1 Now, Israel, listen to the edicts and to the judgments, which I teach you to do, that you may live and go in and possess the land which Yehovah, the God of your fathers, is giving you. 2 Don’t add to the word which I command you, and don't take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yehovah your God which I command you. 3 Your eyes have seen what Yehovah did because of Ba’al Pe'or; for all the men who followed Ba'al Pe'or, Yehovah your God has destroyed them from among you. 4 But you who were faithful to Yehovah your God are all alive today. 5 Look, I have taught you edicts and judgments, even as Yehovah my God commanded me, that you should act accordingly in the middle of the land where you go in to possess it. 6 Now keep them and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who shall hear all these edicts and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” 7 For what great nation is there, that has gods near to them, as Yehovah our God is whenever we call on Him? 8 And what great nation is there, that has edicts and judgments so righteous as all this instruction which I set in front of you today?
9 Only be on guard and watch yourself diligently, so you won’t forget the things which your eyes saw, and so they won't depart from your heart all the days of your life. And make them known to your children and your children’s children, 10 Teach them about the day that you stood before Yehovah your God in Horeb, when Yehovah said to me, “Assemble 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 Then you came near and stood below the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the heart of the sky, with darkness, a cloud, and a dark cloud. 12 And Yehovah spoke to you from the middle of the fire. You heard the voice of words, but you saw no form; you only heard a voice. 13 And He declared to you His contract, which He commanded you to perform, even the Ten Commandments. He wrote them on two stone tablets. 14 And Yehovah commanded me at that time to teach you edicts and judgments, that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess. 15 Be very careful, because you didn’t see any form on the day that Yehovah spoke to you in Horeb from the middle of the fire, 16 so you won’t ruin yourselves, and make yourself a carved image in the form of any figure, the likeness of a male or a female, 17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky, 18 the likeness of anything that scurries on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth; 19 and so you won’t lift up your eyes to the sky and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the army of the sky, you are drawn away and worship them, and serve them, which Yehovah your God has given to all the peoples under the whole sky. 20 But Yehovah has taken you, and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of His inheritance, as it is today. 21 Furthermore Yehovah was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I would not go over the Jordan, and that I would not go in to that good land, which Yehovah your God is giving you for an inheritance; 22 but I must die in this land. I must not go over the Jordan; but you will go over and possess that good land. 23 Be careful, so you won’t forget the contract of Yehovah your God, which He made with you, and make yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which Yehovah your God has forbidden you. 24 For Yehovah your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God. 25 When you shall father children, and children’s children, and you shall have been long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a carved image in the form of anything, and shall do that which is evil in Yehovah your God’s sight, to provoke him to anger; 26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from off the land which you go over the Jordan to possess it. You will not prolong your days on it, but will utterly be destroyed. 27 Yehovah will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations, where Yehovah will lead you away. 28 There you shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. 29 But from there you shall seek Yehovah your God, and you shall find him, when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in oppression, and all these things have come on you, in the latter days you shall return to Yehovah your God, and listen to his voice. 31 For Yehovah your God is a merciful God. He will not fail you, neither destroy you, nor forget the contract of your fathers which he swore to them. 32 For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and from the one end of the sky to the other, whether there has been anything as this great thing is, or has been heard like it? 33 Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as you have heard, and live? 34 Or has God tried to go and take a nation for himself from among another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that Yehovah your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 It was shown to you so that you might know that Yehovah is God. There is no one else besides him. 36 Out of heaven he made you to hear his voice, that he might instruct you. On earth he made you to see his great fire; and you heard his words out of the middle of the fire. 37 Because he loved your fathers, therefore he chose their offspring after them, and brought you out with his presence, with his great power, out of Egypt; 38 to drive out nations from before you greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is today. 39 Know therefore today, and take it to heart, that Yehovah himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. There is no one else. 40 You shall keep his edicts, and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land, which Yehovah your God gives you, forever. 41 Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise; 42 that the man slayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unawares, and didn’t hate him in time past; and that fleeing to one of these cities he might live: 43 Bezer in the backcountry, in the plain country, for the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead, for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, for the Manassites. 44 This is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel. 45 These are the testimonies, and the edicts, and the judgments, which Moses spoke to the children of Israel, when they came out of Egypt, 46 beyond the Jordan, in the valley over against Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel struck, when they came out of Egypt. 47 They took his land in possession, and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise; 48 from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, even to Mount Zion (also called Hermon), 49 and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan eastward, even to the sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.