May 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."

where 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:

These are the instructions, decrees, and ordinances that Moses declared to the Israelis when they came out of Egypt.

Moses called all of Israel together and told them: "Listen, Israel! Today I'm going to announce God's laws and regulations so that you will learn them and take care to obey them.

The LORD spoke to you face to face on the mountain from the fire.

I stood at that time as mediator between the LORD and you to declare his message to you, because you were afraid of the fire and would not go up the mountain. He said:

You are to have no other gods as a substitute for me.

""You are not to craft for yourselves an idol resembling what is in the skies above, or on earth beneath, or in the water sources under the earth.

You are not to bow down to them in worship or serve them, because I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the guilt of parents on children, to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,

but showing gracious love to the thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

""You are not to misuse the name of the LORD your God, because the LORD will not leave unpunished the one who misuses his name.

""Observe the Sabbath day, maintaining its holiness, just as the LORD your God commanded.

Six days you are to labor and do all your work,

but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. You are not to do any work neither you, your son, nor your daughter, your male and female servants, your oxen and donkeys, nor any of your livestock, nor any foreigner who lives among you, so that your male and female servants may rest as you do.

You are to remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, but the LORD your God brought you out from there with great power and a show of force. Therefore, the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

""You are not to commit murder.

""You are not to commit adultery.

""You are not to steal.

""You are not to give false testimony against your neighbor.

""You are not to desire your neighbor's wife nor crave your neighbor's house, his fields, his male and female servants, his ox, his donkey, nor anything that pertains to your neighbor.'"

"The LORD declared these commands in a loud voice to your entire assembly on the mountain from out of the fire and dark clouds, and nothing more was added. He inscribed them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

When you heard the voice from the darkness while the mountain was blazing, all the leaders and elders of your tribes came to me and said:

"The LORD our God truly has displayed his glory and power, for we heard him from out of the fire today. We have witnessed how God spoke to human beings, yet they lived.

Now therefore, why should we die? This great fire will consume us. If we continue to listen to the voice of the LORD our God any longer, we'll die.

As for you, go near and listen to everything that the LORD our God will say to you, then repeat it to us, and we'll listen and obey.'

If only they would commit to fear me and keep all my commands, then it will go well with them and their children forever.

Go and tell them to return to their tents,

but you stand here with me and I'll speak to you all the commands, decrees, and laws that you must teach them to observe in the land that I'm giving you to possess.

You must be careful to do what the LORD your God commanded you, turning neither to the left nor to the right.

You are to walk in every pathway that the LORD your God commanded you, so that life may go well for you, and so that you will prolong your days in the land that you will possess.'"

"Now these are the commands, decrees, and ordinances that the LORD commanded me to teach you. Obey them in the land you are entering to possess,

so that you, your children, and your grandchildren may fear the LORD your God. Keep all his decrees and commandments that I'm giving you every day of your life, so you may live a long time.

Listen, Israel! Be careful to obey, so that life may go well for you and that you may increase greatly. Just as the LORD God of your ancestors told you, you'll have a land flowing with milk and honey.

You are to love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.

Teach them repeatedly to your children. Talk about them while sitting in your house or walking on the road, and as you lie down or get up.

Tie them as reminders on your forearm, bind them on your forehead,

"When the LORD your God brings you to the land that he promised to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he will give you large and beautiful cities that you didn't build,

houses filled with every good thing that you didn't supply, wells that you didn't dig, and vineyards and olive groves that you didn't plant. When you eat and are satisfied,

be careful not to forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and slavery.

Do not follow other gods, from the gods of the nations around you.

"Don't test the LORD your God like you did in Massah.

Be sure to observe the commands of the LORD your God, his testimonies and his decrees that he gave you.

Do what is good and right in the LORD's sight so it may go well with you. Then you'll enter and possess the good land that the LORD your God promised to your ancestors,

tell him, "We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with great power.

Before our very eyes, the LORD did great and terrible signs and wonders in Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to his entire household.

But as for us, he brought us out from there to bring us into the land and give it to us, as he promised our ancestors.

Then the LORD commanded us to observe all these decrees and to fear the LORD our God for our own good, so that he may keep us alive as we are today.

It will be credited as righteousness for us, if we're careful to obey the entire Law in the presence of the LORD our God, as he commanded.'"

"When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to possess, he will drive out many nations before you: the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations who are more numerous and stronger than you.

So when the LORD your God delivers them to you and you have defeated them, then utterly destroy them. You are not to make any covenant with them nor be gracious to them.

You are not to intermarry with them. You are not to give your daughters to their sons nor take their daughters for your sons,

because they will turn your children from me to serve other gods so that the LORD's anger blazes against you and swiftly destroys you by fire.

This is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, break their pillars, cut down their ritual pillars, and burn their carved idols in fire,

because you are a holy people to the LORD your God. The LORD your God chose you to be his people, his treasured possession from all the nations on the face of the earth."

"It wasn't because you were more numerous than other people of the earth that the LORD committed himself to you and chose you. In fact, you were the least numerous of all the nations.

But the LORD loved you and kept his oath that he made to your ancestors. The LORD brought you out with great power from slavery, from the control of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

Know that the LORD your God is God, the trusted God who faithfully keeps his covenant to the thousandth generation of those who love him and obey his commands.

