Bible in 90 Days

Moses: ²⁹ If indeed the Gadites and Reubenites fight in front of the Eternal One and beside the rest of you to successfully dominate that land across the Jordan River, then you must honor their desire to return here to have this Gilead land for their own. ³⁰ But if they don’t take up their weapons and go with you into battle, then their ownership of this territory is null and void, and they shall be assigned land in Canaan along with the rest of the Israelite tribes.

Reubenites and Gadites: ³¹ Exactly as we understand this to be the will of God, we will do it. ³² We’ll arm ourselves and fight with you under His direction in Canaan, but with the understanding that our home is right here, on this side of the Jordan River.

Eternal One: ⁵¹ Tell this new generation of Israelites that as soon as they cross the Jordan into Canaan, ⁵² they must make its inhabitants flee. They must obliterate any carved or molded images of other gods and goddesses and the high places where they’re worshiped. ⁵³ Tell them they must take that land. I promised it to them and have determined they should live in it as their own. ⁵⁴ Divide it up among the people by clan, and make decisions about who gets what partly based on the size of the groups. But once you’ve made that rough distinction, draw lots for the specific territories. Whatever you draw, that’s how the land shall be allotted. Each of the tribes from Jacob’s extended families shall have their own land. ⁵⁵ If they do not fully conquer and take the land from its native inhabitants, those remaining people will be a constant irritation, causing trouble and annoyance like thorns in their eyes and barbs in their sides ⁵⁶ because if they don’t fully dispossess the present occupants, I will do to the Israelites what I would have done to the Canaanites.

Eternal One (to Moses): ² Command the Israelites, “This is the exact territory you should take, as promised to you by Me for an inheritance throughout the succeeding generations—the entire land of Canaan. ³ The southern part runs from the Zin Wilderness along the border with Edom. The southern boundary begins at the end of the Dead Sea^[c] on the east, ⁴ turns south of the Akrabbim highlands, and crosses over to Zin. Its far end is south of Kadesh-barnea, over to Hazar-addar, across to Azmon, ⁵ and from there to the Egyptian Wadi straight out to the great Mediterranean Sea. ⁶ This great sea will be your western boundary. ⁷ At the northern end, make a line from the great Mediterranean Sea to Mount Hor, ⁸ then to Lebo-hamath, and up to Zedad. ⁹ Your territory will be south of Ziphron and Hazar-enan. All that makes up your northern boundary. ¹⁰ As for the east, mark your boundary from Hazar-enan to Shepham, ¹¹ down to Riblah (east of Ain), follow the eastern slope of the Sea of Chinnereth, ¹² and down the Jordan River all the way to the Dead Sea.^[d] That’s it. Those are the boundaries of your promised land.”

Moses (to the Israelites): ¹³ Exactly which parts of it go to which family shall be determined finally by lot. That is, at least, for the nine remaining tribes and for Ephraim, the other half of the Joseph tribe. ^14-15 The extended families of Gadites, Reubenites, and Manassehites (from Joseph’s line) have already gotten their land on this eastern side of the Jordan River.

Eternal One: ¹⁷ The priest Eleazar and Joshua (Nun’s son) shall have the honor of assigning the territories that will henceforth be each one’s ancestral land. ¹⁸ One from each of the tribes will then execute these directions. ¹⁹ Those men are: for Judah—Caleb (Jephunneh’s son); ²⁰ for Simeon—Shemuel (Ammihud’s son); ²¹ for Benjamin—Elidad (Chislon’s son); ²² for the Danites—Bukki (Jogli’s son); ²³ out of the greater Joseph family, for the Manassehites—Hanniel (Ephod’s son), ²⁴ and for the Ephraimites—Kemuel (Shiphtan’s son); ²⁵ for Zebulun—Elizaphan (Parnach’s son); ²⁶ for Issachar—Paltiel (Azzan’s son); ²⁷ for Asher—Ahihud (Shelomi’s son); ²⁸ and for Naphtali—Pedahel (Ammihud’s son).

Eternal One: ² Tell the Israelite families that once they’ve received the land that will be undeniably theirs and theirs alone, they must each set aside some cities and those cities’ surrounding fields within their particular territory for the Levites. ^3-4 The Levites can then live in those cities and use the surrounding fields, 1,500 feet from the wall all around, to keep and raise their animals. ⁵ In other words, with the city at the center, the fields designated for the Levites should encompass a territory with a radius of 3,000 feet.

^6-8 Make sure they are allocated according to the size of the territory that each group has. The biggest families will give the greatest number of towns; the smaller tribes only a few. Included among the Levites’ towns, 48 in total, shall be the six cities of refuge to where a person who killed someone by accident can run for safety from revenge, along with 42 other cities.

