Amplified Bible (AMP)

Israel’s History after the Exodus

1 These are the words which Moses spoke to allIsrael [while they were still] beyond [that is, on the east side of] the Jordan [River] in the wilderness [across from Jerusalem], in the Arabah [the long, deep valley running north and south from the eastern arm of the Red Sea to beyond the Dead Sea] opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab (place of gold).

2 It is [only] eleven days’journeyfrom Horeb (Mount Sinai) by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea [on Canaan’s border; yet Israelwandered in the wilderness for forty years before crossing the border and entering Canaan, the promised land].

3 In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel in accordance with all that the Lordhad commanded himto sayto them,

4 after he had defeated Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived at Ashtaroth in Edrei.

5 Beyond (east of) the Jordan in theland of Moab, Moses began to explain this law, saying,

6 “The Lordour God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, ‘You have stayed long enough on this mountain.

7 ~‘Turn and resume your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland (the Shephelah), in the Negev (South country) and on the coast of the [Mediterranean] Sea, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.

8 ~‘Look, I have set the land before you; go in and take possession of the land which the Lordswore (solemnly promised) to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them.’

9 “I spoke to you at that time, saying, ‘I am not able to bearthe burdenof you alone.

10 ~‘The Lordyour God has multiplied you, and look, today you are as numerous as the stars of heaven.

11 ~‘May the Lord, the God of your fathers, add to you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, just as He has promised you!

12 ~‘How can I alone bear the weightandpressure and burden of you and your strife (contention)andcomplaining?

13 ~‘Choose for yourselves wise, understanding, experienced,andrespected men from your tribes, and I will appoint them as heads (leaders) over you.’

14 And you answered me, ‘The thing which you have said to do is good.’

15 So I took the leaders of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and made them leaders over you, commanders of thousands, and hundreds, and fifties, and tens, and officers (administrators) for your tribes.

16 “Then I commanded your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hearthe mattersbetween your brothers [your fellow countrymen], and judge righteouslyandfairly between a man and his brother, or the stranger (resident alien, foreigner) who is with him.

17 ~‘You shall notshow partiality in judgment; you shall hearandpay attention to the [cases of the] least [important] as well as the great. You shall notfear man, for the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you [to judge], you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.’

18 I commanded you at that time [regarding] all the things that you should do.

19 “Then we set out from Horeb (Sinai), and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw on the way to the hill country of theAmorites, just as the Lordour God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea.

20 And I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites which the Lordour God is about to give us.

21 ~‘Behold, the Lordyour God has set the land before you; go up and take possessionof it, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you. Do not fear or be dismayed.’

22 “Then all of you approached me and said, ‘Let us send men [into the land] before us, so that they may exploreandsearch the area for us, and bring back to us word regarding the way we should go, and the cities we should enter.’

23 The plan pleased me and I took twelve of your men, one man from each tribe.

24 They turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out.

25 Then they took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they reported back to us, and said, ‘It is a good land which the Lordour God is about to give us.’

26 “Yet you were not willing to go up [to take possession of it], but rebelled against the command of the Lordyour God.

27 You murmuredandwere ill-tempered (discontented) in your tents, and said, ‘Because the Lordhates us He has brought us from the land of Egypt to hand us over to the Amorites to destroy us.

28 ~‘Where can we go up? Our brothers (spies) have made our hearts melt [in fear]anddemoralized us by saying, “The people are bigger and taller than we; the cities are large, and fortified [all the way up] to heaven. And besides, we saw the [giant-like] sons of the Anakim there.”’

29 Then I said to you, ‘Do not be shocked, nor fear them.

30 ~‘The Lordyour God who goes before you will fight for you Himself, just as He did for you in Egypt before your [very] eyes,

31 and in the wilderness where you saw how the Lordyour God carriedandprotected you, just as a man carries his son, all along the way which you traveled until you arrived at this place.’

32 Yet in spite of this word, you did not trust [that is, confidently rely on and believe] the Lordyour God,

33 who went before you along the way, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to seek a place for you to make camp and to show you the way in which you should go.

34 “And the Lordheard the sound of your words, and He was angry and took an oath, saying,

35 ‘Not one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land which I swore (solemnly promised) to give to your fathers,

36 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and to his children I will give the land on which he has walked, because he has followed the Lordcompletely [and remained true to Him].’

