25 After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time—if you then become corrupt(A) and make any kind of idol,(B) doing evil(C) in the eyes of the Lord your God and arousing his anger, 26 I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses(D) against you(E) this day that you will quickly perish(F) from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed. 27 The Lord will scatter(G) you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive(H) among the nations to which the Lord will drive you. 28 There you will worship man-made gods(I) of wood and stone,(J) which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.(K) 29 But if from there you seek(L) the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart(M) and with all your soul.(N) 30 When you are in distress(O) and all these things have happened to you, then in later days(P) you will return(Q) to the Lord your God and obey him. 31 For the Lord your God is a merciful(R) God; he will not abandon(S) or destroy(T) you or forget(U) the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath.

The Lord Is God

32 Ask(V) now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created human beings on the earth;(W) ask from one end of the heavens to the other.(X) Has anything so great(Y) as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? 33 Has any other people heard the voice of God[a] speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived?(Z) 34 Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation,(AA) by testings,(AB) by signs(AC) and wonders,(AD) by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm,(AE) or by great and awesome deeds,(AF) like all the things the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

35 You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other.(AG) 36 From heaven he made you hear his voice(AH) to discipline(AI) you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the fire. 37 Because he loved(AJ) your ancestors and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength,(AK) 38 to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance,(AL) as it is today.

39 Acknowledge(AM) and take to heart this day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other.(AN) 40 Keep(AO) his decrees and commands,(AP) which I am giving you today, so that it may go well(AQ) with you and your children after you and that you may live long(AR) in the land the Lord your God gives you for all time.

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 4:33 Or of a god

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