1“Now therefore hear, O Israel, the statutes, and the ordinances I am about to teach you, so that you may obey them, live, enter and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers gives you. 2You shall not add to, nor take away from, these words which I command you; but you must keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I give you. 3You have seen with your own eyes what the LORD did because of Baal-peor: for all the men that followed Baal-peor, the LORD your God has destroyed from among you. 4But you that remained faithful to the LORD your God remain alive, every one of you this day. 5Look, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, just as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should obey them in the land to which you go to possess. 6So keep and do them; for this will show your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, who shall hear all these statutes, and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ 7For what other nation is there so great, who has God so near to them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon Him for? 8And what other nation is there so great, that it has statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?

9“Only be diligent to heed; and keep and do not forget the things which your eyes have seen, so that they never fade from your heart, all the days of your life: but teach them to your sons, and your sons' sons; 10Remember, especially, the day that you stood before the LORD your God in Horeb, when the LORD said to me, ‘Gather Me the people together, and I will cause them to hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.’ 11And you came near and stood below the mountain; and the mountain blazed with fire to the very heavens, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness. 12And the LORD spoke to you out of that blazing fire: you heard the voice of His words, but saw no form; there was only the voice you heard. 13And He declared to you His covenant, which He commanded you to abide by, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them upon two tablets of stone. 14And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, so that you might do them in the land that you cross over to possess.

15“Take good heed to yourselves; and remember that you saw no form on the day that the LORD spoke to you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire: 16So do not corrupt yourselves, and make carved (graven) images or forms - of any figure: the likeness of male or female, 17Of any beast that is on the earth, of any winged fowl that flies in the air, 18Of anything that creeps on the ground, or of any fish in the waters below. 19And when you lift your eyes to heaven, and you see the sun, the moon, and the stars - all the host of heaven - do not be enticed to worship and serve them, things the LORD your God has made and given to all nations under the whole heaven. 20But the LORD has taken you, and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be to Him a people of His inheritance, as you are this day. 21The LORD was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and enter that good land, which the LORD your God now gives you for an inheritance: 22I must die in this land; I must not cross over the Jordan: but you shall cross over, and possess that good land. 23Take heed to yourselves, that you do not forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which He has made with you, and make a carved image - the likeness or form of anything, which the LORD your God has forbidden. 24For the LORD your God is a consuming fire - a jealous God.

25“When you have had children, and grandchildren, and you have lived long in the land, and if you corrupt yourselves, and make a carved image, or the likeness of anything, and do evil in the eyes of the LORD your God, to provoke Him to anger: 26I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you shall then soon utterly perish from off the land which you are about to cross over the Jordan to possess; you shall not live long upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed. 27And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and only a few of you shall be left among the nations, where the LORD shall drive and scatter you. 28And there you shall serve false gods, the work of men's hands - of wood and stone, which neither see, hear, eat, nor smell. 29But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you shall find Him - if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30When you are in trouble, and all these things have come upon you, in the latter days, if you turn to the LORD your God, and become obedient to His voice; 31(For the LORD your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you, nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.

32“Inquire now of the former days, long before your time, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven to the other, whether there has ever been anything like this great thing, or has it ever been heard of? 33Did people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live? 34Or has God ventured to take Him a nation from among other nations - by trials, signs, wonders, war, a mighty hand, an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, such as all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35They were shown to you, so that you might know that the LORD, He is God; there is none else beside Him. 36Out of heaven He caused you to hear His voice, that He might instruct you: and upon earth He showed you His great fire; and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire. 37And because He loved your fathers, He chose you, their progeny after them, and brought you in His sight with His mighty power out of Egypt; 38To drive out nations greater and mightier than you are from before you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day. 39Know, therefore this day, and consider it in your heart, that the LORD, He is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is no other. 40You shall therefore keep His statutes, and His commandments, which I am giving you this day, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days upon the land, which the LORD your God gives you, forever.”

41Then Moses set apart three cities of refuge on this side of the Jordan to the east; 42That the slayer might flee there, who might unintentionally kill his neighbor that he did not hate in the past; and that by fleeing to one of these cities, he might live: 43Those cities are: Bezer, in the wilderness, in the plain country, of the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead, of the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, of the Manassites.

44And this is the law which Moses set before the Israelites: 45They are the testimonies, statutes, and laws, which Moses gave to the Israelites, after they came out of Egypt, 46On this side of the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who reigned at Heshbon, whom Moses and the Israelites defeated, after coming out of Egypt: 47And they possessed the lands of Sihon, of Og, king of Bashan, the two Amorite kings who were on the east side of the Jordan; 48From Aroer, by the bank of the Arnon River, to Mount Sion, which is Hermon, 49And all the Arabah (plain) on the eastern side of the Jordan, as far as to the sea of the Arabah (Dead Sea), under the springs of Pisgah.