East of the Jordan River, in the land of Moab, Moses began to expound this Law:

"Then all of you approached me and said: "Let's send out men in advance of us so they can survey the land and bring back a report to us on how we'll go up to their cities.'

The LORD your God is the One who will be going ahead of you. He'll fight for you just as he did in Egypt before your eyes.

Starting today I will begin to instill fear and terror of you on the part of every nation under heaven who hears reports about you. They'll tremble in anguish before you.'"

"Let me pass through your territory. I'll stay on the main road. I won't turn to the right or left.

as the descendants of Esau who live in Seir did for me, as did the Moabites who live in Ar. I'll pass through, until I will have crossed the Jordan into the land that the LORD our God is about to give us.'

Therefore charge Joshua to be doubly strong, because he will lead this people and cause them to inherit the land that you'll see.'

Observe 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.'

"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.

Heaven 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.

Moreover, 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.

There you'll serve gods made by human hands, serving trees and stones that cannot see, hear, eat, nor smell.

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."

This is the Law that Moses reviewed in the presence of the Israelis.

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.'

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.

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.

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.

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,

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.'"

He'll love you and increase your numbers. He'll bless the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your land (the grain, new wine, and oil), the offspring of your herds, and the lambs of your flock, in the land that the LORD promised your ancestors he would give you.

You'll be blessed among all the nations. There'll be no infertility among you, not even among your herds.

He'll send plagues against them until the survivors who hide from you have perished.

a land without scarcity. You'll eat food in it and lack nothing. It's a land where its rocks are iron and you can dig copper from its mountains."

then you will become arrogant. You'll neglect the LORD your God,

Let me alone! I will destroy them and blot out their name under heaven. Then I'll make you into a nation that will be mighty and more numerous than they are.'

I'll write on the tablets what was on the first tablets that you broke. Then place them in the wooden chest.'

and so you'll live long in the land that the LORD your God promised by an oath to give your ancestors and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.

then he will send rain on the land in its season the early and latter rains then you'll gather grain, new wine, and oil.

He will provide grass on the fields for your livestock, and you'll eat and be satisfied.

The wrath of God will burn against you so that he will restrain the heavens and it won't rain. The ground won't yield its produce and you'll be swiftly destroyed from the good land that the LORD is about to give you.

Teach them to your children, talking about them while sitting in your house, walking on the road, or when you are about to lie down or get up.

then the LORD will dispossess all these nations before you and you'll dispossess nations that are even greater and stronger than you.

You'll eat only in the presence of the LORD your God at the place that he will choose you, your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the descendant of Levi who is in your cities. Rejoice in the presence of the LORD your God in everything you undertake.

You must not eat it, so that life will go well for you and for your children after you. Then you'll do what is right in the eyes of the LORD.

you must not listen to the words of that prophet or that diviner of dreams. For the LORD your God is testing you, to make known whether or not you'll continue to love the LORD your God with all your heart and soul.

Then in the presence of the LORD your God, in the place where he'll choose to establish his name, you may consume the tithe of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the firstborn of your livestock and flock, so that you'll learn to revere the LORD your God all your life.

in accordance with what the Law says, and in accordance with the verdict that will be handed to you. You must not deviate from the verdict that they declare to you either to the right or to the left.

When he occupies his royal throne, he must make a copy of this Law for himself from a scroll used by the Levitical priests.

It is to remain with him the rest of his life so he may learn to fear the LORD his God and observe all the words of this Law and these statutes, in order to fulfill them.

You must not shed innocent blood on your land that the LORD your God is about to give you as an inheritance. Otherwise, you'll be guilty of murder."

If the guilty person deserves a beating, the judge will make him lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of lashes fit for his crime.

"When two brothers are living together and one of them dies without leaving a son, his widow must not be married outside the family to a foreigner. Instead, the brother-in-law must go to her, take her as his wife, and by doing so perform the duty of a brother-in-law.

But if the man does not want to marry his brother's widow, then she must go to the elders at the city gate and declare, "My husband's brother refuses to perform the duty of a brother-in-law in order to preserve the name of his brother in Israel. He is not willing to perform the duty of a brother-in-law.'

then she is to approach her brother-in-law in the presence of the elders, remove his sandal, spit in his face, and say in response, "May this be done to the man who does not preserve the lineage of his brother.'

how when you were very tired and weary, they lay in wait for you on the road and eliminated everyone who was lagging behind. They had no fear of God.

Then inscribe on them all the words of this Law when you've crossed over into the land that the LORD your God is about to give you a land flowing with milk and honey just as the LORD God of your ancestors promised you.

Inscribe on the stones plainly and distinctly all the words of this Law."

""Cursed is the one who has sexual relations with his mother-in-law.' "Then all the people are to respond by saying, "Amen!'

""Cursed is the one who doesn't uphold the words of this Law and observe them.' "Then all the people are to respond by saying, "Amen!'"

"The LORD will open his rich treasury, the heavens, to release rain upon your land in season and bless everything you undertake so that you'll lend to many nations but won't borrow.

"The LORD will cause you to be defeated by your enemies. You'll go out against them in one direction, but you'll flee from them in seven directions. Consequently, you'll be in a state of great terror throughout all the kingdoms of the earth.

As a result, you'll wander aimlessly in broad daylight just as a blind person wanders in darkness. You won't prosper in life. Instead, you'll be oppressed and plundered all day long, with no deliverer.

