The Commandment to Love Yahweh

1“Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments, which Yahweh your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do it in the land where you are going over to possess it, 2so that you and your son and your grandson might fear Yahweh your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I am commanding you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. 3O Israel, you shall listen and [†]be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.

4“Hear, O Israel! [†]Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is one! 5You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. 7You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. 8You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as [†]phylacteries between your eyes. 9You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

10“Then it will be, when Yahweh your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you, great and good cities which you did not build, 11and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you will eat and be satisfied, 12then beware, lest you forget Yahweh who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of [†]slavery. 13Yahweh your God you shall [†]fear; and Him you shall serve; and by His name you shall swear. 14You shall not walk after other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you, 15for Yahweh your God in the midst of you is a jealous God—lest the anger of Yahweh your God be kindled against you, and He destroy you from the face of the earth.

16“You shall not put Yahweh your God to the test, as you tested Him at Massah. 17You should diligently keep the commandments of Yahweh your God and His testimonies and His statutes which He has commanded you. 18And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of Yahweh, that it may be well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land which Yahweh swore to give your fathers, 19by driving out all your enemies from before you, as Yahweh has spoken.

20“When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which Yahweh our God commanded you?’ 21then you shall say to your son, ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and Yahweh brought us from Egypt with a strong hand. 22Moreover, Yahweh showed great and calamitous signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household; 23But He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He had sworn to our fathers.’ 24So Yahweh commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear Yahweh our God for our good all our days and for our survival, as it is today. 25And it will be righteousness for us if we [†]are careful to do all this commandment before Yahweh our God, just as He commanded us.