The Greatest Commandment

1And these are the commands, and the ordinances, and the judgments, as many as the Lord our God gave commandment to teach you to do so in the land on which ye enter to inherit it. 2That ye may fear the Lord your God, keep ye all his ordinances, and his commandments, which I command thee to-day, thou, and thy sons, and thy sons' sons, all the days of thy life, that ye may live many days. 3Hear, therefore, O Israel, and observe to do them, that it may be well with thee, and that ye may be greatly multiplied, as the Lord God of thy fathers said that he would give thee a land flowing with milk and honey: and these are the ordinances, and the judgments, which the Lord commanded the children of Israel in the wilderness, when they had gone forth from the land of Egypt.

4Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God is one Lord. 5And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy mind, and with all thy soul, and all thy strength. 6And these words, all that I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart and in thy soul. 7And thou shalt teach them to thy children, and thou shalt speak of them sitting in the house, and walking by the way, and lying down, and rising up. 8And thou shalt fasten them for a sign upon thy hand, and it shall be immoveable before thine eyes. 9And ye shall write them on the lintels of your houses and of your gates.

10And it shall come to pass when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware to thy fathers, to Abraam, and to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and beautiful cities which thou didst not build, 11houses full of all good things which thou didst not fill, wells dug in the rock which thou didst not dig, vineyards and oliveyards which thou didst not plant, then having eaten and been filled, 12beware lest thou forget the Lord thy God that brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 13Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve; and thou shalt cleave to him, and by his name thou shalt swear. 14Go ye not after other gods of the gods of the nations round about you; 15for the Lord thy God in the midst of thee is a jealous God, lest the Lord thy God be very angry with thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth.

16Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God, as ye tempted him in the temptation. 17Thou shalt by all means keep the commands of the Lord thy God, the testimonies, and the ordinances, which he commanded thee. 18And thou shalt do that which is pleasing and good before the Lord thy God, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and inherit the good land, which the Lord sware to your fathers, 19to chase all thine enemies from before thy face, as the Lord said.

Teach Your Children

20And it shall come to pass when thy son shall ask thee at a future time, saying, What are the testimonies, and the ordinances, and the judgments, which the Lord our God has commanded us? 21Then shalt thou say to thy son, We were slaves to Pharao in the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought us forth thence with a mighty hand, and with a high arm. 22And the Lord wrought signs and great and grievous wonders in Egypt, on Pharao and on his house before us. 23And he brought us out thence to give us this land, which he sware to give to our fathers. 24And the Lord charged us to observe all these ordinances; to fear the Lord our God, that it may be well with us for ever, that we may live, as even to-day. 25And there shall be mercy to us, if we take heed to keep all these commands before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.