Deutéronome (NAB) 1
1 1 These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan ( in the desert, in the Arabah, opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and Dizahab; 2 it is a journey of eleven days from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea by way of the highlands of Seir).3 In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the Israelites all the commands that the LORD had given him in their regard.4 After he had defeated Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and in Edrei,5 Moses began to explain the law in the land of Moab beyond the Jordan, as follows:
6 "The LORD, our God, said to us at Horeb, 'You have stayed long enough at this mountain.7 Leave here and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all the surrounding regions, the land of the Canaanites in the Arabah, the mountains, the foothills, the Negeb and the seacoast; to Lebanon, and as far as the Great River (the Euphrates). 8 I have given that land over to you. Go now and occupy the land I swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, I would give to them and to their descendants.'
9 "At that time I said to you, 'Alone, I am unable to carry you. 10 The LORD, your God, has so multiplied you that you are now as numerous as the stars in the sky.11 May the LORD, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand times over, and bless you as he promised!12 But how can I alone bear the crushing burden that you are, along with your bickering?13 Choose wise, intelligent and experienced men from each of your tribes, that I may appoint them as your leaders.'14 You answered me, 'We agree to do as you have proposed.'15 So I took outstanding men of your tribes, wise and experienced, and made them your leaders as officials over thousands, over hundreds, over fifties and over tens, and other tribal officers.16 I charged your judges at that time, 'Listen to complaints among your kinsmen, and administer true justice to both parties even if one of them is an alien.17 In rendering judgment, do not consider who a person is; give ear to the lowly and to the great alike, fearing no man, for judgment is God's. Refer to me any case that is too hard for you and I will hear it.'18 Thereupon I gave you all the commands you were to fulfill.
19 "Then, in obedience to the command of the LORD, our God, we set out from Horeb and journeyed through the whole desert, vast and fearful as you have seen, in the direction of the hill country of the Amorites. We had reached Kadesh-barnea
20 when I said to you, 'You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the LORD, our God, is giving us.21 The LORD, your God, has given this land over to you. Go up and occupy it, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, commands you. Do not fear or lose heart.'22 Then all of you came up to me and said, 'Let us send men ahead to reconnoiter the land for us and report to us on the road we must follow and the cities we must take.'23 Agreeing with the proposal, I chose twelve men from your number, one from each tribe.24 They set out into the hill country as far as the Wadi Eshcol, and explored it.
25 Then, taking along some of the fruit of the land, they brought it down to us and reported, 'The land which the LORD, our God, gives us is good.'
26 "But you refused to go up, and after defying the command of the LORD, your God,27 you set to murmuring in your tents, 'Out of hatred for us the LORD has brought us up out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites and destroy us. 28 What shall we meet with up there? Our kinsmen have made us fainthearted by reporting that the people are stronger and taller than we, and their cities are large and fortified to the sky; besides, they saw the Anakim there.'
29 "But I said to you, 'Have no dread or fear of them.30 The LORD, your God, who goes before you, will himself fight for you, just as he took your part before your very eyes in Egypt,31 as well as in the desert, where you saw how the LORD, your God, carried you, as a man carries his child, all along your journey until you arrived at this place.'32 Despite this, you would not trust the LORD, your God,33 who journeys before you to find you a resting place-- by day in the cloud, and by night in the fire, to show the way you must go.
34 When the LORD heard your words, he was angry;35 and he swore, 'Not one man of this evil generation shall look upon the good land I swore to give to your fathers,36 except Caleb, son of Jephunneh; he shall see it. For to him and to his sons I will give the land he trod upon, because he has followed the LORD unreservedly.'
37 "The LORD was angered against me also on your account, and said, 'Not even you shall enter there,38 but your aide Joshua, son of Nun, shall enter. Encourage him, for he is to give Israel its heritage.39 Your little ones, who you said would become booty, and your children, who as yet do not know good from bad-- they shall enter; to them I will give it, and they shall occupy it.40 But as for yourselves: turn about and proceed into the desert on the Red Sea road.'