Therefore keep the commands, decrees, and the ordinances that I am instructing you to obey today."

"If you pay attention to these laws and obey them, then the LORD your God will continue his covenant of gracious love with you that he promised with an oath to your ancestors.

The LORD will turn aside every disease from you. He won't inflict on you the terrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but will inflict them instead on all who hate you.

You are to utterly destroy everyone whom the LORD your God will deliver to you. Don't have pity on them nor serve their gods. Otherwise, they will become a snare for you."

"You may say to yourselves, "These nations are more numerous than we are. How can we dispossess them?'

But you mustn't fear them. Be sure to remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and all of Egypt.

Your eyes saw the great trials, the signs and wonders, and the awesome power with which the LORD your God brought you out. The LORD your God will do the same to all the people whom you fear.

Don't tremble before them, because the LORD your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God.

He slowly will dislodge these nations before you, but he won't destroy them quickly, so the wild animals won't multiply around you.

But the LORD your God will deliver them over to you, throwing them into great confusion, until they are destroyed.

He will deliver kings into your control, and you are to wipe out the memory of them from under heaven. No one will be able to stand before you. You are to utterly destroy them.

Burn the images of their gods in the fire. Desire neither the silver nor the gold that adorns them, nor take them for yourselves, so you won't be ensnared by them, because the gold and silver is detestable to the LORD your God.

Don't bring any detestable thing to your house, because you yourself will be utterly destroyed along with these detestable things. You must absolutely abhor and detest all of it, because it has been devoted to destruction."

"Be careful to observe every command that I'm instructing you today, in order that you may live, increase, and enter and take possession of the land that the LORD promised by an oath to your ancestors.

Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way these 40 years in the desert, to humble and test you in order to make known what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.

He humbled you, causing you to be hungry, yet he fed you with manna that neither you nor your ancestors had known, in order to teach you that human beings are not to live by food alone instead human beings are to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.

because the LORD your God is bringing you to a good land a land with rivers and deep springs flowing to the valleys and hills.

Be careful! Otherwise, you will forget the LORD your God by failing to keep his commands, ordinances, and statutes that I'm commanding you this day.

and fed you in the desert with manna that neither you nor your ancestors had known, to humble and test you so that things go well with you later.

You may say to yourselves, "I have become wealthy by my own strength and by my own ability.'

But remember the LORD your God, because he is the one who gives you the ability to produce wealth, in order to confirm his covenant that he promised by an oath to your ancestors, as is the case today.

If you neglect the LORD your God, follow other gods, and serve and worship them, I testify to you today that you will certainly be destroyed.

Just like the nations whom the LORD destroyed before you, so will you be destroyed, because you did not listen to the voice of the LORD your God."

"Listen, Israel! Today you are about to cross the Jordan to enter and dispossess greater and mightier nations than you, who live in large cities that are fortified to the sky.

After the LORD has expelled them before you, you are not to say to yourselves, "The LORD caused me to enter and possess this land because of my righteousness.'

On the contrary, it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is dispossessing them before you to confirm what the LORD promised by an oath to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Know that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving to you this good land to inherit, for you are a stubborn people."

"Remember and don't ever forget how you provoked the LORD your God in the desert. From the day that you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place you have been rebelling against the LORD.

At Horeb you continually rebelled against the LORD, so that he was angry enough to destroy you.

Then I went up to the mountain to receive the two stone Tablets of the Covenant that the LORD had established with you. I stayed on the mountain for 40 days and nights without eating food or drinking water.

Then the LORD gave me the two stone tablets on which God inscribed with his own finger all the words that the LORD spoke to you on the mountain from the middle of the fire that day when you were all assembled together.

At the end of 40 days and nights, the LORD gave to me the two stone Tablets of the Covenant.

"So I turned and went down from the mountain while the mountain was on fire. The two Tablets of the Covenant were in both of my hands.

So I grabbed the two tablets and then threw them out of my hands, breaking them before your eyes.

I fell down in the LORD's presence, just as I had the first 40 days and nights. I did not eat food or drink water because of your sin. You had sinned by committing this evil in the sight of the LORD, thereby provoking him to anger.

I feared the anger and wrath of the LORD against you, because he was irate enough to destroy you. But the LORD also listened to me at that time.

It was as had been the case with Aaron, the LORD was very angry and about to destroy him, but I prayed for Aaron at that time.

Now, when you made the calf that made you sin, I grabbed it, burned it with fire, crushed it, and ground it thoroughly until it was pulverized to powder. Then I threw the powder into the river that was flowing from the mountain."

When the LORD sent you from Kadesh-barnea and told you, "Go possess the land that I gave you,' instead you disobeyed what the LORD your God said. You didn't trust him or listen to his voice.

You have been rebelling against the LORD since the day I knew you.

I fell down in the LORD's presence for 40 days and nights, because the LORD said he was ready to destroy you.

So I prayed to the LORD and said, "Oh LORD my God, don't destroy your people and your inheritance whom you redeemed by your power. You brought them out from Egypt in a powerful way.

Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Don't pay attention to the stubbornness, wickedness, and sinfulness of this people.