Read & explore together

Moses Calls Israel to Faithfulness

Moses calls Israel to listen carefully, remember what Yahweh has done, and stay faithful in the land they are about to enter. This speech ties life, blessing, and covenant loyalty closely together.

Deuteronomy 4:1–5:4; Deuteronomy 5:22–11:32Older readers with an adultCovenant teaching
Stone tablets and a scroll, symbolic companion artwork for law and worship

Understanding the passage

Understanding the setting

In this part of Moses’ speech, he recalls Horeb, the covenant words spoken from the fire, the people’s request for Moses to hear and teach Yahweh’s further commands, Israel’s rebellion in the wilderness, and the choice now set before them.

Deuteronomy 4:1–5:4; Deuteronomy 5:22–11:32

Main takeaway

Moses teaches that Israel’s life in the land depends on remembering Yahweh, rejecting other gods, and carefully doing the covenant words he commands.

Explore the instructions

Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.

01Listen and remember HorebMoses begins with a call to hear and do Yahweh’s statutes without adding to them or taking from them.

Explanation

Moses begins with a call to hear and do Yahweh’s statutes without adding to them or taking from them. Israel must remember Horeb, where they heard Yahweh’s voice from the fire and saw no form. That memory guards them against carved images and forgetting the covenant.

02If they turn away, judgement follows, yet they may seek YahwehMoses warns that corruption and idols will bring destruction from the land and scattering among the peoples.

Explanation

Moses warns that corruption and idols will bring destruction from the land and scattering among the peoples. Even there, idols are only wood and stone. Yet if they seek Yahweh with all their heart and soul and return to his voice, he will not forget the covenant.

03After the mountain voice, Moses is charged to teachWhen Yahweh spoke from the mountain, the people asked Moses to hear the rest and tell it to them, promising to hear and do it.

Explanation

When Yahweh spoke from the mountain, the people asked Moses to hear the rest and tell it to them, promising to hear and do it. Yahweh said they had spoken well, and he told Moses to stand by him and teach the commandments, statutes, and ordinances.

04Love Yahweh wholly and do not forget him in the landMoses then explains the response required: Yahweh alone is God, so Israel must love him with all heart, soul, and might, keep his words on their heart, and teach them to their children.

Explanation

Moses then explains the response required: Yahweh alone is God, so Israel must love him with all heart, soul, and might, keep his words on their heart, and teach them to their children. In a full and fruitful land, they must not forget Yahweh or follow other gods.

05Not their righteousness, but Yahweh’s covenant and their present choiceMoses says the land is not given because of Israel’s righteousness, since they were rebellious.

Explanation

Moses says the land is not given because of Israel’s righteousness, since they were rebellious. He recalls the calf, his intercession, and Yahweh’s listening. Then he calls for heart change, love for the foreigner, and obedience, ending with blessing for listening and curse for turning away.

Questions to explore

Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.

01Why does Moses connect Horeb with the command against images?

The passage says they heard Yahweh’s voice from the fire but saw no form, so they must not make a likeness to represent him.

02What important change happens after the words spoken from the mountain?

The people ask Moses to hear Yahweh’s further words and teach them, and Yahweh approves that request and appoints Moses to do it.

03How does Moses show that Israel cannot boast in its own righteousness?

He reminds them of rebellion, especially the calf, before calling them again to obedience and setting blessing and curse before them.

Read the Bible passages

World English Bible Classic

Scripture quotation · Public domain

Deuteronomy 4:1–49

1Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and to the ordinances which I teach you, to do them, that you may live and go in and possess the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, gives you.

2You shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall you take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh your God which I command you.

3Your eyes have seen what Yahweh did because of Baal Peor; for Yahweh your God has destroyed all the men who followed Baal Peor from among you.

4But you who were faithful to Yahweh your God are all alive today.

5Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, even as Yahweh my God commanded me, that you should do so in the middle of the land where you go in to possess it.

6Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who shall hear all these statutes and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”

7For what great nation is there that has a god so near to them as Yahweh our God is whenever we call on him?

