(Deuteronomy 11:1–7)
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“And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and to the judgments which I am teaching you to do, so that you live, and have gone in, and possessed the land which YHWH God of your fathers is giving to you.
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You do not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor diminish from it, to keep the commands of your God YHWH which I am commanding you.
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Your eyes are seeing that which YHWH has done in Ba‘al-Peor, for every man who has gone after Ba‘al-Peor, your God YHWH has destroyed him from your midst;
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and you who are cleaving to your God YHWH [are] alive today—all of you.
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See, I have taught you statutes and judgments, as my God YHWH has commanded me, to do so in the midst of the land to where you are going in to possess it;
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and you have kept and done [them] (for it [is] your wisdom and your understanding) before the eyes of the peoples who hear all these statutes, and they have said, Surely a people wise and understanding [is] this great nation.
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For which [is] the great nation that has God [so] near to it, as our God YHWH, in all we have called to Him?
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And which [is] the great nation which has righteous statutes and judgments according to all this law which I am setting before you today?
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Only, take heed to yourself, and watch your soul exceedingly, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and lest they turn aside from your heart all [the] days of your life; and you have made them known to your sons and to your sons’ sons.
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[Never forget] the day when you have stood before your God YHWH in Horeb, in YHWH’s saying to me, Assemble the people to Me, and I cause them to hear My words, so that they learn to fear Me all the days that they are alive on the ground, and they teach their sons;
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and you draw near and stand under the mountain, and the mountain is burning with fire to the heart of the heavens, [with] darkness, cloud, and thick darkness,
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and YHWH speaks to you out of the midst of the fire; you are hearing a voice of words, but you are seeing no likeness, only a voice;
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and He declares His covenant to you, which He has commanded you to do, the Ten Commandments, and He writes them on two tablets of stone.
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And YHWH has commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, for your doing them in the land to where you are passing over to possess it.
A Warning against Idolatry
(Deuteronomy 12:29–32; Ezekiel 6:1–7)
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And you have been very watchful of your souls, for you have not seen any likeness in the day of YHWH’s speaking to you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire,
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lest you do corruptly, and have made for yourselves a carved image, a likeness of any figure: a form of male or female,
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a form of any beast which [is] in the earth, a form of any winged bird which flies in the heavens,
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a form of any creeping thing on the ground, a form of any fish which [is] in the waters below the earth.
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And lest you lift up your eyes to the heavens, and have seen the sun, and the moon, and the stars, all the host of the heavens, and have been drawn away, and have bowed yourself to them and served them, which your God YHWH has apportioned to all the peoples under all the heavens.
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And YHWH has taken you, and He is bringing you out from the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be to Him for a people, an inheritance, as [at] this day.
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And YHWH has showed Himself angry with me because of your words, and swears to my not passing over the Jordan, and to my not going into the good land which your God YHWH is giving to you [for] an inheritance;
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for I am dying in this land; I am not passing over the Jordan, but you are passing over and have possessed this good land.
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Take heed to yourselves lest you forget the covenant of your God YHWH which He has made with you, and have made a carved image for yourselves, a likeness of anything [concerning] which your God YHWH has charged you;
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for your God YHWH is a consuming fire—a zealous God.
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When you beget sons and sons’ sons, and you have become old in the land, and have done corruptly, and have made a carved image, a likeness of anything, and have done evil in the eyes of YHWH to provoke Him to anger,
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I have caused the heavens and the earth to testify against you this day, that you perish utterly quickly from off the land to where you are passing over the Jordan to possess it; you do not prolong days on it, but are utterly destroyed;
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and YHWH has scattered you among the peoples, and you have been left few in number among the nations to where YHWH leads you,
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and you have served gods there, work of man’s hands, wood and stone, which do not see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
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And you have sought your God YHWH from there, and have found [Him] when you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
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In the distress of yours, when all these things have found you in the latter end of the days, and you have turned back to your God YHWH and have listened to His voice—
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for your God YHWH [is] a merciful God—He does not fail you, nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He has sworn to them.
The LORD Alone Is God
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For ask now of the former days which have been before you, from the day that God created man on the earth, and from the [one] end of the heavens even to the [other] end of the heavens, whether there has been as this great thing, or [if anything] has been heard like it.
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Has a people heard the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, you—and live?
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Or has God tried to go in to take a nation for Himself from the midst of a nation, by trials, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a strong hand, and by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that your God YHWH has done to you in Egypt before your eyes?
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You—you have been shown [it], to know that He, YHWH, [is] God; there is none else besides Him.
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He has caused you to hear His voice from the heavens, to instruct you; and on earth He has showed you His great fire, and you have heard His words out of the midst of the fire.
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And because that He has loved your fathers, He also fixes on their seed after them, and brings you out in His presence, by His great power, from Egypt,
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to dispossess nations greater and stronger than you from your presence, to bring you in to give their land to you [for] an inheritance, as [at] this day.
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And you have known today, and have turned [it] back to your heart, that He, YHWH, [is] God in the heavens above and on the earth below—there is none else;
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and you have kept His statutes and His commands which I am commanding you today, so that it is well for you, and for your sons after you, and so that you prolong days on the ground which your God YHWH is giving to you—all the days.”
Cities of Refuge
(Numbers 35:9–34; Deuteronomy 19:1–14; Joshua 20:1–9)
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Then Moses separates three cities beyond the Jordan, toward the sun-rising,
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for the fleeing there of the manslayer who slays his neighbor unknowingly, and he is not hating him before, and he has fled to one of these cities and he has lived:
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Bezer in the wilderness, in the land of the plain, for the Reubenite; and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadite; and Golan in Bashan for the Manassite.
Introduction to the Law
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And this [is] the law which Moses has set before the sons of Israel;
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these [are] the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which Moses has spoken to the sons of Israel in their coming out of Egypt,
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beyond the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth-Peor, in the land of Sihon, king of the Amorite, who is dwelling in Heshbon, whom Moses and the sons of Israel have struck in their coming out of Egypt;
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and they possess his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, two kings of the Amorite who [are] beyond the Jordan, [toward] the sun-rising,
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from Aroer, which [is] by the edge of the Brook of Arnon, even to Mount Zion, which [is] Hermon—
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and all the plain beyond the Jordan eastward, even to the Sea of the Plain, below the Springs of Pisgah.
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