You must gather all of its plunder into the middle of the plaza and burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. It will be an abandoned ruin forever – it must never be rebuilt again.

It must be with him constantly and he must read it as long as he lives, so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and observe all the words of this law and these statutes and carry them out.

discard the clothing she was wearing when captured, and stay in your house, lamenting for her father and mother for a full month. After that you may have sexual relations with her and become her husband and she your wife.

In the day he divides his inheritance he must not appoint as firstborn the son of the favorite wife in place of the other wife’s son who is actually the firstborn.

Look down from your holy dwelling place in heaven and bless your people Israel and the land you have given us, just as you promised our ancestors – a land flowing with milk and honey.”

The Lord will open for you his good treasure house, the heavens, to give you rain for the land in its season and to bless all you do; you will lend to many nations but you will not borrow from any.

“The Lord will send on you a curse, confusing you and opposing you in everything you undertake until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the evil of your deeds, in that you have forsaken me.

“If you refuse to obey all the words of this law, the things written in this scroll, and refuse to fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God,

Gather the people – men, women, and children, as well as the resident foreigners in your villages – so they may hear and thus learn about and fear the Lord your God and carefully obey all the words of this law.

For I know that after I die you will totally corrupt yourselves and turn away from the path I have commanded you to walk. Disaster will confront you in the days to come because you will act wickedly before the Lord, inciting him to anger because of your actions.”

So it was in the Transjordan, in Moab, that Moses began to deliver these words:

I also said to you at that time, “I am no longer able to sustain you by myself.

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

They left and went up to the hill country, coming to the Eshcol Valley, which they scouted out.

I spoke to you, but you did not listen. Instead you rebelled against the Lord and recklessly went up to the hill country.

“You have circled around this mountain long enough; now turn north.

But if you seek the Lord your God from there, you will find him, if, indeed, you seek him with all your heart and soul.

Be careful to observe the Sabbath day just as the Lord your God has commanded you.

Be careful, therefore, to do exactly what the Lord your God has commanded you; do not turn right or left!

You must love the Lord your God with your whole mind, your whole being, and all your strength.