Israel Must Obey God
Moses said:
1 Israel, listen to these laws and teachings! If you obey them, you will live, and you will go in and take the land that the Lord is giving you. He is the God your ancestors worshiped, 2 and now he is your God. I am telling you everything he has commanded, so don't add anything or take anything away.
3 You saw how he killed everyone who worshiped the god Baal Peor. 4 But all of you that were faithful to the Lord your God are still alive today.
5-8 No other nation has laws that are as fair as the ones the Lord my God told me to give you. If you faithfully obey them when you enter the land, you will show other nations how wise you are. In fact, everyone that hears about your laws will say, “That great nation certainly is wise!” And what makes us greater than other nations? We have a God who is close to us and answers our prayers.
9 You must be very careful not to forget the things you have seen God do for you. Keep reminding yourselves, and tell your children and grandchildren as well. 10 Do you remember the day you stood in the Lord's presence at Mount Sinai? The Lord said, “Moses, bring the people of Israel here. I want to speak to them so they will obey me as long as they live, and so they will teach their children to obey me too.”
11 Mount Sinai was surrounded by deep dark clouds, and fire went up to the sky. You came to the foot of the mountain, 12 and the Lord spoke to you from the fire. You could hear him and understand what he was saying, but you couldn't see him. 13 The Lord said he was making an agreement with you, and he told you that your part of the agreement is to obey the Ten Commandments. Then the Lord wrote these Commandments on two flat stones.
14 That's when the Lord commanded me to give you the laws and teachings you must obey in the land that you will conquer west of the Jordan River.
Don't Worship Idols
Moses said to Israel:
15 When God spoke to you from the fire, he was invisible. So be careful 16 not to commit the sin of worshiping idols. Don't make idols to be worshiped, whether they are shaped like men, women, 17 animals, birds, 18 reptiles, or fish. 19 And when you see the sun or moon or stars, don't be tempted to bow down and worship them. The Lord put them there for all the other nations to worship. 20 But you are the Lord's people, because he rescued you from Egypt, that fiery furnace.
21 The Lord was angry with me because of what you said, and he told me that he would not let me cross the Jordan River into the good land that he is giving you. 22 So I must stay here and die on this side of the Jordan, but you will cross the river and take the land.
23 Always remember the agreement that the Lord your God made with you, and don't make an idol in any shape or form. 24 The Lord will be angry if you worship other gods, and he can be like a fire destroying everything in its path.
25-26 Soon you will cross the Jordan River and settle down in the land. Then in the years to come, you will have children, and they will give you grandchildren. After many years, you might lose your sense of right and wrong and make idols, even though the Lord your God hates them. So I am giving you fair warning today, and I call the earth and the sky as witnesses. If you ever make idols, the Lord will be angry, and you won't have long to live, because the Lord will let you be wiped out. 27 Only a few of you will survive, and the Lord will force you to leave the land and will scatter you among the nations. 28 There you will have to worship gods made of wood and stone, and these are nothing but idols that can't see or hear or eat or smell.
29-30 In all of your troubles, you may finally decide that you want to worship only the Lord. And if you turn back to him and obey him completely, he will again be your God. 31 The Lord your God will have mercy—he won't destroy you or desert you. The Lord will remember his promise, and he will keep the agreement he made with your ancestors.
32-34 When the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt, you saw how he fought for you and showed his great power by performing terrifying miracles. You became his people, and at Mount Sinai you heard him talking to you out of fiery flames. And yet you are still alive! Has anything like this ever happened since the time God created humans? No matter where you go or who you ask, you will get the same answer. No one has ever heard of another god even trying to do such things as the Lord your God has done for you.
35-36 The Lord wants you to know he is the only true God, and he wants you to obey him. That's why he let you see his mighty miracles and his fierce fire on earth, and why you heard his voice from that fire and from the sky.
37 The Lord loved your ancestors and decided that you would be his people. So the Lord used his great power to bring you out of Egypt. 38 Now you face other nations more powerful than you are, but the Lord has already started forcing them out of their land and giving it to you.