37 The Lordwas angry with me also because of you, saying, ‘Not even you shall enter Canaan.

38 ~‘Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter there. Encourageandstrengthen him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.

39 ~‘Moreover, your little ones whom you said would become prey, and your sons, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, shall enter Canaan, and I will give it to them and they shall possess it.

40 ~‘But as for you, turn around and set out for the wilderness by way of the Red Sea (Sea of Reeds).’

41 “Then you answered and said to me, ‘We have sinned against the Lord. We will go up and fight, just as the Lordour God has commanded us.’ So youequipped every man with weapons of war, and regarded it as easy to go up into the hill country.

42 But the Lordsaid to me, ‘Say to them, “Do not go up and do not fight, for I am not among you [because of your rebellion]; otherwise you will be [badly] defeated by your enemies.”’

43 So I spoke to you, but you would not listen. Instead you rebelled against the command of the Lord, and acted presumptuously and went up into the hill country.

44 Then the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you as bees do, and struck you down in Seir as far as Hormah.

45 And you returned and wept before the Lord; but the Lordwould not listen to your voice nor pay attention to you.

46 So you stayed in Kadesh; many days you stayed there.

Wanderings in the Wilderness

1 “Then we turned and set out for the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea, just as the Lordhad told me; and we circled Mount Seir for many days.

2 And the Lordspoke to me, saying,

3 ‘You have circled this mountain long enough;turn northward,

4 and command the people, saying, “You are passing through the territory of your brothers the sons of Esau (the Edomites), who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. So be very careful;

5 do not provoke them, for I will not give you any of their land, not evenas little asa footstep, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession.

6 You shall buy food from them with money so that you may [have something to] eat, and you shall also buy water from them with money so that you may [have something to] drink.

7 For the Lordyour God has blessed you in allthat you have done; He has known about your wanderings through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lordyour God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.”’

8 “So we passed beyond our brothers the sons of Esau, who lived in Seir, away from the Arabah (wilderness) road, away from Elath and from Ezion-geber. Then we turned and passed through by the way of the Wilderness of Moab.

9 And the Lordsaid to me, ‘Do not harass [the descendants of] Moab, nor provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession, because I have given Ar to the sons (Moab and Ammon) of Lot as a possession.’

10 (The Emim lived there in times past, a people great and numerous, and as tall as the Anakim.

11 These also are regarded as Rephaim [an ancient people], as are the Anakim, but the Moabites call them Emim.

12 The Horites also used to live in Seir, but the sons of Esau dispossessed them. They destroyed them from before them and settled in their place, just as Israel did in the land which the Lordgave them as their possession.)

13 ‘Nowarise and cross the valley of theZered.’ So we crossed the Zered Valley.

14 Now thirty-eight years passed from the time we left Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the Zered Valley, until that entire generation of the men of war had died from within the camp, just as the Lordhad sworn to them.

15 Moreover the hand of the Lordwas against them, to destroy them from within the camp, until they were all dead.

16 “So it came about when all the men of war had finally died from among the people,

17 that the Lordspoke to me, saying,

18 ‘Today you are to pass through Ar, the border of Moab.

19 ~‘When you come opposite the territory of the sons ofAmmon, do not harass them nor provoke them, for I will not give you any of the land of the sons of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to the sons of Lot as a possession.’

20 (It is also regarded as the land of the Rephaim [of giant stature], for Rephaim used to live there, but the Ammonites call them Zamzummin,

21 a great, numerous people, and tall as the Anakim, but the Lorddestroyed them before the sons of Ammon. And they dispossessed them and settled in their place,

22 just as He did for the sons of Esau, who live in Seir, when He destroyed the Horites from before them; and the sons of Esau (the Edomites) dispossessed them and settled in their place [and remain there] even to this day.

23 As for the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorim (Cretans, later Philistines) who came from Caphtor (Crete) destroyed them and settled in their place.)

24 ‘Now arise, continue on, and go through the valley of theArnon. Look, I have handed over to you Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin! Take possession [of it] and fight with him in battle.

25 ~‘This day I will begin to put the dread and the fear of you on the peoples (pagans) under the whole heaven, who, when they hear the reports about you, will tremble and be in anguish because of you.’

26 “So I sent messengers from the Wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying,

27 ‘Let me pass through your land [with my people]. I will travel [with them] only on the highway; I will not turn away to the right or to the left.

