Obedience and Discipline (Deuteronomy 4:1–14)
1 UDB "Because of all that Yahweh your God has done for you, you must love and continually obey all his rules and decrees and commandments. BSB BSB: You shall therefore love the LORD your God and always keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments.
2 UDB It was you and your ancestors, not your children, whom he punished because you disobeyed him, putting you through many difficulties to teach and train you. So starting today, continue to think about his punishment, his mighty power, and his great strength to do whatever he wants to do to you. BSB BSB: Know this day that it is not your children who have known and seen the discipline of the LORD your God: His greatness, His mighty hand, and His outstretched arm;
3 UDB Remember the many different miracles that he performed in Egypt, miracles that showed how powerful and great he is. Think about what he did to the king of Egypt and to all the land that he ruled. BSB BSB: the signs and works He did in Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and all his land;
4 UDB Your children did not see the army of Egypt, or their horses and their chariots destroyed by Yahweh's power. Your children did not see how Yahweh caused the Sea of Reeds to flood and sweep away the army of Egypt as they were coming after their ancestors. Your children did not understand that Yahweh continues to make Egypt's army weak even to this day. BSB BSB: what He did to the Egyptian army and horses and chariots when He made the waters of the Red Sea engulf them as they pursued you, and how He destroyed them completely, even to this day;
5 UDB Your children do not know how Yahweh took care of their ancestors in the desert before they all came to this place. BSB BSB: what He did for you in the wilderness until you reached this place;
6 UDB Think about what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the two sons of Eliab from the tribe of Reuben. While all of your ancestors were watching, the earth split open, and they fell into the opening and disappeared, along with their families and their tents, their servants, and their animals. BSB BSB: and what He did in the midst of all the Israelites to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing that belonged to them.
7 UDB You and your ancestors have seen all these miracles that Yahweh performed. BSB BSB: For it is your own eyes that have seen every great work that the LORD has done.
God’s Great Blessings (Joshua 1:1–9)
8 UDB So obey all the commandments that I am giving you today, in order that you will be strong and able to cross the river and occupy the land that you are about to enter, BSB BSB: You shall therefore keep every commandment I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and possess the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess,
9 UDB and in order that you will live for a long time in that land, a land that Yahweh solemnly promised your ancestors that he would give to them and to their descendants, a land that is very fertile. BSB BSB: and so that you may live long in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.
10 UDB The land that you are about to enter and occupy is not like the land of Egypt, where your ancestors lived. In Egypt, after they planted seeds, it was necessary for them to work hard to water the plants that grew. BSB BSB: For the land that you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated on foot, like a vegetable garden.
11 UDB But the land that you are about to enter is a land where there are many hills and valleys and where there is plenty of rain. BSB BSB: But the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks in the rain from heaven.
12 UDB Yahweh takes care of that land. He watches over it every day, from the beginning of each year to the end of each year. BSB BSB: It is a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning to the end of the year.
13 UDB Today I am commanding you to love Yahweh our God and to serve him with your entire inner beings. If you do that, BSB BSB: So if you carefully obey the commandments I am giving you today, to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul,
14 UDB each year he will send rain on your land at the right times. As a result, you will have grain and grapes to make wine and olives to make olive oil. BSB BSB: then I will provide rain for your land in season, the autumn and spring rains, that you may gather your grain, new wine, and oil.
15 UDB And he will cause grass to grow in your fields for your livestock to eat. You will have all the food that you want. BSB BSB: And I will provide grass in the fields for your livestock, and you will eat and be satisfied.
16 UDB But I warn you, do not stop worshiping Yahweh our God; do not start to worship other gods, BSB BSB: But be careful that you are not enticed to turn aside to worship and bow down to other gods,
17 UDB because if you do that, Yahweh will become very angry with you. He will prevent any rain from falling. As a result, the crops will not grow, and you will soon die from hunger in the good land that Yahweh is about to give to you. BSB BSB: or the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you. He will shut the heavens so that there will be no rain, nor will the land yield its produce, and you will soon perish from the good land that the LORD is giving you.
Remember God’s Words 18 UDB So keep thinking about what Yahweh has commanded you. Write these words on tiny scrolls and fasten them to your arms, and write them on bands that you fasten to your foreheads to help you to remember them. BSB BSB: Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
19 UDB Teach them to your children again and again. Talk about them when you are sitting in your houses and when you are walking beside the road, and when you are lying down and when you wake up. BSB BSB: Teach them to your children, speaking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
20 UDB Write them on the doorposts and on the gates of your cities. BSB BSB: Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates,
21 UDB Do that in order that you and your children will live for such a very long time in the land that Yahweh promised to our ancestors that he would give to them. That land will belong to you and your descendants as long as there is a sky above the earth. BSB BSB: so that as long as the heavens are above the earth, your days and those of your children may be multiplied in the land that the LORD swore to give your fathers.
22 UDB Faithfully continue to obey what I am commanding you to do—to love Yahweh our God, and to conduct your lives as he wants you to do, and to be faithful to him. BSB BSB: For if you carefully keep all these commandments I am giving you to follow—to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him—
23 UDB If you do that, Yahweh will drive out all the peoples in that land as you advance, peoples that are more numerous and more powerful than you are. BSB BSB: then the LORD will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and stronger than you.
24 UDB All the ground in that land on which you walk will be yours. Your territory will extend from the desert in the south to the Lebanon Mountains in the north, and from the Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. BSB BSB: Every place where the sole of your foot treads will be yours. Your territory will extend from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the Western Sea.
25 UDB Yahweh our God will cause all the people in that land to be very afraid of you, which is what he promised, with the result that no people will be able to stop you. BSB BSB: No man will be able to stand against you; the LORD your God will put the fear and dread of you upon all the land, wherever you set foot, as He has promised you.
A Blessing and a Curse 26 UDB Listen carefully: Today I am telling you that Yahweh will either bless you or he will curse you. BSB BSB: See, today I am setting before you a blessing and a curse—
27 UDB If you obey the commandments of Yahweh our God that I am giving to you today, he will bless you. BSB BSB: a blessing if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am giving you today,
28 UDB But if you do not obey them, and if you stop worshiping him and start worshiping other gods to whom you were never faithful before, he will curse you. BSB BSB: but a curse if you disobey the commandments of the LORD your God and turn aside from the path I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.
30 UDB (Those two mountains are west of the Jordan River, west of the plain along the Jordan, in the land where the Canaanites live. They live close to the sacred trees near Gilgal.) BSB BSB: Are not these mountains across the Jordan, west of the road toward the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah opposite Gilgal near the Oak of Moreh?
31 UDB "You will soon cross the Jordan River to occupy the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you. When you enter that land and start to live there, BSB BSB: For you are about to cross the Jordan to enter and possess the land that the LORD your God is giving you. When you take possession of it and settle in it,
32 UDB be sure to obey all the rules and decrees that I am giving to you today." BSB BSB: be careful to follow all the statutes and ordinances that I am setting before you today.
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.