Beginning
5 Moses called together all Israel and said this to them: Listen, Israel, to the statutes and ordinances that I am speaking in your hearing today so that you learn them and are conscientious about carrying them out. 2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. 3 The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, with those who are here today, all of us who are living today. 4 Face-to-face the Lord spoke with you at the mountain from the middle of the fire. 5 At that time I was standing between the Lord and you to relate to you the word of the Lord, because you were afraid of the fire and you did not go up on the mountain.
Then the Lord said:
6 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, where you were slaves.[a]
7 You shall have no other gods beside me.[b] 8 You shall not make any carved image for yourself or a likeness of anything in heaven above, on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth. 9 Do not bow down to them or be subservient to[c] them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God.[d] I follow up on[e] the guilt of the fathers with their children, their grandchildren, and their great-grandchildren if they also hate me. 10 But I show mercy to thousands who love me and keep my commandments.
11 You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not permit anyone who misuses his name to escape unpunished.
12 Observe the Sabbath day by setting it apart as holy, just as the Lord your God commanded you. 13 Six days you are to serve and perform all of your regular work, 14 but the seventh day is a sabbath rest to the Lord your God. You are not to do any regular 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 alien who resides inside your gates, in order that your male servant and your female servant may rest like you. 15 Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out from there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the day of rest.
16 Honor your father and your mother, just as the Lord your God commanded you, so that you may prolong your days and so that it may go well for you on the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
17 You shall not commit murder.
18 You shall not commit adultery.
19 You shall not steal.
20 You shall not give lying testimony against your neighbor.
21 You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor’s house or his field, his male servant or his female servant, his ox or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
22 These are the words the Lord spoke to your whole assembly at the mountain from the middle of the fire, the thick cloud, and the gloom, with a loud voice, and he did not add anything. He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. 23 When you heard the voice from the middle of the darkness while the mountain was burning with fire, you approached me—all the heads of your tribes and your elders.
24 Then you said, “See how the Lord our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice from the middle of the fire. Today we have seen that a man can live even though God has spoken to him. 25 But now, why should we die, because this great fire will consume us? If we continue to hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer, we will die. 26 For who of all flesh has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking from the middle of fire as we have and has lived? 27 You go near and listen to everything that the Lord our God says, and then you speak to us everything that the Lord our God speaks to you, and we will hear and do it.”
28 The Lord heard what you said when you spoke to me. So the Lord said to me, “I heard what these people said when they spoke to you. Everything that they spoke to you is good. 29 If only this would be in their hearts—to fear me and to keep all my commandments always, so that it might go well for them and for their children continually. 30 Go and say to them, ‘Go back to your tents.’ 31 As for you, stand here with me and I will speak to you all the commands and the statutes and the ordinances that you are to teach them and that they are to do in the land that I am giving them as a possession. 32 Tell them:[f] ‘Be conscientious about doing just as the Lord your God commanded you. Do not turn aside to the right or to the left. 33 Walk in every way the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and it may be good for you and you may live long in the land that you will possess.’”
6 Moses spoke as follows:[g]
Now this is the body of commands, and these are the statutes and the ordinances that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, so you may carry them out in the land to which you are crossing over to receive as a possession, 2 so that you may fear the Lord your God by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I am commanding to you, as well as to your children and grandchildren, all the days of your life, and so that your days may be long.
3 Listen, O Israel, and be conscientious about doing those things, so it may go well for you and so you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, promised you. 4 Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God. The Lord is one! 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul[h] and with all your might. 6 These words that I am commanding you today are to be on your heart. 7 Teach them diligently to your children, and speak about them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as a sign on your wrists, and they will serve as symbols on your forehead. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.
10 When the Lord your God brings you to the land about which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he would give it to you, he will bring you to great and good cities that you did not build, 11 to houses full of all kinds of good things that you did not fill, to wells that you did not dig, and to vineyards and olives that you did not plant. Then, when you eat and are full, 12 watch yourself, so that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, where you were slaves. 13 Fear the Lord your God, serve him, and swear by his name. 14 Do not go after other gods from among the gods of the peoples around you. 15 If you do, the Lord your God will be a jealous God in your midst, and the anger of the Lord your God will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the earth.