41 "In reply you said to me, 'We have sinned against the LORD. We will go up ourselves and fight, just as the LORD, our God, commanded us.' And each of you girded on his weapons, making light of going up into the hill country.42 But the LORD said to me, 'Warn them: Do not go up and fight, lest you be beaten down before your enemies, for I will not be in your midst.'43 I gave you this warning but you would not listen. In defiance of the LORD'S command you arrogantly marched off into the hill country.44 Then the Amorites living there came out against you and, like bees, chased you, cutting you down in Seir as far as Hormah.45 On your return you wept before the LORD, but he did not listen to your cry or give ear to you.
46 That is why you had to stay as long as you did at Kadesh.
2 1 "When we did turn and proceed into the desert on the Red Sea road, as the LORD had commanded me, we circled around the highlands of Seir for a long time.2 Finally the LORD said to me,3 'You have wandered round these highlands long enough; turn and go north.4 Give this order to the people: You are now about to pass through the territory of your kinsmen, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. Though they are afraid of you, be very careful5 not to come in conflict with them, for I will not give you so much as a foot of their land, since I have already given Esau possession of the highlands of Seir.6 You shall purchase from them with silver the food you eat and the well water you drink.7 The LORD, your God, has blessed you in all your undertakings; he has been concerned about your journey through this vast desert. It is now forty years that he has been with you, and you have never been in want.'
8 "Then we left behind us the Arabah route, Elath, Ezion-geber, and Seir, where our kinsmen, the descendants of Esau, live; and we went on toward the desert of Moab.9 And the LORD said to me, 'Do not show hostility to the Moabites or engage them in battle, for I will not give you possession of any of their land, since I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as their own.10 (Formerly the Emim lived there, a people strong and numerous and tall like the Anakim;11 like them they were considered Rephaim. It was the Moabites who called them Emim.12 In Seir, however, the former inhabitants were the Horites; the descendants of Esau dispossessed them, clearing them out of the way and taking their place, just as the Israelites have done in the land of their heritage which the LORD has given them.)13 Get ready, then, to cross the Wadi Zered.' So we crossed it.14 Thirty-eight years had elapsed between our departure from Kadesh-barnea and that crossing; in the meantime the whole generation of soldiers had perished from the camp, as the LORD had sworn they should.15 For it was the LORD'S hand that was against them, till he wiped them out of the camp completely.16 "When at length death had put an end to all the soldiers among the people,17 the LORD said to me,18 'You are now about to leave Ar and the territory of Moab behind.19 As you come opposite the Ammonites, do not show hostility or come in conflict with them, for I will not give you possession of any land of the Ammonites, since I have given it to the descendants of Lot as their own.20 (This also was considered a country of the Rephaim from its former inhabitants, whom the Ammonites called Zamzummim,21 a people strong and numerous and tall like the Anakim. But these, too, the LORD cleared out of the way for the Ammonites, who ousted them and took their place.22 He had done the same for the descendants of Esau, who dwell in Seir, by clearing the Horites out of their way, so that the descendants of Esau have taken their place down to the present.23 So also the Caphtorim, migrating from Caphtor, cleared away the Avvim, who once dwelt in villages as far as Gaza, and took their place.)
24 "'Advance now across the Wadi Arnon. I now deliver into your hands Sihon, the Amorite king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin the occupation; engage him in battle.25 This day I will begin to put a fear and dread of you into every nation under the heavens, so that at the mention of your name they will quake and tremble before you.'
26 "So I sent messengers from the desert of Kedemoth to Sihon, king of Heshbon, with this offer of peace:
27 'Let me pass through your country by the highway; I will go along it without turning aside to the right or to the left.28 For the food I eat which you will supply, and for the water you give me to drink, you shall be paid in silver. Only let me march through,29 as the descendants of Esau who dwell in Seir and the Moabites who dwell in Ar have done, until I cross the Jordan into the land which the LORD, our God, is about to give us.'30 But Sihon, king of Heshbon, refused to let us pass through his land, because the LORD, your God, made him stubborn in mind and obstinate in heart that he might deliver him up to you, as indeed he has now done.31 "Then the LORD said to me, 'Now that I have already begun to hand over to you Sihon and his land, begin the actual occupation.'32 So Sihon and all his people advanced against us to join battle at Jahaz;33 but since the LORD, our God, had delivered him to us, we defeated him and his sons and all his people.34 At that time we seized all his cities and doomed them all, with their men, women and children; we left no survivor. 35 Our only booty was the livestock and the loot of the captured cities.36 From Aroer on the edge of the Wadi Arnon and from the city in the wadi itself, as far as Gilead, no city was too well fortified for us to whom the LORD had delivered them up.37 However, in obedience to the command of the LORD, our God, you did not encroach upon any of the Ammonite land, neither the region bordering on the Wadi Jabbok, nor the cities of the highlands.
