness against you today the heaven and the earth, that you will perish soon and completely from the land that you [are] crossing the Jordan into it to take possession of it; {you will not live long on it}, but you will be completely destroyed.
27 And Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left {few in number} among the nations {to where Yahweh will lead you}.
28 And you will there serve gods {made by human hands}, [of] wood and stone, [gods] that cannot see and cannot hear and cannot eat and cannot smell.
29 But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God and will find him, if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.
30 {In your distress} when all these things have found you in the {latter days}, then you will return to Yahweh your God, and you will listen to his voice.
31 For Yahweh your God is a compassionate God; he {will not abandon you}, and he will not destroy you, and he will not forget the covenant of your ancestors that he swore to them.
32 "Yes, ask, please, about former days that {preceded you} from the day that God created humankind on the earth; [ask even] from [one] end of the heaven up to the [other] end of heaven {whether anything ever happened} like this great thing or {whether anything like it was ever heard}.
33 Has a people [ever] heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, [just] as you heard [it], and lived?
34 Or has a god [ever] attempted to go to take for himself a nation from the midst of a nation, [using] trials and signs and wonders and war, with an outstretched arm and with great and awesome deeds, like all that Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
35 You [yourselves] were shown [this wonder] in order [for you] to acknowledge that Yahweh [is] the God; there is no other [God] {besides him}.
36 From heaven he made you hear his voice to teach you, and on the earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from the midst of the fire.
37 And because he loved your ancestors he chose their {descendants} after them. And he brought you forth from Egypt {with his own presence}, by his great strength,
38 to drive out nations greater and more numerous than you {from before you}, to bring you [and] to give to you their land [as] an inheritance, as [it is] this day.
39 So you shall acknowledge {today}, and {you must call to mind} that Yahweh [is] God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. There is no other [God].
40 And you shall keep his rules and his commandments that I am commanding you {today}, [so] that {it may go well} for you and for your children after you, and so that {you may remain a long time} on the land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you [during] all [of] those days."
41 Then Moses set apart three cities {on the other side of the Jordan}, {toward the east},
42 [in order for] {a manslayer} to flee there [who] has killed his neighbor {without intent} and was not hating him {previously}, and [so] he could flee to one of these cities {and be safe}.
43 [He set apart] Bezer in the wilderness in the land of the plateau of the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead of the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan of the Manassites.
44 Now this [is] the law that Moses set {before} the {Israelites};
45 these are the legal provisions and the rules and the regulations that Moses spoke to the {Israelites} {when they left Egypt},
46 beyond the Jordan in the valley opposite Beth Peor in the land of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who [was] reigning in Heshbon [and] whom Moses and the {Israelites} defeated {when they came out of Egypt}.
47 And [so] they took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites who [were] beyond the Jordan, {eastward},
48 from Aroer, which [is] on the bank of the wadi of Arnon and as far as Mount Sirion; that [is], Hermon,
49 and all [of] the Arabah beyond the Jordan, eastward, and as far as the Sea of the Arabah under the slopes of Pisgah.