The Most Important Commandment
Moses said to Israel:
1 The Lord told me to give you these laws and teachings, so you can obey them in the land he is giving you. Soon you will cross the Jordan River and take that land. 2 And if you and your descendants want to live a long time, you must always worship the Lord and obey his laws. 3 Pay attention, Israel! Our ancestors worshiped the Lord, and he promised to give us this land that is rich with milk and honey. Be careful to obey him, and you will become a successful and powerful nation.
4 Listen, Israel! The Lord our God is the only true God! 5 So love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength. 6 Memorize his laws 7 and tell them to your children over and over again. 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. 8 Write down copies and tie them to your wrists and foreheads to help you obey them. 9 Write these laws on the door frames of your homes and on your town gates.
Worship Only the Lord
Moses said to Israel:
10 The Lord promised your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that he would give you this land. Now he will take you there and give you large towns, with good buildings that you didn't build, 11 and houses full of good things that you didn't put there. The Lord will give you wells that you didn't have to dig, and vineyards and olive orchards that you didn't have to plant. But when you have eaten so much that you can't eat any more, 12 don't forget it was the Lord who set you free from slavery and brought you out of Egypt. 13 Worship and obey the Lord your God with fear and trembling, and promise that you will be loyal to him.
14 Don't have anything to do with gods that are worshiped by the nations around you. 15 If you worship other gods, the Lord will be furious and wipe you off the face of the earth. The Lord your God is with you, 16 so don't try to make him prove that he can help you, as you did at Massah. 17 Always obey the laws that the Lord has given you 18-19 and live in a way that pleases him. Then you will be able to go in and take this good land from your enemies, just as he promised your ancestors.
20 Someday your children will ask, “Why did the Lord give us these laws and teachings?”
21 Then you will answer:
We were slaves of the king of Egypt, but the Lord used his great power and set us free. 22 We saw him perform miracles and make horrible things happen to the king, his officials, and everyone else. 23 The Lord rescued us from Egypt, so he could bring us into this land, as he had promised our ancestors. 24-25 That's why the Lord our God demands that we obey his laws and worship him with fear and trembling. And if we do, he will protect us and help us be successful.
1 These now are the commandements, ordinances, and lawes, which the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that ye might doe them in the land whither ye go to possesse it: 2 That thou mightest feare the Lord thy God, and keepe all his ordinances, and his commandements which I commaund thee, thou, and thy sonne, and thy sonnes sonne all the dayes of thy life, euen that thy dayes may be prolonged. 3 Heare therefore, O Israel, and take heede to doe it, that it may go well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily in the land that floweth with milke and hony, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee. 4 Heare, O Israel, The Lord our God is Lord onely, 5 And thou shalt loue the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soule, and with all thy might. 6 And these wordes which I commaund thee this day, shalbe in thine heart. 7 And thou shalt rehearse them continually vnto thy children, and shalt talke of them when thou tariest in thine house, and as thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest downe, and when thou risest vp: 8 And thou shalt binde them for a signe vpon thine hand, and they shalbe as frontlets betweene thine eyes. 9 Also thou shalt write them vpon ye postes of thine house, and vpon thy gates. 10 And when the Lord thy God hath brought thee into the land, which he sware vnto thy fathers, Abraham, Izhak, and Iaakob, to giue to thee, with great and goodly cities which thou buildedst not, 11 And houses full of all maner of goods which thou filledst not, and welles digged which thou diggedst not, vineyards and oliue trees which thou plantedst not, and when thou hast eaten and art full, 12 Beware least thou forget the Lord, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 13 Thou shalt feare the Lord thy God, and serue him, and shalt sweare by his Name. 14 Ye shall not walke after other gods, after any of the gods of the people which are round about you, 15 (For the Lord thy God is a ielous God among you:) least the wrath of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from the face of the earth. 16 Ye shall not tempt the Lord your God, as ye did tempt him in Massah: 17 But ye shall keepe diligently the commandements of the Lord your God, and his testimonies, and his ordinances which he hath commanded thee, 18 And thou shalt doe that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord: that thou mayest prosper, and that thou mayest go in, and possesse that good land which the Lord sware vnto thy fathers, 19 To cast out all thine enemies before thee, as the Lord hath sayd. 20 When thy sonne shall aske thee in time to come, saying, What meane these testimonies, and ordinances, and Lawes, which the Lord our God hath commanded you? 21 Then shalt thou say vnto thy sonne, We were Pharaohs bondmen in Egypt: but the Lord brought vs out of Egypt with a mightie hand. 22 And the Lord shewed signes and wonders great and euill vpon Egypt, vpon Pharaoh, and vpon all his housholde, before our eyes, 23 And brought vs out from thence, to bring vs in, and to giue vs the land which he sware vnto our fathers. 24 Therefore the Lord hath commanded vs, to doe all these ordinances, and to feare the Lord our God, that it may goe euer well with vs, and that he may preserue vs aliue as at this present. 25 Moreouer, this shall be our righteousnes before the Lord our God, if we take heede to keepe all these commandements, as he hath commanded vs.