10. about the day you stood in the presence of the Lord your God at Mount Sinai, when he said to me, ‘Assemble the people. I want them to hear what I have to say, so that they will learn to obey me as long as they live and so that they will teach their children to do the same.’
11. “Tell your children how you went and stood at the foot of the mountain which was covered with thick clouds of dark smoke and fire blazing up to the sky.
12. Tell them how the Lord spoke to you from the fire, how you heard him speaking but did not see him in any form at all.
13. He told you what you must do to keep the covenant he made with you — you must obey the Ten Commandments, which he wrote on two stone tablets.
14. The Lord told me to teach you all the laws that you are to obey in the land that you are about to invade and occupy.
15. “When the Lord spoke to you from the fire on Mount Sinai, you did not see any form. For your own good, then, make certain
16. that you do not sin by making for yourselves an idol in any form at all — whether man or woman,
17. animal or bird,
18. reptile or fish.
19. Do not be tempted to worship and serve what you see in the sky — the sun, the moon, and the stars. The Lord your God has given these to all other peoples for them to worship.
20. But you are the people he rescued from Egypt, that blazing furnace. He brought you out to make you his own people, as you are today.
21. Because of you the Lord your God was angry with me and solemnly declared that I would not cross the River Jordan to enter the fertile land which he is giving you.
22. I will die in this land and never cross the river, but you are about to go across and occupy that fertile land.
23. Be certain that you do not forget the covenant that the Lord your God made with you. Obey his command not to make yourselves any kind of idol,
24. because the Lord your God is like a flaming fire; he tolerates no rivals.
25. “Even when you have been in the land a long time and have children and grandchildren, do not sin by making for yourselves an idol in any form at all. This is evil in the Lord's sight, and it will make him angry.
26. I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that, if you disobey me, you will soon disappear from the land. You will not live very long in the land across the Jordan that you are about to occupy. You will be completely destroyed.
27. The Lord will scatter you among other nations, where only a few of you will survive.
28. There you will serve gods made by human hands, gods of wood and stone, gods that cannot see or hear, eat or smell.