Life, increase, entrance into the land the Lord promised to thy fathers, secure possession of it, all shall be thine if thou wilt take good heed to follow the commandments I am giving thee this day.

Do not forget the long journeying by which, for forty years, the Lord thy God led thee through the desert, testing thee by hard discipline, to know the dispositions of thy heart, whether thou wouldst keep his commandments or not.

He disciplined thee with hunger, and then sent down manna, food unknown to thee and to thy fathers; he would teach thee that man cannot live by bread only, there is life for him in all the words that proceed from the mouth of God.

Never did the garments that covered thee wear out with age, never wast thou footsore, these forty years.

And dost thou doubt that the Lord was chastening thee, as a man chastens his own son,

training thee to keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and follow the path he chooses, and live in fear of him?

And now the Lord thy God means to settle thee in a fair land, a land that has water coursing down in streams, and deep wells that break out from plain and hill;

a land of wheat and barley, of vine and fig-tree and pomegranate and olive, a land where oil flows, and honey.

Here without fear of want thou mayest win thy livelihood; all shall be thine in abundance; the very stones of that land yield iron, and there is copper to be mined from its hill-sides;

here thou mayest eat thy fill and bless the name of the Lord thy God for the fair land he has given thee.

Thou wilt be in danger, then, of forgetting the Lord thy God, of neglecting the laws and decrees and observances thou hast learned this day.

Thou wilt eat thy fill, thou wilt build thyself fair houses to dwell in,

thou wilt have herds and flocks, gold and silver and all good things shall be thine;

oh beware lest thy heart should swell with pride, and forget the Lord thy God! He it was that rescued thee from thy bondage in Egypt,

and led thee through a wide wilderness full of terrors, where there were serpents with fiery breath, and scorpions, and vipers, and no water to drink. He it was that brought out streams from the solid rock,

and fed thee, in that desert, with manna, the food unknown to thy fathers. So he disciplined and tested thee, and then at last shewed mercy to thee.

Never wert thou to flatter thyself that valour of thy own, strength of thy own, had won thee wealth;

rather to bethink thyself of the Lord thy God, and the strength he gives thee. How faithful he is to the promise he made thy fathers, thou canst see this day.

Forget the Lord thy God, betake thyself to other gods as their slave and worshipper, and I warn thee, here and now, that it shall be thy utter ruin.

If you pay no heed to the voice of the Lord your God, you shall be swept away no less surely than these nations the Lord means to sweep away at your coming.