An Exhortation to Obedience
And now, Israel, hear the statutes and the judgments that I am teaching you to do, so that you may live, and go in and possess the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.
You shall not add to the word that I am commanding you, and you shall not take away from it — keeping the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you.
Your own eyes have seen what the LORD did at Baal-peor; for every man who went after Baal of Peor, the LORD your God destroyed from your midst.
But you who held fast to the LORD your God are alive, all of you, today.
See — I have taught you statutes and judgments, as the LORD my God commanded me, to do so in the midst of the land into which you are going, to possess it.
And you shall keep them and do them — for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the eyes of the peoples, who will hear all these statutes and say, “Surely a wise and understanding people is this great nation.”
For what great nation is there that has gods so near to it as the LORD our God is, whenever we call on him?
And what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments so righteous as all this instruction that I am setting before you today?
Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen, and so that they do not turn aside from your heart all the days of your life; and make them known to your sons and to your sons’ sons —
the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when the LORD said to me, “Assemble the people to me, and I will make them hear my words, so that they learn to fear me all the days they live on the ground, and teach their sons.”
And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain; and the mountain was burning with fire to the heart of the heavens — darkness, cloud, and thick gloom.
And the LORD spoke to you from the midst of the fire. A voice of words you were hearing; a form you were not seeing — only a voice.
And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to do — the Ten Words; and he wrote them on two tablets of stone.
And me the LORD commanded at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, for you to do them in the land into which you are crossing, to possess it.
A Warning against Idolatry
So be very careful for your souls — for you saw no form on the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire —
so that you do not act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image, the form of any figure: the pattern of male or female,
the pattern of any beast that is on the earth, the pattern of any winged bird that flies in the heavens,
the pattern of anything that creeps on the ground, the pattern of any fish that is in the waters under the earth;
and so that you do not lift up your eyes to the heavens, and see the sun and the moon and the stars — all the host of the heavens — and be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, which the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under all the heavens.
But you the LORD has taken, and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be for him a people of inheritance, as it is this day.
And the LORD was angry with me because of your words, and swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and not come into the good land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.
For I am dying in this land; I am not crossing the Jordan. But you are crossing, and you shall possess this good land.
Take care for yourselves, so that you do not forget the covenant of the LORD your God that he cut with you, and make for yourselves a carved image, the form of anything that the LORD your God has commanded you not to make.
For the LORD your God is a consuming fire — a jealous God.
When you father sons and sons’ sons, and you have grown old in the land, and you act corruptly and make a carved image, the form of anything, and do the evil in the eyes of the LORD your God, to provoke him —
I call the heavens and the earth to witness against you today that you will surely perish quickly from the land into which you are crossing the Jordan to possess it. You will not lengthen your days on it, for you will surely be destroyed.
And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you.
And there you will serve gods made by human hands — wood and stone — which do not see, and do not hear, and do not eat, and do not smell.
But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find him — when you search for him with all your heart and with all your soul.
In your distress, when all these things have found you, in the days to come, you will return to the LORD your God and listen to his voice.
For the LORD your God is a merciful God. He will not let you go, and he will not destroy you, and he will not forget the covenant of your fathers that he swore to them.
The LORD Alone Is God
For ask now of the former days that were before you — from the day God created mankind on the earth, and from one end of the heavens to the other end of the heavens: has anything so great as this ever happened, or been heard of like it?
Has a people ever heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and lived?
Or has a god ever attempted to come and take for himself a nation from the midst of a nation — by trials, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors — according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
You yourself were shown it, to know that the LORD — he is God; there is no other besides him.
From the heavens he made you hear his voice, to discipline you; and on the earth he showed you his great fire, and his words you heard from the midst of the fire.
And because he loved your fathers, and chose their seed after them, and brought you out of Egypt by his presence, by his great power —
to dispossess from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day —
know today, and turn it back to your heart, that the LORD — he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.
And you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I am commanding you today, so that it may go well for you and for your sons after you, and so that you may lengthen your days on the ground that the LORD your God is giving you, all the days.
Cities of Refuge
Then Moses set apart three cities across the Jordan, toward the sunrise,
for a killer to flee there — one who kills his neighbor without knowledge, and did not hate him in time past — that he might flee to one of these cities and live:
Bezer in the wilderness, in the land of the plateau, for the Reubenite; and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadite; and Golan in Bashan for the Manassite.
Introduction to the Law
And this is the instruction that Moses set before the sons of Israel.
These are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments that Moses spoke to the sons of Israel when they came out of Egypt,
across the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorite, who lived in Heshbon, whom Moses and the sons of Israel struck down when they came out of Egypt.
And they took possession of his land, and the land of Og king of Bashan — the two kings of the Amorite who were across the Jordan, toward the sunrise —
from Aroer, which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon, as far as Mount Sion (that is, Hermon),
and all the Arabah across the Jordan, eastward, as far as the sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.