Deuteronomy (The Fifth Book of Moses, Commonly Called )

"And I commanded you at that time, saying, 'The LORD your God has given you this land to possess; all your men of valor shall pass over armed before your brethren the people of Israel.

But your wives, your little ones, and your cattle (I know that you have many cattle) shall remain in the cities which I have given you,

until the LORD gives rest to your brethren, as to you, and they also occupy the land which the LORD your God gives them beyond the Jordan; then you shall return every man to his possession which I have given you.'

And I commanded Joshua at that time, 'Your eyes have seen all that the LORD your God has done to these two kings; so will the LORD do to all the kingdoms into which you are going over.

You shall not fear them; for it is the LORD your God who fights for you.'

"And I besought the LORD at that time, saying,

'O Lord GOD, thou hast only begun to show thy servant thy greatness and thy mighty hand; for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as thine?

Let me go over, I pray, and see the good land beyond the Jordan, that goodly hill country, and Lebanon.'

But the LORD was angry with me on your account, and would not hearken to me; and the LORD said to me, 'Let it suffice you; speak no more to me of this matter.

Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift up your eyes westward and northward and southward and eastward, and behold it with your eyes; for you shall not go over this Jordan.

But charge Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him; for he shall go over at the head of this people, and he shall put them in possession of the land which you shall see.'

So we remained in the valley opposite Bethpeor.

"And now, O Israel, give heed to the statutes and the ordinances which I teach you, and do them; that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, gives you.

You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it; that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.

Your eyes have seen what the LORD did at Baalpeor; for the LORD your God destroyed from among you all the men who followed the Baal of Peor;

but you who held fast to the LORD your God are all alive this day.

Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land which you are entering to take possession of it.

Keep them and do them; for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.'

And what great nation is there, that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day?

"Only take heed, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children's children--

how on the day that you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, the LORD said to me, 'Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children so.'

And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom.

Then the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice.

And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, the ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.

And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances, that you might do them in the land which you are going over to possess.

"Therefore take good heed to yourselves. Since you saw no form on the day that the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire,

beware lest you act corruptly by making a graven image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female,

the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air,

the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth.

And beware lest you lift up your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and worship them and serve them, things which the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.

But the LORD has taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own possession, as at this day.

Furthermore the LORD was angry with me on your account, and he swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and that I should not enter the good land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance.

For I must die in this land, I must not go over the Jordan; but you shall go over and take possession of that good land.

Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make a graven image in the form of anything which the LORD your God has forbidden you.

For the LORD your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.

"When you beget children and children's children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a graven image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, so as to provoke him to anger,

I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you are going over the Jordan to possess; you will not live long upon it, but will be utterly destroyed.

And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you.

And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of men's hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.

But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.

When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the LORD your God and obey his voice,

for the LORD your God is a merciful God; he will not fail you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers which he swore to them.

"For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of.

Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live?

Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides him.

Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you; and on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire.

And because he loved your fathers and chose their descendants after them, and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power,