1 And now, Israel, hear {shema: attentive obedience} the statutes and the judgments that I am teaching you to do, so that you may live and may enter and possess the land that the LORD your God {YHWH Elohei avoteikhem, Covenant Giver} is giving you.
2 Do not add to the word {davar: instruction or matter} which I am commanding you, and do not subtract from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God {YHWH Eloheikhem, Covenant Instructor} which I am commanding you.
3 Your eyes saw what the LORD {YHWH, Divine Judge} did at Baal Peor; for every man who went after Baal Peor, the LORD your God destroyed him from your midst {kirbekha: inner community}.
4 But you who are clinging to the LORD your God {YHWH Eloheikhem, Covenant Companion} are all alive {chayyim: sustained in life} today.
5 See, I have taught you statutes {chukim: binding ordinances} and judgments as the LORD my God {YHWH Elohai, Divine Instructor} commanded me to do so in the midst of the land which you are entering there to possess it.
6 And you shall keep and do them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations {goyim: foreign peoples}, who will hear all these statutes {ḥukkim: binding ordinances} and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”
7 For what great nation is there that has gods so near to it as the LORD our God {YHWH Eloheinu, Covenant Protector} is to us whenever we call {kara: summon, pray} to Him?
8 And what great nation is there that has statutes {chukim: mandated decrees} and judgments so righteous as all this Torah {hatorah: comprehensive instruction} that I am giving before you today?
9 Only be cautious, and guard your soul {nefesh: life-essence}, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; and you shall make them known to your sons and to your sons’ sons {banim: descendants}.
10 The day you stood before the LORD your God {YHWH Eloheikha, Covenant Instructor} at Horeb, when the LORD said to me, "Assemble the people for Me, and I will cause them to hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me {yirah: reverent awe} all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children."
11 And you approached and stood under the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire up to the heart of the heavens {shamayim: Upper Sky}; darkness, cloud, and thick gloom {arafel: Dense Obscuring Mist} were there.
12 And the LORD {YHWH, Lawgiver} spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but you did not see a form {temunah: visible shape}—there was only a voice.
13 And He {YHWH, Covenant Lawgiver} declared to you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform—the ten words {devarim: foundational commands}—and He wrote them on two tablets of stone.
14 And the LORD {YHWH, Law Giver} commanded me at that time to teach you statutes {chukim: permanent decrees} and ordinances for you to do them in the land that you are crossing to possess it.
15 Therefore, be very careful to guard your souls {nefesh: life essence}, for you did not see any form on the day the LORD {YHWH, Covenant Guardian} spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire.
16 Lest you act corruptly {tashkhitun: morally destroy yourselves} and make for yourselves an idol {pesel: carved form}, a likeness of any shape, a pattern of male or female.
17 The form {tavnit: representation} of every animal that is on the earth, the form of every bird {tsipor: feathered creature} with wings that flies in the heavens.
18 The form {tavnit: physical likeness} of any creeping thing on the ground, the form of any fish {dagah: aquatic creature} in the waters beneath the earth.
19 And lest you lift your eyes to the heavens and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host {tseva: army} of the heavens, and be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them—those which the LORD your God {YHWH Eloheikha: Covenant Sovereign} has apportioned to all the nations under all the heavens.
20 But the LORD {YHWH, Redeeming Deliverer} took you and brought you out of the iron furnace {kur: place of refining} from Egypt to be for Him a people of inheritance, as you are today.
21 And the LORD {YHWH, Righteous Judge} was angry with me on your account, and He swore {vayishava: solemn oath} that I would not cross the Jordan or enter the good land which the LORD your God is giving you as your inheritance.
22 For I am dying {met: imminent end} in this land; I am not crossing the Jordan, but you are crossing and you will possess {yirishtem: inheritance allotment} this good land.
23 Be on your guard for yourselves lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God {YHWH Eloheikhem, Covenant Maker} which He made with you, and you make an idol {pesel: sculpted object} in the form of anything which the LORD your God has commanded you not to do.
24 For the LORD your God {YHWH Elohecha, Covenant Guardian} is a consuming fire {esh: all-devouring} and a jealous God.
25 For when you have children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and you act corruptly and make an idol, a likeness of anything, and you do evil {hara: moral wrongdoing} in the sight of the LORD your God {YHWH Elohecha, Righteous Judge}, to provoke Him to anger.
