Deuteronomy 6

1 'And this [is] the command, the statutes and the judgments which Jehovah your God hath commanded to teach you, to do in the land which ye are passing over thither 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 thou dost fear Jehovah thy God, to keep all His statutes and His commands, which I am commanding thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all days of thy life, and so that thy 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 thou hast heard, O Israel, and observed to do, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest multiply exceedingly, as Jehovah, God of thy fathers, hath spoken to thee, [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, Jehovah our God [is] one Jehovah;

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

5 and thou hast loved Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy 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 thee to-day have been on thine heart,

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

7 and thou hast repeated them to thy sons, and spoken of them in thy sitting in thine house, and in thy walking in the way, and in thy lying down, and in thy 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 hast bound them for a sign upon thy hand, and they have been 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 hast written them on door-posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

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

10 'And it hath been, when Jehovah thy God doth bring thee in unto the land which He hath sworn to thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to thee — cities great and good, which thou hast 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 thou hast not filled, and wells digged which thou hast not digged, vineyards and olive-yards which thou hast not planted, and thou hast 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 thyself lest thou forget Jehovah who hath brought thee 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 Jehovah thy God thou dost fear, and Him thou dost serve, and by His name thou dost swear;

“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 do not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who [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 a zealous God [is] Jehovah thy God in thy midst — lest the anger of Jehovah thy God burn against thee, and He hath destroyed thee 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 'Ye do not try Jehovah your God as ye tried 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 do diligently keep the commands 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 hast done that which is right and good in the eyes of Jehovah, so that it is well with thee, and thou hast gone in and possessed the good land which Jehovah hath sworn to 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 to drive away all thine enemies from thy presence, 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 asketh thee hereafter, saying, What [are] the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, 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 hast said to thy son, Servants we have been to Pharaoh in Egypt, and Jehovah bringeth 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 Jehovah giveth signs and wonders, great and sad, 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 us He hath brought out thence, 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 Jehovah commandeth us to do all these statutes, to fear Jehovah our God, for good to ourselves 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 righteousness it is for us, when we observe to do all this command 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.’”