Deuteronomy 4:29-49

29But even in those places, if you look for the Lord your God, you will find him. If you want to serve him with everything that you think and with everything that you do, you will find him.

30When trouble happens to you in the future, you will turn back to him. When all these bad things happen to you, you will obey God again.

31That is because the Lord your God is very kind. So he will not leave you alone. He will never destroy you. He will never forget the covenant that he made with your ancestors. That was a serious promise that he made to them.

32Find out what happened many years ago. Think about everything that has happened since God created people to live on the earth. Go to anyone in the world and ask them. You will realize that nothing as great as this has ever happened before. People have never heard of anything like this.

33Only you, the nation of Israel, have heard the voice of God that spoke to you from the middle of the fire. Only you have heard God speak and you still live!

34No other god has tried to rescue a nation from the power of another nation. The Lord your God did this for you when you were in Egypt. You saw how he used his great authority and strength to punish the Egyptians. He did powerful miracles. He brought war and disease that made them very afraid.

35The Lord has shown you all these things. So you know that he is the only true God. There is no other God.

36God spoke to you from heaven so that he could teach you. Here on earth he let you see his great fire. He spoke from that fire and you heard him.

37He chose you as his special people because he loved your ancestors. You are their descendants so he rescued you out of Egypt. He himself showed you his great power.

38Now he is chasing out other nations so that you can take their land to live in. They are greater and stronger nations than you are, but he has given their land to you.

39Remember today that the Lord is God. He rules in heaven above and on the earth below. Think about that! There is no other God.

40Obey his commands and his rules that I am giving you today. If you do that, everything will be well for you and for your descendants. You will continue to live for a long time in the land that the Lord your God is giving to you. It will belong to you for ever.

41Then Moses chose three special cities on the east side of the Jordan River.

42If someone killed another person when he did not mean to do it, he could hide there safely. If he had not hated the other person as his enemy, he could run to one of these cities. Then he would be safe.

43Moses chose these cities: For Reuben's tribe, he chose Bezer, in the high land of the desert. For Gad's tribe, he chose Ramoth, in Gilead. For Manasseh's tribe, he chose Golan, in Bashan.

44This is God's Law that Moses explained to the Israelites.

45These are the rules, the teaching and the commands that Moses taught the Israelites after they had left Egypt.

46At that time they were in the valley near to Beth-Peor, on the east side of the Jordan River. That was in the land of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon. Moses and the Israelites had attacked him after they came out of Egypt.

47They took power over his land, as well as the land of Og, king of Bashan. These two Amorite kings ruled on the east side of the Jordan River.

48Their land went from Aroer, on the edge of the Arnon valley, as far as Mount Sirion (that is Mount Hermon).

49This land included all the Jordan Valley on the east side of the river, as far south as the Salt Sea, near Mount Pisgah.