Choose Life

¹¹ “This command that I give you today is certainly not too difficult or beyond your reach. ¹² It is not in heaven so that you have to ask, ‘Who will go up to heaven, get it for us, and proclaim it to us so that we may follow it?’ ¹³ And it is not across the sea so that you have to ask, ‘Who will cross the sea, get it for us, and proclaim it to us so that we may follow it?’ ¹⁴ But the message is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may follow it.^{(A) 15} See, today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and adversity.^{(B) 16} For^[a] I am commanding you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live^[b] and multiply, and the Lord your God may bless you in the land you are entering to possess. ¹⁷ But if your heart turns away and you do not listen and you are led astray to bow in worship to other gods and serve them, ¹⁸ I tell you today that you will certainly perish and will not prolong your days in the land you are entering to possess across the Jordan. ¹⁹ I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life^(C) so that you and your descendants may live, ²⁰ love the Lord your God, obey him, and remain faithful^[c] to him. For he is your life, and he will prolong your days as you live in the land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors^(D) Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

⁶ In those days people will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.^(A)