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.
當守律法
1「以色列人啊，要聆聽我傳授給你們的律法，要切實遵行，以便你們可以存活，並進入你們祖先的上帝耶和華賜給你們的那片土地。 2我吩咐你們的，你們不可做任何增減，這是你們的上帝耶和華的命令，你們要遵守。 3你們親眼看見耶和華在巴力·毗珥事件中的作為，你們的上帝耶和華毀滅了你們中間所有拜巴力·毗珥的人， 4但你們這些信靠你們的上帝耶和華的人至今還活著。 5看啊，遵照我的上帝耶和華的吩咐，我把律例和典章傳授給你們，好讓你們在將要佔領的土地上遵守。 6你們要謹遵這些律例和典章，因為這樣就會讓外族人看見你們的智慧和聰明。他們聽見這些律法後，必說，『這偉大的民族真有智慧和聰明！』 7我們的上帝耶和華與我們如此親近，隨時垂聽我們的呼求，有哪個偉大民族的神明能與之相比？ 8有哪個偉大的民族擁有我今天所傳授給你們的如此公義的律例和典章？
9「要謹慎、小心，不可忘記親眼所見的事，要一生銘記在心，並且告訴子子孫孫。 10那天，你們在何烈山站在你們的上帝耶和華面前，耶和華對我說，『把民眾招聚起來，讓他們聽我的教誨，學習一生敬畏我，並傳授給自己的兒女。』 11你們來到山腳下，站在那裡，山上烈焰沖天、烏雲密佈、極其幽暗。 12耶和華在火焰中對你們說話，你們只聽見祂的聲音，卻看不見祂的形像。 13祂向你們宣告祂的約，就是祂吩咐你們遵守的十誡，並寫在兩塊石版上。 14那時，耶和華吩咐我把律例和典章傳授給你們，好讓你們在將要佔領的土地上遵守。
不可拜偶像
15「你們要格外小心，耶和華在何烈山的火焰中對你們說話時，你們沒有看見任何形像， 16所以不可墮落，去為自己製造任何形狀的神像——男人、女人、 17飛禽走獸、 18爬蟲或魚類。 19當你們舉目觀看你們的上帝耶和華賜給天下萬民的日、月、星辰等天上萬象時，不要受誘惑去跪拜、供奉它們。 20耶和華拯救你們脫離埃及那座熔鐵爐，讓你們做祂自己的子民，正如今日的情形。 21因你們的緣故，耶和華向我發怒，起誓不讓我過約旦河、進入祂賜給你們作產業的那片佳美之地。 22我將死在約旦河這邊，過不了約旦河。但你們必過去得到那片佳美之地。 23你們要謹慎，不可忘記你們的上帝耶和華與你們所立的約，不可違背你們上帝耶和華的禁令，去製造任何形狀的神像。 24因為你們的上帝耶和華是烈火，是痛恨不貞的上帝。
25「將來，即使你們在那裡安頓已久、子孫滿堂，也不可墮落、製造任何形狀的神像，不可做你們的上帝耶和華視為邪惡的事，惹祂發怒。 26否則，今天我叫天地作證，你們必很快從約旦河對面將要佔領的土地上滅亡，你們必被徹底消滅，不得在那裡長久居住。 27耶和華必把你們驅散到列邦，使你們在列邦中的人數所剩無幾。 28你們必在那裡供奉人用木石造的不會看、不會聽、不會吃、不會聞的神像。 29但你們若在那裡尋求你們的上帝耶和華，全心全意地尋求祂，就必尋見。 30日後，當你們遭遇這些事，受盡苦難的時候，必歸向你們的上帝耶和華，聽從祂。 31因為你們的上帝耶和華充滿憐憫，祂不會拋棄你們，滅絕你們，也不會忘記祂與你們祖先所立的誓約。
獨一的上帝
32「你們可以查考歷史，自上帝創造世人以來，這樣的奇事，天地之間何曾有過？誰曾聽聞？ 33有哪個民族像你們一樣，聽見了上帝在火中說話，還活了下來？ 34有哪個神明像你們的上帝耶和華那樣在埃及當著你們的面降災禍、行神蹟奇事、興起戰爭、伸出臂膀、施展大能的手、以偉大而可畏的作為拯救一族脫離異邦？ 35耶和華行這樣的事，是要叫你們知道祂是上帝，除祂以外，別無他神。 36祂讓你們聽見祂從天上來的聲音，好教導你們，又在地上讓你們看見祂的烈火，並聽見祂在烈火中說的話。 37因為祂愛你們的祖先，所以揀選你們，親自用大能把你們從埃及領出來， 38趕走比你們強大的民族，領你們進入他們的土地，把他們的土地賜給你們作產業，正如今日的情形。 39所以，今天你們要知道並謹記，耶和華是天上地下的上帝，此外別無他神。 40我今天將祂的律例和誡命傳授給你們，你們要遵守，以便你們及子孫都蒙福，在你們上帝耶和華所賜的土地上得享長壽。」
設立避難城
41那時，摩西在約旦河東劃出三座城作避難城， 42供素無冤仇卻誤殺他人者逃往避難。 43三座城分別是曠野高原的比悉——供呂便人避難，基列的拉末——供迦得人避難，巴珊的哥蘭——供瑪拿西人避難。
重申律法
44以下是摩西頒佈給以色列人的律法， 45即在離開埃及後傳授給他們的法度、律例和典章。 46當時他們在約旦河以東伯·毗珥對面的山谷，那裡原屬於希實本的亞摩利王西宏。摩西領以色列人離開埃及後消滅了西宏， 47佔領了他的土地，還佔領了巴珊王噩的土地。西宏和噩是約旦河東亞摩利人的兩個王， 48其國土從亞嫩谷邊的亞羅珥一直到西雲山，即黑門山， 49包括約旦河東的整個亞拉巴，遠至毗斯迦山腳的亞拉巴海。
