1 Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I am teaching you to do, that you may live, and go in and possess the land which Jehovah the God of your fathers is giving to you.
2 You shall not add to the Word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, to keep the commandments of Jehovah your God which I am commanding you.
3 Your eyes have seen what Jehovah did at Baal-Peor; for Jehovah your God has destroyed from among you all the men who followed Baal-peor.
4 But you who held fast to Jehovah your God are alive today, every one of you.
5 Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as Jehovah my God has commanded me, for you to do them in the midst of the land which you are going in to possess.
6 Keep and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the eyes of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.
7 For what great nation is there whose God is near to it, as Jehovah our God is to us, in all that we call upon Him?
8 And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this Law which I am setting before you this day?
9 Only take heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, that you not forget the things your eyes have seen, and that they not depart from your heart all the days of your life; and teach them to your children and your grandchildren.
10 The day you stood before Jehovah your God in Horeb, Jehovah said to me, Gather the people to Me, and I will make them hear My Words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.
11 And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the midst of the heavens, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness.
12 And Jehovah spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words, but saw no form; you only heard a voice.
13 Thus He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to do, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone.
14 And Jehovah commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, for you to do them in the land which you are crossing over to possess.
15 Take diligent heed to your souls, for you saw no form on the day Jehovah spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire,
16 that you not act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any statue: male or female figures,
17 the figure of any beast on the earth or the figure of any bird that flies in the heavens,
18 the figure of anything that creeps on the ground or the figure of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth.
19 And take heed, when you lift up your eyes to the heavens, and you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of the heavens, that you not be driven to bow down to them and serve them, which Jehovah your God has allotted to all the peoples under the heavens.
20 But Jehovah has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be His people, an inheritance, as you are this day.
21 Furthermore Jehovah was angry with me on account of your words, and swore that I would not cross over the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which Jehovah your God is giving to you as an inheritance.
22 But I shall die in this land, I shall not cross over the Jordan; but you shall cross over and possess that good land.
23 Take heed to yourselves, that you not forget the covenant of Jehovah your God which He has made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which Jehovah your God has forbidden you.
24 For Jehovah your God is a consuming fire, a jealous Mighty God.
25 When you beget children and grandchildren and have been in the land a long time, and have acted corruptly and made a carved image in the form of anything, and have done evil in the eyes of Jehovah your God to provoke Him to anger,
26 I call the heavens and the earth to witness against you this day, that you shall quickly die and perish from off the land which you are crossing over the Jordan to possess; you shall not prolong your days in it, but shall be destroyed to annihilation.
27 And Jehovah will scatter you among the peoples, and you shall be left few in number among the nations where Jehovah will drive you.
28 And there you will serve gods, the work of mens hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.
29 But from there you will seek Jehovah your God, and you shall find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
30 When you are in distress, and all these things have come upon you in the latter days; then when you have returned unto Jehovah your God and have obeyed His voice
31 (for Jehovah your God is a merciful Mighty God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He has sworn unto them.
32 For ask now concerning the former days, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of the heavens to the other, whether any great thing like this has happened, or anything like it has been heard.
33 Has any people ever heard the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and lived?
34 Or has God ever tried to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that Jehovah your God has done for you in Egypt before your eyes?
35 To you it has been shown, that you might know that Jehovah Himself is God; there is no one else besides Him.
36 Out of the heavens He has caused you to hear His voice, to instruct you; on earth He has shown you His great fire, and you have heard His Words out of the midst of the fire.
37 And because He has loved your fathers, therefore He chose their seed after them and brought you out of Egypt before Him with His mighty power,
38 to drive out 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.
39 Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that Jehovah Himself is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.
40 You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I am commanding you today, that it may be well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which Jehovah your God is giving you for all time.
41 Then Moses set apart three cities on this side of the Jordan, toward the rising of the sun,
42 that the manslayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without having hated him in time past, and that by fleeing to one of these cities he might live:
43 Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau for the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.
44 Now this is the Law which Moses set before the children of Israel.
45 These are the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which Moses spoke to the children of Israel after they came out of Egypt,
46 across the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel struck when they came out of Egypt.
47 And they took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who were across the Jordan, toward the rising of the sun,
48 from Aroer, which is next to the River Arnon, even to Mount Sion (that is, Hermon),
49 and all the plain on the east side of the Jordan as far as the sea of the plain, below the slopes of Pisgah.