8What great nation is there that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law which I set before you today?

9Only be careful, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes saw, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your children and your children’s children—

10the day that you stood before Yahweh your God in Horeb, when Yahweh 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.”

11You came near and stood under the mountain. The mountain burned with fire to the heart of the sky, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness.

12Yahweh spoke to you out of the middle of the fire: you heard the voice of words, but you saw no form; you only heard a voice.

13He declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even the ten commandments. He wrote them on two stone tablets.

14Yahweh commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances, that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it.

15Be very careful, for you saw no kind of form on the day that Yahweh spoke to you in Horeb out of the middle of the fire,

16lest you corrupt yourselves, and make yourself a carved image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female,

17the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky,

18the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth;

19and lest you 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 Yahweh your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole sky.

20But Yahweh has taken you, and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be to him a people of inheritance, as it is today.

21Furthermore Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I should not go over the Jordan, and that I should not go in to that good land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance;

22but I must die in this land. I must not go over the Jordan, but you shall go over and possess that good land.

23Be careful, lest you forget the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he made with you, and make yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which Yahweh your God has forbidden you.

24For Yahweh your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.

25When you father children and children’s children, and you have been long in the land, and then corrupt yourselves, and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do that which is evil in Yahweh your God’s sight to provoke him to anger,

26I 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.

27Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where Yahweh will lead you away.

28There you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.

29But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God, and you will find him when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.

30When you are in oppression, and all these things have come on you, in the latter days you shall return to Yahweh your God and listen to his voice.

31For Yahweh your God is a merciful God. He will not fail you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which he swore to them.

32For 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 great as this thing is, or has been heard like it?

33Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as you have heard, and live?

34Or 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 Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

35It was shown to you so that you might know that Yahweh is God. There is no one else besides him.

36Out 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.

37Because 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;

38to 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.

39Know therefore today, and take it to heart, that Yahweh himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. There is no one else.

40You shall keep his statutes 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 Yahweh your God gives you for all time.

41Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise,

42that the man slayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unintentionally and didn’t hate him in time past, and that fleeing to one of these cities he might live:

43Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, for the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.

44This is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel.

45These are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the ordinances which Moses spoke to the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt,

46beyond the Jordan, in the valley opposite 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.

47They took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise;

48from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, even to Mount Siyon (also called Hermon),

49and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan eastward, even to the sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.

Deuteronomy 5:1–4

1Moses called to all Israel, and said to them, “Hear, Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I speak in your ears today, that you may learn them, and observe to do them.”

2Yahweh our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.

3Yahweh didn’t make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive today.

4Yahweh spoke with you face to face on the mountain out of the middle of the fire,

Deuteronomy 5:22–33

22Yahweh spoke these words to all your assembly on the mountain out of the middle of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice. He added no more. He wrote them on two stone tablets, and gave them to me.

23When you heard the voice out of the middle of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders;

24and you said, “Behold, Yahweh our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the middle of the fire. We have seen today that God does speak with man, and he lives.

25Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear Yahweh our God’s voice any more, then we shall die.

26For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as we have, and lived?

27Go near, and hear all that Yahweh our God shall say, and tell us all that Yahweh our God tells you; and we will hear it, and do it.”

28Yahweh heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me; and Yahweh said to me, “I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They have well said all that they have spoken.

29Oh that there were such a heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!

30“Go tell them, ‘Return to your tents.’

31But as for you, stand here by me, and I will tell you all the commandments, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess.”

32You shall observe to do therefore as Yahweh your God has commanded you. You shall not turn away to the right hand or to the left.

33You shall walk in all the way which Yahweh your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.

Deuteronomy 6:1–25

1Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land that you go over to possess;

2that you might fear Yahweh your God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you—you, your son, and your son’s son, all the days of your life; and that your days may be prolonged.

3Hear therefore, Israel, and observe to do it, that it may be well with you, and that you may increase mightily, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised to you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.

4Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one.

5You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.

6These words, which I command you today, shall be on your heart;

7and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.

