Take note – I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse:

“Look! I have set before you today life and prosperity on the one hand, and death and disaster on the other.

You, however, the Lord has selected and brought from Egypt, that iron-smelting furnace, to be his special people as you are today.

Today realize and carefully consider that the Lord is God in heaven above and on earth below – there is no other!

You must be sure to let the mother go, but you may take the young for yourself. Do this so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life.

And today the Lord has declared you to be his special people (as he already promised you) so you may keep all his commandments.

The Lord your God has increased your population to the point that you are now as numerous as the very stars of the sky.

the blessing if you take to heart the commandments of the Lord your God that I am giving you today,

Walk just as he has commanded you so that you may live, that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land you are going to possess.

The man who has raped her must pay her father fifty shekels of silver and she must become his wife because he has violated her; he may never divorce her as long as he lives.

I also call on you to love the Lord your God, to obey him and be loyal to him, for he gives you life and enables you to live continually in the land the Lord promised to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

Keep his statutes and commandments that I am setting forth today so that it may go well with you and your descendants and that you may enjoy longevity in the land that the Lord your God is about to give you as a permanent possession.

Be sure you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments, ordinances, and statutes that I am giving you today.

But you must not turn away from all the commandments I am giving you today, to either the right or left, nor pursue other gods and worship them.

but with whoever stands with us here today before the Lord our God as well as those not with us here today.

You said, “The Lord our God has shown us his great glory and we have heard him speak from the middle of the fire. It is now clear to us that God can speak to human beings and they can keep on living.

Bear in mind today that I am not speaking to your children who have not personally experienced the judgments of the Lord your God, which revealed his greatness, strength, and power.

and that you may enjoy long life in the land the Lord promised to give to your ancestors and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Today I invoke heaven and earth as a witness against you that I have set life and death, blessing and curse, before you. Therefore choose life so that you and your descendants may live!

For this is no idle word for you – it is your life! By this word you will live a long time in the land you are about to cross the Jordan to possess.”