Hear, Israel: love Yahweh with all your heart
1Now this is the commandment — the statutes and ordinances Yahweh your God commanded me to teach you — to follow in the land you are crossing over to possess, 2so that you, your children, and your children’s children may fear Yahweh your God all the days of your life, by keeping all his statutes and commandments that I am giving you, and so that you may live long. 3Hear, Israel, and be careful to do them, so that it may go well with you and you may increase greatly, in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, promised you. 4Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God, Yahweh alone. 5Love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6These words I am giving you today are to be on your heart. 7Repeat them to your children. Speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8Bind them as a sign on your hand, and let them be a symbol on your forehead. 9Write them on the doorframes of your house and on your gates.
A land you did not build
10When Yahweh your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers — Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — to give you, with great and good cities you did not build, 11houses full of every good thing you did not fill, wells you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees you did not plant — and you eat and are satisfied — 12be careful not to forget Yahweh, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 13Fear Yahweh your God, serve him, and take your oaths in his name. 14Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you, 15for Yahweh your God, who is present among you, is a jealous God, and his anger would burn against you and wipe you off the face of the earth. 16Do not test Yahweh your God as you tested him at Massah. 17Be careful to keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, along with his testimonies and statutes that he has commanded you. 18Do what is right and good in Yahweh’s eyes, so that it may go well with you and you may enter and possess the good land Yahweh swore to your fathers, 19driving out all your enemies before you, just as Yahweh has said.
What to tell your children
20In the future, when your child asks you, “What is the meaning of the testimonies, statutes, and ordinances Yahweh our God has commanded you?” 21tell your child, “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22Yahweh performed great and terrible signs and wonders against Egypt, against Pharaoh and his whole household, before our eyes. 23He brought us out from there, to bring us in and give us the land he swore to our fathers. 24Yahweh commanded us to keep all these statutes and to fear Yahweh our God, for our own good always, so that he might preserve our lives, as he has to this day. 25And it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to keep this whole commandment before Yahweh our God, just as he has commanded us.”
