To me, then, the Lord your God entrusted the proclaiming of those laws, and observances, and decrees, so that you would have a rule to live by, yonder in the land that is to be your home.

Go in fear of the Lord thy God; here is a lifelong task for thee, and thy sons and thy grandsons after thee, to observe all the laws and decrees I here make known to thee; so thou wilt keep what thou hast won.

The Lord thy God, Israel, has promised thee a land that is all milk and honey; but if thou art to prosper and multiply there, thou must needs listen to his commands, and mark them well, and live by them.

Listen then, Israel; there is no Lord but the Lord our God,

and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with the love of thy whole heart, and thy whole soul, and thy whole strength.

The commands I give thee this day must be written on thy heart,

so that thou canst teach them to thy sons, and keep them in mind continually, at home and on thy travels, sleeping and waking;

bound close to thy hand for a remembrancer, ever moving up and down before thy eyes;

the legend thou dost inscribe on door and gate-post.

A time will come when the Lord has granted thee entrance into the land which he promised to thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; when he has given thee possession of cities great and fair, not of thy building,

houses that abound in wealth, not of thy making, wells not of thy digging, vineyards and oliveyards not of thy planting;

when thou hast eaten of these and taken thy fill.

Then beware; then thou wilt be in danger of forgetting that it was the Lord brought thee out of the land of Egypt, where thou hadst dwelt in slavery. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, to him only shalt thou do service, and swear by no other name than this.

All the neighbouring peoples have their own gods; do not fall away into worship of them;

the Lord thy God, who dwells so close to thee, is jealous in his divine love, and if he is roused to anger with thee, he will sweep thee off the face of the earth.

Thou shalt not put the Lord thy God to the proof, as thou didst at the Place of Challenge;

it is for thee to live by his commandments, by the decrees and observances he has enjoined on thee,

to obey the Lord’s good pleasure. So shalt thou prosper, and the fair land which the Lord promised to thy fathers shall be thine to have and to hold;

he will be true to his word, and dispossess all those enemies of thine at thy onslaught.

And so, in time to come, when one of thy sons asks thee what is the meaning of all the decrees and observances and awards which the Lord your God has given you,

this shall be thy answer: We dwelt in Egypt once, as Pharao’s slaves, and the Lord our God rescued us from Egypt by his constraining power,

subduing Pharao and his court with portents and marvels, great and grievous, under our eyes.

So rescued, he brought us here, and gave us entrance into this fair land which he had promised to our fathers;

warning us that we must observe all these laws of his, and go in fear of the Lord our God. Then the prosperity that is ours to-day will be ours all our life long;

he will have mercy on us, if he sees us ever faithful to his commandments, ever obedient to his will.