Deuteronomy:6-9

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* "Now this is the commandment , and these are the statutes and judgments which the LORD your God has commanded to teach you , that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess , * that you may fear the LORD your God , 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 the LORD God of your fathers has promised you --"a land flowing with milk and honey .' * "Hear , O Israel : The LORD our God , the LORD is one ! * You shall love the LORD your God 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 the LORD your God 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 the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt , from the house of bondage . * You shall fear the LORD your God 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 the LORD your God is a jealous God among you ), lest the anger of the LORD your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth . * "You shall not tempt the LORD your God as you tempted Him in Massah . * You shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God , His testimonies , and His statutes which He has commanded you . * And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD , that it may be well with you , and that you may go in and possess the good land of which the LORD swore to your fathers , * to cast out all your enemies from before you , as the LORD 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 the LORD our God has commanded you ?' * then you shall say to your son : "We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt , and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand ; * and the LORD 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 the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes , to fear the LORD our God , 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 the LORD our God , as He has commanded us .' * "When the LORD your God 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 the LORD your God 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 the LORD 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 the LORD your God ; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself , a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth . * The LORD 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 the LORD loves you , and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers , the LORD 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 the LORD your God , He is God , the faithful God 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 the LORD your God 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 the LORD 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 the LORD your God 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 the LORD your God 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 the LORD your God brought you out . So shall the LORD your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid . * Moreover the LORD your God 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 the LORD your God , the great and awesome God , is among you . * And the LORD your God 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 the LORD your God 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 the LORD your God . * 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 . * "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 the LORD swore to your fathers . * And you shall remember that the LORD your God 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 the LORD . * 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 the LORD your God chastens you . * "Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God , to walk in His ways and to fear Him . * For the LORD your God 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 the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you . * "Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God 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 the LORD your God 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 the LORD your God , 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 the LORD your God , 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 the LORD destroys before you , so you shall perish , because you would not be obedient to the voice of the LORD your God . * "Hear , O Israel : You are to cross over the Jordan today , and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself , cities great and fortified up to heaven , * a people great and tall , the descendants of the Anakim , whom you know , and of whom you heard it said , "Who can stand before the descendants of Anak ?' * Therefore understand today that the LORD your God is He who goes over before you as a consuming fire . He will destroy them and bring them down before you ; so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly , as the LORD has said to you . * "Do not think in your heart , after the LORD your God has cast them out before you , saying , "Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land '; but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out from before you . * It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land , but because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD your God drives them out from before you , and that He may fulfill the word which the LORD swore to your fathers , to Abraham , Isaac , and Jacob . * Therefore understand that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness , for you are a stiff-necked people . * "Remember ! Do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness . From the day that you departed from the land of Egypt until you came to this place , you have been rebellious against the LORD . * Also in Horeb you provoked the LORD to wrath , so that the LORD was angry enough with you to have destroyed you . * When I went up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone , the tablets of the covenant which the LORD made with you , then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights . I neither ate bread nor drank water . * Then the LORD delivered to me two tablets of stone written with the finger of God , and on them were all the words which the LORD had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly . * And it came to pass , at the end of forty days and forty nights , that the LORD gave me the two tablets of stone , the tablets of the covenant . * "Then the LORD said to me , "Arise , go down quickly from here , for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly ; they have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them ; they have made themselves a molded image .' * "Furthermore the LORD spoke to me , saying , "I have seen this people , and indeed they are a stiff-necked people . * Let Me alone , that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven ; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they .' * "So I turned and came down from the mountain , and the mountain burned with fire ; and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands . * And I looked , and behold , you had sinned against the LORD your God--had made for yourselves a molded calf ! You had turned aside quickly from the way which the LORD had commanded you . * Then I took the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes . * And I fell down before the LORD , as at the first , forty days and forty nights ; I neither ate bread nor drank water , because of all your sin which you committed in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD , to provoke Him to anger . * For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the LORD was angry with you , to destroy you . But the LORD listened to me at that time also . * And the LORD was very angry with Aaron and would have destroyed him ; so I prayed for Aaron also at the same time . * Then I took your sin , the calf which you had made , and burned it with fire and crushed it and ground it very small , until it was as fine as dust ; and I threw its dust into the brook that descended from the mountain . * "Also at Taberah and Massah and Kibroth Hattaavah you provoked the LORD to wrath . * Likewise , when the LORD sent you from Kadesh Barnea , saying , "Go up and possess the land which I have given you ,' then you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God , and you did not believe Him nor obey His voice . * You have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you . * "Thus I prostrated myself before the LORD ; forty days and forty nights I kept prostrating myself , because the LORD had said He would destroy you . * Therefore I prayed to the LORD , and said : "O Lord GOD , do not destroy Your people and Your inheritance whom You have redeemed through Your greatness , whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand . * Remember Your servants , Abraham , Isaac , and Jacob ; do not look on the stubbornness of this people , or on their wickedness or their sin , * lest the land from which You brought us should say , "Because the LORD was not able to bring them to the land which He promised them , and because He hated them , He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness ." * Yet they are Your people and Your inheritance , whom You brought out by Your mighty power and by Your outstretched arm .' * "At that time the LORD said to me , "Hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the first , and come up to Me on the mountain and make yourself an ark of wood .

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