“During those days the Israelites traveled from Beeroth Bene-Yaaqan ¹  to Moserah. ²  There Aaron died and was buried, and his son Eleazar became priest in his place.

“I am the Lord your God, he who brought you from the land of Egypt, from the place of slavery.

be careful not to forget the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, that place of slavery. ¹ 

You must by all means destroy ¹  all the places where the nations you are about to dispossess worship their gods – on the high mountains and hills and under every leafy tree. ² 

Suppose a Levite comes by his own free will ¹  from one of your villages, from any part of Israel where he is living, ²  to the place the Lord chooses

Only in the presence of the Lord your God may you eat these, in the place he ¹  chooses. This applies to you, your son, your daughter, your male and female servants, and the Levites ²  in your villages. In that place you will rejoice before the Lord your God in all the output of your labor. ³ 

but you must sacrifice it ¹  in the evening in ²  the place where he ³  chooses to locate his name, at sunset, the time of day you came out of Egypt.

and in the desert, where you saw him ¹  carrying you along like a man carries his son. This he did everywhere you went until you came to this very place.”

the one who was constantly going before you to find places for you to set up camp. He appeared by fire at night and cloud by day, to show you the way you ought to go.

You must tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, ¹  burn up their sacred Asherah poles, ²  and cut down the images of their gods; you must eliminate their very memory from that place.

Suppose you should hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you as a place to live, that

They are a people as powerful, numerous, and tall as the Anakites. But the Lord destroyed the Rephaites ¹  in advance of the Ammonites, ²  so they dispossessed them and settled down in their place.

Every place you set your foot ¹  will be yours; your border will extend from the desert to Lebanon and from the River (that is, the Euphrates) as far as the Mediterranean Sea. ² 

Then I turned, went down the mountain, and placed the tablets into the ark I had made – they are still there, just as the Lord commanded me.

Remember – don’t ever forget ¹  – how you provoked the Lord your God in the desert; from the time you left the land of Egypt until you came to this place you were constantly rebelling against him. ² 

Previously the Horites ¹  lived in Seir but the descendants of Esau dispossessed and destroyed them and settled in their place, just as Israel did to the land it came to possess, the land the Lord gave them.) ² 

Among those nations you will have no rest nor will there be a place of peaceful rest for the soles of your feet, for there the Lord will give you an anxious heart, failing eyesight, and a spirit of despair.

You are to celebrate the festival seven days before the Lord your God in the place he ¹  chooses, for he ²  will bless you in all your productivity and in whatever you do; ³  so you will indeed rejoice!

If a matter is too difficult for you to judge – bloodshed, ¹  legal claim, ²  or assault ³  – matters of controversy in your villages ⁴  – you must leave there and go up to the place the Lord your God chooses. ⁵ 

be sure ¹  you do not feel self-important and forget the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt, the place of slavery,