39 So remember that the Lord is the only true God, whether in the sky above or on the earth below. 40 Today I am explaining his laws and teachings. And if you always obey them, you and your descendants will live long and be successful in the land the Lord is giving you.
Safe Towns
41-43 Moses said, “People of Israel, you must set aside the following three towns east of the Jordan River as Safe Towns: Bezer in the desert highlands belonging to the Reuben tribe; Ramoth in Gilead, belonging to the Gad tribe; and Golan in Bashan, belonging to the Manasseh tribe. If you kill a neighbor without meaning to, and if you had not been angry with that person, you can run to one of these towns and find safety.”
The Second Speech: Moses Tells What the Lord Demands
Israel at Beth-Peor
44-46 The Israelites had come from Egypt and were camped east of the Jordan River near Beth-Peor, when Moses gave these laws and teachings. The land around their camp had once belonged to King Sihon of Heshbon. But Moses and the Israelites defeated him 47 and King Og of Bashan, and took their lands. These two Amorite kings had ruled the territory east of the Jordan River 48 from the town of Aroer on the edge of the Arnon River gorge, north to Mount Hermon. 49 Their land included the eastern side of the Jordan River valley, as far south as the Dead Sea below the slopes of Mount Pisgah.
1 Nowe therefore hearken, O Israel, vnto the ordinances and to the lawes which I teache you to doe, that ye may liue and goe in, and possesse the lande, which the Lord God of your fathers giueth you. 2 Ye shall put nothing vnto the word which I command you, neither shall ye take ought there from, that ye may keepe the commandements of the Lord your God which I commande you. 3 Your eyes haue seene what the Lord did because of Baal-Peor, for al the men that folowed Baal-Peor the Lord thy God hath destroyed euery one from among you. 4 But ye that did cleaue vnto the Lord your God, are aliue euery one of you this day. 5 Behold, I haue taught you ordinances, and lawes, as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should doe euen so within the land whither ye goe to possesse it. 6 Keepe them therefore, and doe them; for that is your wisdome, and your vnderstanding in the sight of the people, which shall heare all these ordinances, and shall say, Onely this people is wise, and of vnderstanding, and a great nation. 7 For what nation is so great, vnto whome the gods come so neere vnto them, as the Lord our God is neere vnto vs, in all that we call vnto him for? 8 And what nation is so great, that hath ordinances and lawes so righteous, as all this Lawe, which I set before you this day? 9 But take heede to thy selfe, and keepe thy soule diligently, that thou forget not the thinges which thine eyes haue seene, and that they depart not out of thine heart, all the dayes of thy life: but teach them thy sonnes, and thy sonnes sonnes: 10 Forget not the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord said vnto me, Gather me the people together, and I wil cause them heare my wordes, that they may learne to feare me all the dayes that they shall liue vpon the earth, and that they may teache their children: 11 Then came you neere and stoode vnder the mountaine, and the mountaine burnt with fire vnto the mids of heauen, and there was darkenesse, cloudes and mist. 12 And the Lord spake vnto you out of the middes of the fire, and ye heard the voyce of the wordes, but sawe no similitude, saue a voyce. 13 Then hee declared vnto you his couenant which he commanded you to doe, euen the ten commandements, and wrote them vpon two tables of stone. 14 And the Lord commanded me that same time, that I should teach you ordinances and lawes, which ye should obserue in the lande, whither ye goe, to possesse it. 15 Take therefore good heede vnto your selues: for ye sawe no image in the day that the Lord spake vnto you in Horeb out of the middes of the fire: 16 That ye corrupt not your selues, and make you a grauen image or representation of any figure: whither it be the likenes of male or female, 17 The likenes of any beast that is on earth, or the likenesse of any fethered foule that flieth in the aire: 18 Or the likenesse of any thing that creepeth on the earth, or the likenesse of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth, 19 And lest thou lift vp thine eyes vnto heauen, and when thou seest the sunne and the moone and the starres with all the host of heauen, shouldest bee driuen to worship them and serue them, which the Lord thy God hath distributed to all people vnder the whole heauen. 