⁹ (continuing to Moses) ¹⁰ Tell the Israelites that once they’ve crossed the Jordan into Canaan and can see the land for themselves, ^11-12 they should pick out which cities they want to make safe havens for persons accused of manslaughter. If someone kills another person by accident, the guilty party should be able to live in one of those cities without fear that he’ll be killed in revenge before he’s had a fair trial in front of his peers. ^13-15 It’s up to the people exactly which six cities they designate for this purpose, but be sure three are beyond the Jordan and three are in Canaan. These are to be safe places for anyone who unintentionally caused another person’s death whether he is an Israelite or a foreigner.

^16-21 If someone picks up an instrument—iron, stone, wood, whatever—and batters somebody else so badly that the victim dies, or if he otherwise kills with intent (fatally pushes with hatred or throws an object from some hidden place that kills its target), the perpetrator is guilty of murder. His punishment is death in return, and someone shall be assigned to kill him. The one to carry out this death penalty is called the “blood avenger.” Whenever the avenger has a chance to kill the murderer, he should do so.

^22-28 Sometimes it happens, though, that a person pushes his friend or acquaintance, throws an object, or happens to drop a heavy stone on someone else without any intention of hurting (much less killing) the person, but the other person happens to die from it. The guilty person should be able to take refuge in one of the six designated cities, safe from the one who would avenge the death he caused. Then people from among the greater community shall judge whether it was indeed an accident or not. When the congregation determines it was an accident, the person who accidentally killed shall be saved from the blood avenger. He must live within the city of refuge, though. If he leaves it, the blood avenger is allowed to kill him with impunity because the man knew not to leave his sanctuary city. However, once the anointed high priest of Israel dies, that restriction shall be lifted, and the person who unintentionally killed another may return home, free and clear. ²⁹ This is the way it should be, a binding law based on precedents, for this community down through the generations and wherever they happen to be living.

³⁰ The case of intentional murder is different. A person so guilty shall be put to death, but only if there are enough witnesses to render a reliable account. If only one person claims to have seen the crime, you shall not put the accused to death. ³¹ If someone is indeed guilty, there shall be no alternative of life ransom for the death penalty. This crime cannot be paid off. ³² Neither shall you take money to get a person accused of manslaughter out of his obligation to live in the city of refuge. He simply must stay there till the term is up, when the high priest dies. ³³ Failure to honor life in this way contaminates the very land itself. Do not pollute the land where you live by allowing blood guilt to go unpunished. Once the land has been subjected to such violence, it must be purified, so the blood of the one who caused bloodshed must be shed. ³⁴ You won’t pollute the land where you live and where I also have chosen to dwell among you. I, the Eternal One, dwell among the Israelites.

Zelophehad’s Family: ² We appreciate and accept that the Eternal One told Moses, my lord, that among the land given by lot to the Israelites, whatever would have gone to Zelophehad (our kinsman) as an inheritance should be passed down to his daughters. ³ The trouble is, if they marry outside of our tribe into another Israelite tribe, their land will go with them. That will reduce the territory designated to our family and increase the other tribe’s inheritance. ⁴ And in the great 50th year, the Sabbath of Sabbath years called the Jubilee of the Israelites, whatever land used to be ours through their connection to our family will certainly revert to whichever tribe they married into.^[e] In other words, their inheritance will be forever taken away from the territory that belongs to our extended family.

Moses (to all the Israelites): ⁵ The Eternal has said that these descendants of Joseph are right. ^6-9 In light of it, He has determined that Zelophehad’s daughters should marry whomever they think is best, but they should do so within the clan of their extended family so that their land stays in the family. The same goes for any future Israelite daughters in a similar situation. Let them marry whomever they will, but only within the clan of their father’s extended family. There shouldn’t be any permanent transfer of land from one tribe to another because the territories should be fixed as each tribe’s inheritance for all time.

Moses: ⁶ The Eternal, our True God, spoke to us back at Horeb. He told us, “You’ve stayed long enough at this mountain! ⁷ Break camp, and head up into the Amorite highlands, into the territories of all their neighbors—into the arid valley,^[f] the hills, the lowlands, the southern desert,^[g] and the Mediterranean seacoast. Go into the land of the Canaanites, as far north as Lebanon and all the way east to the great Euphrates River. ⁸ Look! I’ve brought you right to the edge of the land that I, the Eternal, swore I’d give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their descendants after them. Go in, and take possession of it!”

⁹ I had to tell you at the time, “I can’t bear you as a people and deal with all of your cases by myself anymore. ¹⁰ The Eternal your God has kept increasing your numbers, and just look at you today! There are as many of you as there are stars in the sky! ¹¹ I hope the Eternal, the God of your ancestors, makes you a thousand times more numerous and blesses you just as He said He would. ¹² But how can I alone handle your problems and burdens and cases? ¹³ Choose some wise, perceptive, knowledgeable men from your tribes, and I’ll put them in authority over you.” ¹⁴ You told me you thought it was a great plan, ¹⁵ so I took some leaders from your tribes who were wise and well respected; I chose them as authorities over you all—of groups of thousands or hundreds or fifties or tens, and I appointed some as tribal representatives. ¹⁶ Then I gave your judges careful instructions: “Listen to the disputes between your neighbors that are brought to you, and judge them fairly regardless of who is involved—two Israelites or an Israelite and a foreigner. ¹⁷ Don’t show any favoritism when you judge; whether a person is important or unimportant, hear him out. Don’t be intimidated by anybody because it’s really God who is the judge; you are just His agents. If any case is too difficult for you, bring it to me, and I’ll handle it.” ¹⁸ At that time, I told you everything you needed to do.

