The Bible in Basic English BBE
Good News Translation GNT
1 So have love for the Lord your God, and give him worship, and keep his laws and his decisions and his orders at all times.
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"Love the Lord your God and always obey all his laws.
2 And be certain in your minds this day; for these words are not said to your children, who have had no experience of the training of the Lord your God, and who have not seen his great power or his strong hand and his stretched-out arm,
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Remember today what you have learned about the Lord through your experiences with him. It was you, not your children, who had these experiences. You saw the Lord's greatness, his power, his might,
3 Or his signs and wonders which he did in Egypt, to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and all his land;
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and his miracles. You saw what he did to the king of Egypt and to his entire country.
4 And what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and their war-carriages; how he made the waters of the Red Sea come up over them when they went after you, and how the Lord put an end to them even to this day;
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You saw how the Lord completely wiped out the Egyptian army, along with their horses and chariots, by drowning them in the Red Sea when they were pursuing you.
5 And what he did for you in the waste land, till you came to this place;
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You know what the Lord did for you in the desert before you arrived here.
6 And what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben; when they went down into the open mouth of the earth, with their families and their tents and every living thing which was theirs, before the eyes of all Israel:
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You recall what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab of the tribe of Reuben. In the sight of everyone the earth opened up and swallowed them, along with their families, their tents, and all their servants and animals.
7 But your eyes have seen all the great works of the Lord which he has done.
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Yes, you are the ones who have seen all these great things that the Lord has done.
8 So keep all the orders which I give you today, so that you may be strong, and go in and take the land which is to be your heritage;
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"Obey everything that I have commanded you today. Then you will be able to cross the river and occupy the land that you are about to enter.
9 And that your days may be long in the land which the Lord gave by an oath to your fathers and to their seed after them, a land flowing with milk and honey.
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And you will live a long time in the rich and fertile land that the Lord promised to give your ancestors and their descendants.
10 For the land where you are going is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you put in your seeds, watering them with your foot, like a planted garden:
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The land that you are about to occupy is not like the land of Egypt, where you lived before. There, when you planted grain, you had to work hard to irrigate the fields;
11 But the land where you are going is a land of hills and valleys, drinking in the rain of heaven:
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but the land that you are about to enter is a land of mountains and valleys, a land watered by rain.
12 A land cared for by the Lord your God: the eyes of the Lord your God are on it at all times from one end of the year to the other.
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The Lord your God takes care of this land and watches over it throughout the year.
13 And it will be that if you truly give ear to the orders which I put before you this day, loving the Lord your God and worshipping him with all your heart and all your soul,
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"So then, obey the commands that I have given you today; love the Lord your God and serve him with all your heart.
14 Then I will send rain on your land at the right time, the early rains and the late rains, so that you may get in your grain and your wine and your oil.
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If you do, he will send rain on your land when it is needed, in the autumn and in the spring, so that there will be grain, wine, and olive oil for you,
15 And I will give grass in your fields for your cattle, so that you may have food in full measure.
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and grass for your livestock. You will have all the food you want.
16 But take care that your hearts are not turned to false ways so that you become servants and worshippers of other gods;
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Do not let yourselves be led away from the Lord to worship and serve other gods.
17 For if you do so, the wrath of the Lord will be burning against you, and the heaven will be shut up so that there is no rain and the land will give no fruit; and in a very little time you will be cut off from the good land which the Lord is giving you.
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If you do, the Lord will become angry with you. He will hold back the rain, and your ground will become too dry for crops to grow. Then you will soon die there, even though it is a good land that he is giving you.
18 So keep these words deep in your heart and in your soul, and have them fixed on your hand for a sign and marked on your brow;
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"Remember these commands and cherish them. Tie them on your arms and wear them on your foreheads as a reminder.
19 Teaching them to your children, and talking of them when you are at rest in your house or walking by the way, when you go to sleep and when you get up:
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Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you are resting and when you are working.
20 Writing them on the pillars of your houses and over the doors of your towns:
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Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.
21 So that your days, and the days of your children, may be long in the land which the Lord by his oath to your fathers said he would give them, like the days of the eternal heavens.
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Then you and your children will live a long time in the land that the Lord your God promised to give to your ancestors. You will live there as long as there is a sky above the earth.
22 For if you take care to keep all the orders which I give you, and to do them; loving the Lord your God and walking in all his ways and being true to him:
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"Obey faithfully everything that I have commanded you: Love the Lord your God, do everything he commands, and be faithful to him.
23 Then the Lord will send these nations in flight before you, and you will take the lands of nations greater and stronger than yourselves.
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Then he will drive out all those nations as you advance, and you will occupy the land belonging to nations greater and more powerful than you.
24 Every place where you put your foot will be yours: from the waste land and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates as far as the Great Sea, will be the limits of your land.
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All the ground that you march over will be yours. Your territory will extend from the desert in the south to the Lebanon Mountains in the north, and from the Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west.
25 All people will give way before you: for the Lord your God will put the fear of you on all the land through which you go, as he has said.
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Wherever you go in that land, the Lord your God will make the people fear you, as he has promised, and no one will be able to stop you.
26 Today I put before you a blessing and a curse:
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"Today I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse -
27 The blessing if you give ear to the orders of the Lord your God, which I give you this day:
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a blessing, if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today;
28 And the curse if you do not give ear to the orders of the Lord your God, but let yourselves be turned from the way which I have put before you this day, and go after other gods which are not yours.
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but a curse, if you disobey these commands and turn away to worship other gods that you have never worshiped before.
29 And when the Lord your God has taken you into the land of your heritage, you are to put the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.
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When the Lord brings you into the land that you are going to occupy, you are to proclaim the blessing from Mount Gerizim and the curse from Mount Ebal.
30 Are they not on the other side of Jordan, looking west, in the land of the Canaanites living in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, by the holy tree of Moreh?
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(These two mountains are west of the Jordan River in the territory of the Canaanites who live in the Jordan Valley. They are toward the west, not far from the sacred trees of Moreh near the town of Gilgal.)
31 For you are about to go over Jordan to take the heritage which the Lord your God is giving you, and it will be your resting-place.
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You are about to cross the Jordan River and occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you. When you take it and settle there,
32 And you are to take care to keep all the laws and the decisions which I put before you today.
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be sure to obey all the laws that I am giving you today.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.