The Wilderness Years

`For, if ye diligently keep all this command which I am commanding you--to do it, to love Jehovah your God, to walk in all His ways, and to cleave to Him,

then hath Jehovah dispossessed all these nations from before you, and ye have possessed nations, greater and mightier than you;

every place on which the sole of your foot treadeth is yours; from the wilderness, and Lebanon, from the river, the river Phrat, even unto the farther sea is your border;

no man doth station himself in your presence; your dread and your fear doth Jehovah your God put on the face of all the land on which ye tread, as He hath spoken to you.

`See, I am setting before you to-day a blessing and a reviling:

the blessing, when ye hearken unto the commands of Jehovah your God, which I am commanding you to-day;

and the reviling, if ye do not hearken unto the commands of Jehovah your God, and have turned aside out of the way which I am commanding you to-day, to go after other gods which ye have not known.

`And it hath been, when Jehovah thy God doth bring thee in unto the land whither thou art going in to possess it, that thou hast given the blessing on mount Gerizim, and the reviling on mount Ebal;

are they not beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the going in of the sun, in the land of the Canaanite, who is dwelling in the plain over-against Gilgal, near the oaks of Moreh?

for ye are passing over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which Jehovah your God is giving to you; and ye have possessed it, and dwelt in it,

and observed to do all the statutes and the judgments which I am setting before you to day.

`These are the statutes and the judgments which ye observe to do in the land which Jehovah, God of thy fathers, hath given to thee to possess it, all the days that ye are living on the ground:

ye do utterly destroy all the places where the nations which ye are dispossessing served their gods, on the high mountains, and on the heights, and under every green tree;

and ye have broken down their altars, and shivered their standing pillars, and their shrines ye burn with fire, and graven images of their gods ye cut down, and have destroyed their name out of that place.

`Ye do not do so to Jehovah your God;

but unto the place which Jehovah your God doth choose out of all your tribes to put His name there, to His tabernacle ye seek, and thou hast entered thither,

and hast brought in thither your burnt-offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and the heave-offering of your hand, and your vows, and your free-will offerings, and the firstlings of your herd and of your flock;

and ye have eaten there before Jehovah your God, and have rejoiced in every putting forth of your hand, ye and your households, with which Jehovah thy God hath blessed thee.

`Ye do not do according to all that we are doing here to-day, each anything that is right in his own eyes,

for ye have not come in hitherto unto the rest, and unto the inheritance, which Jehovah thy God is giving to thee;

and ye have passed over the Jordan, and have dwelt in the land which Jehovah your God is causing you to inherit, and He hath given rest to you from all your enemies round about, and ye have dwelt confidently:

`And it hath been, the place on which Jehovah your God doth fix to cause His name to tabernacle there, thither ye bring in all that which I am commanding you, your burnt-offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave-offering of your hand, and all the choice of your vows which ye vow to Jehovah;

and ye have rejoiced before Jehovah your God, ye, and your sons, and your daughters, and your men-servants, and your handmaids, and the Levite who is within your gates, for he hath no part and inheritance with you.

`Take heed to thee, lest thou cause thy burnt-offerings to ascend in any place which thou seest,

except in the place which Jehovah doth choose in one of thy tribes, there thou dost cause thy burnt-offerings to ascend, and there thou dost do all that which I am commanding thee.