1. Now therefore, listen, O Israel, to the statutes and to the judgments which I am teaching you to do, so that you may live; and go in and possess the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you.
2. You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor shall you take anything from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.
3. Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal Peor; for the Lord your God has destroyed from among you all the men who followed Baal of Peor.
4. But you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive to this day, every one of you.
5. See, I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do so in the land where you are entering to possess it.
6. Therefore, keep and do them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations which shall hear all these statutes, and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”
7. For what nation is there so great, who has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is in all things whenever we call on Him?
8. And what nation is there so great that has statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I am setting before you today?
9. Only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but teach them to your sons, and your grandsons.
10. Especially concerning the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me, “Gather the people together to Me, so that I will let them hear My words so that they may learn to fear Me all the days they shall live on the earth, and so that they may teach their children.”
11. Then you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire up to the midst of heaven, with darkness, a cloud, a thick cloud.
12. Then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words but saw no form—only a voice was heard.
13. He declared to you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even the Ten Commandments, and He wrote them on two tablets of stone.