So it was in the Transjordan, in Moab, that Moses began to deliver these words: ¹ 

So all of you approached me and said, “Let’s send some men ahead of us to scout out the land and bring us back word as to how we should attack it and what the cities are like there.”

“O, Lord God, ¹  you have begun to show me ²  your greatness and strength. ³  (What god in heaven or earth can rival your works and mighty deeds?)

When you look up ¹  to the sky ²  and see the sun, moon, and stars – the whole heavenly creation ³  – you must not be seduced to worship and serve them, ⁴  for the Lord your God has assigned ⁵  them to all the people ⁶  of the world. ⁷ 

There you will worship gods made by human hands – wood and stone that can neither see, hear, eat, nor smell.

From heaven he spoke to you in order to teach you, and on earth he showed you his great fire from which you also heard his words. ¹ 

You must not worship or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. I punish ¹  the sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons for the sin of the fathers who reject ²  me, ³ 

You must not make use of the name of the Lord your God for worthless purposes, ¹  for the Lord will not exonerate anyone who abuses his name that way. ² 

You are to work and do all your tasks in six days,

but the seventh day is the Sabbath ¹  of the Lord your God. On that day you must not do any work, you, your son, your daughter, your male slave, your female slave, your ox, your donkey, any other animal, or the foreigner who lives with you, ²  so that your male and female slaves, like yourself, may have rest.

The Lord said these things to your entire assembly at the mountain from the middle of the fire, the cloud, and the darkness with a loud voice, and that was all he said. ¹  Then he inscribed the words ²  on two stone tablets and gave them to me.

These words I am commanding you today must be kept in mind,

for they will turn your sons away from me to worship other gods. Then the anger of the Lord will erupt against you and he will quickly destroy you.

You must destroy ¹  all the people whom the Lord your God is about to deliver over to you; you must not pity them or worship ²  their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

Now if you forget the Lord your God at all ¹  and follow other gods, worshiping and prostrating yourselves before them, I testify to you today that you will surely be annihilated.

I will write on the tablets the same words ¹  that were on the first tablets you broke, and you must put them into the ark.”

The Lord ¹  then wrote on the tablets the same words, ²  the ten commandments, ³  which he ⁴  had spoken to you at the mountain from the middle of the fire at the time of that assembly, and he ⁵  gave them to me.

Make sure you do not turn away to serve and worship other gods! ¹ 

Fix these words of mine into your mind and being, ¹  and tie them as a reminder on your hands and let them be symbols ²  on your forehead.

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