3 1 "Then we turned and proceeded toward Bashan. But Og, king of Bashan, advanced against us with all his people to give battle at Edrei.2 The LORD, however, said to me, 'Do not be afraid of him, for I have delivered him into your hand with all his people and his land. Do to him as you did to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.'3 And thus the LORD, our God, delivered into our hands Og, king of Bashan, with all his people. We defeated him so completely that we left him no survivor.4 At that time we captured all his cities, none of them eluding our grasp, the whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan: sixty cities in all,5 to say nothing of the great number of unwalled towns. All the cities were fortified with high walls and gates and bars.6 As we had done to Sihon, king of Heshbon, so also here we doomed all the cities, with their men, women and children;7 but all the livestock and the loot of each city we took as booty for ourselves.8 "And so at that time we took from the two kings of the Amorites beyond the Jordan the territory from the Wadi Arnon to Mount Hermon9 (which is called Sirion by the Sidonians and Senir by the Amorites),10 comprising all the cities of the plateau and all Gilead and all the cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan including Salecah and Edrei.11 (Og, king of Bashan, was the last remaining survivor of the Rephaim. He had a bed of iron, nine regular cubits long and four wide, which is still preserved in Rabbah of the Ammonites.)
12 "When we occupied the land at that time, I gave Reuben and Gad the territory from Aroer, on the edge of the Wadi Arnon, halfway up into the highlands of Gilead, with the cities therein.13 The rest of Gilead and all of Bashan, the kingdom of Og, the whole Argob region, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh. (All this region of Bashan was once called a land of the Rephaim.14 Jair, a Manassehite clan, took all the region of Argob as far as the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites, and called it after his own name Bashan Havvoth-jair, the name it bears today.)15 To Machir I gave Gilead,16 and to Reuben and Gad the territory from Gilead to the Wadi Arnon-- including the wadi bed and its banks-- and to the Wadi Jabbok, which is the border of the Ammonites,17 as well as the Arabah with the Jordan and its eastern banks from Chinnereth to the Salt Sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.
18 "At that time I charged them as follows: 'The LORD, your God, has given you this land as your own. But all you troops equipped for battle must cross over in the vanguard of your brother Israelites. 19 Only your wives and children, as well as your livestock, of which I know you have a large number, shall remain behind in the towns I have given you,20 until the LORD has settled your kinsmen as well, and they too possess the land which the LORD, your God, will give them on the other side of the Jordan. Then you may all return to the possessions I have given you.'
21 "It was then that I instructed Joshua, 'Your eyes have seen all that the LORD, your God, has done to both these kings; so, too, will the LORD do to all the kingdoms which you will encounter over there.22 Fear them not, for the LORD, your God, will fight for you.'
23 "And it was then that I besought the LORD,24 'O Lord GOD, you have begun to show to your servant your greatness and might. For what god in heaven or on earth can perform deeds as mighty as yours?25 Ah, let me cross over and see this good land beyond the Jordan, this fine hill country, and the Lebanon!'26 But the LORD was angry with me on your account and would not hear me. 'Enough!' the LORD said to me. 'Speak to me no more of this.27 Go up to the top of Pisgah and look out to the west, and to the north, and to the south, and to the east. Look well, for you shall not cross this Jordan.28 Commission Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, for he shall cross at the head of this people and shall put them in possession of the land you are to see.'29 This was while we were in the ravine opposite Beth-peor.
4 1 "Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees which I am teaching you to observe, that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.2 In your observance of the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin upon you, you shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it.3 You have seen with your own eyes what the LORD did at Baal-peor: the LORD, your God, destroyed from your midst everyone that followed the Baal of Peor;4 but you, who clung to the LORD, your God, are all alive today.5 Therefore, I teach you the statutes and decrees as the LORD, my God, has commanded me, that you may observe them in the land you are entering to occupy.6 Observe them carefully, for thus will you give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations, who will hear of all these statutes and say, 'This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.'7 For what great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the LORD, our God, is to us whenever we call upon him?8 Or what great nation has statutes and decrees that are as just as this whole law which I am setting before you today?
