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O Israel, listen to the statutes and ordinances I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live, and may go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. 2 You must not add anything to what I command you or take anything away from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you.
3 “You saw with your own eyes what the Lord did at Baal-peor; for the Lord your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor, 4 but all of you who held fast to the Lord your God are still alive today.
5 “See, I have taught you statutes and ordinances as the Lord my God has commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. 6 But be careful to observe them, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who, when they hear about all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people’. 7 For what other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we call to Him? 8 And what great nation is there that has such righteous statutes and ordinances like this body of laws that I am setting out before you today?
9 “Only be careful and diligently watch yourselves, so that you don’t forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your mind as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to your children’s children. 10 Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me, ‘Assemble the people before Me, and I will let them hear My words, so that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and may teach them to the children also’. 11 You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain was blazing with fire up to the very heavens, with black clouds and thick darkness. 12 Then the Lord spoke to you from out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice. 13 He declared to you His covenant, the Ten Commandments, that He commanded you to follow, and He wrote them on two tablets of stone. 14 And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you the statutes and ordinances you are to follow in the land that you are about to cross into and possess.
15 “You did not see any form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb from the fire, so be very careful 16 that you do not act corruptly by making an idol for yourselves in the shape of any figure, whether formed like a man or a woman, 17 or like any animal on earth, or any winged bird that flies in the sky, 18 or like any creature that crawls along the ground, or any fish in the waters beneath the surface of the earth. 19 And when you look up to the heavens and see the sun, the moon, and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed to bow down and worship them, for the Lord your God has provided them to all the peoples under heaven. 20 But as for you, the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of His inheritance, as you are today.
21 “The Lord was angry with me because of you, and He solemnly swore that I would not cross the Jordan and enter the good land the Lord your God is giving you as your inheritance. 22 I will die in this land, I will not cross over the Jordan; but you are to go over and take possession of this good land. 23 Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that He made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you. 24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
25 “When you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time, and if you become corrupted and make an idol in the form of anything, doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God and provoke Him to anger, 26 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that you will quickly perish from the land that you are about to cross the Jordan to possess. Your will not live long there, but you will certainly be destroyed. 27 The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations where the Lord will drive you. 28 There you will worship gods of wood and stone, the work on men’s hands, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.
29“But if from there you search
for the Lord your God,
you will find Him—
if you search after Him
with all your heart,
and with all your soul.
30 “When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey Him.
31 “For the Lord your God is a merciful God;
He will not abandon you or destroy you,
and He will not forget the covenant with your forefathers
that He swore to them by oath.
32 “Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of the heavens to the other: ‘Has anything as great as this happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of?’ 33 Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of the fire, as you have, and lived? 34 Or has any god ever attempted to take for himself one nation out of another nation by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great terrors, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?
35 “You were shown these things so that you would know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides Him. 36 From heaven He let you hear His voice to discipline you. On earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard Him speaking from out of the fire. 37 Because He loved your forefathers, He chose their descendants after them and brought you out from Egypt by His Presence and His great power, 38 to drive out from before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you in and give you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day.
39 “So this day acknowledge and take to heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on earth below; there is no other. 40 Keep His statutes and commands, which I am giving you today, so that you and your children after you may prosper and so that you may live long in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”
41 Then Moses set apart three cities across the Jordan to the east, 42 to which someone who had committed manslaughter could flee if he had unintentionally killed his neighbour without having hated him previously. He could flee to one of these cities and stay alive: 43 Bezer in the wilderness, on the plateau land for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead, for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, for the Manassites.
44 This is the law Moses set before the Israelites. 45 These are the decrees, statutes, and ordinances that Moses proclaimed to them after they came out of Egypt, 46 and were in the valley opposite Beth-peor east of the Jordan in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites. He reigned in Heshbon, and was defeated by Moses and the Israelites after they came out of Egypt. 47 They took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two Amorite kings on the eastern side of the Jordan. 48 This land extended from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Valley as far as Mount Sion (that is, Hermon), 49 and all the Arabah on the east side of the Jordan, as far as the Sea of the Arabah, below the slopes of Pisgah.