9“Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves,4:9 Jos 22:5; Pr 13:3; 16:17; 19:16; 22:5 so that you don’t forget4:9 Dt 6:12; 8:11; Pr 3:1; 4:5 the things your eyes have seen and so that they don’t slip from your mind4:9 Or don’t depart from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and your grandchildren.4:9–10 Ex 12:26; Dt 6:7,20–25; 11:2–7,18–21; 31:12–13,19–22; 32:46; Jos 4:6,21–22; 8:35; Ps 34:11; 78:5

10The day you stood before the Lord your God4:10 Gn 18:22; 19:27; Lv 9:5; Dt 10:8; 1Sm 6:20; 1Kg 22:21; 2Ch 20:13 at Horeb, the Lord said to me, ‘Assemble the people before me, and I will let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me4:10 Dt 5:29; Is 57:11; Jr 5:22; 32:39; Zph 3:7; Mal 3:5 all the days they live on the earth and may instruct their children.’

11You came near and stood at the base of the mountain,4:11 Ex 24:4; 32:19 a mountain blazing with fire4:11 Ex 3:2; 19:18; Dt 5:23; 9:15; Heb 12:18 into the heavens and enveloped in a totally black cloud.4:11 Gn 15:12; Ex 20:21; Dt 5:22; 2Sm 22:10; 1Kg 8:12; 2Ch 6:1; Ps 18:9; 97:2; Is 60:2; Jr 13:16; Ezk 34:12; Jl 2:2; Zph 1:15

12Then the Lord spoke to you from the fire.4:12 Ex 3:2–4; Dt 4:33,36; 5:4,22–26; 9:10; 10:4; 33:16; Ezk 1:4; Ac 7:30,35 You kept hearing the sound of the words, but didn’t see a form; there was only a voice.4:9–12 Ex 19:10–19; Dt 5:8; Heb 12:18–19

13He declared his covenant4:13 Ex 2:24; 19:5; Lv 26:9,15,42,44; Dt 7:12; 8:18; 17:2; 31:16,20; Jos 7:11; Jdg 2:1,20; 2Kg 17:15; 18:12; Ps 25:10,14; 78:37; 103:18; 105:8; 106:45; 111:5,9 to you. He commanded you to follow the Ten Commandments,4:13 Ex 34:28; Dt 10:4 which he wrote on two stone tablets.4:13 Ex 34:1,4; Dt 5:22; 10:1,3

14At that time the Lord commanded me to teach you statutes and ordinances for you to follow in the land you are about to cross into and possess.

21“The Lord was angry with me on your account.4:21 Dt 1:37 He swore that I would not cross the Jordan and enter the good land4:21 Dt 8:7 the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.4:21 Dt 15:4

22I won’t be crossing the Jordan because I am going to die in this land.4:22 Dt 34:1–8 But you are about to cross over and take possession of this good land.

23Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he made with you, and make an idol for yourselves in the shape of anything he has forbidden you.

24For the Lord your God is a consuming fire,4:24 Ex 24:17; Dt 9:3; 2Sm 22:9; Is 29:6; 30:27,30; 34:14 a jealous God.4:23–24 Ex 20:5; 34:14; Dt 5:9; 6:15; Jos 24:19; Heb 12:29

25“When you have children and grandchildren and have been in the land a long time, and if you act corruptly, make an idol in the form of anything, and do what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, angering him,

26I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that you will quickly perish4:26 Dt 8:19 from the land you are about to cross the Jordan to possess. You will not live long there, but you will certainly be destroyed.

27The Lord will scatter you among the peoples,4:27 Lv 26:33; Dt 28:64; 1Kg 14:15; Neh 1:8; Est 3:8; Ps 44:11; 106:27; Jr 9:16; 31:10; Ezk 6:8; 11:16–17; 12:15; Zch 1:19,21; 2:6 and you will be reduced to a few survivors4:27 Lit be left few in number among the nations where the Lord your God will drive you.

28There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see, hear, eat, or smell.

29But from there, you will search for the Lord your God, and you will find him when you seek him with all your heart and all your soul.4:29 Jr 29:13

30When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, in the future you will return to the Lord your God and obey him.

31He will not leave you, destroy you, or forget the covenant4:31 Lv 26:45; Dt 5:3; 7:12; 8:18; 31:20 with your ancestors that he swore to them by oath, because the Lord your God is a compassionate God.4:31 Ex 34:6

32“Indeed, ask about the earlier days that preceded you, from the day God created mankind4:32 Or Adam on the earth and from one end of the heavens to the other: Has anything like this great event ever happened, or has anything like it been heard of?

33Has a people heard God’s voice speaking from the fire as you have, and lived?

34Or has a god attempted to go and take a nation as his own out of another nation, by trials, signs, wonders, and war, by a strong hand and an outstretched arm, by great terrors, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

35You were shown these things so that you would know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him.4:35 1Kg 8:60; Is 43:11; 44:8; 45:5–6,18–22; 46:9; Dn 3:29; Jl 2:27; Mk 12:32

36He let you hear his voice from heaven to instruct you.4:36 Ex 20:22 He showed you his great fire on earth, and you heard his words from the fire.4:36 Ex 19:18

37Because he loved4:37 Dt 7:6–8; 10:15; 23:5; 33:3; Jr 31:3; Hs 11:1; Mal 1:2 your ancestors, he chose their descendants after them and brought you out of Egypt by his presence and great power,

38to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you in and give you their land as an inheritance,4:38 Lv 20:24 as is now taking place.

39Today, recognize and keep in mind that the Lord is God in heaven above and on earth below; there is no other.

40Keep his statutes and commands, which I am giving you today, so that you and your children after you may prosper and so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”