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1 And now, Israel, hear the statutes and the judgments which I am to teach you to do, that you may live, and go in to inherit the land which the Lord God of your fathers hath given you. 2 Ye shall not add to the word that I command you, nor diminish from it, to keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. 3 Your eyes have seen what the Lord hath done with the worshippers of Baala Peor; for all the men who went after Baala Peor the Lord thy God hath destroyed from among you. 4 But you who have cleaved to the fear of the Lord your God, are alive all of you this day. 5 Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you may so do in the land to which you go to possess it. 6 And observe, and perform; for this is your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the nations who will hear all these statutes, and say, Most surely this great people is a wise and understanding people. 7 For what people so great who hath God so nigh unto it to hearken to their prayer in the time of their tribulation, as the Lord our God (is to us) in every time that we pray before Him? 8 Or what people so great which hath statutes and judgments so true as all this law which I set before you this day?
9 Only take heed to thyself, and diligently keep thy soul, all the days of thy life, lest thou forget the things which thy eyes have seen, and they pass away from thy heart. But make them known to thy children, and to thy children’s children, 10 (as was said) on the day when thou stoodest before the Lord thy God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me, Gather the people together before Me, and I will make them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days which they live on the earth, and may teach their children. 11 And you came near, and stood at the lower parts of the mountain, and the mount burned with fire to the height of the heavens, in darkness, clouds, and shadow. 12 And the Lord spake with you from the midst of the fire; you heard a voice of words, but you beheld no similitude; (there was) only the Voice. 13 And He proclaimed to you His covenant which He commanded you to do, even the Ten Words; and He wrote them upon two tables of stone. 14 And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments for you to perform in the land whither you pass over to possess it.
15 But take heed to your souls; for you saw no likeness in the day that the Lord spake with you from the midst of the fire; 16 Lest you corrupt yourselves, and make you an image, or the likeness of any form, the likeness of male or female, 17 of any beast on the ground, or of any bird which flieth in the air of the expanse of the skies, 18 Of any reptile of the earth, or any fish of the waters, under the earth; 19 And lest thou lift up thine eyes to the heavens, and behold the sun, or moon and stars, all the host of the heavens, and go astray and worship them, and serve them, which the Lord thy God hath not appointed for any of the nations that are under the whole heavens. 20 But you hath the Lord drawn nigh unto His service, and brought you out from the iron furnace, (even) from Mizraim, to be unto Him a people of inheritance, as at this day. 21 But towards me the Lord had displeasure, on account of your words, and He sware that I should not go over Jordan, nor enter the good land which the Lord your God giveth you to inherit. 22 For I must die in this land; I am not to pass over the Jordan; but you are to pass over, and inherit that good land. 23 Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which He hath concluded with you, and you make an image for you, the likeness of anything about which the Lord thy God hath commanded thee. 24 For the Word of the Lord thy God is a consuming fire: He is a jealous God.
25 When thou shalt have begotten sons and daughters, and have grown old in the land, and thou become corrupt, and make an image, the likeness of anything, or do what is evil before the Lord thy God, to cause displeasure before Him; 26 I call, this day, the heavens and earth to witness that you will surely perish from off the land whither you go over the Jordan to possess it: you will not prolong days upon it, for with destruction you will be destroyed. 27 And the Lord will scatter you among the nations, and you will remain a numbered people among the nations whither the Lord shall lead you. 28 And there will you serve the peoples who are worshippers of idols, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. 29 Yet if from thence thou seek the fear of the Lord thy God, thou shalt find, if thou seek for Him with thy heart, and with all thy soul. 30 When thou wilt be in trouble, and all these words will have found thee, in the end of the days, and thou wilt turn unto the fear of the Lord thy God, 31 and be obedient to His Word, because the Lord thy God is a merciful God; He will not forsake thee, nor destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which He sware unto them.
32 For ask now of the ancient days that have been before thee, from the day that the Lord created man upon the earth, and (ask) from one end of the heavens to the other, 33 if there hath been so great a thing as this, or any heard like it, whether a people have heard the voice of the Word of the Lord speaking from the midst of the fire as thou didst hear, and have lived. 34 Or (if any have seen) like miracles which the Lord hath wrought, in being revealed to redeem to Himself a people from among a people, by miracles, signs, and wonders, and with war, and by a mighty hand and uplifted arm, and by grand visions, according to all that the Lord your God hath done for you in Mizraim before your eyes. 35 Unto thee hath it been shown, that thou mayest know that the Lord He is God, there is none beside Him. 36 From the heavens thou didst hear the voice of His Word, that He might teach thee, and upon earth He showed thee His great fire, and thou heardest His words from the midst of the fire. 37 And because He loved thy fathers, and had pleasure in their children after them, He brought thee out by His Word, by His mighty power, from Mizraim, 38 To drive out nations greater and stronger than thou from before thee, to bring thee in, to give thee their land to inherit, as at this day. 39 Know then, this day, and revolve it in thy heart, that the Lord He is God, whose glory is in the heavens above, and who ruleth upon the earth beneath, (and that) there is none but He; 40 And keep His statutes and His commandments that I teach thee this day, that it may be well with thee, and thy sons after thee, and thou mayest prolong days on the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, all the days.
41 Then Mosheh separated three cities on the other side of the Jordan (toward) the sunrise, 42 that the slayer may escape thither who may kill his neighbour unawares, not having hated him yesterday, or before it; and that, escaping to one of those cities, he may live: 43 Bezer, in the wilderness, in the plain land of the tribe of Reuben; Ramoth, in Gilead, of the tribe Gad; and Golan, in Mathnan, of the tribe of Menasheh.
44 And this is the law which Mosheh set in order before the children of Israel: 45 These are the testimonies, statutes, and judgments, which Mosheh spake to the children of Israel, on their coming forth from Mizraim; 46 On the other side of Jordan, in the vale over against Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amoraah, who dwelt in Heshbon, whom Mosheh and the children of Israel smote when they had come out of Mizraim. 47 And they took possession of his land, and the land of Og king of Mathnan, two kings of the Amoraah, who were beyond Jordan, toward the sunrise; 48 From Aroer, upon the bank of the river Arnon to the mountain of Siaon, which is Hermon; 49 And all the plain beyond Jordan eastward unto the sea of the plain at the declivity of the heights.