Deuteronomy 6

1 “And this [is] the command, the statutes and the judgments which your God YHWH has commanded to teach you to do in the land which you are passing over there 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 so that you fear your God YHWH, to keep all His statutes and His commands which I am commanding you, you, and your son, and your son’s son, all [the] days of your life, and so that your days are 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 you have heard, O Israel, and observed to do [them], that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply exceedingly, as YHWH, God of your fathers, has spoken to you, [in] the 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, O Israel: Our God YHWH—YHWH [is] one!

“You Israeli people, listen! Only Yahweh is our God.

5 And you have loved your God YHWH with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.

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 am commanding you today have been on your heart,

Never forget [IDM] these commands that I am giving to you today.

7 and you have repeated them to your sons, and spoken of them in your sitting in your house, and in your walking in the way, and in your lying down, and in your rising 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 have bound them for a sign on your hand, and they have been for frontlets between your 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 you have written them on doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Write them on the doorposts and on the gates of your houses.

10 And it has been, when your God YHWH brings you into the land which He has sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to you great and good cities which you have not built,

“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 all good things which you have not filled, and wells dug which you have not dug, vineyards and olive-yards which you have not planted, that you have eaten and been satisfied.

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 Take heed to yourself lest you forget YHWH who has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of a house of servants.

be sure that you do not forget Yahweh who rescued you from being slaves [in Egypt and gave all these things to you].

13 You fear your God YHWH, and you serve Him, and you 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 You do not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who [are] around you,

You must not worship any other gods, the gods that the people-groups who will live near you worship.

15 for your God YHWH [is] a zealous God in your midst—lest the anger of your God YHWH burns against you, and He has destroyed you from off the face of the ground.

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 You do not try your God YHWH as you tried [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 You diligently keep the commands of your God YHWH, and His testimonies and His statutes which He has commanded you,

Be sure that you always obey all the laws, the commandments, the rules, and the regulations that he has given to you.

18 and you have done that which is right and good in the eyes of YHWH, so that it is well with you, and you have gone in and possessed the good land which YHWH has sworn to your 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 to drive away all your enemies from your presence, as YHWH has spoken.

He will do that by expelling your enemies from that land, just like he promised to do.

20 When your son asks you hereafter, saying, What [are] the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments which our God YHWH has 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 you have said to your son, We have been servants of Pharaoh in Egypt, and YHWH brings us out of Egypt by a high 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 YHWH gives signs and wonders, great and severe, on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his house, 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 has brought us out from there, in order to bring us in, to give to us the land which He had sworn to 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 YHWH commands us to do all these statutes, to fear our God YHWH, for good to ourselves [for] all the days, to keep us alive, as [at] 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 is righteousness for us when we observe to do all this command before our God YHWH, as He has 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.’”