28 ~‘You will sell me food for money so that I [along with my people] will eat, and you will give me water for money so that I [along with my people] will drink; only let me [and my people] travel through [the land] on foot,

29 just as the sons of Esau, who live in Seir, and the Moabites, who live in Ar,did for me, until I cross the Jordan into the land which the Lordour God is giving us.’

30 But Sihon king of Heshbon was not willing for us to travel through his land; for the Lordyour God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, in order to hand him over to you, as he is today.

31 The Lordsaid to me, ‘Look, I have begun to hand over to you Sihon and his land. Begin! Take possession [of it], so that you may possess his land.’

32 “Then at Jahaz, Sihon and all his people came out to meet us in battle.

33 So the Lordour God handed him over to us [and gave us the victory], and we defeated him and his sons and all his people.

34 At the same time we took all his cities and utterly destroyed every city–men, women and children. We left no survivor.

35 We took only the cattle as plunder for ourselves and the spoil of the cities which we had captured.

36 From Aroer, which is on the edge of the Arnon Valley, andfromthe city which is in the valley, as far as Gilead, there was no city [whose wall was] too highandtoo strong for us; the Lordour God handed over everything to us.

37 Only you did not go near the land of the sons of Ammon, all along the riverJabbok and the cities of the hill country, and wherever the Lordour God had forbidden us.

Conquests Recounted

1 “Then we turned and went up the road toward Bashan, and at Edrei, Og king of Bashan, with all his people came out to meet us in battle.

2 And the Lordsaid to me, ‘Do not fear him, for I have handed him over to you, him and all his people and his land; and you shall do to him just as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.’

3 So the Lordour God also handed over Og king of Bashan, and all his people, into our hand and we struck him until no survivor was left.

4 We captured all his cities at that time; there was not a city which we did not take from them: sixty cities, the whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.

5 All these cities were fortifiedandunassailable with their high walls, gates, and bars; in addition, [there were] a very great number of unwalled villages.

6 We utterly destroyed them, just as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying every city–the men, women, and children.

7 But we took all the cattle and the spoil of the cities as plunder for ourselves.

8 “So we took the land at that time from the hand of the two kings [Sihon and Og] of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, from the valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon

9 (the Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir):

10 all the cities of the plain and all Gilead and all Bashan, as far as Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.”

11 (For only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the [the giants known as the] Rephaim. Behold, his bed frame was a bed frame of iron; is it not inRabbah of the Ammonites? It was nine cubits (12 ft.) long and four cubits (6 ft.) wide, using the cubit of a man [the forearm to the end of the middle finger].)

12 “So we took possession of this land at that time. I gavethe territoryfrom Aroer, which is by the valley of the Arnon, along with half of the hill country of Gilead and its cities to the Reubenites and to the Gadites.

13 The rest of Gilead and all of Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh, that is, all the region of Argob (concerning all Bashan, it is called the land of Rephaim.

14 Jair the son (descendant) of Manasseh took all the region of Argob as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites,that isBashan, and called it after his own name, Havvoth (the villages of) Jair,as it is calledto this day.)

15 I gave Gilead to Machir [of Manasseh].

16 To the Reubenites and Gadites I gavethe territoryfrom Gilead as far as the Valley of Arnon, with the middle of the Valley as a boundary, and as far as the Jabbok River, the boundary of the sons of Ammon;

17 the Arabah also, with the Jordan as its boundary, from Chinnereth (the Sea of Galilee) as far as the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea (Dead Sea), at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah on the east.

18 “Then I commanded you [Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh] at that time, saying, ‘The Lordyour God has given you this land to possess; all you who are brave men shall cross over [the Jordan] armed before your brothers, the sons of Israel.

19 ~‘But your wives and your children and your cattle–I know that you have much livestock–shall remain in your cities which I have given you,

20 until the Lordgives rest to your fellow countrymen as [He has] to you, and they also possess the land which the Lordyour God has given them beyond the Jordan. Then each of you may return to the land (possession) which I have given to you.’

21 I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, ‘Your eyes have seen everything that the Lordyour God has done to these two kings [Sihon and Og]; so the Lordshall do the same to all the kingdoms into which you are about to cross.

22 ~‘Do not fear them, for it is the Lordyour God who is fighting for you.’

23 “Then I pleaded with the Lordat that time [for His favor], saying,

24 ‘O Lord God, You have only begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your mighty hand; for what god is there in heaven or on earth that can do such works and mighty acts (miracles) as Yours?

