Deuteronomy 6
1 And these are the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Jehovah your God commanded to teach you, that ye may do them in the land whereunto ye pass over to possess it,
“These are the commandments and rules and regulations that Yahweh our God commanded me to teach to you. He wants you to obey them in the land that you are about to enter and occupy.
2 that thou mayest fear Jehovah thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.
He wants you to revere him, and he wants you and your descendants to always obey all these rules and regulations that I am giving to you, in order that you may live for a long time.
3 And thou shalt hear, Israel, and take heed to do [them]; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase greatly, as Jehovah the God of thy fathers hath said unto thee, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
So, you Israeli people, listen to them carefully and obey them. If you do that, things will go well with you, and you will become a nation with a very large population when you are living in that very fertile [IDM] land. That is what Yahweh, the God whom our ancestors [worshiped], promised [would happen].
4 Hear, Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah;
“You Israeli people, listen! Only Yahweh is our God.
5 and thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength.
You must love him with all your inner being and with all that you feel and with all that you do.
6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart;
Never forget [IDM] these commands that I am giving to you today.
7 and thou shalt impress them on thy sons, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou goest on the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
Teach them to your children again and again. Talk about them [all the time]: When you are in your houses and when you are walking outside; talk about them when you are lying down and when you are doing things.
8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign on thy hand, and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes.
[Write them on tiny scrolls and] fasten them to your arms/wrists, and write them on bands that you fasten to your foreheads [to help you to remember them].
9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and upon thy gates.
Write them on the doorposts and on the gates of your houses.
10 And it shall be, when Jehovah thy God bringeth thee into the land which he swore unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee: great and good cities which thou buildedst not,
“Yahweh our God vowed to your ancestors Abraham and Isaac and Jacob that he will give you a land that already has in it large and prosperous cities that you did not build.
11 and houses full of everything good which thou filledst not, and wells digged which thou diggedst not, vineyards and oliveyards which thou plantedst not, and thou shalt have eaten and shalt be full;
He said that the houses in those cities will already be full of many good things that [others put there]; you did not put them there. There will be wells that others have dug. There will be vineyards and olive trees that others planted. So when Yahweh brings you into that land, and you have all that you want to eat,
12 [then] beware lest thou forget Jehovah who brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
be sure that you do not forget Yahweh who rescued you from being slaves [in Egypt and gave all these things to you].
13 Thou shalt fear Jehovah thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.
“You must revere Yahweh our God, and you must serve only him and say that he should [MTY] punish you if you do not do what you have promised.
14 Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples that are round about you;
You must not worship any other gods, the gods that the people-groups who will live near you worship.
15 for Jehovah thy God is a jealous God in thy midst; lest the anger of Jehovah thy God be kindled against thee, and he destroy thee from the face of the earth.
Yahweh our God, who lives among you, (will not accept/will punish) people who worship anyone or anything else. So if you worship any other god, Yahweh will be very angry with you, and he will get rid of you completely.
16 Ye shall not tempt Jehovah your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.
Do not do sinful things to find out if you can do them without Yahweh our God punishing you, like your ancestors did at Massah.
17 Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of Jehovah your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee.
Be sure that you always obey all the laws, the commandments, the rules, and the regulations that he has given to you.
18 And thou shalt do what is right and good in the sight of Jehovah, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest enter in and possess the good land which Jehovah swore unto thy fathers,
Do what Yahweh says is right and good. If you do that, things will go well with you. You will be able to enter and occupy the good/fertile land that Yahweh vowed to give to our ancestors.
19 thrusting out all thine enemies from before thee, as Jehovah hath spoken.
He will do that by expelling your enemies from that land, just like he promised to do.
20 When thy son shall ask thee in time to come, saying, What are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which Jehovah our God hath commanded you?
“In the future, when your children ask you, ‘Why did Yahweh our God command us to obey all these rules and regulations?’
21 then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt; and Jehovah brought us out of Egypt with a powerful hand;
tell them, ‘Our ancestors were slaves of the king in Egypt, but Yahweh brought them out of Egypt by his great power [MTY].
22 and Jehovah shewed signs and wonders, great and grievous, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes;
They saw him do many kinds of miracles [DOU] and do terrifying things to the people of Egypt and to the king and his officials.
23 and he brought us out thence, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he swore unto our fathers.
He rescued our ancestors from Egypt and brought them here to give them this land, just like he vowed that he would do.
24 And Jehovah commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear Jehovah our God, for our good continually, that he might preserve us alive, as it is this day.
And he commanded us to obey all these laws and to revere him, for our own good and in order that he would protect our nation and enable us to prosper, as he is doing now.
25 And it shall be our righteousness if we take heed to do all these commandments before Jehovah our God, as he hath commanded us.
Yahweh our God will (approve of us/consider us to be righteous) if we carefully obey everything that he has commanded us to do.’”
