Deuteronomy - The Old Testament

¹ 'You must love Yahweh your God and always keep his observances, his laws, his customs, his commandments.

² You are the ones who have had the experience, not your children. They have not had the experience, they have not witnessed the lessons of Yahweh your God, his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm,

³ the signs and the deeds which he performed in the heart of Egypt, against Pharaoh king of Egypt and his entire country,

⁴ what he did to the armies of Egypt, to their horses and their chariots, by overwhelming them with the waters of the Sea of Reeds when they were pursuing you, and leaving no trace of them to this day;

⁵ what he did for you in the desert, until you arrived here;

⁶ what he did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when, with all Israel standing round, the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, with their families, their tents and all their supporters.

⁷ All these great deeds of Yahweh you have seen with your own eyes.

⁸ 'You must keep all the commandments which I enjoin on you today, so that you may have the strength to conquer the country into which you are about to cross, to take possession of it,

⁹ and so that you may live long in the country which Yahweh promised on oath to bestow on your ancestors and their descendants, a country flowing with milk and honey.

¹⁰ 'For the country which you are about to enter and make your own is not like the country of Egypt from which you have come, where, having done your sowing, you had to water the seed by foot, as though in a vegetable garden.

¹¹ No, the country which you are about to enter and make your own, is a country of hills and valleys watered by the rain of heaven.

¹² Yahweh your God looks after this country, the eyes of Yahweh your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end.

¹³ Depend on it: if you faithfully obey the commandments I enjoin on you today, loving Yahweh your God and serving him with all your heart and all your soul,

¹⁴ I shall give your country rain at the right time, rain in autumn, rain in spring, so that you can harvest your wheat, your new wine and your oil.

¹⁵ I shall provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat to your heart's content.

¹⁶ Beware of letting your heart be seduced: if you go astray, serve other gods and bow down to them,

¹⁷ Yahweh's anger will be kindled against you, he will shut the heavens, there will be no more rain, the soil will not yield its produce and, in the fine country given you by Yahweh, you will quickly perish.

¹⁸ 'Let these words of mine remain in your heart and in your soul; fasten them on your hand as a sign and on your forehead as a headband.

¹⁹ Teach them to your children, and keep on telling them, when you are sitting at home, when you are out and about, when you are lying down and when you are standing up.

²⁰ Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,

²¹ so that you and your children may live long in the country which Yahweh swore to your ancestors that he would give them for as long as there is a sky above the earth.

²² 'For if you faithfully keep and observe all these commandments that I enjoin on you today, loving Yahweh your God, following all his ways and holding fast to him,

²³ Yahweh will dispossess all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and more powerful than yourselves.

²⁴ Wherever the sole of your foot treads will be yours; your territory will run from the desert all the way to the Lebanon; and from the River, from the River Euphrates, as far as the Western Sea, will be your territory.

²⁵ No one will be able to resist you; Yahweh your God will make you feared and dreaded throughout the territory you tread, as he has promised you.

²⁶ 'Today, look, I am offering you a blessing and a curse:

²⁷ a blessing, if you obey the commandments of Yahweh your God which I enjoin on you today;

²⁸ a curse, if you disobey the commandments of Yahweh your God and leave the way which today I have marked out for you, by following other gods hitherto unknown to you.

²⁹ And when Yahweh your God has brought you into the country which you are about to enter and make your own, you must set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.

³⁰ (These mountains, as everyone knows, are on the other side of the Jordan on the westward road, in the territory of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, near the Oak of Moreh.)

³¹ For you are about to cross the Jordan, to enter and take possession of the country given you by Yahweh your God. You will possess it, you will live in it,

³² and you must keep and observe all the laws and customs promulgated by me to you today.'