¹⁹ Then we left Horeb, as the Eternal, our True God, commanded us; and we went through that awful, vast wilderness—none of us will ever forget the sight! We headed toward the Amorite highlands until we got to Kadesh-barnea. ²⁰ I told you, “You’ve reached the Amorite highlands, and the Eternal our God is going to give them to us soon. ²¹ Look! The Eternal, your True God, has put this land within your grasp! Go up into these highlands, and take possession of them as the Eternal, the God of your ancestors, promised you would. Go! Don’t be afraid, and don’t be intimidated!”

²² But you approached me with ideas of your own: “Couldn’t we send a few people in to investigate first? They could explore the land, come back, and tell us what route we should take and what cities we’d come to along the way.” ²³ I agreed this was a good idea, so I chose 12 of you to go, one from each tribe. ²⁴ They went up into the highlands. They explored the Eshcol Valley ²⁵ and picked some of the enormous fruit growing there. Then they came back down to us with the fruit and a report: “This is a wonderful land that the Eternal our God is going to give to us!”

²⁶ But even after all this encouragement, you still weren’t willing to go up and fight. You rebelled against what the Eternal your God told you to do. ²⁷ In your homes, you complained to each other, “The Eternal hates us! That’s why He brought us out of the land of Egypt—so He could hand us over to the Amorites. They’re going to destroy us! ²⁸ He tells us, ‘Go up,’ but go up where? The report of the rest of those we sent out was terrifying: ‘The people there are bigger and taller than we are. Their cities are huge, with walls as high as the sky! We even saw giants there—descendants of the Anakim.’”

²⁹ So I told you, “Don’t be scared! Don’t be afraid of them! ³⁰ You won’t have to fight this battle yourselves; the Eternal your God, who always goes ahead of you, will fight for you just as He did in Egypt—you saw Him do it! ³¹ And here in this wilderness, all along the route you’ve traveled until you reached this place, haven’t you seen the Eternal, your True God, carrying you the way a parent carries a child? ³² But you still don’t trust the Eternal your God, ³³ even though He always goes ahead of you as you travel and finds places for you to camp. In a pillar of fire by night and in a cloud by day, He always shows you the right way to go.”

³⁴ When the Eternal heard your untrusting words, He angrily swore an oath: ³⁵ “Not a single person in this wicked generation will see the good land I swore to give to your ancestors! ³⁶ There’ll be only one exception: Caleb (Jephunneh’s son). He will see it. I’ll give the very land he walked through when he spied it out to him and his descendants because he remained completely loyal to the Eternal.” ³⁷ And He was angry with me, too, because of the way you acted. He told me, “Not even you will go into the land! ³⁸ It will be Joshua (Nun’s son), a man you’ve already entrusted with important responsibilities, who will enter it instead. Encourage him, because he will lead the people into the land and give it to Israel as their possession. ³⁹ You said that if you fought, all your soldiers would be killed and your little ones would become plunder for your enemies. But it will be those children under age 20, who don’t know right from wrong yet, who will enter the land. I’ll give it to them, and it will belong to them. ⁴⁰ But as for you, head back into the wilderness, toward the Red Sea.”^[h]

⁴¹ After God’s judgment you responded, “We’ve sinned against the Eternal! We’ll go up and fight now, just as the Eternal, our True God, commanded us.” So each of you strapped on your weapons and prepared to fight. You thought it would be easy to get up into the highlands. ⁴² The Eternal tried to warn you that it was too late by telling me, “Tell them not to go up and not to fight! I am not with them. They’ll be crushed by their enemies.” ⁴³ I told you everything, but you wouldn’t listen. You rebelled against the Eternal’s command, and you went up arrogantly into the highlands. ⁴⁴ The Amorites who lived there came out and attacked you, and you ran away from them as if they were a swarm of bees! They crushed more and more of your soldiers all the way from Seir to Hormah, until they gave up the chase. ⁴⁵ You came back and wept before the Eternal. But He wouldn’t listen to a word you said. ⁴⁶ So you just stayed in Kadesh and didn’t leave for a long time.

