当守律法
1“以色列人啊，要聆听我传授给你们的律法，要切实遵行，以便你们可以存活，并进入你们祖先的上帝耶和华赐给你们的那片土地。 2我吩咐你们的，你们不可做任何增减，这是你们的上帝耶和华的命令，你们要遵守。 3你们亲眼看见耶和华在巴力·毗珥事件中的作为，你们的上帝耶和华毁灭了你们中间所有拜巴力·毗珥的人， 4但你们这些信靠你们的上帝耶和华的人至今还活着。 5看啊，遵照我的上帝耶和华的吩咐，我把律例和典章传授给你们，好让你们在将要占领的土地上遵守。 6你们要谨遵这些律例和典章，因为这样就会让外族人看见你们的智慧和聪明。他们听见这些律法后，必说，‘这伟大的民族真有智慧和聪明！’ 7我们的上帝耶和华与我们如此亲近，随时垂听我们的呼求，有哪个伟大民族的神明能与之相比？ 8有哪个伟大的民族拥有我今天所传授给你们的如此公义的律例和典章？
9“要谨慎、小心，不可忘记亲眼所见的事，要一生铭记在心，并且告诉子子孙孙。 10那天，你们在何烈山站在你们的上帝耶和华面前，耶和华对我说，‘把民众招聚起来，让他们听我的教诲，学习一生敬畏我，并传授给自己的儿女。’ 11你们来到山脚下，站在那里，山上烈焰冲天、乌云密布、极其幽暗。 12耶和华在火焰中对你们说话，你们只听见祂的声音，却看不见祂的形象。 13祂向你们宣告祂的约，就是祂吩咐你们遵守的十诫，并写在两块石版上。 14那时，耶和华吩咐我把律例和典章传授给你们，好让你们在将要占领的土地上遵守。
不可拜偶像
15“你们要格外小心，耶和华在何烈山的火焰中对你们说话时，你们没有看见任何形象， 16所以不可堕落，去为自己制造任何形状的神像——男人、女人、 17飞禽走兽、 18爬虫或鱼类。 19当你们举目观看你们的上帝耶和华赐给天下万民的日、月、星辰等天上万象时，不要受诱惑去跪拜、供奉它们。 20耶和华拯救你们脱离埃及那座熔铁炉，让你们做祂自己的子民，正如今日的情形。 21因你们的缘故，耶和华向我发怒，起誓不让我过约旦河、进入祂赐给你们作产业的那片佳美之地。 22我将死在约旦河这边，过不了约旦河。但你们必过去得到那片佳美之地。 23你们要谨慎，不可忘记你们的上帝耶和华与你们所立的约，不可违背你们上帝耶和华的禁令，去制造任何形状的神像。 24因为你们的上帝耶和华是烈火，是痛恨不贞的上帝。
25“将来，即使你们在那里安顿已久、子孙满堂，也不可堕落、制造任何形状的神像，不可做你们的上帝耶和华视为邪恶的事，惹祂发怒。 26否则，今天我叫天地作证，你们必很快从约旦河对面将要占领的土地上灭亡，你们必被彻底消灭，不得在那里长久居住。 27耶和华必把你们驱散到列邦，使你们在列邦中的人数所剩无几。 28你们必在那里供奉人用木石造的不会看、不会听、不会吃、不会闻的神像。 29但你们若在那里寻求你们的上帝耶和华，全心全意地寻求祂，就必寻见。 30日后，当你们遭遇这些事，受尽苦难的时候，必归向你们的上帝耶和华，听从祂。 31因为你们的上帝耶和华充满怜悯，祂不会抛弃你们，灭绝你们，也不会忘记祂与你们祖先所立的誓约。
独一的上帝
32“你们可以查考历史，自上帝创造世人以来，这样的奇事，天地之间何曾有过？谁曾听闻？ 33有哪个民族像你们一样，听见了上帝在火中说话，还活了下来？ 34有哪个神明像你们的上帝耶和华那样在埃及当着你们的面降灾祸、行神迹奇事、兴起战争、伸出臂膀、施展大能的手、以伟大而可畏的作为拯救一族脱离异邦？ 35耶和华行这样的事，是要叫你们知道祂是上帝，除祂以外，别无他神。 36祂让你们听见祂从天上来的声音，好教导你们，又在地上让你们看见祂的烈火，并听见祂在烈火中说的话。 37因为祂爱你们的祖先，所以拣选你们，亲自用大能把你们从埃及领出来， 38赶走比你们强大的民族，领你们进入他们的土地，把他们的土地赐给你们作产业，正如今日的情形。 39所以，今天你们要知道并谨记，耶和华是天上地下的上帝，此外别无他神。 40我今天将祂的律例和诫命传授给你们，你们要遵守，以便你们及子孙都蒙福，在你们上帝耶和华所赐的土地上得享长寿。”
设立避难城
41那时，摩西在约旦河东划出三座城作避难城， 42供素无冤仇却误杀他人者逃往避难。 43三座城分别是旷野高原的比悉——供吕便人避难，基列的拉末——供迦得人避难，巴珊的哥兰——供玛拿西人避难。
重申律法
44以下是摩西颁布给以色列人的律法， 45即在离开埃及后传授给他们的法度、律例和典章。 46当时他们在约旦河以东伯·毗珥对面的山谷，那里原属于希实本的亚摩利王西宏。摩西领以色列人离开埃及后消灭了西宏， 47占领了他的土地，还占领了巴珊王噩的土地。西宏和噩是约旦河东亚摩利人的两个王， 48其国土从亚嫩谷边的亚罗珥一直到西云山，即黑门山， 49包括约旦河东的整个亚拉巴，远至毗斯迦山脚的亚拉巴海。
Obedience commanded
1Now, Israel, hear the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. 2Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.
3You saw with your own eyes what the Lord did at Baal Peor. The Lord your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor, 4but all of you who held fast to the Lord your God are still alive today.
5See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the Lord my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. 6Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ 7What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him? 8And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?
9Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. 10Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when he said to me, ‘Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.’ 11You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain while it blazed with fire to the very heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness. 12Then the Lord spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice. 13He declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two stone tablets. 14And the Lord directed me at that time to teach you the decrees and laws you are to follow in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.
Idolatry forbidden
