Chronological Plan

¹“You shall therefore love the LORD your God, and always keep His directive, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments.

²Know this day that I am not speaking with your sons who have not known and who have not seen the discipline of the LORD your God—His greatness, His mighty hand, His outstretched arm,

³and His signs and His works which He did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land;

⁴and what He did to Egypt’s army, to its horses and its chariots, when He made the water of the Red Sea engulf them while they were pursuing you, and the LORD completely eliminated them;

⁵and what He did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place;

⁶and what He did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, among all Israel—

⁷but your own eyes have seen all the great work of the LORD which He did.

⁸“You shall therefore keep every commandment which I am commanding you today, so that you may be strong and go in and take possession of the land into which you are about to cross to possess it;

⁹and so that you may prolong your days on the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give to them and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.

¹⁰For the land, into which you are entering to possess it, is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you used to sow your seed and water it by your foot like a vegetable garden.

¹¹But the land into which you are about to cross to possess it, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven,

¹²a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are continually on it, from the beginning even to the end of the year.

¹³“And it shall come about, if you listen obediently to my commandments which I am commanding you today, to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul,

¹⁴that He will provide rain for your land in its season, the early and late rain, so that you may gather your grain, your new wine, and your oil.

¹⁵He will also provide grass in your field for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.

¹⁶Beware that your hearts are not easily deceived, and that you do not turn away and serve other gods, and worship them.

¹⁷Otherwise, the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and He will shut up the sky so that there will be no rain, and the ground will not yield its produce; then you will quickly perish from the good land which the LORD is giving you.

¹⁸“You shall therefore take these words of mine to heart and to soul; and you shall tie them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets on your forehead.

¹⁹You shall also teach them to your sons, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up.

²⁰And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,

²¹so that your days and the days of your sons may be increased on the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.

²²For if you are careful to keep all of this commandment which I am commanding you to do, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and cling to Him,

²³then the LORD will dispossess all these nations from you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you.

²⁴Every place on which the sole of your foot steps shall be yours; your border will be from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as the western sea.

²⁵No one will be able to stand against you; the LORD your God will instill the dread of you and the fear of you in all the land on which you set foot, just as He has spoken to you.

²⁶“See, I am placing before you today a blessing and a curse:

²⁷the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I am commanding you today;

²⁸and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, by following other gods which you have not known.

²⁹“And it shall come about, when the LORD your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, that you shall place the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.

³⁰Are they not across the Jordan, west of the road toward the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh?

³¹For you are about to cross the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land which the LORD your God is giving you, and you shall possess it and live in it,

³²and you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the judgments which I am placing before you today.

¹“These are the statutes and the judgments which you shall carefully follow in the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess as long as you live on the earth.

²You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations whom you are going to dispossess serve their gods, on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every leafy tree.

³And you shall tear down their altars and smash their memorial stones to pieces, and burn their Asherim in the fire, and cut to pieces the carved images of their gods; and you shall eliminate their name from that place.

⁴You shall not act this way toward the LORD your God.

⁵But you shall seek the LORD at the place which the LORD your God will choose from all your tribes, to establish His name there for His dwelling, and you shall come there.

⁶You shall bring there your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the contribution of your hand, your vowed offerings, your voluntary offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock.

⁷There you and your households shall eat before the LORD your God, and rejoice in all your undertakings in which the LORD your God has blessed you.

⁸“You shall not do at all what we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes;

⁹for you have not as yet come to the resting place and the inheritance which the LORD your God is giving you.

¹⁰When you cross the Jordan and live in the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and He gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in security,

¹¹then it shall come about that the place in which the LORD your God will choose for His name to dwell, there you shall bring everything that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution of your hand, and all your choice vowed offerings which you will vow to the LORD.

¹²And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your sons and daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance with you.

¹³“Be careful that you do not offer your burnt offerings in any cultic place that you see,

¹⁴but only in the place which the LORD chooses in one of your tribes: there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do everything that I command you.

¹⁵“However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your gates, whatever you desire, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as the gazelle and the deer.

¹⁶Only you shall not eat the blood; you are to pour it out on the ground like water.

¹⁷You are not allowed to eat within your gates the tithe of your grain, new wine, or oil, or the firstborn of your herd or flock, or any of your vowed offerings which you vow, or your voluntary offerings, or the contribution of your hand.

¹⁸But you shall eat them before the LORD your God in the place which the LORD your God will choose, you and your son and daughter, and your male and female slaves, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all your undertakings.

¹⁹Be careful that you do not abandon the Levite as long as you live in your land.

²⁰“When the LORD your God extends your border as He has promised you, and you say, ‘I will eat meat,’ because you desire to eat meat, then you may eat meat, whatever you desire.

²¹If the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, then you may slaughter animals from your herd and flock which the LORD has given you, as I have commanded you; and you may eat within your gates whatever you desire.

²²Just as a gazelle or a deer is eaten, so you may eat it; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it.

²³Only be sure not to eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh.

²⁴You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.

²⁵You shall not eat it, so that it may go well for you and your sons after you, since you will be doing what is right in the sight of the LORD.

²⁶Only your holy things which you may have and your vowed offerings, you shall take and go to the place which the LORD chooses.

²⁷And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the LORD your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the LORD your God, and you shall eat the flesh.

²⁸“Be careful and listen to all these words which I am commanding you, so that it may go well for you and your sons after you forever, for you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the LORD your God.

²⁹“When the LORD your God cuts off from you the nations which you are going in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and live in their land,

³⁰be careful that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from your presence, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations serve their gods, that I also may do likewise?’

³¹You shall not behave this way toward the LORD your God, because every abominable act which the LORD hates, they have done for their gods; for they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire for their gods.

³²“Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to nor take anything away from it.

¹“If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder,

²and the sign or the wonder comes true, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let’s follow other gods (whom you have not known) and let’s serve them,’

³you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

⁴You shall follow the LORD your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.

⁵But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken falsely against the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, to drive you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall eliminate the evil from among you.

⁶“If your brother, your mother’s son, or your son or daughter, or the wife you cherish, or your friend who is like your own soul, entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let’s go and serve other gods’ (whom neither you nor your fathers have known,

⁷of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near you, or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other end),

⁸you shall not consent to him or listen to him; and your eye shall not pity him, nor shall you spare or conceal him.

⁹Instead, you shall most certainly kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people.

¹⁰So you shall stone him to death, because he has attempted to drive you away from the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

¹¹Then all Israel will hear about it and be afraid, and will not do such a wicked thing among you again.

¹²“If you hear in one of your cities, which the LORD your God is giving you to live in, anyone saying that

¹³some worthless men have gone out from among you and have seduced the inhabitants of their city, saying, ‘Let’s go and serve other gods’ (whom you have not known),

¹⁴then you shall investigate, search out, and inquire thoroughly. And if it is true and the matter is certain that this abomination has been committed among you,

¹⁵you shall most certainly strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword. Utterly destroy it and all who are in it and its cattle, with the edge of the sword.

¹⁶Then you shall gather all its plunder into the middle of its public square, and burn the city and all its plunder with fire as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God; and it shall be a ruin forever. It shall never be rebuilt.

¹⁷Nothing at all from what is designated for destruction is to cling to your hand, in order that the LORD may turn from His burning anger and show mercy to you, and have compassion on you and make you increase, just as He has sworn to your fathers,

¹⁸if you will listen to the voice of the LORD your God, keeping all His commandments which I am commanding you today, and doing what is right in the sight of the LORD your God.