For,’ I say, ¹  ‘just as shorts cling tightly to a person’s body, so I bound the whole nation of Israel and the whole nation of Judah ²  tightly ³  to me.’ I intended for them to be my special people and to bring me fame, honor, and praise. ⁴  But they would not obey me.

But you must obey me and set the Sabbath day apart to me. You must not carry any loads in through ¹  the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. If you disobey, I will set the gates of Jerusalem on fire. It will burn down all the fortified dwellings in Jerusalem and no one will be able to put it out.’”

But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness; they did not follow my statutes and they rejected my regulations (the one who obeys them will live by them), and they utterly desecrated my Sabbaths. So I decided to pour out ¹  my rage on them in the wilderness and destroy them. ² 

They come to you in crowds, ¹  and they sit in front of you as ²  my people. They hear your words, but do not obey ³  them. For they talk lustfully, ⁴  and their heart is set on ⁵  their own advantage. ⁶ 

This is what the Lord says: “Because Judah has committed three covenant transgressions ¹  – make that four! ²  – I will not revoke my decree of judgment. ³  They rejected the Lord’s law; ⁴  they did not obey his commands. Their false gods, ⁵  to which their fathers were loyal, ⁶  led them astray.

¹ Moses answered again, ²  “And if ³  they do not believe me or pay attention to me, ⁴  but say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you’?”

Now listen to me, ¹  I will give you advice, and may God be with you: You be a representative for the people to God, ²  and you bring ³  their disputes ⁴  to God;

You must keep my statutes. You must not allow two different kinds of your animals to breed, ¹  you must not sow your field with two different kinds of seed, and you must not wear ²  a garment made of two different kinds of fabric. ³ 

Do not add a thing to what I command you nor subtract from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I am delivering to ¹  you.

Look! I have taught you statutes and ordinances just as the Lord my God told me to do, so that you might carry them out in ¹  the land you are about to enter and possess.

Moreover, at that same time the Lord commanded me to teach you statutes and ordinances for you to keep in the land which you are about to enter and possess. ¹ 

Then Moses called all the people of Israel together and said to them: ¹  “Listen, Israel, to the statutes and ordinances that I am about to deliver to you today; learn them and be careful to keep them!

Now these are the commandments, ¹  statutes, and ordinances that the Lord your God instructed me to teach you so that you may carry them out in the land where you are headed ² 

So realize that the Lord your God is the true God, ¹  the faithful God who keeps covenant faithfully ²  with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,

You must keep carefully all these commandments ¹  I am giving ²  you today so that you may live, increase in number, ³  and go in and occupy the land that the Lord promised to your ancestors. ⁴ 

Now pay attention to all the commandments ¹  I am giving ²  you today, so that you may be strong enough to enter and possess the land where you are headed, ³ 

and that you may enjoy long life in the land the Lord promised to give to your ancestors ¹  and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Be careful during an outbreak of leprosy to follow precisely ¹  all that the Levitical priests instruct you; as I have commanded them, so you should do.

Today the Lord your God is commanding you to keep these statutes and ordinances, something you must do with all your heart and soul. ¹ 

He has done this so ¹  all the nations ²  of the earth might recognize the Lord’s power ³  and so you might always obey ⁴  the Lord your God.”