25 ~‘I pray, let me go over and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, that good hill country [with Hermon] and Lebanon.’

26 But the Lordwas angry with me because of you [and your rebellion at Meribah], and would not listen to me; and the Lordsaid to me, ‘Enough! Speak to Me no longer about this matter.

27 ~‘Go up to the top of [Mount] Pisgah and raise your eyes toward the west and north and south and east, and see it with your eyes, for you shall not cross this Jordan.

28 ~‘But command Joshua and encourage and strengthen him, for he shall go across and lead this people, and he will give them the land which you see as an inheritance.’

29 So we stayed in the Valley opposite Beth-peor.

Israel Urged to Obey God’s Law

1 “Now, O Israel, listenandpay attention to the statutes and the judgments (God’s legal decisions) which I am teaching you to do, so that you may live and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you.

2 You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the Lordyour God which I am commanding you.

3 Your eyes have seen what the Lorddid at Baal-peor; for all the men who followed [and participated in the worship of] Baal of Peor, the Lordyour God destroyed them from among you,

4 but you who held tightly to the Lordyour God are alive today, every one of you.

5 “Look, I have taught you statutes and judgments just as the Lordmy God has commanded me, so that you may do them in the land which you are entering to possess.

6 So keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’

7 For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lordour God [is to us] whenever we call on Him?

8 Or what great nation has statutes and judgments so righteous (upright, just) as this whole law which I amplacing before you today?

9 “Only pay attention and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things which your eyes have seen and they do not depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your grandchildren [impressing these things on their mind and penetrating their heart with these truths]–

10 especiallythe day you stood before the Lordyour God at Horeb (Mount Sinai), when the Lordsaid to me, ‘Assemble the people to Me and I will let them hear My words, so that they may learn to fear Me [with awe-filled reverence and profound respect] all the days they live on the land, and so that they may teach their children.’

11 You approached and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the [very] heart of the heavens: darkness, cloud and thick gloom.

12 Then the Lordspoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of the words, but you saw no form–there was only a voice.

13 So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to follow,the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone.

14 The Lordcommanded me at that time to teach you the statutes and judgments, so that you might do them in the land which you are going over to possess.

15 “So pay attentionandwatchyourselves carefully–for you did not see any form [of God] on the day the Lordspoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire–

16 so that you do not act corruptly and make for yourselves a carvedorsculpted image [to worship] in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female,

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

18 the likeness of anything that crawls on the ground, or of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth.

19 Andbewarethat you do not raise your eyes toward heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and let yourselves be led astray and worship them and serve them, [mere created bodies] which the Lordyour God has allotted to [serve and benefit] all the peoples under the whole heaven.

20 But the Lordhas taken you and brought you out of the iron [smelting] furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people for His own possession, as [you are] this day.

21 “Now the Lordwas angry with me [at the waters of Meribah] because of you, and He swore [an oath] that I would not cross the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the Lordyour God is giving you as an inheritance.

22 For I am going to die in this land, I am not going to cross the Jordan, but you shall cross over and take possession of this good land.

23 So be on your guardandwatch yourselves, so that you do not forget the covenant of the Lordyour God which He has made with you, and make for yourselves a carvedorsculpted image in the form of anything which the Lordyour God has forbidden you.

24 For the Lordyour God is a consuming fire; He is ajealous (impassioned) God [demanding what is rightfully and uniquely His].

25 “When you become the father of children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, then if you corrupt yourselves by making a carvedorsculpted image in the form of anything [for the purpose of worship], and do evil [things] in the sight of the Lordyour God, provoking Him to anger,

26 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You shall not live long on it, but will be utterly destroyed.

27 The Lordwill scatteranddisperse you among the peoples (pagan nations), and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lorddrives you.

28 And there you will serve [false and foreign] gods, the work of human hands, [lifeless images of] wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell [the offerings of food given to them].

29 But from there you will seek the Lordyour God, and you will findHimif you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.

30 When you are in distressandtribulation and all these things come on you, in the latter days you will return to the Lordyour God and listen to His voice.

31 For the Lordyour God is a mercifulandcompassionate God; He will not fail you, nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.

32 “Indeed, ask now about the days that are past, [those days] which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Hasanythingbeen done like this great thing, or hasanythingbeen heard like it?

