Deuteronomy 6

1 These are the commandments and rules and regulations that the Lord your God has ordered me to teach you to follow in the country that you're going to enter and occupy.

Now these are the orders and the laws and the decisions which the Lord your God gave me for your teaching, so that you might do them in the land of your heritage to which you are going:

2 This is so you and your children and grandchildren will show respect to the Lord your God throughout your lives by keeping all his rules and regulations that I give you, and so that you may have a long life.

So that living in the fear of the Lord your God, you may keep all his laws and his orders, which I give you: you and your son and your son's son, all the days of your life; and so that your life may be long.

3 Listen, people of Israel, and be careful to observe them, so that you may do well and have many descendants in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your forefathers, promised you.

So give ear, O Israel, and take care to do this; so that it may be well for you, and you may be greatly increased, as the Lord the God of your fathers has given you his word, in a land flowing with milk and honey.

4 Listen, people of Israel, The Lord our God, the Lord is the only one.

Give ear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord:

5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your mind and with all your being and with all your strength.

And the Lord your God is to be loved with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

6 The commands I'm giving you today must stay in your minds.

Keep these words, which I say to you this day, deep in your hearts;

7 You are to explain them carefully to your children and talk about them when you're at home and when you're traveling, when you lie down and when you get up.

Teaching them to your children with all care, talking of them when you are at rest in your house or walking by the way, when you go to sleep and when you get up.

8 Tie them on your hands as reminders and put them on your foreheads as well.

Let them be fixed as a sign on your hand, and marked on your brow;

9 Write them on the doorposts of your homes and on your gates.

Have them lettered on the pillars of your houses and over the doors of your towns.

10 The Lord your God is going to take you into the country he promised to give you and your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It's a country with large, prosperous towns that you didn't build,

And when the Lord your God has taken you into the land which he gave his oath to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, that he would give you; with great and fair towns which were not of your building;

11 with houses full of plenty of good things that you didn't provide, that have wells you didn't dig, and vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant. When you eat and are full

And houses full of good things not stored up by you, and places for storing water which you did not make, and vine-gardens and olive-trees not of your planting; and you have taken food and are full;

12 make sure you don't forget the Lord who led you out of Egypt, out of the prison-house of slavery.

Then take care that you keep your hearts true to the Lord, who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house.

13 Respect the Lord your God only worship him, and only make promises in his name.

Let the fear of the Lord your God be in your hearts, and be his servants, taking your oaths by his name.

14 Don't worship any other gods, the gods of the peoples around you,

Do not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples round about you;

15 because the Lord your God, who lives among you, is an exclusive God, and Lord your God will become angry with you, and he will wipe you out.

For the Lord your God who is with you is a God who will not let his honour be given to another; or the wrath of the Lord will be burning against you, causing your destruction from the face of the earth.

16 Don't test the Lord your God like you did at Massah.

Do not put the Lord your God to the test as you did in Massah.

17 You must be careful to keep the commandments of the Lord your God and the laws and rules he's given you.

Keep with care the orders of the Lord your God, and his rules and his laws which he has given you;

18 Do what's good and right in the Lord's sight so that it will go well for you and that you may enter and take over the good land that the Lord your God promised to give your forefathers,

And do what is upright and good in the eyes of the Lord your God, so that it may be well for you and you may go in and take for your heritage that good land from which the Lord undertook by an oath to your fathers,

19 He will drive out all your enemies ahead of you, just as he said.

To send out from before you all those who are against you.

20 In the future, when your children come and ask you, “What's the point of decrees and rules and regulations that the Lord our God ordered you to follow?”

And when your son says to you in time to come, What is the reason for these rules and laws and decisions which the Lord our God has given you?

21 then you are to tell them, “Once we were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord by his power led us out of Egypt.

Then you will say to your son, We were servants under Pharaoh's yoke in Egypt; and the Lord took us out of Egypt with a strong hand:

22 Before our very eyes the Lord brought down incredible and terrifying signs and miracles on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his people.

And the Lord did great signs and wonders against Egypt, and against Pharaoh and all his house, before our eyes:

23 But he led us out of there to take us here, giving us this country that he had promised to our forefathers.

And he took us out from that place, guiding us here to give us this land, as he said in his oath to our fathers.

24 The Lord ordered us to keep all these laws and to respect the Lord our God, so that we would always be safe and well, as we are today

And the Lord gave us orders to keep all these laws, in the fear of the Lord our God, so that it might be well for us for ever, and that he might keep us from death, as he has done to this day.

25 And if we carefully observe each of these commandments as we live in the presence of the Lord, as he instructed us, then we will be right with him.”

And it will be our righteousness if we take care to keep all this order before the Lord our God as he has given it to us.