New Living Translation NLT
The Message Bible MSG
1 “These are the commands, decrees, and regulations that the LORD your God commanded me to teach you. You must obey them in the land you are about to enter and occupy,
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This is the commandment, the rules and regulations, that God, your God, commanded me to teach you to live out in the land you're about to cross into to possess.
2 and you and your children and grandchildren must fear the LORD your God as long as you live. If you obey all his decrees and commands, you will enjoy a long life.
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This is so that you'll live in deep reverence before God lifelong, observing all his rules and regulations that I'm commanding you, you and your children and your grandchildren, living good long lives.
3 Listen closely, Israel, and be careful to obey. Then all will go well with you, and you will have many children in the land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, promised you.
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Listen obediently, Israel. Do what you're told so that you'll have a good life, a life of abundance and bounty, just as God promised, in a land abounding in milk and honey.
4 “Listen, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.
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Attention, Israel! God, our God! God the one and only!
5 And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.
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Love God, your God, with your whole heart: love him with all that's in you, love him with all you've got!
6 And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today.
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Write these commandments that I've given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you
7 Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.
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and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night.
8 Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders.
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Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder;
9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
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inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates.
10 “The LORD your God will soon bring you into the land he swore to give you when he made a vow to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is a land with large, prosperous cities that you did not build.
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When God, your God, ushers you into the land he promised through your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give you, you're going to walk into large, bustling cities you didn't build,
11 The houses will be richly stocked with goods you did not produce. You will draw water from cisterns you did not dig, and you will eat from vineyards and olive trees you did not plant. When you have eaten your fill in this land,
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well-furnished houses you didn't buy, come upon wells you didn't dig, vineyards and olive orchards you didn't plant. When you take it all in and settle down, pleased and content,
12 be careful not to forget the LORD, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt.
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make sure you don't forget how you got there - God brought you out of slavery in Egypt.
13 You must fear the LORD your God and serve him. When you take an oath, you must use only his name.
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Deeply respect God, your God. Serve and worship him exclusively. Back up your promises with his name only.
14 “You must not worship any of the gods of neighboring nations,
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Don't fool around with other gods, the gods of your neighbors,
15 for the LORD your God, who lives among you, is a jealous God. His anger will flare up against you, and he will wipe you from the face of the earth.
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because God, your God, who is alive among you is a jealous God. Don't provoke him, igniting his hot anger that would burn you right off the face of the Earth.
16 You must not test the LORD your God as you did when you complained at Massah.
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Don't push God, your God, to the wall as you did that day at Massah, the Testing-Place.
17 You must diligently obey the commands of the LORD your God—all the laws and decrees he has given you.
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Carefully keep the commands of God, your God, all the requirements and regulations he gave you.
18 Do what is right and good in the LORD ’s sight, so all will go well with you. Then you will enter and occupy the good land that the LORD swore to give your ancestors.
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Do what is right; do what is good in God's sight so you'll live a good life and be able to march in and take this pleasant land that God so solemnly promised through your ancestors,
19 You will drive out all the enemies living in the land, just as the LORD said you would.
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throwing out your enemies left and right - exactly as God said.
20 “In the future your children will ask you, ‘What is the meaning of these laws, decrees, and regulations that the LORD our God has commanded us to obey?’
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The next time your child asks you, "What do these requirements and regulations and rules that God, our God, has commanded mean?"
21 “Then you must tell them, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with his strong hand.
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tell your child, "We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt and God powerfully intervened and got us out of that country.
22 The LORD did miraculous signs and wonders before our eyes, dealing terrifying blows against Egypt and Pharaoh and all his people.
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We stood there and watched as God delivered miracle-signs, great wonders, and evil-visitations on Egypt, on Pharaoh and his household.
23 He brought us out of Egypt so he could give us this land he had sworn to give our ancestors.
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He pulled us out of there so he could bring us here and give us the land he so solemnly promised to our ancestors.
24 And the LORD our God commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear him so he can continue to bless us and preserve our lives, as he has done to this day.
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That's why God commanded us to follow all these rules, so that we would live reverently before God, our God, as he gives us this good life, keeping us alive for a long time to come.
25 For we will be counted as righteous when we obey all the commands the LORD our God has given us.’
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"It will be a set-right and put-together life for us if we make sure that we do this entire commandment in the Presence of God, our God, just as he commanded us to do."
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.