Moses spoke to the people, saying, "Love the Lord your God and keep His commands, decrees, and laws always. Remember, it was not your children who saw and experienced the Lord's greatness—His mighty hand, His power, and the signs He performed in Egypt against Pharaoh and his land. It was you who witnessed how He drowned the Egyptian army in the Red Sea and brought lasting ruin upon them. You saw how He led you through the wilderness until this very place, and how He punished Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, when the earth opened and swallowed them, their families, and everything they owned. You have seen with your own eyes the mighty works of the Lord."
"Therefore," Moses continued, "keep all the commands I give you today, so that you will have strength to take the land across the Jordan and live long in it—a land flowing with milk and honey. The land you are entering is not like Egypt, where you had to water your crops by hand like a garden. It is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks the rain from heaven—a land the Lord your God cares for, His eyes always watching from the year's beginning to its end."
"If you faithfully love and serve the Lord your God with all your heart and soul," Moses said, "He will send rain in its season—early and late—so that your grain, wine, and oil will flourish. He will give grass for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied. But be careful! Do not turn aside to worship other gods, or the Lord's anger will burn against you. He will shut up the heavens so there will be no rain, and the ground will yield no harvest. You will quickly perish from the good land He is giving you."
"So," Moses urged, "keep these words in your heart and mind. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children—talk about them at home, on the road, when you lie down, and when you rise. Write them on your doorposts and gates, so that you and your children may live long in the land the Lord swore to give your fathers—long as the heavens are above the earth."
"If you carefully love and obey the Lord, walking in His ways and holding fast to Him," Moses promised, "He will drive out nations greater and stronger than you. Every place you set your foot will belong to you—from the desert to Lebanon, from the Euphrates River to the western sea. No one will be able to stand against you, for the Lord will put fear and dread of you upon all the land."
Then Moses said, "See, today I set before you a blessing and a curse—the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God, and the curse if you turn away to follow other gods. When you enter the land, you shall proclaim the blessings on Mount Gerizim and the curses on Mount Ebal. These mountains lie west of the Jordan, near the great trees of Moreh, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the plain near Gilgal."
"You are about to cross the Jordan and possess the land the Lord your God is giving you," Moses concluded. "When you settle there, be careful to obey all the decrees and laws I am giving you today."