Deuteronomy 5; Deuteronomy 6; Deuteronomy 7

Deuteronomy 5

1 Moses called all the people of Israel together and said: Listen, Israel, to the commands and laws I am giving you today. Learn them and obey them carefully.

2 The Lord our God made an Agreement with us at Mount Sinai.

3 He did not make this Agreement with our ancestors, but he made it with us, with all of us who are alive here today.

4 The Lord spoke to you face to face from the fire on the mountain.

5 (At that time I stood between you and the Lord in order to tell you what the Lord said; you were afraid of the fire, so you would not go up on the mountain.) The Lord said:

6 "I am the Lord your God; I brought you out of the land of Egypt where you were slaves.

7 "You must not have any other gods except me.

8 "You must not make for yourselves any idols or anything to worship that looks like something in the sky above or on the earth below or in the water below the land.

9 You must not worship or serve any idol, because I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. If people sin against me and hate me, I will punish their children, even their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

10 But I will be very kind for a thousand lifetimes to those who love me and obey my commands.

11 "You must not use the name of the Lord your God thoughtlessly, because the Lord will punish anyone who uses his name in this way.

12 "Keep the Sabbath as a holy day, as the Lord your God has commanded you.

13 You may work and get everything done during six days each week,

14 but the seventh day is a day of rest to honor the Lord your God. On that day no one may do any work: not you, your son or daughter, your male or female slaves, your ox, your donkey, or any of your animals, or the foreigners living in your cities. That way your servants may rest as you do.

15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there by his great power and strength. So the Lord your God has commanded you to rest on the Sabbath day.

16 "Honor your father and your mother as the Lord your God has commanded you. Then you will live a long time, and things will go well for you in the land that the Lord your God is going to give you.

17 "You must not murder anyone.

18 "You must not be guilty of adultery.

19 "You must not steal.

20 "You must not tell lies about your neighbor.

21 "You must not want to take your neighbor's wife. You must not want to take your neighbor's house or land, his male or female slaves, his ox or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

22 The Lord spoke these commands to all of you on the mountain in a loud voice out of the fire, the cloud, and the deep darkness; he did not say anything else. Then he wrote them on two stone tablets, and he gave them to me.

23 When you heard the voice from the darkness, as the mountain was blazing with fire, all your older leaders and leaders of your tribes came to me.

24 And you said, "The Lord our God has shown us his glory and majesty, and we have heard his voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a person can live even if God speaks to him.

25 But now, we will die! This great fire will burn us up, and we will die if we hear the Lord our God speak anymore.

26 No human being has ever heard the living God speaking from a fire and still lived, but we have.

27 Moses, you go near and listen to everything the Lord our God says. Then you tell us what the Lord our God tells you, and we will listen and obey."

28 The Lord heard what you said to me, and he said to me, "I have heard what the people said to you. Everything they said was good.

29 I wish their hearts would always respect me and that they would always obey my commands so that things would go well for them and their children forever!

30 "Go and tell the people to return to their tents,

31 but you stay here with me so that I may give you all the commands, rules, and laws that you must teach the people to obey in the land I am giving them as their own."

32 So be careful to do what the Lord your God has commanded you, and follow the commands exactly.

33 Live the way the Lord your God has commanded you so that you may live and have what is good and have a long life in the land you will take.

Deuteronomy 6

1 These are the commands, rules, and laws that the Lord your God told me to teach you to obey in the land you are crossing the Jordan River to take.

2 You, your children, and your grandchildren must respect the Lord your God as long as you live. Obey all his rules and commands I give you so that you will live a long time.

3 Listen, Israel, and carefully obey these laws. Then all will go well for you, and you will become a great nation in a fertile land, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you.

4 Listen, people of Israel! The Lord our God is the only Lord.

5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.

6 Always remember these commands I give you today.

7 Teach them to your children, and talk about them when you sit at home and walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

8 Write them down and tie them to your hands as a sign. Tie them on your forehead to remind you,

9 and write them on your doors and gates.

10 The Lord your God will bring you into the land he promised to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he will give it to you. The land has large, growing cities you did not build,

11 houses full of good things you did not buy, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees you did not plant. You will eat as much as you want.

