What your eyes have seen
1Love Yahweh your God, then, and always keep his charge — his statutes, his ordinances, and his commandments. 2Understand today — for I am not speaking to your children, who have not known or seen the discipline of Yahweh your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his outstretched arm, 3his signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to all his land, 4what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and chariots, how he made the waters of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued you, and how Yahweh destroyed them, to this day, 5what he did for you in the wilderness until you reached this place, 6and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab son of Reuben, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel. 7But your own eyes have seen every great deed Yahweh has done.
A land the rain waters, not the foot
8Keep, then, this whole commandment I am giving you today, so that you may be strong enough to enter and possess the land you are crossing over to possess, 9and so that you may live long in the land Yahweh swore to give your fathers and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10For the land you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt, from which you came, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, like a vegetable garden. 11The land you are crossing over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, watered by the rain of heaven. 12It is a land Yahweh your God cares for; the eyes of Yahweh your God are on it always, from the beginning of the year to its end. 13If you carefully obey the commandments I am giving you today, loving Yahweh your God and serving him with all your heart and all your soul, 14I will send rain on your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, and you will gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. 15I will provide grass in your fields for your livestock, and you will eat and be satisfied. 16Be careful, or your heart will be led astray, and you will turn aside to serve other gods and bow down to them. 17Then Yahweh’s anger will burn against you, and he will shut up the heavens so that there is no rain and the ground yields no produce, and you will quickly perish from the good land Yahweh is giving you.
Words on the heart, on the hand, on the doorframe
18Fix these words of mine in your heart and soul. Bind them as a sign on your hand, and let them be a symbol on your forehead. 19Teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 20Write them on the doorframes of your house and on your gates, 21so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land Yahweh swore to your fathers to give them, as many as the days the heavens are above the earth. 22If you carefully keep this whole commandment I am giving you to do, loving Yahweh your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him, 23then Yahweh will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and stronger than yourselves. 24Every place the sole of your foot treads will be yours. Your territory will extend from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the river — the river Euphrates — to the western sea. 25No one will be able to stand against you. Yahweh your God will put the fear and dread of you on the whole land you tread on, just as he promised you.
A blessing and a curse: Gerizim and Ebal
26See, today I am setting before you a blessing and a curse: 27the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God that I am giving you today, 28and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, but turn aside from the way I command you today, to follow other gods you have not known. 29When Yahweh your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. 30Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the road, toward the setting sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, near the oaks of Moreh? 31For you are about to cross the Jordan to enter and possess the land Yahweh your God is giving you, and when you possess it and settle in it, 32be careful to do all the statutes and ordinances I am setting before you today.
