Deuteronomy

¹Love the LORD your God and always keep his requirements, his statutes, his ordinances, and his commands.

²Today I want you to understand — not your children who have not seen it and don't know it — but your own eyes saw the discipline of the LORD your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his outstretched arm,

³the signs and deeds he performed in Egypt against Pharaoh king of Egypt and all his land,

⁴and what he did to Egypt's army, its horses and chariots — how he made the waters of the Red Sea overwhelm them as they chased after you, and how the LORD destroyed them, right up to this day.

⁵And what he did to you in the wilderness until you reached this place,

⁶and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth opened its mouth in the middle of all Israel and swallowed them up, along with their households, their tents, and every living thing that belonged to them.

⁷Your own eyes have seen every great thing the LORD has done.

⁸Keep every command I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to enter and possess the land you are crossing to take,

⁹and so that you may live long in the land the LORD swore to give your ancestors and their descendants — a land flowing with milk and honey.

¹⁰The land you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt you came from, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden.

¹¹The land you are crossing into to possess is a land of mountains and valleys, watered by rain from the sky —

¹²a land the LORD your God cares for. The eyes of the LORD your God are on it continually, from the beginning of the year to its end.

¹³So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today — to love the LORD your God and serve him with all your heart and all your soul —

¹⁴then he will send rain on your land in season — the early and the late rain — so that you may harvest your grain, new wine, and oil.

¹⁵He will provide grass in your fields for your livestock, and you will eat and be satisfied.

¹⁶Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship and bow down to other gods.

¹⁷Then the LORD's anger will burn against you, he will shut up the sky so there will be no rain, the ground will not yield its crops, and you will soon perish from the good land the LORD is giving you.

¹⁸Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

¹⁹Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you travel along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

²⁰Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates,

²¹so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the LORD swore to give your ancestors — as many as the days the sky is above the earth.

²²For if you are careful to keep all these commands I am giving you to follow — to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to hold fast to him —

²³then the LORD will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and stronger than you.

²⁴Every place where you set your foot will be yours. Your territory will extend from the wilderness to Lebanon and from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea.

²⁵No one will be able to stand against you. The LORD your God will spread fear and terror of you over the whole land, just as he promised.

²⁶Look — today I am setting before you a blessing and a curse:

²⁷the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God I am giving you today,

²⁸and the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God and turn from the way I am commanding you today by following other gods you have not known.

²⁹When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.

³⁰Both mountains are west of the Jordan, toward the setting sun, in the territory of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, near Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh.

³¹You are about to cross the Jordan to enter and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you. When you have taken it over and settled in it,

³²be careful to follow all the statutes and ordinances I am setting before you today.