8You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes.

9You shall write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates.

10It shall be, when Yahweh your God brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you–a land with great and good cities which you didn’t build,

11and houses full of all good things which you didn’t fill, and cisterns dug out which you didn’t dig, vineyards and olive trees which you didn’t plant, and you shall eat and be full;

12then beware lest you forget Yahweh, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

13You shall fear Yahweh your God; and you shall serve him, and shall swear by his name.

14You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who are around you,

15for Yahweh your God among you is a jealous God, lest the anger of Yahweh your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.

16You shall not tempt Yahweh your God, as you tempted him in Massah.

17You shall diligently keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he has commanded you.

18You shall do that which is right and good in Yahweh’s sight, that it may be well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land which Yahweh swore to your fathers,

19to thrust out all your enemies from before you, as Yahweh has spoken.

20When your son asks you in time to come, saying, “What do the testimonies, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh our God has commanded you mean?”

21then you shall tell your son, “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand;

22and Yahweh showed great and awesome signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his house, before our eyes;

23and he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he swore to our fathers.

24Yahweh commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear Yahweh our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are today.

25It shall be righteousness to us, if we observe to do all these commandments before Yahweh our God, as he has commanded us.”

Deuteronomy 7:1–26

1When Yahweh your God brings you into the land where you go to possess it, and casts out many nations before you—the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite—seven nations greater and mightier than you;

2and when Yahweh your God delivers them up before you, and you strike them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them.

3You shall not make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to his son, nor shall you take his daughter for your son.

4For that would turn away your sons from following me, that they may serve other gods. So Yahweh’s anger would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.

5But you shall deal with them like this: you shall break down their altars, dash their pillars in pieces, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their engraved images with fire.

6For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God. Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth.

7Yahweh didn’t set his love on you nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all peoples;

8but because Yahweh loves you, and because he desires to keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, Yahweh has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

9Know therefore that Yahweh your God himself is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness to a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments,

10and repays those who hate him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack to him who hates him. He will repay him to his face.

11You shall therefore keep the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances which I command you today, to do them.

12It shall happen, because you listen to these ordinances and keep and do them, that Yahweh your God will keep with you the covenant and the loving kindness which he swore to your fathers.

13He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your livestock and the young of your flock, in the land which he swore to your fathers to give you.

14You will be blessed above all peoples. There won’t be male or female barren among you, or among your livestock.

15Yahweh will take away from you all sickness; and he will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you know, on you, but will lay them on all those who hate you.

16You shall consume all the peoples whom Yahweh your God shall deliver to you. Your eye shall not pity them. You shall not serve their gods; for that would be a snare to you.

17If you shall say in your heart, “These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?”

18you shall not be afraid of them. You shall remember well what Yahweh your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt:

19the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which Yahweh your God brought you out. So shall Yahweh your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.

20Moreover Yahweh your God will send the hornet among them, until those who are left, and hide themselves, perish from before you.

21You shall not be scared of them; for Yahweh your God is among you, a great and awesome God.

22Yahweh your God will cast out those nations before you little by little. You may not consume them at once, lest the animals of the field increase on you.

23But Yahweh your God will deliver them up before you, and will confuse them with a great confusion, until they are destroyed.

24He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name perish from under the sky. No one will be able to stand before you until you have destroyed them.

25You shall burn the engraved images of their gods with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourself, lest you be snared in it; for it is an abomination to Yahweh your God.

26You shall not bring an abomination into your house and become a devoted thing like it. You shall utterly detest it. You shall utterly abhor it; for it is a devoted thing.

Deuteronomy 8:1–20

1You shall observe to do all the commandments which I command you today, that you may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers.

2You shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, to test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.

3He humbled you, allowed you to be hungry, and fed you with manna, which you didn’t know, neither did your fathers know, that he might teach you that man does not live by bread only, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of Yahweh’s mouth.

4Your clothing didn’t grow old on you, neither did your foot swell, these forty years.

