The Wilderness Years

For if you keep the commandments which I command you, and do them, to love the Lord your God, and walk in all his ways, cleaving unto him,

The Lord will destroy all these nations before your face, and you shall possess them, which are greater and stronger than you.

Every place, that your foot shall tread upon, shall be yours. From the desert, and from Libanus, from the great river Euphrates unto the western sea shall be your borders.

None shall stand against you: the Lord your God shall lay the dread and fear of you upon all the land that you shall tread upon, as he hath spoken to you.

Behold I set forth in your sight this day a blessing and a curse:

A blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day:

A curse, if you obey not the commandments of the Lord your God, but revolt from the way which now I shew you, and walk after strange gods which you know not.

And when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land, whither thou goest to dwell, thou shalt put the blessing upon mount Garizim, the curse upon mount Hebal:

Which are beyond the Jordan, behind the way that goeth to the setting of the sun, in the land of the Chanaanite who dwelleth in the plain country over against Galgala, which is near the valley that reacheth and entereth far.

For you shall pass over the Jordan, to possess the land, which the Lord your God will give you, that you may have it and possess it.

See therefore that you fulfil the ceremonies and judgments, which I shall set this day before you.

These are the precepts and judgments, that you must do in the land, which the Lord the God of thy fathers will give thee, to possess it all the days that thou shalt walk upon the earth.

Destroy all the places in which the nations, that you shall possess, worshipped their gods upon high mountains, and hills, and under every shady tree:

Overthrow their altars, and break down their statues, burn their groves with fire, and break their idols in pieces: destroy their names out of those places.

You shall not do so to the Lord your God:

But you shall come to the place, which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, and to dwell in it:

And you shall offer in that place your holocausts and victims, the tithes and firstfruits of your hands and your vows and gifts, the firstborn of your herds and your sheep.

And you shall eat there in the sight of the Lord your God: and you shall rejoice in all things, whereunto you shall put your hand, you and your houses wherein the Lord your God hath blessed you.

You shall not do there the things we do here this day, every man that which seemeth good to himself.

For until this present time you are not come to rest, and to the possession, which the Lord your God will give you.

You shall pass over the Jordan, and shall dwell in the land which the Lord your God will give you, that you may have rest from all enemies round about: and may dwell without any fear,

In the place, which the Lord your God shall choose, that his name may be therein. Thither shall you bring all the things that I command you, holocausts, and victims, and tithes, and the firstfruits of your hands: and whatsoever is the choicest in the gifts which you shall vow to the Lord.

There shall you feast before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite that dwelleth in your cities. For he hath no other part and possession among you.

Beware lest thou offer thy holocausts in every place that thou shalt see:

But in the place which the Lord shall choose in one of thy tribes shalt thou offer sacrifices, and shalt do all that I command thee.