Immerse: Beginnings Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 303
11:20–12:6
D e u teronom y
291
you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting
up. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that
as long as the sky remains above the earth, you and your children may
flourish in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors.
“Be careful to obey all these commands I am giving you. Show love to
the Lord your God by walking in his ways and holding tightly to him.
Then the Lord will drive out all the nations ahead of you, though they
are much greater and stronger than you, and you will take over their land.
Wherever you set foot, that land will be yours. Your frontiers will stretch
from the wilderness in the south to Lebanon in the north, and from the
Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. No one
will be able to stand against you, for the Lord your God will cause the
people to fear and dread you, as he promised, wherever you go in the
whole land.
“Look, today I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse!
You will be blessed if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that
I am giving you today. But you will be cursed if you reject the commands
of the Lord your God and turn away from him and worship gods you have
not known before.
“When the Lord your God brings you into the land and helps you take
possession of it, you must pronounce the blessing at Mount Gerizim and
the curse at Mount Ebal. (These two mountains are west of the Jordan
River in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Jordan Valley, near the
town of Gilgal, not far from the oaks of Moreh.) For you are about to cross
the Jordan River to take over the land the Lord your God is giving you.
When you take that land and are living in it, you must be careful to obey
all the decrees and regulations I am giving you today.
“These are the decrees and regulations you must be careful to obey when
you live in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.
You must obey them as long as you live.
“When you drive out the nations that live there, you must destroy all the
places where they worship their gods—high on the mountains, up on the
hills, and under every green tree. Break down their altars and smash their
sacred pillars. Burn their Asherah poles and cut down their carved idols.
Completely erase the names of their gods!
“Do not worship the Lord your God in the way these pagan peoples
worship their gods. Rather, you must seek the Lord your God at the
place of worship he himself will choose from among all the t ribes—the
place where his name will be honored. There you will bring your burnt
