“The Lord heard your words when you spoke to me. He said to me, ‘I have heard the words that these people have spoken to you. Everything they have said is right.

If only they had such a heart to fear Me and keep all My commands always, so that they and their children will prosper forever.

Go and tell them: Return to your tents.

But you stand here with Me, and I will tell you every command—the statutes and ordinances—you are to teach them, so that they may follow them in the land I am giving them to possess.’

“Be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you; you are not to turn aside to the right or the left.

“This is the command—the statutes and ordinances—the Lord your God has instructed me to teach you, so that you may follow them in the land you are about to enter and possess.

Do this so that you may fear the Lord your God all the days of your life by keeping all His statutes and commands I am giving you, your son, and your grandson, and so that you may have a long life.

Listen, Israel, and be careful to follow them, so that you may prosper and multiply greatly, because Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised you a land flowing with milk and honey.

These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart.

Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

“When the Lord your God brings you into the land He swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that He would give you—a land with large and beautiful cities that you did not build,

be careful not to forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.

Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you,

Do not test the Lord your God as you tested Him at Massah.

Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight, so that you may prosper and so that you may enter and possess the good land the Lord your God swore to give your fathers,

but He brought us from there in order to lead us in and give us the land that He swore to our fathers.

The Lord commanded us to follow all these statutes and to fear the Lord our God for our prosperity always and for our preservation, as it is today.

Righteousness will be ours if we are careful to follow every one of these commands before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us.’

“When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, and He drives out many nations before you—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and powerful than you—

and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you and you defeat them, you must completely destroy them. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.

Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons,

because they will turn your sons away from Me to worship other gods. Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and He will swiftly destroy you.

Instead, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn up their carved images.

For you are a holy people belonging to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be His own possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth.

“The Lord was devoted to you and chose you, not because you were more numerous than all peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.

But because the Lord loved you and kept the oath He swore to your fathers, He brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the place of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

But He directly pays back and destroys those who hate Him. He will not hesitate to directly pay back the one who hates Him.

So keep the command—the statutes and ordinances—that I am giving you to follow today.

“If you listen to and are careful to keep these ordinances, the Lord your God will keep His covenant loyalty with you, as He swore to your fathers.

He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will bless your descendants, and the produce of your land—your grain, new wine, and oil—the young of your herds, and the newborn of your flocks, in the land He swore to your fathers that He would give you.

You must destroy all the peoples the Lord your God is delivering over to you and not look on them with pity. Do not worship their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

“If you say to yourself, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I drive them out?’

do not be afraid of them. Be sure to remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and all Egypt:

the great trials that you saw, the signs and wonders, the strong hand and outstretched arm, by which the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all the peoples you fear.

Don’t be terrified of them, for the Lord your God, a great and awesome God, is among you.

The Lord your God will drive out these nations before you little by little. You will not be able to destroy them all at once; otherwise, the wild animals will become too numerous for you.

The Lord your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion until they are destroyed.

He will hand their kings over to you, and you will wipe out their names under heaven. No one will be able to stand against you; you will annihilate them.

You must burn up the carved images of their gods. Don’t covet the silver and gold on the images and take it for yourself, or else you will be ensnared by it, for it is abhorrent to the Lord your God.

You must not bring any abhorrent thing into your house, or you will be set apart for destruction like it. You are to utterly detest and abhor it, because it is set apart for destruction.

“You must carefully follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase, and may enter and take possession of the land the Lord swore to your fathers.

Remember that the Lord your God led you on the entire journey these 40 years in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commands.

He humbled you by letting you go hungry; then He gave you manna to eat, which you and your fathers had not known, so that you might learn that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

“Be careful that you don’t forget the Lord your God by failing to keep His command—the ordinances and statutes—I am giving you today.

When you eat and are full, and build beautiful houses to live in,

be careful that your heart doesn’t become proud and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.

He fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers had not known, in order to humble and test you, so that in the end He might cause you to prosper.

You may say to yourself, ‘My power and my own ability have gained this wealth for me,’

but remember that the Lord your God gives you the power to gain wealth, in order to confirm His covenant He swore to your fathers, as it is today.

If you ever forget the Lord your God and go after other gods to worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will perish.

Like the nations the Lord is about to destroy before you, you will perish if you do not obey the Lord your God.

“Listen, Israel: Today you are about to cross the Jordan to go and drive out nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities fortified to the heavens.