16 Do not put the Lord your God to the test the way you tested him at Massah. 17 Be very conscientious about keeping the commandments of the Lord your God and his testimonies and his statutes, which he commanded you. 18 Do what is right and good in the eyes of the Lord, so that it may go well for you and you may go and take possession of the good land that the Lord promised to your fathers with an oath, 19 driving out all your enemies from your presence, as the Lord promised.
20 When your son asks you in the future, “What are these testimonies and statutes and ordinances that the Lord our God has commanded for you?” 21 then you are to say to your son, “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand. 22 Right before our eyes the Lord gave great, devastating signs and wonders in Egypt against Pharaoh and against his whole household. 23 Then he brought us out of there to bring us in and give us the land that he promised to our fathers with an oath.”
24 Then the Lord commanded us to carry out all of these statutes, to fear the Lord our God for our own lasting good, to keep us alive, even as we are today. 25 Righteousness will be ours when we are conscientious about carrying out this entire set of commands in the presence of the Lord our God as he commanded us.
7 When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take as a possession, and when he clears away many nations before you (the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and stronger than you), 2 and when the Lord your God has given them over to you and he has struck them down, you are to devote them to destruction. Do not make a treaty with them, and do not show mercy to them. 3 Do not form marriage alliances with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons, and do not take their daughters for your sons, 4 because they will turn your sons away from following me, and they will serve other gods. The anger of the Lord will burn against you, and then he will destroy you quickly. 5 Instead, this is the way you must deal with them: Break down their altars. Smash their sacred memorial stones. Cut down their Asherah poles. [i]Burn their idols with fire.
6 For you are a people that is holy to the Lord your God, because the Lord your God has chosen you to belong to him as a people that is his treasured possession, chosen from all the peoples that are on the face of the earth. 7 The Lord became attached to you by love and has chosen you, not because you were more numerous than all the peoples. Actually you were the fewest of all the peoples. 8 But because of the Lord’s love for you and because he was keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that is why the Lord brought you out by a strong hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9 He did this so that you would know that the Lord your God, yes, he is God, the faithful God who maintains both his covenant and his mercy for those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations. 10 But he also repays the ones who hate him to their face by destroying them. He will not delay repaying anyone who hates him. To his face he will fully repay him. 11 So you are to be careful to keep the set of commandments and the statutes and the ordinances that I am commanding you today.
12 When you obey these ordinances and are careful to keep them, the Lord your God will keep for your benefit the covenant and the mercy that he promised to your fathers with an oath. 13 He will love you and bless you and multiply you. He will bless the fruit from your womb and the fruit from your soil, your grain and your new wine and your fresh olive oil, the offspring of your cattle and the young of your flock upon the land that he swore to your fathers that he would give you. 14 You will be blessed beyond all the peoples. There will not be an infertile male or infertile female among you or among your livestock. 15 The Lord will remove from you all sickness, and he will not place on you all of the diseases of Egypt, the calamities that you experienced. Instead he will put them on all those who hate you. 16 You will consume all the peoples that the Lord your God is giving to you. Your eye is not to look with compassion on them. You are not to serve their gods, because that would be a snare to you.
17 If you say in your heart, “These nations are more numerous than we are. How are we able to take possession of their land?” 18 do not be afraid of them. Be sure to remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all the Egyptians. 19 The great test which your eyes saw and the signs and the wonders and the strong hand and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out—that is what the Lord your God will do to all the peoples that you fear.
20 The Lord your God will also send the hornet against them until those who are left and are hiding from you have been destroyed. 21 Do not be overwhelmed before them, because the Lord your God is right among you, a great and awe-inspiring God.
22 The Lord your God, the God before you, will clear away the nations little by little. You will not succeed in finishing them off too quickly, so that the wild animals do not become too numerous for you. 23 But the Lord your God will give them over to you, and he will throw these peoples into complete confusion until they are destroyed. 24 He will give their kings into your hands, and he will cause their names to die out under the heavens, because none of them will be able to hold their ground against you until you have destroyed them. 25 Burn the images of their gods with fire, and do not covet the silver and gold on them or take it for yourself, so that you are not snared by it, because it is an abomination to the Lord your God. 26 Do not bring a detestable thing to your house and in that way become devoted to destruction just like it. Detest it and regard it as an utterly disgusting thing, because it is devoted to destruction.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.