20 But the Lord hath taken you and brought you out of the yron fornace: out of Egypt to be vnto him a people and inheritance, as appeareth this day. 21 And the Lord was angrie with me for your words, and sware that I should not goe ouer Iorden, and that I should not goe in vnto that good land, which the Lord thy God giueth thee for an inheritance. 22 For I must die in this land, and shall not go ouer Iorden: but ye shall goe ouer, and possesse that good land. 23 Take heede vnto your selues, least ye forget the couenant of the Lord your God which hee made with you, and least ye make you any grauen image, or likenes of any thing, as the Lord thy God hath charged thee. 24 For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, and a ielous God. 25 When thou shalt beget children and childrens children, and shalt haue remained long in the land, if ye corrupt your selues, and make any grauen image, or likenes of any thing, and worke euill in the sight of the Lord thy God, to prouoke him to anger, 26 I call heauen and earth to record against you this day, that ye shall shortly perish from the land, whereunto ye goe ouer Iorden to possesse it: ye shall not prolong your dayes therein, but shall vtterly be destroyed. 27 And the Lord shall scatter you among the people, and ye shall be left few in nomber among the nations, whither the Lord shall bring you: 28 And there ye shall serue gods, euen ye worke of mans hand, wood, and stone, which neither see, nor heare, nor eate, nor smelll. 29 But if from thence thou shalt seeke the Lord thy God, thou shalt finde him, if thou seeke him with all thine heart, and with all thy soule. 30 When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come vpon thee, at the length if thou returne to the Lord thy God, and bee obedient vnto his voyce, 31 (For the Lord thy God is a mercifull God) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the couenant of thy fathers, which hee sware vnto them. 32 For inquire now of the dayes that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man vpon the earth, and aske from the one ende of heauen vnto the other, if there came to passe such a great thing as this, or whether any such like thing hath bene heard. 33 Did euer people heare the voyce of God speaking out of the middes of a fire, as thou hast heard, and liued? 34 Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from among nations, by tentations, by signes, and by wonders, and by warre, and by a mightie hand, and by a stretched out arme, and by great feare, according vnto all that the Lord your God did vnto you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 Vnto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest knowe, that the Lord hee is God, and that there is none but he alone. 36 Out of heauen hee made thee heare his voyce to instruct thee, and vpon earth he shewed thee his great fire, and thou heardest his voyce out of the middes of the fire. 37 And because hee loued thy fathers, therefore hee chose their seede after them, and hath brought thee out of Egypt in his sight by his mightie power, 38 To thrust out nations greater and mightier then thou, before thee, to bring thee in, and to giue thee their land for inheritance: as appeareth this day. 39 Vnderstande therefore this day, and consider in thine heart, that the Lord, he is God in heauen aboue, and vpon the earth beneath: there is none other. 40 Thou shalt keepe therefore his ordinances, and his commandements which I commaund thee this day, that it may goe well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayst prolong thy dayes vpon the earth, which the Lord thy God giueth thee for euer. 41 Then Moses separated three cities on this side of Iorden toward the sunne rising: 42 That the slayer should flee thither, which had killed his neighbour at vnwares, and hated him not in time past, might flee, I say, vnto one of those cities, and liue: 43 That is, Bezer in the wildernesse, in the plaine countrey of the Reubenites: and Ramoth in Gilead among the Gadites: and Golan in Bashan among them of Manasseh. 44 So this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel. 45 These are the witnesses, and the ordinances, and the lawes which Moses declared to the children of Israel after they came out of Egypt, 46 On this side Iorden, in the valley ouer against Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon King of the Amorites, which dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel smote, after they were come out of Egypt: 47 And they possessed his land, and the lande of Og King of Bashan, two Kings of the Amorites, which were on this side Iorden towarde the sunne rising: 48 From Aroer, which is by the banke of the riuer Arnon, euen vnto mount Sion, which is Hermon, 49 And all the plaine by Iorden Eastwarde, euen vnto the Sea, of ye plaine, vnder the springs of Pisgah.