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.