Study Desk

"You shall therefore love the LORD your God, and always keep His directive, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments.

"You shall therefore keep every commandment which I am commanding you today, so that you may be strong and go in and take possession of the land into which you are about to cross to possess it;

"And it shall come about, if you listen obediently to my commandments which I am commanding you today, to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul,

"You shall therefore take these words of mine to heart and to soul; and you shall tie them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets on your forehead.

"You shall also teach them to your sons, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up.

"And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,

"Every place on which the sole of your foot steps shall be yours; your border will be from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as the western sea.

"And it shall come about, when the LORD your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, that you shall place the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.

"For you are about to cross the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land which the LORD your God is giving you, and you shall possess it and live in it,

and you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the judgments which I am placing before you today.

"These are the statutes and the judgments which you shall carefully follow in the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess as long as you live on the earth.

"You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations whom you are going to dispossess serve their gods, on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every leafy tree.

"And you shall tear down their altars and smash their memorial stones to pieces, and burn their Asherim in the fire, and cut to pieces the carved images of their gods; and you shall eliminate their name from that place.

"You shall not act this way toward the LORD your God.

"But you shall seek the LORD at the place which the LORD your God will choose from all your tribes, to establish His name there for His dwelling, and you shall come there.

"You shall bring there your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the contribution of your hand, your vowed offerings, your voluntary offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock.

"There you and your households shall eat before the LORD your God, and rejoice in all your undertakings in which the LORD your God has blessed you.

"You shall not do at all what we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes;

then it shall come about that the place in which the LORD your God will choose for His name to dwell, there you shall bring everything that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution of your hand, and all your choice vowed offerings which you will vow to the LORD.

"And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your sons and daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance with you.