"You'll be engaged to a woman, but another man will rape her. You'll build a house, but you won't live in it. You'll plant a vineyard, but you won't harvest it.

Your sons and daughters will be given to another people while you watch. You won't be able to approach them at all, and you'll be powerless to help.

"A people whom you don't know will devour what your land and labor produces. You'll be only oppressed and discouraged continuously

"The LORD will banish you and your king whom you will appoint over you to go to a nation that neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you'll serve other gods of wood and stone.

You'll become a desolation and a proverb, and you'll be mocked among the people where the LORD will drive you."

"You'll plant many seeds in a field, but your harvest will be small because the locust will consume it.

You'll plant a vineyard, but you won't drink wine or harvest any grapes because worms will consume it.

You'll have olive trees throughout your territory, but you won't be able to anoint yourself with oil because the olives will drop off the trees.

You'll bear sons and daughters, but they won't belong to you because they'll go into captivity.

The foreigner in your midst will be elevated higher and higher over you, while you are brought low little by little.

He will lend to you, but you won't lend to him. He'll be the head, but you'll be the tail.

you'll serve your enemies whom the LORD your God will send against you. You will serve in famine and in drought, in nakedness, and in lack of everything. They'll set a yoke of iron upon your neck until they have exterminated you.

They'll besiege all your cities until your high and fortified walls in which you have trusted collapse throughout the land. Indeed, they will besiege all your cities, which the LORD your God gave you."

"You'll eat your own children the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the LORD your God gave you on account of the siege and the distress with which your enemy will oppress you.

"If you aren't careful to observe all the words of this Law that have been written in this book, instructing you to fear this glorious and awesome name of the LORD your God,

Moreover, the LORD will inflict you with illnesses and plagues that were not written in this Book of the Law, until you are exterminated.

"He'll scatter you among the nations from one end of the earth to the other, and there you'll serve other gods made of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known.

Among those nations you'll have no rest. There'll be no resting place for the soles of your feet. Instead, the LORD will give you an anxious heart, failing eyesight, and a despairing spirit.

You'll cling to life, being fearful by both night and day, with no assurance of survival.

In the morning you'll say, "I wish it were evening.' Yet in the evening you'll say, "I wish it were morning,' on account of what you'll dread and what you'll see.

Finally, the LORD will bring you back to Egypt by ship, a place that I said you'd never see again. There you'll try to sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you."

Therefore, keep the terms of this covenant, carrying them out so that you'll be wise in everything you do."

The LORD will set him apart from all the tribes of Israel for destruction, according to the curses of the covenant that were written in this Book of the Law."

"The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but what has been revealed belongs to us and to our children forever, so that we might observe the words of this Law."

and he'll bring you to the land that your ancestors inherited. You'll possess it, you'll prosper, and you'll greatly multiply more than your ancestors did.

if you obey him and keep his commands and statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, and if you return to him with all your heart and soul.

They aren't in the heavens, so you have to ask, "Who'll go up to the heavens for us and get it for us so we can hear it and act on it?'

And they aren't beyond the seas either, so you have to ask, "Who'll cross the sea and get it for us so we can hear it and act on it?'

Then Moses called on Joshua and told him in the presence of everyone in Israel, "Be strong and courageous, because you'll bring this people to the land that the LORD your God had promised to give your ancestors. You will be the one who causes them to possess it.

Indeed, the LORD is the one who will keep on walking in front of you. He'll be with you and won't leave you or abandon you, so never be afraid and never be dismayed."

Then Moses wrote down this Law and gave it to the Levitical priests who carry the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD and to all of Israel's leaders.

when all of Israel comes to appear in the presence of the LORD your God at the place that he'll choose, read this Law aloud to them.

Gather the people the men, women, children, and the foreigners that live in your cities so they may hear and fear the LORD your God, and so they may be careful to obey the words contained in this Law.

When that happens, my anger will burn against them, because they will have abandoned me. I'll hide my face from them, they will be consumed, and many evils and distresses will find them. When this happens, they will say, "These troubles have happened to us because God isn't among us.'

I'll surely hide my face in that day on account of the evil that they will have done for they turned to other gods."

because after I've brought them to the land flowing with milk and honey that I promised to their ancestors by an oath, they'll eat, grow fat, and then they'll turn to other gods and serve them, while despising me and breaking my covenant.

Then the LORD charged Nun's son Joshua, "Be strong and courageous, because you'll bring the Israelis to the land that I promised to them by an oath. I'll be with you."

When Moses had finished writing the words of this Law in a book,

"Take the book of this Law and set it beside the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD your God. Let it remain there with you as witness against you,

because I know that after my death, you'll surely act wickedly and turn from the road that I've instructed you. As a result, evil will fall on you in days to come, because you'll act wickedly in the sight of the LORD, causing him to become angry due to your behavior."

For I'll proclaim the name of our LORD. Ascribe greatness to our God!

Remember the days of old, reflect on the years of previous generations. Ask your father, and he'll tell you; your elders will inform you.

They provoked me to jealousy over non-gods, and to be angry over their vanity. Now I'll provoke them to jealousy over a non-people; and over a foolish nation I'll provoke them to anger.

I'll bury them in misfortunes and bring them to an end with my arrows.

Emaciated from famine, feverish from plague, and destroyed by bitterness, I'll send fanged beasts against them, along with poisonous snakes that glide through the dust.

I'll whet my shining sword, with my hands in firm grasp of judgment. I'll show vengeance on my adversary and repay those who keep on hating me.