2 Moses: Finally we did as the Eternal had commanded me, and we headed back into the wilderness toward the Red Sea.^[i] For a long time, we wandered around Mount Seir, ² until at last I got new instructions from the Eternal: ³ “You’ve wandered around this mountain long enough. Turn north, ⁴ and give the people these directions from Me: ‘You’re going to cross into the territory of a people who are related to you. They’re the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They’ll be afraid of you, so be very careful what you do. ⁵ Don’t incite a fight with them because I won’t give you even a square foot of their land. I gave Mount Seir to Esau, and I want his descendants to live there. ⁶ ‘You may purchase food from them with silver and eat; you may buy water from them with silver and drink.’” ⁷ You are not to plunder this nation because the Eternal your God, has blessed you in every way. He’s watched over you as you’ve journeyed through this vast wilderness. Throughout these 40 years, the Eternal your God has been with you, and you haven’t lacked a thing.

⁸ So we traveled peacefully past our relatives, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. We left the road through the arid valley,^[j] bypassing Elath and Ezion-geber, and took the desert road to Moab. ⁹ There the Eternal gave me more instructions: “Don’t attack the Moabites, and don’t fight any battles with them because I’m not going to give you any of Moab’s land. I gave Ar to these descendants of Lot, so it belongs to them.”

Moses: So we crossed the Zered Valley. ¹⁴ At that point, we’d been traveling for 38 years, from Kadesh-barnea to the Zered Valley. The last of the people in our camp who had been old enough to fight back then, those men of war, finally died. The Eternal had sworn to them that none of them would be left among us when we did enter the land, and this happened just as He said. ¹⁵ The Eternal struck them with one disaster after another inside the camp until they were all dead.

¹⁶ Just as soon as the last man of war was gone, ¹⁷ the Eternal spoke to me: ¹⁸ “Today you will pass into the territory of Moab when you cross Ar. ¹⁹ When you get to the other side, you’ll be facing the descendants of Ammon. Don’t attack them, and don’t fight any battles with them because I’m not going to give you any of Ammon’s land. I already gave this land to these descendants of Lot, so it belongs to them.”

Moses: ²⁴ The Lord continued, saying, “Get up, get going, and move on through the Arnon Valley. Listen: I’m going to defeat Sihon, the Amorite king of Heshbon, for you; I’ll give you his land as the beginning of your new territory. Go get it, and attack him! ²⁵ Starting today, I’m going to make every nation under the sky terrified of you. When they hear about you, they will tremble and despair.”

²⁶ We were in the wilderness of Kedemoth when I sent messengers to King Sihon in Heshbon and offered him these terms of peace: ²⁷ “Allow me to go across your land. I’ll keep to the King’s Highway; I won’t turn off to the right or to the left. ²⁸ I ask only for these rights: sell me food and water for silver, so that I can eat and so that I can drink. Just let me walk across your land. ²⁹ The descendants of Esau who live in Seir let me pass through their territory this way, and so did the Moabites who live in Ar. I’ll keep going right to the Jordan River, where I’ll cross into the land the Eternal, our True God, is giving to us.” ³⁰ But Sihon, king of Heshbon, refused to let us go through his land marching so close to his capital. The Eternal your God made him stubborn and obstinate so that he would fight and be defeated by you, and that’s just what happened. ³¹ The Eternal told me, “Look! I have already begun to hand Sihon and his land over to you. Go and take it! His land will be the first of your new territories.” ³² Then Sihon and his whole army came out to fight against us at Jahaz. ³³ The Eternal, our True God, defeated him for us; we destroyed Sihon and his sons and his whole army. ³⁴ We captured all his cities at that time, and we killed all the men, women, and children in each one of them. We didn’t leave a single survivor. ³⁵ We kept only the livestock as our plunder, along with the loot from the cities we had captured. ³⁶ Not a single city was strong enough to keep us out—from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Valley, including the settlement down in the valley, all the way to Gilead! The Eternal our God gave all of them to us. ³⁷ But you didn’t go near the land of the Ammonites along the Jabbok River, or toward their cities in the highlands, or anywhere else the Eternal our God told us not to go.

3 Moses: Then we left those conquered regions and continued up the road toward Bashan. Og, the king of Bashan, came out with his whole army to fight against us at Edrei. ² But the Eternal reassured me, “Don’t be afraid of him! I’m going to defeat him and his whole army for you, and I’ll give you his land. You’ll do the same thing to him that you did to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon.” ³ The Eternal, our True God, defeated Og, king of Bashan, for us. We destroyed his whole army—there were no survivors left to fight for him. ^4-5 We captured all 60 of his large cities and their surrounding villages at that time; there wasn’t a single one we didn’t take from them in the whole region of Argob (which was the kingdom of Og in Bashan) in spite of their strong defenses: high walls, fortified gates, and strong bars latching the gates’ doors, but we took them all, and a large number of villages. ⁶ We killed all the men, women, and children in each one of them, just as we had done to Sihon, king of Heshbon. ⁷ We kept only the cattle and the loot from the cities as our plunder.