The people are strong and tall, the descendants of the Anakim. You know about them and you have heard it said about them, ‘Who can stand up to the sons of Anak?’

When the Lord your God drives them out before you, do not say to yourself, ‘The Lord brought me in to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.’ Instead, the Lord will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness.

You are not going to take possession of their land because of your righteousness or your integrity. Instead, the Lord your God will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness, in order to keep the promise He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.

“Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God in the wilderness. You have been rebelling against the Lord from the day you left the land of Egypt until you reached this place.

You provoked the Lord at Horeb, and He was angry enough with you to destroy you.

When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant the Lord made with you, I stayed on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights. I did not eat bread or drink water.

On the day of the assembly the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, inscribed by God’s finger. The exact words were on them, which the Lord spoke to you from the fire on the mountain.

The Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant, at the end of the 40 days and 40 nights.

“The Lord said to me, ‘Get up and go down immediately from here. For your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned from the way that I commanded them; they have made a cast image for themselves.’

The Lord also said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed, they are a stiff-necked people.

“So I went back down the mountain, while it was blazing with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands.

Then I fell down like the first time in the presence of the Lord for 40 days and 40 nights; I did not eat bread or drink water because of all the sin you committed, doing what was evil in the Lord’s sight and provoking Him to anger.

I was afraid of the fierce anger the Lord had directed against you, because He was about to destroy you. But again the Lord listened to me on that occasion.

The Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him. But I prayed for Aaron at that time also.

I took the sinful calf you had made, burned it up, and crushed it, thoroughly grinding it to powder as fine as dust. Then I threw it into the stream that came down from the mountain.

“You continued to provoke the Lord at Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth-hattaavah.

“I fell down in the presence of the Lord 40 days and 40 nights because the Lord had threatened to destroy you.

I prayed to the Lord:

Lord God, do not annihilate Your people, Your inheritance, whom You redeemed through Your greatness and brought out of Egypt with a strong hand.

Otherwise, those in the land you brought us from will say, ‘Because the Lord wasn’t able to bring them into the land He had promised them, and because He hated them, He brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.’

“The Lord said to me at that time, ‘Cut two stone tablets like the first ones and come to Me on the mountain and make a wooden ark.

I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets you broke, and you are to place them in the ark.’

So I made an ark of acacia wood, cut two stone tablets like the first ones, and climbed the mountain with the two tablets in my hand.

Then on the day of the assembly, the Lord wrote on the tablets what had been written previously, the Ten Commandments that He had spoken to you on the mountain from the fire. The Lord gave them to me,

The Israelites traveled from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah. Aaron died and was buried there, and Eleazar his son became priest in his place.

They traveled from there to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with streams of water.

“At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the Lord’s covenant, to stand before Yahweh to serve Him, and to pronounce blessings in His name, as it is today.

“I stayed on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights like the first time. The Lord also listened to me on this occasion; He agreed not to annihilate you.

Then the Lord said to me, ‘Get up. Continue your journey ahead of the people, so that they may enter and possess the land I swore to give their fathers.’

“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you except to fear the Lord your God by walking in all His ways, to love Him, and to worship the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul?

The heavens, indeed the highest heavens, belong to the Lord your God, as does the earth and everything in it.

Yet the Lord was devoted to your fathers and loved them. He chose their descendants after them—He chose you out of all the peoples, as it is today.

Therefore, circumcise your hearts and don’t be stiff-necked any longer.

You are to fear Yahweh your God and worship Him. Remain faithful to Him and take oaths in His name.

Your fathers went down to Egypt, 70 people in all, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of the sky.

His signs and the works He did in Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and all his land;

what He did to Egypt’s army, its horses and chariots, when He made the waters of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued you, and He destroyed them completely;

what He did to you in the wilderness until you reached this place;

and what He did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when in the middle of the whole Israelite camp the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing with them.

“Keep every command I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to cross into and possess the land you are to inherit,

and so that you may live long in the land the Lord swore to your fathers to give them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.

For the land you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated by hand as in a vegetable garden.

But the land you are entering to possess is a land of mountains and valleys, watered by rain from the sky.

It is a land the Lord your God cares for. He is always watching over it from the beginning to the end of the year.

“If you carefully obey my commands I am giving you today, to love the Lord your God and worship Him with all your heart and all your soul,

Be careful that you are not enticed to turn aside, worship, and bow down to other gods.

Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

so that as long as the heavens are above the earth, your days and those of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your fathers.