Choose life, not death

11 The commands that I am giving to you today are not very difficult for you to obey, and they are not difficult to know. 12 They are not in heaven, with the result that you need to say, ‘◄Who will need to go up to heaven for us to bring them down here to us in order that we can hear them and obey them?/Someone will need to go up to heaven for us to bring them down here to us in order that we can hear them and obey them.►’ [RHQ] 13 And they are not on the other side of the sea, with the result that you need to say, ‘◄Who will need to cross the sea for us and bring them back to us, in order that we can hear them and obey them?/Someone will need to cross the sea for us and bring them back to us, in order that we can hear them and obey them.►’ [RHQ] 14 You do not need to do that because his commands are here with you. You know them [MTY] and you have ◄memorized them/put them in your minds►. So you can easily obey them.

15 So listen! Today I am allowing you to choose between doing what is evil and doing what is good, between what will enable you to live for a long time and what will cause you to die while you are still young. 16 I say again, if you obey the commands of Yahweh our God that I am giving to you today, and if you love him and conduct your lives as he wants you to do, and if you obey all his rules and regulations, you will prosper and become very numerous, and Yahweh our God will bless you in the land that you are about to enter and possess.

17 But if you turn away from Yahweh and refuse to heed what he says, and if you allow yourselves to be led away to worship other gods, 18 I am warning you today that you will soon die. You will not live for a long time in the land that you are about to cross the Jordan River to enter and possess.

19 I am requesting that everyone in heaven and the earth testify to you, that today I am allowing you to choose whether you want to live for a long time or to soon die, whether you want Yahweh to bless you or to curse you. So choose to live. 20 Choose to love Yahweh our God, and to obey him [MTY], and to ◄be faithful to/have a close relationship with► him. If you do that, you and your descendants will live for a long time in the land that Yahweh solemnly promised to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he would give to them.”