5You shall consider in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so Yahweh your God disciplines you.

6You shall keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him.

7For Yahweh your God brings you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of springs, and underground water flowing into valleys and hills;

8a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive trees and honey;

9a land in which you shall eat bread without scarcity, you shall not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you may dig copper.

10You shall eat and be full, and you shall bless Yahweh your God for the good land which he has given you.

11Beware lest you forget Yahweh your God, in not keeping his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I command you today;

12lest, when you have eaten and are full, and have built fine houses and lived in them;

13and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied;

14then your heart might be lifted up, and you forget Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage;

15who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with venomous snakes and scorpions, and thirsty ground where there was no water; who poured water for you out of the rock of flint;

16who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers didn’t know, that he might humble you, and that he might prove you, to do you good at your latter end;

17and lest you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth.”

18But you shall remember Yahweh your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he swore to your fathers, as it is today.

19It shall be, if you shall forget Yahweh your God, and walk after other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today that you shall surely perish.

20As the nations that Yahweh makes to perish before you, so you shall perish, because you wouldn’t listen to Yahweh your God’s voice.

Deuteronomy 9:1–29

1Hear, Israel! You are to pass over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to the sky,

2a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard say, “Who can stand before the sons of Anak?”

3Know therefore today that Yahweh your God is he who goes over before you as a devouring fire. He will destroy them and he will bring them down before you. So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as Yahweh has spoken to you.

4Don’t say in your heart, after Yahweh your God has thrust them out from before you, “For my righteousness Yahweh has brought me in to possess this land;” because Yahweh drives them out before you because of the wickedness of these nations.

5Not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart do you go in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations Yahweh your God does drive them out from before you, and that he may establish the word which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

6Know therefore that Yahweh your God doesn’t give you this good land to possess for your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.

7Remember, and don’t forget, how you provoked Yahweh your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you left the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against Yahweh.

8Also in Horeb you provoked Yahweh to wrath, and Yahweh was angry with you to destroy you.

9When I had gone up onto the mountain to receive the stone tablets, even the tablets of the covenant which Yahweh made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water.

10Yahweh delivered to me the two stone tablets written with God’s finger. On them were all the words which Yahweh spoke with you on the mountain out of the middle of the fire in the day of the assembly.

11It came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights that Yahweh gave me the two stone tablets, even the tablets of the covenant.

12Yahweh said to me, “Arise, get down quickly from here; for your people whom you have brought out of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned away from the way which I commanded them. They have made a molten image for themselves!”

13Furthermore Yahweh spoke to me, saying, “I have seen these people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people.

14Leave me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under the sky; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.”

15So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire. The two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands.

16I looked, and behold, you had sinned against Yahweh your God. You had made yourselves a molded calf. You had quickly turned away from the way which Yahweh had commanded you.

17I took hold of the two tablets, and threw them out of my two hands, and broke them before your eyes.

18I fell down before Yahweh, as at the first, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you sinned, in doing that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, to provoke him to anger.

19For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which Yahweh was angry against you to destroy you. But Yahweh listened to me that time also.

20Yahweh was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him. I prayed for Aaron also at the same time.

21I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire, and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust. I threw its dust into the brook that descended out of the mountain.

22At Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth Hattaavah you provoked Yahweh to wrath.

23When Yahweh sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, “Go up and possess the land which I have given you,” you rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh your God, and you didn’t believe him or listen to his voice.

24You have been rebellious against Yahweh from the day that I knew you.

25So I fell down before Yahweh the forty days and forty nights that I fell down, because Yahweh had said he would destroy you.

26I prayed to Yahweh, and said, “Lord Yahweh, don’t destroy your people and your inheritance that you have redeemed through your greatness, that you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

27Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Don’t look at the stubbornness of this people, nor at their wickedness, nor at their sin,

28lest the land you brought us out from say, ‘Because Yahweh was not able to bring them into the land which he promised to them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.’

29Yet they are your people and your inheritance, which you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.”

