Deuteronomy 6

Evangelical Heritage Version

6 Moses spoke as follows:^[a]

Now this is the body of commands, and these are the statutes and the ordinances that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, so you may carry them out in the land to which you are crossing over to receive as a possession, ² so that you may fear the Lord your God by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I am commanding to you, as well as to your children and grandchildren, all the days of your life, and so that your days may be long.

³ Listen, O Israel, and be conscientious about doing those things, so it may go well for you and so you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, promised you. ⁴ Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God. The Lord is one! ⁵ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul^[b] and with all your might. ⁶ These words that I am commanding you today are to be on your heart. ⁷ Teach them diligently to your children, and speak about them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as a sign on your wrists, and they will serve as symbols on your forehead. ⁹ Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.

¹⁰ When the Lord your God brings you to the land about which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he would give it to you, he will bring you to great and good cities that you did not build, ¹¹ to houses full of all kinds of good things that you did not fill, to wells that you did not dig, and to vineyards and olives that you did not plant. Then, when you eat and are full, ¹² watch yourself, so that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, where you were slaves. ¹³ Fear the Lord your God, serve him, and swear by his name. ¹⁴ Do not go after other gods from among the gods of the peoples around you. ¹⁵ If you do, the Lord your God will be a jealous God in your midst, and the anger of the Lord your God will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the earth.

¹⁶ Do not put the Lord your God to the test the way you tested him at Massah. ¹⁷ Be very conscientious about keeping the commandments of the Lord your God and his testimonies and his statutes, which he commanded you. ¹⁸ Do what is right and good in the eyes of the Lord, so that it may go well for you and you may go and take possession of the good land that the Lord promised to your fathers with an oath, ¹⁹ driving out all your enemies from your presence, as the Lord promised.

²⁰ When your son asks you in the future, “What are these testimonies and statutes and ordinances that the Lord our God has commanded for you?” ²¹ then you are to say to your son, “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand. ²² Right before our eyes the Lord gave great, devastating signs and wonders in Egypt against Pharaoh and against his whole household. ²³ Then he brought us out of there to bring us in and give us the land that he promised to our fathers with an oath.”

²⁴ Then the Lord commanded us to carry out all of these statutes, to fear the Lord our God for our own lasting good, to keep us alive, even as we are today. ²⁵ Righteousness will be ours when we are conscientious about carrying out this entire set of commands in the presence of the Lord our God as he commanded us.