9 "However, take care and be earnestly on your guard not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen, nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live, but teach them to your children and to your children's children.10 There was the day on which you stood before the LORD, your God, at Horeb, and he said to me, 'Assemble the people for me; I will have them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me as long as they live in the land and may so teach their children.' 11 You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, which blazed to the very sky with fire and was enveloped in a dense black cloud.12 Then the LORD spoke to you from the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words, but saw no form; there was only a voice.13 He proclaimed to you his covenant, which he commanded you to keep: the ten commandments, which he wrote on two tablets of stone.14 The LORD charged me at that time to teach you the statutes and decrees which you are to observe over in the land you will occupy.
15 "You saw no form at all on the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire. Be strictly on your guard, therefore,16 not to degrade yourselves by fashioning an idol to represent any figure, whether it be the form of a man or a woman,17 of any animal on the earth or of any bird that flies in the sky,18 of anything that crawls on the ground or of any fish in the waters under the earth.19 And when you look up to the heavens and behold the sun or the moon or any star among the heavenly hosts, do not be led astray into adoring them and serving them. These the LORD, your God, has let fall to the lot of all other nations under the heavens;20 but you he has taken and led out of that iron foundry, Egypt, that you might be his very own people, as you are today. 21 Since the LORD was angered against me on your account and swore that I should not cross the Jordan nor enter the good land which he is giving you as a heritage,22 I myself shall die in this country without crossing the Jordan; but you will cross over and take possession of that good land.23 Take heed, therefore, lest, forgetting the covenant which the LORD, your God, has made with you, you fashion for yourselves against his command an idol in any form whatsoever.24 For the LORD, your God, is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
25 "When you have children and grandchildren, and have grown old in the land, should you then degrade yourselves by fashioning an idol in any form and by this evil done in his sight provoke the LORD, your God, 26 I call heaven and earth this day to witness against you, that you shall all quickly perish from the land which you will occupy when you cross the Jordan. You shall not live in it for any length of time but shall be promptly wiped out.27 The LORD will scatter you among the nations, and there shall remain but a handful of you among the nations to which the LORD will lead you.28 There you shall serve gods fashioned by the hands of man out of wood and stone, gods which can neither see nor hear, neither eat nor smell.
29 Yet there too you shall seek the LORD, your God; and you shall indeed find him when you search after him with your whole heart and your whole soul.30 In your distress, when all these things shall have come upon you, you shall finally return to the LORD, your God, and heed his voice.31 Since the LORD, your God, is a merciful God, he will not abandon and destroy you, nor forget the covenant which under oath he made with your fathers.
32 "Ask now of the days of old, before your time, ever since God created man upon the earth; ask from one end of the sky to the other: Did anything so great ever happen before? Was it ever heard of?33 Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live?34 Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, with his strong hand and outstretched arm, and by great terrors, all of which the LORD, your God, did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? 35 All this you were allowed to see that you might know the LORD is God and there is no other.36 Out of the heavens he let you hear his voice to discipline you; on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard him speaking out of the fire.37 For love of your fathers he chose their descendants and personally led you out of Egypt by his great power,38 driving out of your way nations greater and mightier than you, so as to bring you in and to make their land your heritage, as it is today.39 This is why you must now know, and fix in your heart, that the LORD is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other.40 You must keep his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you today, that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may have long life on the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you forever."
41 Then Moses set apart three cities in the region east of the Jordan,42 that a homicide might take refuge there if he unwittingly killed his neighbor to whom he had previously borne no malice, and that he might save his life by fleeing to one of these cities:43 Bezer in the desert, in the region of the plateau, for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for the Manassehites.
44 This is the law which Moses set before the Israelites.45 These are the ordinances, statutes and decrees which he proclaimed to them when they had come out of Egypt46 and were beyond the Jordan in the ravine opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon and whom Moses and the Israelites defeated after coming out of Egypt.47 They occupied his land and the land of Og, king of Bashan, as well-- the land of these two kings of the Amorites in the region east of the Jordan:48 from Aroer on the edge of the Wadi Arnon to Mount Sion (that is Hermon) 49 and all the Arabah east of the Jordan, as far as the Arabah Sea under the slopes of Pisgah.