33 Did [any] people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you heard, and [still] live?

34 Or has any [man-made] god ever tried to go and take for himself a nation from withinanothernation by trials, by signs and wonders and by war and by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm and by great terrors, as the Lordyour God did for you in Egypt before your [very] eyes?

35 It was shown to you so that you might have [personal] knowledgeandcomprehend that the Lordis God; there is no other besides Him.

36 Out of the heavens He let you hear His voice to disciplineandadmonish you; and on earth He let you see His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire.

37 And because He loved your fathers, He chose their descendants who followed them, and brought you from Egypt with His Presence, with His greatandawesome power,

38 dispossessinganddriving out from before you nations, [nations that were] greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day.

39 Therefore knowandunderstand today, and take it to your heart, that the Lordis God in the heavens above and on the earth below; there is no other.

40 So you shall keep His statutes and His commandments which I am commanding you today, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and so that you may live long on the land which the Lordyour God is giving you for all time.”

41 Then Moses set apart three cities [of refuge] beyond the Jordan toward the rising of the sun (eastward),

42 so that someone who committed manslaughter could flee there, [that is, a person] who killed his neighbor unintentionally and without previously having hostility toward him, and that by escaping to one of these cities he might [claim the right of asylum and] save his life:

43 Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau for the Reubenites, and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.

44 This is the law which Moses placed before the sons of Israel;

45 these are the testimonies (legal provisions) and the statutes and the judgments which Moses spoke to the sons of Israel when they came out of Egypt,

46 beyond 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 sons of Israel defeated when they came out from Egypt.

47 They took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, whoreignedacross the Jordan to the east,

48 from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the [river] Arnon, as far as Mount Sion (that is, Hermon),

49 with all the Arabah (desert lowlands) across the Jordan to the east, even as far as the sea of the Arabah (the Dead Sea), at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah.

The Ten Commandments Repeated

1 Then Moses summoned all Israel and said to them:

“Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments (legal decisions) which I am speaking today in your hearing, so that you may learn them and observe them carefully.

2 The Lordour God made a covenant with us at Horeb.

3 The Lorddid not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, all of us who are alive here today.

4 The Lordspoke with you face to face at the mountain from the midst of the fire.

5 I was standing between the Lordand you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord; for you were afraid because of the fire and did not go up the mountain. He said,

6 ‘I am the Lordyour God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

7 ‘You shall have no other godsbefore Me.

8 ‘You shall not make for yourself an idol [as an object to worship], or any likeness (form, manifestation) of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.

9 ~‘You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lordyour God, am ajealous (impassioned) God [demanding what is rightfully and uniquely mine], visiting (avenging) the iniquity (sin, guilt) of the fathers on the children [that is, calling the children to account for the sins of their fathers], to the third and the fourthgenerationsof those who hate Me,

10 butshowing graciousnessandlovingkindness to thousands [of generations] of those who love Me and keep My commandments.

11 ‘You shall not take the name of the Lordyour God in vain [that is, irreverently, in false affirmations or in ways that impugn the character of God]; for the Lordwill not hold guiltlessnorleave unpunished the one whotakes His name in vain [disregarding its reverence and its power].

12 ‘Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy (set apart, dedicated to God), as the Lordyour God commanded you.

13 ~‘Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath [a day of rest dedicated] to the Lordyour God; on that day you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock or the stranger who stays inside your [city] gates, so that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.

15 ~‘You shall remember [with thoughtful concern] that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and that the Lordyour God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lordyour God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

16 ‘Honor (respect, obey, care for) your father and your mother, as the Lordyour God has commanded you, so that your days [on the earth] may be prolonged and so that it may go well with you in the land which the Lordyour God gives you.

17 ‘You shall notmurder.

18 ‘You shall not commitadultery.

19 ‘You shall not steal.

20 ‘You shall not give false testimony [that is, lie, withhold, or manipulate the truth] against your neighbor (any person).

21 ‘You shall not covet [that is, desire and seek to acquire] your neighbor’s wife, nor desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his male servant or his female servant, his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.’

Moses Interceded

22 “The Lordspoke these words with a great voice to all your assembly at the mountain out of the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, and He added no more. He wrote these commandments on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

23 And when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you approached me, all the leaders (heads) of your tribes and your elders;

24 and you said, ‘Behold, the Lordour God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire; we have seen today that God speaks with man, yet he [still] lives.

