1. Now, Israel, pay attention to the statutes and ordinances I am about to teach you, so that you might live and go on to enter and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.
2. Do not add a thing to what I command you nor subtract from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I am delivering to you.
3. You have witnessed what the Lord did at Baal Peor, how he eradicated from your midst everyone who followed Baal Peor.
4. But you who remained faithful to the Lord your God are still alive to this very day, every one of you.
5. Look! I have taught you statutes and ordinances just as the Lord my God told me to do, so that you might carry them out in the land you are about to enter and possess.
6. So be sure to do them, because this will testify of your wise understanding to the people who will learn of all these statutes and say, “Indeed, this great nation is a very wise people.”
7. In fact, what other great nation has a god so near to them like the Lord our God whenever we call on him?