If You Are Loyal to the Lord, He Will Bless You
Moses said to Israel:
1 The Lord is your God, so you must always love him and obey his laws and teachings. 2 Remember, he corrected you and not your children. You are the ones who saw the Lord use his great power 3 when he worked miracles in Egypt, making terrible things happen to the king and all his people. 4 And when the Egyptian army chased you in their chariots, you saw the Lord drown them and their horses in the Red Sea. Egypt still suffers from that defeat!
5 You saw what the Lord did for you while you were in the desert, right up to the time you arrived here. 6 And you saw how the Lord made the ground open up in the middle of our camp underneath the tents of Dathan and Abiram, who were swallowed up along with their families, their animals, and their tents.
7 With your own eyes, you saw the Lord's mighty power do all these things.
8 Soon you will cross the Jordan River, and if you obey the laws and teachings I'm giving you today, you will be strong enough to conquer the land 9 that the Lord promised your ancestors and their descendants. It's rich with milk and honey, and you will live there and enjoy it for a long time. 10 It's better land than you had in Egypt, where you had to struggle just to water your crops. 11 But the hills and valleys in the promised land are watered by rain from heaven, 12 because the Lord your God keeps his eye on this land and takes care of it all year long.
13 The Lord your God commands you to love him and to serve him with all your heart and soul. If you obey him, 14-15 he will send rain at the right seasons, so you will have more than enough food, wine, and olive oil, and there will be plenty of grass for your cattle.
16 But watch out! You will be tempted to turn your backs on the Lord. And if you worship other gods, 17 the Lord will become angry and keep the rain from falling. Nothing will grow in your fields, and you will die and disappear from the good land that the Lord is giving you.
18 Memorize these laws and think about them. Write down copies and tie them to your wrists and your foreheads to help you obey them. 19 Teach them to your children. Talk about them all the time—whether you're at home or walking along the road or going to bed at night, or getting up in the morning. 20 Write them on the door frames of your homes and on your town gates. 21 Then you and your descendants will live a long time in the land that the Lord promised your ancestors. Your families will live there as long as the sky is above the earth.
22 Love the Lord your God faithfully and obey all the laws and teachings I'm giving you today. If you live the way the Lord wants, 23 he will help you take the land. And even though the nations there are more powerful than you, the Lord will force them to leave when you attack. 24 You will capture the land everywhere you go, from the Southern Desert to the Lebanon Mountains, and from the Euphrates River west to the Mediterranean Sea. 25 No one will be able to stand up to you. The Lord will make everyone terrified of you, just as he promised.
26 You have a choice—do you want the Lord to bless you, or do you want him to put a curse on you? 27 Today I am giving you his laws, and if you obey him, he will bless you. 28 But if you disobey him and worship those gods that have never done anything for you, the Lord will put a curse on you.
29 After the Lord your God helps you take the land, you must have a ceremony where you announce his blessings from Mount Gerizim and his curses from Mount Ebal. 30 You know that these two mountains are west of the Jordan River in land now controlled by the Canaanites living in the Jordan River valley. The mountains are west of the road near the sacred trees of Moreh on the other side of Gilgal.
31 Soon you will cross the Jordan River to conquer the land that the Lord your God is giving you. And when you have settled there, 32 be careful to obey his laws and teachings that I am giving you today.
1 Therefore thou shalt loue the Lord thy God, and shalt keepe that, which he commandeth to be kept: that is, his ordinances, and his lawes, and his commandements alway. 2 And consider this day (for I speake not to your children, which haue neither knowen nor seene) the chastisement of the Lord your God, his greatnesse, his mighty hande, and his stretched out arme, 3 And his signes, and his actes, which hee did in the middes of Egypt vnto Pharaoh the King of Egypt and vnto all his land: 4 And what he did vnto the hoste of the Egyptians, vnto their horses, and to their charets, when he caused the waters of the red Sea to ouerflowe them, as they pursued after you, and the Lord destroied them vnto this day: 5 And what he did vnto you in the wildernesse, vntill yee came vnto this place: 6 And what he did vnto Dathan and Abiram the sonnes of Eliab ye sonne of Reuben, when the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them with their housholds and their tents, and all their substance that they had in the middes of al Israel. 7 For your eyes haue seene all the great actes of the Lord which he did. 8 Therefore shall ye keepe all the commandements, which I commaund you this day, that ye may be strong, and go in and possesse the land whither ye goe to possesse it: 9 Also that ye may prolong your daies in the land, which the Lord sware vnto your fathers, to giue vnto them and to their seede, euen a lande that floweth with milke and honie. 10 For the land whither thou goest to possesse it, is not as the lande of Egypt, from whence ye came, where thou sowedst thy seede, and wateredst it with thy feete as a garden of herbes: 11 But the land whither ye goe to possesse it, is a land of mountaines and valleis, and drinketh water of the raine of heauen. 12 This land doth the Lord thy God care for: the eies of the Lord thy God are alwaies vpon it, from the beginning of the yeere, euen vnto the ende of the yeere. 13 If yee shall hearken therefore vnto my commandements, which I commaund you this day, that yee loue the Lord your God and serue him with all your heart, and with all your soule, 14 I also wil giue raine vnto your land in due time, the first raine and the latter, that thou maist gather in thy wheat, and thy wine, and thine oyle. 15 Also I will send grasse in thy fieldes, for thy cattel, that thou maist eate, and haue inough. 16 But beware lest your heart deceiue you, and lest yee turne aside, and serue other gods, and worship them, 17 And so the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and he shut vp the heauen, that there be no raine, and that your lande yeelde not her fruit, and yee perish quickly from the good land, which the Lord giueth you. 18 Therefore shall ye lay vp these my words in your heart and in your soule, and binde them for a signe vpon your hand, that they may be as a frontlet betweene your eyes, 19 And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them, whe thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest downe, and when thou risest vp. 20 And thou shalt write them vpon the postes of thine house, and vpon thy gates, 21 That your daies may be multiplied, and the daies of your children, in ye land which the Lord sware vnto your fathers to giue them, as long as the heauens are aboue the earth. 22 For if ye keepe diligently all these commandements, which I command you to doe: that is, to loue the Lord your God, to walke in all his waies, and to cleaue vnto him, 23 Then will the Lord cast out all these nations before you, and ye shall possesse great nations and mightier then you. 24 All the places whereon the soles of your feete shall tread, shalbe yours: your coast shalbe from the wildernes and from Lebanon, and from the Riuer, euen the riuer Perath, vnto ye vttermost Sea. 25 No man shall stande against you: for the Lord your God shall cast the feare and dread of you vpon all the land that ye shall treade vpon, as he hath said vnto you. 26 Beholde, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse: 27 The blessing, if ye obey the commandements of the Lord your God which I command you this day: 28 And ye curse, if ye wil not obey the commandements of the Lord your God, but turne out of the way, which I commande you this day, to go after other gods, which ye haue not knowen. 29 When the Lord thy God therefore hath brought thee into ye lande, whither thou goest to possesse it, then thou shalt put the blessing vpon mount Gerizim, and the curse vpon mount Ebal. 30 Are they not beyond Iorden on that part, where the sunne goeth downe in the land of the Canaanites, which dwel in the plaine ouer against Gilgal, beside the groue of Moreh? 31 For yee shall passe ouer Iorden, to goe in to possesse the land, which ye Lord your God giueth you, and ye shall possesse it, and dwell therein. 32 Take heede therefore that ye doe all the commandements and the lawes, which I set before you this day.