25 ~‘Now then why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the Lordour God any longer, then we will die.

26 ~‘For who is there of all flesh (mankind) who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived?

27 ~‘You, Moses, go near and listen to everything that the Lordour God says; then speak to us everything that the Lordour God speaks to you, and we will listen and do it.’

28 “The Lordheard your words when you spoke to me, and the Lordsaid to me, ‘I have heard the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They have done well in all that they have spoken.

29 ~‘Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear [and worship Me with awe-filled reverence and profound respect] and keep all My commandments always, so that it may go well with them and with their children forever!

30 ~‘Go and say to them, “Return to your tents.”

31 ~‘But as for you, stand here by Me, and I will tell you all the commandments and the statutes and the judgments which you shall teach them, so that they may obey them in the land which I give them to possess.’

32 Therefore you shall pay attentionandbe careful to do just as the Lordyour God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right or to the left [deviating from My commandments].

33 You shall walk [that is, live each and every day] in all the ways which the Lordyour God has commanded you, so that you may live and so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long in the land which you will possess.

Obey God and Prosper

1 “Now this is the command; the statutes and the judgments (precepts) which the Lordyour God has commanded me to teach you, so that you might do (follow, obey) them in the land which you are crossing over [the Jordan] to possess,

2 so that you and your son and your grandson may fearandworship the Lordyour God [with awe-filled reverence and profound respect], to keep [and actively do] all His statutes and His commandments which I am commanding you, all the days of your life, so that your days may be prolonged.

3 Therefore listen, O Israel, and be careful to dothem, that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly [in numbers], as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a landflowing with milk and honey.

4 “Hear, O Israel! The Lordis our God, the Lordis one [the only God]!

5 You shall love the Lordyour God with all your heartandmind and with all your soul and with all your strength [your entire being].

6 These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be [written] on your heartandmind.

7 You shall teach them diligently to yourchildren [impressing God’s precepts on their minds and penetrating their hearts with His truths] and shall speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road and when you lie down and when you get up.

8 And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand (forearm), and they shall be used asbands (frontals, frontlets) on your forehead.

9 You shall write them on thedoorposts of your house and on your gates.

10 “Then it shall come about when the Lordyour God brings you into the land which He swore (solemnly promised) to [give] your fathers–to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob–to give you, [a land with] great and splendid cities which you did not build,

11 and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn (excavated) cisterns (wells) which you did not dig out, and vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat and are fullandsatisfied,

12 thenbeware that you do not forget the Lordwho brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

13 You shall fear [only] the Lordyour God; and you shall serve Him [with awe-filled reverence and profound respect] and swear [oaths] by His name [alone].

14 You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you,

15 for the Lordyour God who is among you is ajealous (impassioned) God [demanding what is rightfully and uniquely His]–otherwise the anger of the Lordyour God will be kindledandburn against you, and He will destroy you from the face of the earth.

16 “You shall not put the Lordyour God to the test, as you tested Him at Massah.

17 You shall diligently keep [foremost in your thoughts and actively do] the commandments of the Lordyour God, and His testimonies and His statutes which He has commanded you.

18 You shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, so that it may be well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land which the Lordswore to [give] your fathers,

19 by driving out all your enemies from before you, as the Lordhas spoken.

20 “When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘Whatis the meaningof the testimonies and statutes and judgments (precepts) which the Lordour God has commanded you?’

21 then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, and the Lordbrought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

22 ~‘Moreover, the Lordshowed great and terrible signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt, Pharaoh and all his household;

23 He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He had sworn to [give] our fathers.’

24 So the Lordcommanded us to do all these statutes, to fear [and worship] the Lordour God [with awe-filled reverence and profound respect] for our good always and so that He might preserve us alive, as it is today.

25 It will be [considered] righteousness for us [that is, right standing with God] if we are careful to observe all this commandment before the Lordour God–just as He has commanded us.

Warnings

1 “When the Lordyour God brings you into the land which you are entering to possess, and has cleared away many nations before you, the Hittite and the Girgashite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, seven nations greater and mightier than you,

2 and when the Lordyour God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall not make a covenant (treaty) with them nor show mercyandcompassion to them.

3 You shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughter to his son, nor shall you take his daughter for your son;

4 for they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the Lordwill be kindledandburn against you and He will quickly destroy you.

