The Offer of Life or Death

¹¹ Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.^{(A) 12} It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven^(B) to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?”^{(C) 13} Nor is it beyond the sea,^(D) so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?”^{(E) 14} No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.^(F)

¹⁵ See, I set before you today life^(G) and prosperity,^(H) death^(I) and destruction.^{(J) 16} For I command you today to love^(K) the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live^(L) and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

¹⁷ But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, ¹⁸ I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed.^(M) You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

¹⁹ This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you^(N) that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.^(O) Now choose life, so that you and your children may live ²⁰ and that you may love^(P) the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life,^(Q) and he will give^(R) you many years in the land^(S) he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

⁶ During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.^(A)