12 But be careful! Do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt where you were slaves.

13 Respect the Lord your God. You must worship him and make your promises only in his name.

14 Do not worship other gods as the people around you do,

15 because the Lord your God is a jealous God. He is present with you, and if you worship other gods, he will become angry with you and destroy you from the earth.

16 Do not test the Lord your God as you did at Massah.

17 Be sure to obey the commands of the Lord your God and the rules and laws he has given you.

18 Do what the Lord says is good and right so that things will go well for you. Then you may go in and take the good land the Lord promised to your ancestors.

19 He will force all your enemies out as you go in, as the Lord has said.

20 In the future when your children ask you, "What is the meaning of the laws, commands, and rules the Lord our God gave us?"

21 tell them, "We were slaves to the king of Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt by his great power.

22 The Lord showed us great and terrible signs and miracles, which he did to Egypt, the king, and his whole family.

23 The Lord brought us out of Egypt to lead us here and to give us the land he promised our ancestors.

24 The Lord ordered us to obey all these commands and to respect the Lord our God so that we will always do well and stay alive, as we are today.

25 The right thing for us to do is this: Obey all these rules in the presence of the Lord our God, as he has commanded."

Deuteronomy 7

1 The Lord your God will bring you into the land that you are entering and that you will have as your own. As you go in, he will force out these nations: the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites -- seven nations that are stronger than you.

2 The Lord your God will hand these nations over to you, and when you defeat them, you must destroy them completely. Do not make a peace treaty with them or show them any mercy.

3 Do not marry any of them, or let your daughters marry their sons, or let your sons marry their daughters.

4 If you do, those people will turn your children away from me, to begin serving other gods. Then the Lord will be very angry with you, and he will quickly destroy you.

5 This is what you must do to those people: Tear down their altars, smash their holy stone pillars, cut down their Asherah idols, and burn their idols in the fire.

6 You are holy people who belong to the Lord your God. He has chosen you from all the people on earth to be his very own.

7 The Lord did not care for you and choose you because there were many of you -- you are the smallest nation of all.

8 But the Lord chose you because he loved you, and he kept his promise to your ancestors. So he brought you out of Egypt by his great power and freed you from the land of slavery, from the power of the king of Egypt.

9 So know that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God. He will keep his agreement of love for a thousand lifetimes for people who love him and obey his commands.

10 But he will pay back those people who hate him. He will destroy them, and he will not be slow to pay back those who hate him.

11 So be careful to obey the commands, rules, and laws I give you today.

12 If you pay attention to these laws and obey them carefully, the Lord your God will keep his agreement and show his love to you, as he promised your ancestors.

13 He will love and bless you. He will make the number of your people grow; he will bless you with children. He will bless your fields with good crops and will give you grain, new wine, and oil. He will bless your herds with calves and your flocks with lambs in the land he promised your ancestors he would give you.

14 You will be blessed more than any other people. Every husband and wife will have children, and all your cattle will have calves.

15 The Lord will take away all disease from you; you will not have the terrible diseases that were in Egypt, but he will give them to all the people who hate you.

16 You must destroy all the people the Lord your God hands over to you. Do not feel sorry for them, and do not worship their gods, or they will trap you.

17 You might say to yourselves, "Because these nations are stronger than we are, we can't force them out."

18 But don't be afraid of them. Remember what the Lord your God did to all of Egypt and its king.

19 You saw for yourselves the troubles, signs, and miracles he did, how the Lord's great power and strength brought you out of Egypt. The Lord your God will do the same thing to all the nations you now fear.

20 The Lord your God will also send terror among them so that even those who are alive and hiding from you will die.

21 Don't be afraid of them, because the Lord your God is with you; he is a great God and people are afraid of him.

22 When the Lord your God forces those nations out of the land, he will do it little by little ahead of you. You won't be able to destroy them all at once; otherwise, the wild animals will grow too many in number.

23 But the Lord your God will hand those nations over to you, confusing them until they are destroyed.

24 The Lord will help you defeat their kings, and the world will forget who they were. No one will be able to stop you; you will destroy them all.

25 Burn up their idols in the fire. Do not wish for the silver and gold they have, and don't take it for yourselves, or you will be trapped by it. The Lord your God hates it.

26 Do not bring one of those hateful things into your house, or you will be completely destroyed along with it. Hate and reject those things; they must be completely destroyed.