Deuteronomy 6

1 “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.

This, then is the commandment—[namely] the statutes and the regulations, which Yahweh your God hath commanded to teach you, —that ye may do them in the land whither ye are passing over to possess it:

2 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.

that thou mayest revere Yahweh thy God, [so as] to keep all his statutes and his commandments which I am commanding thee, thou and thy son and thy sons’ son, all the days of thy life, —and that thy days may be prolonged.

3 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].

Therefore shalt thou hear, O Israel, and shalt observe to do, that it may be well with thee, and that ye may multiply greatly, as Yahweh the God of thy fathers hath spoken to thee, in a land flowing with milk and honey.

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

Hear, O Israel: Yahweh, is our God, —Yahweh alone.

5 You must love him with all your inner being and with all that you feel and with all that you do.

Thou shalt therefore love Yahweh thy God, —with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and with all thy might;

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

so shall these words which I am commanding thee to-day, be upon thy heart;

7 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.

and thou shalt impress them upon thy sons, and shalt speak of them, —when thou sittest in thy house and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down and when thou risest up;

8 [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].

and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand, —and they shall serve for bands between thine eyes;

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

and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and within thy gates.

10 “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.

So shall it be, when Yahweh thy God shall bring thee into the land, which he sware to thy fathers—to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob to give unto thee, —into cities great and goodly, which thou didst not build;

11 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,

and houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and hewn cisterns which thou hewedst not, vineyards and oliveyards which thou plantedst not, —and shalt eat and be full,

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

take heed unto thyself, lest thou forget Yahweh, —who brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt out of the house of servants.

13 “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.

Yahweh thy God, shalt thou revere And him, shalt thou serve, —And by his name, shalt thou swear.

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

Ye shall not go after other gods, —of the gods of the peoples who are surrounding you;

15 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.

for a jealous GOD, is Yahweh thy God in thy midst, —lest the anger of Yahweh thy God kindle upon thee, and so he destroy thee from off the face of the ground.

16 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.

Ye shall not put Yahweh your God to the proof, —as ye put him to the proof in Massah [that is, "The place of proving"].

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

Ye shall, keep, the commandments of Yahweh your God and his testimonies and his statutes which he hath commanded thee;

18 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.

so shalt thou do what is right and what is pleasing in the eyes of Yahweh, —that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest enter in and possess the good land, which Yahweh sware unto thy fathers;

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

to thrust out all thine enemies from before thee, —As spake Yahweh.

20 “In the future, when your children ask you, ‘Why did Yahweh our God command us to obey all these rules and regulations?’

When thy son shall ask thee in time to come, saying, —What mean the testimonies and the statutes and the regulations, which Yahweh our God commanded you?

21 tell them, ‘Our ancestors were slaves of the king in Egypt, but Yahweh brought them out of Egypt by his great power [MTY].

Then shalt thou say unto thy son, Servants, were we unto Pharaoh in Egypt, —and Yahweh brought us forth out of Egypt with a firm hand;

22 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.

and Yahweh put forth signs and wonders great and sore upon Egypt upon Pharaoh and upon all his household before our eyes;

23 He rescued our ancestors from Egypt and brought them here to give them this land, just like he vowed that he would do.

but he brought us forth from thence, —that he might bring us in, to give unto us the land, which he sware unto our fathers.

24 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.

So then Yahweh commanded us to do all these statutes, to revere Yahweh our God, —for our good, all the days, to preserve us alive (as at this day);

25 Yahweh our God will (approve of us/consider us to be righteous) if we carefully obey everything that he has commanded us to do.’”

and righteousness, shall it be to us, —when we take heed to do all this commandment, before Yahweh our God, as he commanded us.