Deuteronomy 10:1–22

1At that time Yahweh said to me, “Cut two stone tablets like the first, and come up to me onto the mountain, and make an ark of wood.

2I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke, and you shall put them in the ark.”

3So I made an ark of acacia wood, and cut two stone tablets like the first, and went up onto the mountain, having the two tablets in my hand.

4He wrote on the tablets, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which Yahweh spoke to you on the mountain out of the middle of the fire in the day of the assembly; and Yahweh gave them to me.

5I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tablets in the ark which I had made; and there they are as Yahweh commanded me.

6(The children of Israel traveled from Beeroth Bene Jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered in the priest’s office in his place.

7From there they traveled to Gudgodah; and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of brooks of water.

8At that time Yahweh set apart the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of Yahweh’s covenant, to stand before Yahweh to minister to him, and to bless in his name, to this day.

9Therefore Levi has no portion nor inheritance with his brothers; Yahweh is his inheritance, according as Yahweh your God spoke to him.)

10I stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights; and Yahweh listened to me that time also. Yahweh would not destroy you.

11Yahweh said to me, “Arise, take your journey before the people; and they shall go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give to them.”

12Now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God require of you, but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, and to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

13to keep Yahweh’s commandments and statutes, which I command you today for your good?

14Behold, to Yahweh your God belongs heaven, the heaven of heavens, and the earth, with all that is therein.

15Only Yahweh had a delight in your fathers to love them, and he chose their offspring after them, even you above all peoples, as it is today.

16Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked.

17For Yahweh your God, he is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, and the awesome, who doesn’t respect persons or take bribes.

18He executes justice for the fatherless and widow and loves the foreigner in giving him food and clothing.

19Therefore love the foreigner, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

20You shall fear Yahweh your God. You shall serve him. You shall cling to him, and you shall swear by his name.

21He is your praise, and he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen.

22Your fathers went down into Egypt with seventy persons; and now Yahweh your God has made you as the stars of the sky for multitude.

Deuteronomy 11:1–32

1Therefore you shall love Yahweh your God, and keep his instructions, his statutes, his ordinances, and his commandments, always.

2Know this day—for I don’t speak with your children who have not known, and who have not seen the chastisement of Yahweh your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm,

3his signs, and his works, which he did in the middle of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and to all his land;

4and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the Red Sea to overflow them as they pursued you, and how Yahweh has destroyed them to this day;

5and what he did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place;

6and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben—how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the middle of all Israel;

7but your eyes have seen all of Yahweh’s great work which he did.

8Therefore you shall keep the entire commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land that you go over to possess;

9and that you may prolong your days in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey.

10For the land, where you go in to possess isn’t like the land of Egypt that you came out of, where you sowed your seed and watered it with your foot, as a garden of herbs;

11but the land that you go over to possess is a land of hills and valleys which drinks water from the rain of the sky,

12a land which Yahweh your God cares for. Yahweh your God’s eyes are always on it, from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year.

13It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to my commandments which I command you today, to love Yahweh your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,

14that I will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil.

15I will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full.

16Be careful, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn away to serve other gods and worship them;

17and Yahweh’s anger be kindled against you, and he shut up the sky so that there is no rain, and the land doesn’t yield its fruit; and you perish quickly from off the good land which Yahweh gives you.

18Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul. You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes.

19You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.

20You shall write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates;

21that your days and your children’s days may be multiplied in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens above the earth.

22For if you shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you—to do them, to love Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cling to him—

23then Yahweh will drive out all these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves.

24Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even to the western sea shall be your border.

25No man will be able to stand before you. Yahweh your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you tread on, as he has spoken to you.

26Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse:

27the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I command you today;

28and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, but turn away out of the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.

29It shall happen, when Yahweh your God brings you into the land that you go to possess, that you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim, and the curse on Mount Ebal.

30Aren’t they beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah near Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh?

31For you are to pass over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which Yahweh your God gives you, and you shall possess it and dwell in it.

32You shall observe to do all the statutes and the ordinances which I set before you today.

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