15You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, 16so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, 17or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, 18or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below. 19And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars – all the heavenly array – do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshipping things the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven. 20But as for you, the Lord took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of his inheritance, as you now are.
21The Lord was angry with me because of you, and he solemnly swore that I would not cross the Jordan and enter the good land the Lord your God is giving you as your inheritance. 22I will die in this land; I will not cross the Jordan; but you are about to cross over and take possession of that good land. 23Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the Lord your God has forbidden. 24For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
25After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time – if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and arousing his anger, 26I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed. 27The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the Lord will drive you. 28There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell. 29But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey him. 31For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath.
The Lord is God
32Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? 33Has any other people heard the voice of God4:33 Or of a god speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? 34Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?
35You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other. 36From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the fire. 37Because he loved your ancestors and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength, 38to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today.
39Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. 40Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the Lord your God gives you for all time.
Cities of refuge
41Then Moses set aside three cities east of the Jordan, 42to which anyone who had killed a person could flee if they had unintentionally killed a neighbour without malice aforethought. They could flee into one of these cities and save their life. 43The cities were these: Bezer in the wilderness plateau, for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead, for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, for the Manassites.
Introduction to the law
44This is the law Moses set before the Israelites. 45These are the stipulations, decrees and laws Moses gave them when they came out of Egypt 46and were in the valley near Beth Peor east of the Jordan, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon and was defeated by Moses and the Israelites as they came out of Egypt. 47They took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan. 48This land extended from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Gorge to Mount Sirion4:48 Syriac (see also 3:9); Hebrew Siyon (that is, Hermon), 49and included all the Arabah east of the Jordan, as far as the Dead Sea,4:49 Hebrew the Sea of the Arabah below the slopes of Pisgah.