⁸ This is how at that time we conquered the whole land east of the Jordan River. We captured it all from those two ruling Amorite kings, everything from the Arnon Valley all the way up to Mount Hermon:^{[l] 10} all the cities of the plateau, all of Gilead, and all of Bashan, right out to the cities of Salecah and Edrei (which were in King Og’s Bashan). ^12a From then on, all of that land belonged to us.

Moses: ^12b To the children of Reuben and Gad, I gave the kingdom of Sihon, the area north of Aroer on the edge of the Arnon Valley, including half the Gilead highlands and all the cities there. ¹³ I gave the kingdom of Og to half of Joseph’s descendants in the tribe of Manasseh who settled east of the Jordan, including the rest of Gilead, the region of Argob, and Bashan.

Moses: ¹⁵ I gave the city of Gilead to Machir, another leader of Manasseh, because he conquered it. ¹⁶ And I gave the children of Reuben and Gad the land from Gilead south to the middle of the Arnon Valley, north to the Jabbok River, east to the border with Ammon; ¹⁷ and west to the Jordan River Valley, from the Sea of Galilee^[m] down to the Dead Sea,^[n] beneath where Mount Pisgah rises to the east. ¹⁸ Do you remember what I commanded you at the time? I told the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, “The Eternal your God has given you this land, and now it belongs to you. I want all of your warriors to cross the Jordan, fully armed, ahead of your fellow Israelites. ¹⁹ Only your wives and children and cattle (I know you have a lot of cattle thanks to the plunder you earned) will stay behind in the cities I’ve given you. ²⁰ When the Eternal your God has given the rest of the Israelites the land that will belong to them on the other side of the Jordan, when they are living in peace just as you are now, then each of you can come back here and live on your own land which I’ve given you.”

²¹ I told Joshua, “You’ve seen with your own eyes everything the Eternal your God has done to these two kings. He will do the same thing to the kingdoms you’re now going into. ²² Don’t be afraid of them—any of you! The Eternal your God will do the fighting for you.”

Moses: ²³ Then I pleaded again and again with the Eternal on my own behalf. ²⁴ “Eternal Lord, You’ve only just begun to show me, Your servant, how very great and powerful You are. What other god in heaven or on earth can do the great and powerful things You do? ²⁵ Please let me cross the Jordan and see that good land and those beautiful highlands and Lebanon.” ²⁶ But the Eternal was angry with me because of you, and He wouldn’t listen to me.

Moses: The Eternal said to me, “That’s enough! Don’t ever bring this up to Me again! ²⁷ You can go up to the top of Mount Pisgah and look to the west and north and south and east to see the land from there. Take a good look, because you’re not going to cross the Jordan River. ²⁸ So instruct Joshua, and strengthen and encourage him, because he’s the one who will lead the people into the land you see and make it their territory. He will conquer it for them.” ²⁹ And that’s why we’ve stayed here in this valley by Beth-peor at the foot of Mount Pisgah.

4 Moses: So now, Israel, pay close attention to the laws and judgments I’m going to teach you. If you follow them, you’ll enter and live in the land the Eternal, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. You’ll conquer it, and it will become your territory. ² Don’t add anything to what I command you, and don’t take away anything from it; just follow the commands of the Eternal your God that I’m giving you now.

³ You saw with your own eyes what the Eternal did about your immorality at Baal-peor, the mountain-god. When some of you followed after the Baal god, the Eternal your God killed them right in front of you—not one of them survived!^{[o] 4} But all of you who remained loyal to the Eternal your God are still alive today. ⁵ So pay attention—I’m teaching you the rules and judgments the Eternal my God has given me for you. You’re to follow them when you enter the land and settle there. ⁶ If you obey them carefully, all the nations around you will marvel at your wisdom and understanding. They’ll hear about these rules and say, “This is a great nation—its people are so wise and understanding!” ⁷ Indeed, what other nation is so great that it has a god that compares to the Eternal our God as He is near to us whenever we call on Him? ⁸ What other nation is so great that it has rules and judgments as just as the ones contained in this whole law I’m presenting to you today?

Moses: ⁹ So watch what you do! Be careful with your very life! Don’t forget the things you saw with your own eyes, and don’t let them fade from your memory. Remember them your whole life; teach them to your children and your grandchildren. ¹⁰ Remember the day you stood before the Eternal, your True God, at Horeb when He called you to come close. He told me, “Bring all the people to Me. I want them to hear My words, so that they will learn to fear Me as long as they live on this earth and will teach their children to do the same.” ¹¹ You all came and stood at the foot of the mountain. It blazed with fire all the way up into the sky while dark clouds and mist obscured your view. ¹² Then the Eternal spoke to you from inside that fire. You heard His voice, you heard His words, but you didn’t see His shape—you only heard a voice. ¹³ He told you what to do to keep the covenant He made with you. He gave you the Ten Directives and engraved two copies of them on two stone tablets. ¹⁴ The Eternal commanded me at that time to teach you the rules and judgments that make up the law He wants you to follow in the land where you’re going to live when you cross the Jordan.