26 Today I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses {ha’idoti: formal summons} against you, for you will surely perish quickly from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not prolong days {yamim: allotted time} on it, for you will surely be destroyed.
27 And the LORD {YHWH, Dispersing Judge} will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number {mispar: counted remnant} among the nations where the LORD drives you.
28 And there you will serve gods {elohim, objects of false worship}, the work of human hands {yedei adam: crafted by people}, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.
29 But if you seek the LORD your God {YHWH Eloheikha, Covenant Responder} from there, you will find Him if you diligently seek Him with all your heart {levav: inner will and intellect} and with all your soul.
30 When you are in distress and all these things {devarim: events} come upon you in the latter days, then you will return to the LORD your God {YHWH Eloheikha, Merciful Restorer} and obey His voice.
31 Because the compassionate God {El, Merciful One}—the LORD your God {YHWH Eloheikha, Covenant Keeper}—will not forsake you, nor will He destroy you, nor will He forget the covenant {berit: solemn binding agreement} that He swore to your ancestors.
32 Ask now about the former days that were before you, from the day that God {Elohim, Creator of the Universe} created man on the earth and from one end of the heavens to the other—has there ever been anything like this great thing {davar: remarkable event}, or has anything like it ever been heard?
33 Has any people heard the voice of God {Elohim, Divine Speaker} speaking from the midst of the fire {esh: consuming presence}, as you have heard, and remained alive?
34 Or has God {Elohim: Supreme Actor} ever tried to come to take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by testings {masot: trials of faith}, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, like all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
35 You were shown {haretah: causative revelation} so that you might know that the LORD {YHWH, Sovereign Revealer} is God; there is no other besides Him.
36 From the heavens He {YHWH, Divine Discipliner} made you hear His voice {kolo: divine speech} to discipline you, and on the earth He showed you His great fire and His words you heard from the midst of the fire.
37 And because He {YHWH, Redeeming Deliverer} loved your fathers {avot: patriarchal ancestors} and chose their offspring after them, He brought you out by His presence with His great strength from Egypt.
38 To dispossess {horish: remove inhabitants} nations greater and mightier than you from before you, to bring you in and to give you their land as an inheritance {nachalah: legal heritage}, as it is this day.
39 So you are to know today and take to heart {levavekha: inner conviction} that the LORD God {YHWH Elohim, Supreme Sovereign} is God in the heavens above and on the earth below; there is no other.
40 And you shall keep his statutes and his commandments which I am commanding you today, that it may go well for you and for your sons {banim: male descendants} after you and so that you may prolong days upon the land which the LORD your God {YHWH Eloheicha, Faithful Covenant Giver} gives you all the days.
41 Then Moses {Mosheh: Lawgiver} set apart three cities {arim: towns} across the Jordan toward the eastward sun.
42 The manslayer may flee there when he kills his neighbor without knowledge {bivli-da’at: unintentional ignorance} and had not hated him in former days {mitmol: in times past}; and he shall flee to one of these cities and live.
43 Bezer in the wilderness {midbar: desert region}, in the land of the plain {mishor: plateau region}, for the Reubenite; and Ramoth in Gilead, for the Gadite; and Golan in Bashan, for the Manassite.
44 And this is the law {torah: covenant instruction} that Moses {Mosheh: mediator} placed before the sons of Israel.
45 These are the testimonies {ha’edot: covenant witness}, the statutes, and the ordinances {mishpatim: judicial decision} that Moses spoke to the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt.
46 On the other side of the Jordan {yarden: river boundary}, in the valley opposite the house of Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorite, who was dwelling in Heshbon, whom Moses {mosheh: faithful leader} and the sons of Israel defeated when they came out of Egypt.
47 And they took possession of his land and of the land of Og king of Bashan {bashan: fertile plateau}, the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan toward the rising of the sun {mizrach: direction of the sunrise}.
48 From Aroer, which is on the edge {sfat: boundary marker} of the Arnon Valley, to Mount Sirion {sion: ancient summit}, which is Hermon.
49 And all the Arabah {aravah: steppe region} beyond the Jordan eastward and up to the Sea of the Arabah beneath the slopes {ashdot: ridges} of Pisgah.