5 But this is how you shall deal with them: you shall tear down their altars and smash to pieces theirsacredpillars, and cut down their Asherim (symbols of the goddess Asherah), and burn their carvedorsculpted images in the fire.

6 For you are a holy people [set apart] to the Lordyour God; the Lordyour God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be a people for His own possession [that is, His very special treasure].

7 “The Lorddid not love you and choose you because you were greater in number than any of theotherpeoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.

8 But because the Lordloves you and is keeping the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lordhas brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed (bought) you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

9 Therefore know [without any doubt]andunderstand that the Lordyour God, He is God, the faithful God, who is keeping His covenant and His [steadfast] lovingkindness to a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;

10 but repays those who hate Him to their faces, by destroying them; He will not hesitate with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face.

11 Therefore, you shall keep (follow, obey) the commandment and the statutes and judgments (precepts) which I am commanding you today.

Promises of God

12 “Then it shall come about, because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, that the Lordyour God will keep with you the covenant and the [steadfast] lovingkindness which He swore to your fathers.

13 He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your [olive] oil, the offspring of your cattle and the young of your flock, in the land which He swore to your fathers to give you.

14 You shall be blessed above all peoples; there will be no male or female barren (childless, infertile) among you or among your cattle.

15 The Lordwill take away from you all sickness; and He will not subject you to any of the harmful diseases of Egypt which you have known, but He will impose them on all [those] who hate you.

16 And you shall consume all the peoples whom the Lordyour God will give over to you; your eye shall not pity them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that would be a [deadly] trap to you.

17 “If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I am; how can I dispossess them?’

18 you shall not be afraid of them; you shall remember [with confidence] what the Lordyour God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt–

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

20 Moreover, the Lordyour God will send the hornet (His terror) against them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you perish.

21 You shall not dread them, for the Lordyour God is in your midst, a great and awesome God.

22 The Lordyour God will clear away these nations before you little by little; you will not be able to put an end to them quickly, for [if you did] thewild animals would become too numerous for you.

23 But the Lordyour God will hand them over to you, and will confuse them with a great panic until they are destroyed.

24 And He will hand over their kings to you, and you will make their name perish from under heaven; no man will be able to stand before you until you have destroyed them.

25 You shall burn the carvedandsculpted images of their gods in the fire. You shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, so that you will not be ensnared by it [in a deadly trap], for it is an abomination (repulsive) to the Lordyour God.

26 You shall not bring an abomination (idol) into your house, and like it come under the ban (doomed to destruction); you shall utterly detest and you shall utterly hate it, for it is something banned.

God’s Gracious Dealings

1 “Every commandment that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, so that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lordswore [to give] to your fathers.

2 And you shall remember [always] all the ways which the Lordyour God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart (mind), whether you would keep His commandments or not.

3 He humbled you and allowed you to be hungry and fed you with manna, [a substance] which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, so that He might make you understand [by personal experience] that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everywordthat proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.

4 Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your feet swell these forty years.

5 Therefore, know in your heart (be fully cognizant) that the Lordyour God disciplinesandinstructs you just as a man disciplinesandinstructs his son.

6 Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the Lordyour God, to walk [that is, to live each and every day] in His ways and fear [and worship] Him [with awe-filled reverence and profound respect].

7 For the Lordyour God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills;

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

9 a land where you will eat bread without shortage, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper.

10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, then you shall bless the Lordyour God for the good land which He has given you.

11 “Beware that you do not forget the Lordyour God by failing to keep His commandments and His judgments (precepts) and His statutes which I am commanding you today;

12 otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and livedin them,

13 and when your herds and flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have increases,

14 then your heart will become lifted up [by self-conceit and arrogance] and you will forget the Lordyour God who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

15 He led you through the great and terrible wilderness,with itsfiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water; it was He who brought water for you out of the flinty rock.

16 He fed you manna in the wilderness, [a substance] which your fathers did not know, so that He might humble you [by dependence on Him] and that He might test you, to do good [things] for you at the end.

17 Otherwise, you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’

18 But you shall remember [with profound respect] the Lordyour God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore (solemnly promised) to your fathers, as it is this day.

19 And it shall come about if you ever forget the Lordyour God and follow other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today that you will most certainly perish.

20 Like the nations which the Lordcauses to perish before you, so shall you perish; because you would not listen toandobey the voice of the Lordyour God.