¹⁵ So be very careful! Your souls are at stake! You didn’t see any shape when the Eternal spoke to you at Horeb from inside that fire, ¹⁶ so don’t ever become so corrupt that you carve an idol representing Him for yourselves in any shape, whether in the form of a man or a woman, ¹⁷ or in the form of an animal that lives on the land, or a bird with wings that flies through the sky, ¹⁸ or anything that crawls on the ground, or a fish that swims in the sea. ¹⁹ And don’t ever become so corrupt that you look up into the sky and see the sun, the moon, and the stars—as if each of them were a god—and be led astray to bow down to them and worship them, which the Eternal your God has given to all the people on earth. ²⁰ But the Eternal has done something unique for you: He chose you and delivered you from slavery in Egypt where you were purified as if in an iron furnace, and He made you His very own people, which you are today. ²¹ The Eternal was angry with me because of you, and He swore I would not cross the Jordan River and enter the good land the Eternal your God is giving you to live in. ²² I’m not going to cross the Jordan. I’m going to die over on this side, but you will cross the river and take ownership of that good land. ²³ So be very careful! Don’t forget the covenant the Eternal your God made with you; don’t make yourselves an idol in the shape of anything. The Eternal your God has commanded you not to! ²⁴ The Eternal your God burns with jealousy when you’re not completely loyal to Him.

²⁵ It would be disastrous if, after you’ve lived in the land for a long time and had children and grandchildren, you made an idol in any form. You know the Eternal your God considers this an evil thing to do, and it would make Him furious. ²⁶ I call the heaven and the land as witnesses against you today, that if you do this, even though you’re going to cross the Jordan and take possession of the land, you won’t last long on it. You will die quickly—you will certainly be destroyed. ²⁷ The Eternal will scatter what’s left of you among all the other nations. Only a few of you will be left in each of the nations He takes you to. ²⁸ And there you will worship useless items made of wood and stone carved by human beings, so-called “gods” that can’t see or hear or eat or smell. ²⁹ But when you’re there, you’ll look for the Eternal your God. If every part of you is invested in the search, heart and soul, then you’ll find Him. ³⁰ When you’re in trouble in those days yet to come because of all these things, you’ll come back to the Eternal your God, and you’ll listen to His voice. ³¹ He is a compassionate God. He won’t abandon you or destroy you or forget the covenant He made with your ancestors—He swore to them that He’d keep it!

³² Ask anyone who’s ever lived: has anything this great ever happened before? Has anyone even heard of anything like it? Not since the day God first created humanity, not anywhere in the cosmos, from one end to the other. ³³ You heard the voice of God speaking from inside the fire at Mount Horeb, and you survived! No other nation has ever done anything like that. ³⁴ You saw with your own eyes what the Eternal, your True God, did for you in Egypt: He claimed you as His own nation, and He took you right out of another nation that was holding you captive. He rescued you by testing them with plagues, by warning them with signs and omens, by fighting against them with overwhelming strength, and by totally terrifying them! No other god has ever tried to do anything like that. ³⁵ You saw all this so you would know the Eternal is the only God who truly exists. There is no other. ³⁶ You heard His voice from heaven as He admonished you; He showed you His blazing fire on the earth, and you heard His words from inside that fire—all at His will. ³⁷ Because He loved your ancestors, He’s also committed to their descendants who came after them, and that’s why He personally brought you out of Egypt by His own great power. ³⁸ He defeated nations that are greater and stronger than you, and He let you live on their land. It will belong to you! ³⁹ You just need to know with every fiber of your being that the Eternal, and no one else, is God up in heaven and down here on the earth. ⁴⁰ If you remember His rules and keep His commands, which I’m teaching you today, things will go well for you and for your children after you. You’ll live a long time on the ground the Eternal your God is giving you. He wants you to have it forever.

5 Moses: Listen, Israel, as I proclaim these rules and decrees directly to you today! Learn them, and put them into practice. ² The Eternal our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. ³ The Eternal didn’t make that covenant just with our parents; He also made it with all of us who are alive here today, because we were included in the covenant when He made it with them. ⁴ The Eternal tried to talk to you directly at that mountain from inside the fire that rose up into the sky. ⁵ But you were afraid of the fire and wouldn’t go up the mountain, so I stood between you and the Eternal and told you what He was saying.

Eternal One (speaking to the people of Israel through Moses): ⁶ I am the Eternal. I am your True God. I led you out of Egypt where you were slaves.

⁷ You are to worship no other gods before me—My presence is enough.

⁸ You are not to make idols of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or down in the sea. ⁹ You are not to bow down in worship of any images of other gods, for I am the Eternal your God. I am jealous for worship, bringing punishment on you and your children to come, even down to your great-grandchildren, to whoever hates Me. ¹⁰ Instead, those who obey My commands and truly love Me will receive My loyal love endlessly, even for a thousand generations.

