DEUTERONOMY - Chapter 6

"Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which YAHWEH your Elohim has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, that you may fear YAHWEH your Elohim, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.

Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as YAHWEH Elohim of your fathers has promised you—'a land flowing with milk and honey.'

"Hear, O Israel: YAHWEH our Elohim, YAHWEH is one!

"You shall love YAHWEH your Elohim with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

"And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

"So it shall be, when YAHWEH your Elohim brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant—when you have eaten and are full—then beware, lest you forget YAHWEH who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

"You shall fear YAHWEH your Elohim and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you (for YAHWEH your Elohim is a jealous Elohim among you), lest the anger of YAHWEH your Elohim be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth.

"You shall not tempt YAHWEH your Elohim as you tempted Him in Massah.

"You shall diligently keep the commandments of YAHWEH your Elohim, His testimonies, and His statutes which He has commanded you. And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of YAHWEH, that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land of which YAHWEH swore to your fathers, to cast out all your enemies from before you, as YAHWEH has spoken.

"When your son asks you in time to come, saying, 'What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which YAHWEH our Elohim has commanded you?' then you shall say to your son: 'We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and YAHWEH brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; and YAHWEH showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe, against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household. Then He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the land of which He swore to our fathers.

"And YAHWEH commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear YAHWEH our Elohim, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is this day. Then it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before YAHWEH our Elohim, as He has commanded us.'

Chapter 7

"When YAHWEH your Elohim brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, and when YAHWEH your Elohim delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son.

"For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of YAHWEH will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. But thus you shall deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire.

"For you are a holy people to YAHWEH your Elohim; YAHWEH your Elohim has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. YAHWEH did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because YAHWEH loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, YAHWEH has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

"Therefore know that YAHWEH your Elohim, He is Elohim, the faithful Elohim who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face. Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today, to observe them.

"Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that YAHWEH your Elohim will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers. And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you. You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your livestock.

"And YAHWEH will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you.

Also you shall destroy all the peoples whom YAHWEH your Elohim delivers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

"If you should say in your heart, 'These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?'— you shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember well what YAHWEH your Elohim did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm, by which YAHWEH your Elohim brought you out. So shall YAHWEH your Elohim do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. Moreover YAHWEH your Elohim will send the hornet among them until those who are left, who hide themselves from you, are destroyed.

"You shall not be terrified of them; for YAHWEH your Elohim, the great and awesome Elohim, is among you. And YAHWEH your Elohim will drive out those nations before you little by little; you will be unable to destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. But YAHWEH your Elohim will deliver them over to you, and will inflict defeat upon them until they are destroyed.

"And He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you will destroy their name from under heaven; no one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them. You shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire; you shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it; for it is an abomination to YAHWEH your Elohim. Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, for it is an accursed thing.

Chapter 8

"Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which YAHWEH swore to your fathers. And you shall remember that YAHWEH your Elohim led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.

"So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of YAHWEH. Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so YAHWEH your Elohim chastens you.

"Therefore you shall keep the commandments of YAHWEH your Elohim, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. For YAHWEH your Elohim is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless YAHWEH your Elohim for the good land which He has given you.

"Beware that you do not forget YAHWEH your Elohim by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, lest—when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; when your heart is lifted up, and you forget YAHWEH your Elohim who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end—then you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.'

"And you shall remember YAHWEH your Elohim, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. Then it shall be, if you by any means forget YAHWEH your Elohim, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. As the nations which YAHWEH destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of YAHWEH your Elohim.

HalleluYah!