1. Love the Lord your God. Do what he requires. Always obey his rules, laws and commands.
2. Remember today that your children weren't the ones the Lord your God taught and trained. They didn't see his majesty. They weren't in Egypt when he reached out his mighty hand and powerful arm.
3. They didn't see the miraculous signs and the other things he did in Egypt. They didn't see what he did to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to his whole country.
4. They weren't there when he destroyed the army of Egypt and its horses and chariots. The Lord swept the waters of the Red Sea over the Egyptians while they were chasing you. He wiped them out forever.
5. Your children didn't see what he did for you in the desert before you arrived here.
6. They didn't see what he did to Dathan and Abiram, who were the sons of Eliab. Eliab was from the tribe of Reuben. The earth opened its mouth right in the middle of the Israelite camp. It swallowed up Dathan and Abiram. It swallowed them up together with their families, tents and every living thing that belonged to them.
7. But with your own eyes you saw all of the great things the Lord has done.
8. So obey all of the commands I'm giving you today. Then you will be strong enough to go in and take over the land. You will go across the Jordan River and take it as your own.
9. You will live in the land for a long time. It's the land the Lord promised to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children after them. He took an oath when he made that promise. It's a land that has plenty of milk and honey.
10. You will enter it and take it over. It isn't like the land of Egypt. That's where you came from. You planted your seeds there. You had to water them, just as you have to water a vegetable garden.