¹¹ You are to not use My name lightly or flippantly or as a curse. I will punish anyone who treats My name as anything less than sacred.

¹² You and your family are to honor the Sabbath by setting it aside for the Lord your God. Make sure it remains holy, just as I commanded you. ¹³ You should do all of your work in six days, and ¹⁴ on the seventh—the Sabbath—do not do any work. This goes for you, your sons, your daughters, your male and female servants, your oxen and donkeys and cattle, and foreign travelers staying at your house. My Sabbath rest is for all to enjoy. ¹⁵ Remember what it was like when you were a slave in Egypt. Then with overwhelming power I brought you out of there. That’s why I have commanded you to observe the Sabbath each week.

¹⁶ Honor your father and mother,^[s] as I have commanded you. If you do, you will be blessed with long life and all will go well for you as you live on the ground I am giving you.^[t]

¹⁷ You must never murder anyone.

¹⁸ You must never commit adultery.^[u]

¹⁹ You must never steal.

²⁰ You must never lie when you’re called to give testimony about another person.^[v]

²¹ Never look at someone else’s wife and wish you could have her. Never look at anything that belongs to someone else and wish it was yours—his house, field, male or female slave, ox, donkey, or anything else he owns.

Moses (summarizing): ²² When all of you were gathered at the mountain, the Eternal told you these things in a loud voice, speaking from inside the fire while dark clouds and mist obscured your view, and He added nothing more. He engraved two copies of them on two stone tablets and gave them to me. ²³ Then all of your tribal representatives and elders approached me because you were so afraid when you heard His voice coming from the darkness, as the mountain blazed with fire. ²⁴ They told me what you were saying: “Today the Eternal our God has displayed His glory and power, and we’ve heard His voice from inside that fire. We see that God can speak to mortals, and they can survive! ²⁵ But if we keep listening to the voice of the Eternal, our True God, that huge fire is going to burn us up, and we’ll die! Why should we let that happen? ²⁶ Who on earth has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking from inside a flame, as we just did, and survived? ²⁷ You, go up and listen to everything the Eternal our God is saying, and then come tell us everything He tells you. We’ll listen, and we’ll obey.”

²⁸ The Eternal heard everything you said when you told me this. He responded to me, “I’ve heard what the people told you. They have a good idea! ²⁹ I wish they would always think this way—that they would fear Me and keep all My commands. Then everything would go well for them and their children forever. ³⁰ Tell them they can return to their tents, and I will speak solely through you. ³¹ But you are to stand here by Me; and I’ll tell you all the commands, rules, and judgments I want you to teach them to follow in the land I’m giving them to live in.”

Moses: ³² So be very careful to do what the Eternal your God commanded you! Don’t turn to the right or to the left; ³³ stay on the path the Eternal your God has marked out for you. That way you won’t die, everything will go well for you, and you’ll live a long time in the land that’s going to be your territory.

6 Moses: The Eternal your God commanded me to teach you these rules and judgments so that you would obey them in the land that is yours when you cross the Jordan. ² You are to fear Him and obey His rules and commands, just as I’m teaching them to you now. Do this your whole lives—you, your children and your grandchildren—and you’ll live in the land a long time. ³ Yes, Israel, if you pay careful attention and obey, everything will go well for you in that land flowing with milk and honey; and you’ll have many, many descendants just as the Eternal, the God of your ancestors, promised you.

Moses: ⁴ Listen, Israel! The Eternal is our True God—He alone. ⁵ You should love Him, your True God, with all your heart and soul, with every ounce of your strength.^{[w] 6} Make the things I’m commanding you today part of who you are. ⁷ Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you’re sitting together in your home and when you’re walking together down the road. Make them the last thing you talk about before you go to bed and the first thing you talk about the next morning. ⁸ Do whatever it takes to remember them: tie a reminder on your hand and bind a reminder on your forehead where you’ll see it all the time, ⁹ such as on the doorpost where you cross the threshold or on the city gate.

¹⁰ The Eternal your God promised your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that He would give you this land. When He brings you into it, you’ll live in beautiful and spacious cities you didn’t build. ¹¹ You’ll have houses filled with good things waiting for you—cisterns to hold water already dug out of the rock for you, and vineyards and olive orchards that you didn’t plant. You’ll have all you want to eat and more. ¹² When this happens, be very, very careful! Don’t forget it was the Eternal who brought you out of Egypt, where you were slaves. ¹³ Worship Him, your True God, and serve Him and swear oaths only in His name.^{[x] 14} Don’t become devoted to any of the gods the people around you worship. ¹⁵ The Eternal your God is living right among you, and He’s a jealous God. He would become furious if you were unfaithful to Him—He’d wipe you off the face of the earth!

¹⁶ Don’t put the Eternal, your True God, to the test^[y] the way you did back at Massah.

