East of the Jordan in the territory of Moab, Moses began to expound this law, saying:

The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes,

You came back and wept before the Lord, but he paid no attention to your weeping and turned a deaf ear to you.

Horites used to live in Seir, but the descendants of Esau drove them out. They destroyed the Horites from before them and settled in their place, just as Israel did in the land the Lord gave them as their possession.)

They were a people strong and numerous, and as tall as the Anakites. The Lord destroyed them from before the Ammonites, who drove them out and settled in their place.

The Lord had done the same for the descendants of Esau, who lived in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites from before them. They drove them out and have lived in their place to this day.

And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?

Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when he said to me, “Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.”

The Lord Is God

Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of?

Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today.

Introduction to the Law

This is the law Moses set before the Israelites.

“You shall have no other gods before me.

thrusting out all your enemies before you, as the Lord said.

Before our eyes the Lord sent signs and wonders—great and terrible—on Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household.

And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.”

Driving Out the Nations

When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you—

The Lord your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will not be allowed to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals will multiply around you.

Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.

But be assured today that the Lord your God is the one who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire. He will destroy them; he will subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them quickly, as the Lord has promised you.

After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, “The Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.” No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is going to drive them out before you.

It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, breaking them to pieces before your eyes.

Then once again I fell prostrate before the Lord for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the Lord’s sight and so arousing his anger.

I lay prostrate before the Lord those forty days and forty nights because the Lord had said he would destroy you.