The Privileges of the Covenant
1Now, Israel, pay attention to the statutes and ordinances I am about to teach you, so that you might live and go on to enter and take possession of the land that the
2Do not add a thing to what I command you nor subtract from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the
3You have witnessed what the
4But you who remained faithful to the
5Look! I have taught you statutes and ordinances just as the
6So be sure to do them, because this will testify of your wise understanding to the people who will learn of all these statutes and say, “Indeed, this great nation is a very wise people.”
7In fact, what other great nation has a god so near to them like the
8And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this whole law that I am about to share with you today?
Reminder of the Horeb Covenant
9Again, however, pay very careful attention, lest you forget the things you have seen and disregard them for the rest of your life; instead teach them to your children and grandchildren.
10You stood before the
11You approached and stood at the foot of the mountain, a mountain ablaze to the sky above it and yet dark with a thick cloud.
12Then the
13And he revealed to you the covenant he has commanded you to keep, the ten commandments, writing them on two stone tablets.
14Moreover, at that same time the
The Nature of Israel’s God
15Be very careful, then, because you saw no form at the time the
16I say this so you will not corrupt yourselves by making an image in the form of any kind of figure. This includes the likeness of a human male or female,
17any kind of land animal, any bird that flies in the sky,
18anything that crawls on the ground, or any fish in the deep waters of the earth.
19When you look up to the sky and see the sun, moon, and stars – the whole heavenly creation – you must not be seduced to worship and serve them, for the
20You, however, the
21But the
22So I must die here in this land; I will not cross the Jordan. But you are going over and will possess that good land.
23Be on guard so that you do not forget the covenant of the
24For the
Threat and Blessing following Covenant Disobedience
25After you have produced children and grandchildren and have been in the land a long time, if you become corrupt and make an image of any kind and do other evil things before the
26I invoke heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that you will surely and swiftly be removed from the very land you are about to cross the Jordan to possess. You will not last long there because you will surely be annihilated.
27Then the
28There you will worship gods made by human hands – wood and stone that can neither see, hear, eat, nor smell.
29But if you seek the
30In your distress when all these things happen to you in the latter days, if you return to the
31(for he is a merciful God), he will not let you down or destroy you, for he cannot forget the covenant with your ancestors that he confirmed by oath to them.
The Uniqueness of Israel’s God
32Indeed, ask about the distant past, starting from the day God created humankind on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether there has ever been such a great thing as this, or even a rumor of it.
33Have a people ever heard the voice of God speaking from the middle of fire, as you yourselves have, and lived to tell about it?
34Or has God ever before tried to deliver a nation from the middle of another nation, accompanied by judgments, signs, wonders, war, strength, power, and other very terrifying things like the
35You have been taught that the
36From heaven he spoke to you in order to teach you, and on earth he showed you his great fire from which you also heard his words.
37Moreover, because he loved your ancestors, he chose their descendants who followed them and personally brought you out of Egypt with his great power
38to dispossess nations greater and stronger than you and brought you here this day to give you their land as your property.
39Today realize and carefully consider that the
40Keep his statutes and commandments that I am setting forth today so that it may go well with you and your descendants and that you may enjoy longevity in the land that the
The Narrative Concerning Cities of Refuge
41Then Moses selected three cities in the Transjordan, toward the east.
42Anyone who accidentally killed someone without hating him at the time of the accident could flee to one of those cities and be safe.
43These cities are Bezer, in the desert plateau, for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for the Manassehites.
The Setting and Introduction of the Covenant
44This is the law that Moses set before the Israelites.
45These are the stipulations, statutes, and ordinances that Moses spoke to the Israelites after he had brought them out of Egypt,
46in the Transjordan, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, in the land of King Sihon of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon. (It is he whom Moses and the Israelites attacked after they came out of Egypt.
47They possessed his land and that of King Og of Bashan – both of whom were Amorite kings in the Transjordan, to the east.
48Their territory extended from Aroer at the edge of the Arnon valley as far as Mount Siyon – that is, Hermon –
49including all the Arabah of the Transjordan in the east to the sea of the Arabah, beneath the watershed of Pisgah.)
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