Instruction to Children. ^20 (A)Later on, when your son asks you, “What do these decrees and statutes and ordinances mean?”^(B) which the Lord, our God, has enjoined on you, ^21 (C)you shall say to your son, “We were once slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand^{(D) 22} and wrought before our eyes signs and wonders, great and dire, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and his whole house. ²³ He brought us from there to bring us in and give us the land he had promised on oath to our ancestors.^{(E) 24 (F)}The Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes in fear of the Lord, our God, that we may always have as good a life as we have today. ²⁵ This is our justice before the Lord, our God: to observe carefully this whole commandment he has enjoined on us.”

⁸ It was because the Lord loved you and because of his fidelity to the oath he had sworn to your ancestors, that the Lord brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.^{(A) 9 (B)}Know, then, that the Lord, your God, is God: the faithful God who keeps covenant mercy to the thousandth generation toward those who love him and keep his commandments,^{(C) 10} but who repays with destruction those who hate him; he does not delay with those who hate him, but makes them pay for it. ¹¹ Therefore carefully observe the commandment, the statutes and the ordinances which I command you today.