5 1 Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, "Hear, O Israel, the statutes and decrees which I proclaim in your hearing this day, that you may learn them and take care to observe them.2 The LORD, our God, made a covenant with us at Horeb;3 not with our fathers did he make this covenant, but with us, all of us who are alive here this day.4 The LORD spoke with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire.5 Since you were afraid of the fire and would not go up the mountain, I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to announce to you these words of the LORD:
6 'I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.
7 You shall not have other gods besides me.
8 You shall not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth;
9 you shall not bow down before them or worship them. For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishments for their fathers' wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation 10 but bestowing mercy, down to the thousandth generation, on the children of those who love me and keep my commandments.
11 'You shall not take the name of the LORD, your God, in vain. For the LORD will not leave unpunished him who takes his name in vain.
12 'Take care to keep holy the sabbath day as the LORD, your God, commanded you.13 Six days you may labor and do all your work;14 but the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD, your God. No work may be done then, whether by you, or your son or daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or ass or any of your beasts, or the alien who lives with you. Your male and female slave should rest as you do.15 For remember that you too were once slaves in Egypt, and the LORD, your God, brought you from there with his strong hand and outstretched arm. That is why the LORD, your God, has commanded you to observe the sabbath day.
16 'Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD, your God, has commanded you, that you may have a long life and prosperity in the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you.
17 'You shall not kill.
18 'You shall not commit adultery.
19 'You shall not steal.
20 'You shall not bear dishonest witness against your neighbor.
21 'You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. 'You shall not desire your neighbor's house or field, nor his male or female slave, nor his ox or ass, nor anything that belongs to him.'
22 "These words, and nothing more, the LORD spoke with a loud voice to your entire assembly on the mountain from the midst of the fire and the dense cloud. He wrote them upon two tablets of stone and gave them to me.
23 But when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was ablaze with fire, you came to me in the person of all your tribal heads and elders,24 and said, 'The LORD, our God, has indeed let us see his glory and his majesty! We have heard his voice from the midst of the fire and have found out today that a man can still live after God has spoken with him.25 But why should we die now? Surely this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the LORD, our God, any more, we shall die.26 For what mortal has heard, as we have, the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of fire, and survived?27 Go closer, you, and hear all that the LORD, our God, will say, and then tell us what the LORD, our God, tells you; we will listen and obey.'28 "The LORD heard your words as you were speaking to me and said to me, 'I have heard the words these people have spoken to you, which are all well said.29 Would that they might always be of such a mind, to fear me and to keep all my commandments! Then they and their descendants would prosper forever.30 Go, tell them to return to their tents.31 Then you wait here near me and I will give you all the commandments, the statutes and decrees you must teach them, that they may observe them in the land which I am giving them to possess.'32 "Be careful, therefore, to do as the LORD, your God, has commanded you, not turning aside to the right or to the left,33 but following exactly the way prescribed for you by the LORD, your God, that you may live and prosper, and may have long life in the land which you are to occupy.
6 1 "These then are the commandments, the statutes and decrees which the LORD, your God, has ordered that you be taught to observe in the land into which you are crossing for conquest,2 so that you and your son and your grandson may fear the LORD, your God, and keep, throughout the days of your lives, all his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you, and thus have long life.3 Hear then, Israel, and be careful to observe them, that you may grow and prosper the more, in keeping with the promise of the LORD, the God of your fathers, to give you a land flowing with milk and honey.
4 "Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! 5 Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.6 Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today.7 Drill them into your children. Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest.8 Bind them at your wrist as a sign and let them be as a pendant on your forehead. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.
10 "When the LORD, your God, brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that he would give you, a land with fine, large cities that you did not build,11 with houses full of goods of all sorts that you did not garner, with cisterns that you did not dig, with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant; and when, therefore, you eat your fill,12 take care not to forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.13 The LORD, your God, shall you fear; him shall you serve, and by his name shall you swear.
