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.'

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.'

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

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

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.'

Otherwise, the people of the land from which you brought us will say, "The LORD wasn't able to bring them out of the land that he had promised them. So he brought them out to kill them in the desert because he hated them."

When the LORD your God enlarges your territory just as he told you and you say "I want to eat meat' since you desire to eat it, you may do so as much as you please.

that worthless men have come from among you to entice those who live in the towns. They may say, "Let's go and serve other gods that you haven't known.'

"Should that slave say to you, "I won't leave you,' because he loves you and your household, and it was good for him to be with you,

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 you have come to the land that the LORD your God is about to give you, and you have taken possession of it, and have settled in it, then you will say, "I will appoint a king over me like all the nations around me.'

He will say to them, "Listen, Israel! You're about to go into battle today against your enemies. Don't be faint-hearted. Don't be afraid, don't panic, and don't be terrified to face them.

The father of the young lady is to then say to the elders: "I have given my daughter to this man as a wife, but he despises her.

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.'

Approach the priest who is in charge at that time and say to him, "I acknowledge today to the LORD your God that I've arrived in the land that the LORD promised our ancestors to give us.'

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.

because when such a person hears the words of this oath, he will bless himself and say: "I will have a peaceful life, even though I'm determined to be stubborn.' By doing this he will be sweeping away both watered and parched ground alike.'

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.'

if it weren't for dreading the taunting of their enemies otherwise, their adversary might misinterpret and say, "Our power is great. It isn't the LORD who made all of this happen."'"

"He will say, "Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge?

"I solemnly swear to heaven I say "As certainly as I'm alive and living forever,