These are the words that Moses spoke to the assembly of Israel east of the Jordan River, in the Arabah desert, opposite Suph between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Di-zahab.

The LORD your God greatly multiplied your numbers, and today you are like the stars in the sky.

Where can we go? Our brothers discouraged us when they said that the people are bigger and taller than we are. Their cities are tall and fortified to the sky, and we also saw the Anakim there.'

and command this people, "You are about to pass through the territory of your relatives, the descendants of Esau who live around Seir. They will be afraid of you so be very careful.

"Today, you are about to cross the border of Moab at Ar.

The Arabah and the Jordan River are also a boundary from Chinnereth to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Salt Sea), below the slopes of Pisgah on the east."

"I also charged Joshua at that time, "You witnessed everything that the LORD your God did to the two kings. Indeed, the LORD will do this to all the kingdoms which you are about to enter.

You are not to fear them, because the LORD your God will fight for you.'"

"However, the LORD was furious with me because of you. He did not listen to me. Instead, the LORD said, "You are not to speak to me about this matter again!

But all of you who are clinging to the LORD your God are alive today.

See! I taught you the statutes and the ordinances, just as the LORD God commanded. Therefore, observe them when you enter the land you are about to possess.

For the LORD took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace out of Egypt to be the people of his inheritance, as you are today.

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.

in order to drive out nations that are stronger and more powerful than you, to bring you into this land, and to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is today.

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

it was not with our ancestors that the LORD made this covenant, but with us we who are here today all of us who are now living.

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,

""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.

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.'"

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,

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

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,

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.

"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,

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."

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 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.

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.

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."

"When you have eaten and are satisfied, bless the LORD your God for the good land that he has given you.

Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you have built beautiful houses and lived in them,

"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.

The Anakim are strong and tall, and you know them. You've heard it said, "Who can stand up against the Anakim?'

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.'

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."

"Then the LORD told me, "I have examined this people, and they are stubborn indeed.

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.'

But they are your people and inheritance, whom you brought out by your mighty strength and awesome power.'"

Then I turned, went down the mountain, and placed the tablets in the chest that I had made. They are there now, just as the LORD commanded me."

"You are to love the foreigner, because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

You are to fear the LORD your God and serve him. Cling to him and swear by his name.

He is the one you are to praise, because he is, your God who carried out those great and awesome things for you that you witnessed.

"Keep all the commands that I'm giving you today, so you can be strong enough to enter and possess the land that you are crossing over to inherit

For the land that you are about to enter to inherit isn't like the land of Egypt that you just left, where you plant a seed and irrigate it with your feet like a vegetable garden.

Instead, the land that you are crossing over to inherit is a land of hills and valleys that drinks water supplied by rain from heaven,

a land about which the LORD your God is always concerned, because the eyes of the LORD are continuously on it throughout the entire year."

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.

"When the LORD brings you to the land that you are about to enter to inherit, repeat the blessings on Mount Gerizim and the curses on Mount Ebal.

They're across the Jordan River to the west, aren't they, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah opposite Gilgal near the Oak of Moreh?

For you are about to cross the Jordan River to go in and possess the land that the LORD your God is about to give you to inherit and live in.

"These are the statutes and ordinances that you must carefully observe in the land that the LORD God of your ancestors has given you to possess every day that you live on the earth.

But after you have crossed the Jordan River and settled in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and after you have received relief from the enemies around you and are living securely,

"When the LORD your God eliminates the nations that you are about to dispossess so you can live in their land,

"You are children of the LORD your God. You must not lacerate yourselves or shave your foreheads on account of the dead,

because you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD chose to make you his precious possession from among all the nations of the earth."

These are the animals that you may eat: ox, sheep, goat,

However, you must not eat these animals that chew the cud or have a divided hoof: the camel, hare, and rock badger. Even though they chew the cud, their hooves are not divided. Therefore they are unclean for you.

"You must not eat any carcass. But you may give it to the alien in your cities so he may eat it or sell it to a foreigner, for you are a holy people to the LORD your God. "You must not cook a young goat in its mother's milk."

Now the way may be distant from you, so that you are unable to transport your tithe because you have been blessed by the LORD your God and the place where the LORD your God chooses to establish his name may be distant from you.

For the LORD your God will bless you just as he promised. You are to lend to many nations but not borrow. Also, you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you."

"When a fellow Hebrew male or female slave is sold to you and serves you for six years, then in the seventh year you are to set them free.

then take an awl and pierce through his earlobe into the door. Then he will be your slave forever. You are to do the same for your female slaves.

In your cities both the unclean and the clean together are to eat together, as the gazelle and the deer.

You are not to sacrifice to the LORD your God an ox or a sheep that has a defect or any flaw in it, because that is detestable to the LORD your God."

But at the place where your God will choose to establish his name, you are to sacrifice the Passover in the evening at dusk, at the time of day you left Egypt.

For seven days you are to celebrate in the presence of the LORD your God at the place where the LORD will choose; for the LORD your God will bless you in all your harvest and in everything you do, and your joy will be complete.

You are to pursue justice and only justice so you may live and possess the land that the LORD your God is about to give you."

"You are not to set up a sacred pole beside the altar of the LORD your God that you will build.

Furthermore, you are not to erect for yourselves a sacred stone pillar, because the LORD your God detests these things.

Based on the testimony of two or three witnesses, they must surely die. But they are not to die based on the testimony of one person.

because those nations that you are about to dispossess listen to those who practice witchcraft and divination. But the LORD does not allow you to act this way."

and if you are careful to observe all these commands that I am commanding you today to love the LORD your God and to walk daily in his ways then add three more cities in addition to these three cities.

Do this to all the cities that are distant from you that is, to those cities that are not in neighboring nations."

"You are not to leave even one person alive in the cities of these nations that the LORD your God is about to give you as an inheritance.

"When you attack a city and have to fight against it for many days, don't destroy its trees by cutting them down with an ax. You may eat from them, but you must not cut them down. Are the trees of the field human beings, that you would come and attack them?

Then the elders of the city nearest the body are to take a heifer that hasn't been put to work or hasn't pulled a yoke

and are to lead the heifer to a flowing stream in a valley that has never been tilled or planted. They are to break the heifer's neck there.

Then the priests of the descendants of Levi are to step forward, because the LORD your God chose them to serve and pronounce blessings in his name. Every case of dispute and assault is to be subject to their ruling.

All the elders of the city nearest the dead body are to wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley,

and they are to make this declaration: "Our hands didn't shed this blood, nor were we witnesses to the crime.

If you aren't pleased with her and you send her away, you must not sell her for money or mistreat her, since you will have dishonored her."

then his parents are to seize him and bring him before the elders at the gate of his city.

Then they are to declare to the elders of their city: "Our son is stubborn and rebellious. He does not obey us. He lives wildly and is a drunkard.'

Then all the men of his city are to stone him with boulders so that he dies. This is how you will remove this evil from among you. Then all Israel will hear of it and will be afraid."