14 You shall not follow other gods, such as those of the surrounding nations,15 lest the wrath of the LORD, your God, flare up against you and he destroy you from the face of the land; for the LORD, your God, who is in your midst, is a jealous God.16 "You shall not put the LORD, your God, to the test, as you did at Massah.
17 But keep the commandments of the LORD, your God, and the ordinances and statutes he has enjoined on you.18 Do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD, that you may, according to his word, prosper, and may enter in and possess the good land which the LORD promised on oath to your fathers,19 thrusting all your enemies out of your way.20 "Later on, when your son asks you what these ordinances, statutes and decrees mean which the LORD, our God, has enjoined on you,21 you shall say to your son, 'We were once slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with his strong hand22 and wrought before our eyes signs and wonders, great and dire, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and his whole house.23 He brought us from there to lead us into the land he promised on oath to our fathers, and to give it to us.24 Therefore, the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes in fear of the LORD, our God, that we may always have as prosperous and happy a life as we have today;25 and our justice before the LORD, our God, is to consist in carefully observing all these commandments he has enjoined on us.'
7 1 "When the LORD, your God, brings you into the land which you are to enter and occupy, and dislodges great nations before you-- the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites: seven nations more numerous and powerful than you-- 2 and when the LORD, your God, delivers them up to you and you defeat them, you shall doom them. Make no covenant with them and show them no mercy.3 You shall not intermarry with them, neither giving your daughters to their sons nor taking their daughters for your sons.4 For they would turn your sons from following me to serving other gods, and then the wrath of the LORD would flare up against you and quickly destroy you.5 "But this is how you must deal with them: Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, chop down their sacred poles, and destroy their idols by fire. 6 For you are a people sacred to the LORD, your God; he has chosen you from all the nations on the face of the earth to be a people peculiarly his own.
7 It was not because you are the largest of all nations that the LORD set his heart on you and chose you, for you are really the smallest of all nations.8 It was because the LORD loved you and because of his fidelity to the oath he had sworn to your fathers, that he brought you out with his strong hand from the place of slavery, and ransomed you from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.9 Understand, then, that the LORD, your God, is God indeed, the faithful God who keeps his merciful covenant down to the thousandth generation toward those who love him and keep his commandments,10 but who repays with destruction the person who hates him; he does not dally with such a one, but makes him personally pay for it.11 You shall therefore carefully observe the commandments, the statutes and the decrees which I enjoin on you today.
12 "As your reward for heeding these decrees and observing them carefully, the LORD, your God, will keep with you the merciful covenant which he promised on oath to your fathers.13 He will love and bless and multiply you; he will bless the fruit of your womb and the produce of your soil, your grain and wine and oil, the issue of your herds and the young of your flocks, in the land which he swore to your fathers he would give you.14 You will be blessed above all peoples; no man or woman among you shall be childless nor shall your livestock be barren.15 The LORD will remove all sickness from you; he will not afflict you with any of the malignant diseases that you know from Egypt, but will leave them with all your enemies.16 "You shall consume all the nations which the LORD, your God, will deliver up to you. You are not to look on them with pity, lest you be ensnared into serving their gods.
17 Perhaps you will say to yourselves, 'These nations are greater than we. How can we dispossess them?'18 But do not be afraid of them. Rather, call to mind what the LORD, your God, did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt:19 the great testings which your own eyes have seen, the signs and wonders, his strong hand and outstretched arm with which the LORD, your God, brought you out. The same also will he do to all the nations of whom you are now afraid.20 Moreover, the LORD, your God, will send hornets among them, until the survivors who have hidden from you are destroyed.
21 Therefore, do not be terrified by them, for the LORD, your God, who is in your midst, is a great and awesome God.22 He will dislodge these nations before you little by little. You cannot exterminate them all at once, lest the wild beasts become too numerous for you.23 The LORD, your God, will deliver them up to you and will rout them utterly until they are annihilated.24 He will deliver their kings into your hand, that you may make their names perish from under the heavens. No man will be able to stand up against you, till you have put an end to them.25 The images of their gods you shall destroy by fire. Do not covet the silver or gold on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it; for it is an abomination to the LORD, your God.26 You shall not bring any abominable thing into your house, lest you be doomed with it; loathe and abhor it utterly as a thing that is doomed.
Deutéronome (NAB) 1