Deuteronomy 5-8

1Then Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances that I declare in your hearing this day. Learn them and observe them carefully.

2The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.

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

4The LORD spoke with you face to face out of the fire on the mountain.

5At that time I was standing between the LORD and you to declare to you the word of the LORD, because you were afraid of the fire and would not go up the mountain. And He said:

6“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

7You shall have no other gods before Me.

8You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in the heavens above, on the earth below, or in the waters beneath.

9You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

10but showing loving devotion to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.

11You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave anyone unpunished who takes His name in vain.

12Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you.

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

14but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God, on which you must not do any work—neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox or donkey or any of your livestock, nor the foreigner within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest as you do.

15Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. That is why the LORD your God has commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

16Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

17You shall not murder.

18You shall not commit adultery.

19You shall not steal.

20You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

21You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house or field, or his manservant or maidservant, or his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

22The LORD spoke these commandments in a loud voice to your whole assembly out of the fire, the cloud, and the deep darkness on the mountain; He added nothing more. And He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

23And when you heard the voice out of the darkness while the mountain was blazing with fire, all the heads of your tribes and your elders approached me,

24and you said, “Behold, the LORD our God has shown us His glory and greatness, and we have heard His voice out of the fire. Today we have seen that a man can live even if God speaks with him.

25But now, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us, and we will die, if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any longer.

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

27Go near and listen to all that the LORD our God says. Then you can tell us everything the LORD our God tells you; we will listen and obey.”

28And the LORD heard the words you spoke to me, and He said to me, “I have heard the words that these people have spoken to you. They have done well in all that they have spoken.

29If only they had such a heart to fear Me and keep all My commandments always, so that it might be well with them and with their children forever.

30Go and tell them: ‘Return to your tents.’

31But you stand here with Me, that I may speak to you all the commandments and statutes and ordinances you are to teach them to follow in the land that I am giving them to possess.”

32So be careful to do as the LORD your God has commanded you; you are not to turn aside to the right or to the left.

33You must walk in all the ways that the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.

1These are the commandments and statutes and ordinances that the LORD your God has instructed me to teach you to follow in the land that you are about to enter and possess,

2so that you and your children and grandchildren may fear the LORD your God all the days of your lives by keeping all His statutes and commandments that I give you, and so that your days may be prolonged.

3Hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe them, so that you may prosper and multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you.

4Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One.

5And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

6These words I am commanding you today are to be upon your hearts.

7And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

8Tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

9Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.

10And when the LORD your God brings you into the land He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that He would give you—a land with great and splendid cities that you did not build,

11with houses full of every good thing with which you did not fill them, with wells that you did not dig, and with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant—and when you eat and are satisfied,

12be careful not to forget the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

13Fear the LORD your God, serve Him only, and take your oaths in His name.

14Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you.

15For the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God. Otherwise the anger of the LORD your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth.

16Do not test the LORD your God as you tested Him at Massah.

17You are to diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God and the testimonies and statutes He has given you.

18Do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD, so that it may be well with you and that you may enter and possess the good land that the LORD your God swore to give your fathers,

19driving out all your enemies before you, as the LORD has said.

20In the future, when your son asks, “What is the meaning of the decrees and statutes and ordinances that the LORD our God has commanded you?”

21then you are to tell him, “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

22Before our eyes the LORD inflicted great and devastating signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his household.

23But He brought us out from there to lead us in and give us the land that He had sworn to our fathers.

24And the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes and to fear the LORD our God, that we may always be prosperous and preserved, as we are to this day.

25And if we are careful to observe every one of these commandments before the LORD our God, as He has commanded us, then that will be our righteousness.”

1When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to possess, and He drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you—

2and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you to defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.

3Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons,

4because they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and He will swiftly destroy you.

5Instead, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their idols in the fire.

6For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all peoples on the face of the earth.

7The LORD did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than the other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.

8But because the LORD loved you and kept the oath He swore to your fathers, He brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

9Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps His covenant of loving devotion for a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments.

10But those who hate Him He repays to their faces with destruction; He will not hesitate to repay to his face the one who hates Him.

11So keep the commandments and statutes and ordinances that I am giving you to follow this day.

12If you listen to these ordinances and keep them carefully, then the LORD your God will keep His covenant and the loving devotion that He swore to your fathers.

13He will love you and bless you and multiply you. He will bless the fruit of your womb and the produce of your land—your grain, new wine, and oil, the young of your herds and the lambs of your flocks—in the land that He swore to your fathers to give you.

14You will be blessed above all peoples; among you there will be no barren man or woman or livestock.

15And the LORD will remove from you all sickness. He will not lay upon you any of the terrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but He will inflict them on all who hate you.

16You must destroy all the peoples the LORD your God will deliver to you. Do not look on them with pity. Do not worship their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

17You may say in your heart, “These nations are greater than we are; how can we drive them out?”

18But do not be afraid of them. Be sure to remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and all Egypt:

19the great trials that you saw, the signs and wonders, and the mighty hand and outstretched arm by which the LORD your God brought you out. The LORD your God will do the same to all the peoples you now fear.

20Moreover, the LORD your God will send the hornet against them until even the survivors hiding from you have perished.

21Do not be terrified by them, for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God.

22The LORD your God will drive out these nations before you little by little. You will not be enabled to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals would multiply around you.

23But the LORD your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed.

24He will hand their kings over to you, and you will wipe out their names from under heaven. No one will be able to stand against you; you will annihilate them.

25You must burn up the images of their gods; do not covet the silver and gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it; for it is detestable to the LORD your God.

26And you must not bring any detestable thing into your house, or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. You are to utterly detest and abhor it, because it is set apart for destruction.

1You must carefully follow every commandment I am giving you today, so that you may live and multiply, and enter and possess the land that the LORD swore to give your fathers.

2Remember that these forty years the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments.

3He humbled you, and in your hunger He gave you manna to eat, which neither you nor your fathers had known, so that you might understand that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

4Your clothing did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.

5So know in your heart that just as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.

6Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, walking in His ways and fearing Him.

7For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks and fountains and springs that flow through the valleys and hills;

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

9a land where you will eat food without scarcity, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and whose hills are ready to be mined for copper.

10When you eat and are satisfied, you are to bless the LORD your God for the good land that He has given you.

11Be careful not to forget the LORD your God by failing to keep His commandments and ordinances and statutes, which I am giving you this day.

12Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses in which to dwell,

13and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all that you have is multiplied,

14then your heart will become proud, and you will forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

15He led you through the vast and terrifying wilderness with its venomous snakes and scorpions, a thirsty and waterless land. He brought you water from the rock of flint.

16He fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers had not known, in order to humble you and test you, so that in the end He might cause you to prosper.

17You might say in your heart, “The power and strength of my hands have made this wealth for me.”

18But remember that it is the LORD your God who gives you the power to gain wealth, in order to confirm His covenant that He swore to your fathers even to this day.

19If you ever forget the LORD your God and go after other gods to worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish.

20Like the nations that the LORD has destroyed before you, so you will perish if you do not obey the LORD your God.