Moses: ¹⁷ Carefully obey the commands, rules, and precedents the Eternal, your True God, has given you. ¹⁸ Do the things He considers right and good. Then everything will go well for you, and you’ll go and live in the good land He promised to your ancestors. ¹⁹ The Eternal will drive out all of your enemies, just as He said He would.

²⁰ You’ll have conversations about this with your children in the future, and this is how they should go:

Child: What are these precedents and rules and judgments the Eternal our God commanded you to obey?

Parents (to your child): ²¹ We used to be slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, but then the Eternal delivered us with overwhelming power. ²² He sent amazing and awful signs and omens to torment the Egyptians, Pharaoh, and his royal court—right before our eyes! ²³ He brought us out of there so He could bring us here and give us the land He promised to our ancestors. ²⁴ He commanded us to remember all these rules to show that we fear Him, our God, so that things will always go well for us and so that we can keep living here as we are now. ²⁵ If we carefully obey everything the Eternal our God has commanded us, then we’ll be living as we should, in righteousness and in right relationship with Him.

7 Moses: As the Eternal, your True God, is bringing you into the land where you’re going to live when you cross the Jordan, He’ll drive out many nations ahead of you—Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—seven nations that are bigger and stronger than you are. ² The Eternal your God will put them in your power. You must crush them; destroy them completely! Don’t make any treaties with them, and don’t show them any mercy. ³ Above all, don’t intermarry with them! Don’t marry your daughters to any of their sons, and don’t marry your sons to any of their daughters.

Eternal One: ⁴ This would cause your enemies to turn your children away from Me to worship other gods.

Moses: If you did worship other gods, the Eternal would become furious with you and destroy you in an instant! ⁵ So this is what you must do to these nations instead: tear down their altars, smash their monoliths, chop down their sacred poles,^[z] and throw the idols they’ve carved into the fire!

Moses: ⁶ Remember: you’re a people set apart for the Eternal your God; He is your God and has chosen you to be His own possession—His special people—out of all the peoples on the earth. ⁷ The Eternal didn’t become devoted to you and choose you because you were the most numerous of all the peoples—in fact, you were the least! ⁸ Instead, He brought you out of Egypt with overwhelming power and liberated you from slavery to Pharaoh the king because He loved you and was keeping the oath He swore to your ancestors. ⁹ I want you to know that the Eternal your God is the only true God. He’s the faithful God who keeps His covenants and shows loyal love for a thousand generations to those who in return love Him and keep His commands. ¹⁰ But He holds personally accountable those who hate Him, and He destroys them; He does not delay when anyone hates Him, but He holds them personally accountable. ¹¹ Therefore, be very careful to obey the commands and rules and judgments I’m giving you today.

¹² If you pay attention to these judgments and keep them carefully, the Eternal your God will keep the covenant He made with your ancestors and show you His loyal love. ¹³ He’ll love you and bless you and increase your population. He’ll bless your children, and He’ll bless your agriculture. The land He promised your ancestors He’d give you will produce abundantly; and you’ll have grain and wine and olive oil, many cattle, and new flocks. ¹⁴ You will be blessed more than any other people. None of your men or women will be unable to have children; all of your cattle will have offspring. ¹⁵ The Eternal will keep every illness away from you. He won’t afflict you with any of those horrible diseases you saw in Egypt—He’ll put them instead on those who hate you! ¹⁶ You are to destroy all the nations the Eternal, your True God, puts in your power. Don’t show them any pity! You must not worship their gods—that behavior is a deadly trap!

¹⁷ You might say to yourselves, “Those nations are so much more powerful than we are! How can we ever displace them in the land?” ¹⁸ But don’t be afraid of them! Remember what the Eternal, your True God, did to Pharaoh and to all of Egypt. ¹⁹ You saw with your own eyes how the Eternal your God brought you out of there by testing the Egyptians with great plagues, warning them with signs and omens, and fighting against them with overwhelming power. He is your God and will do the same thing to all the nations you’re so afraid of right now. ²⁰ The Eternal your God will even send swarms of hornets against them. Those hornets will finish off anyone who escapes from you and tries to hide from the death you bring. ²¹ So don’t be so terrified of these other nations—the Eternal your God is with you. He’s a great and awesome God! ²² But He will drive out these nations ahead of you only little by little. You won’t be able to finish them off all at once because if you did, the wild animals would reproduce rapidly in the empty land and that would be dangerous. ²³ But the Eternal your God definitely will defeat these nations in front of you. He will throw them into a great panic until they are all destroyed. ²⁴ He’ll put their kings in your power, so you will be able to wipe out all their names. No one under heaven will ever know they existed! Not a single person will be able to resist you; you’ll destroy them all. ²⁵ Then you must burn up all of their carved idols in the fire. Don’t admire them because the silver and gold in them are so valuable. If you take those metals, you’ll fall into a deadly trap because He abhors these idols! ²⁶ You must not bring these horrible things into your house. If you do, you’ll be doomed to destruction, just as they are. You should be totally horrified and disgusted by these idols—they are doomed to destruction!