34. Has any god ever tried to take one nation out of another to be his own? Has any god done it by putting his people to the test? Has any god done it with miraculous signs and wonders or with a war? Has any god reached out his mighty hand and powerful arm? Or has any god shown his people his great and wonderful acts? The Lord your God did all of those things for you in Egypt. With your very own eyes you saw him do them.
35. The Lord showed you those things so that you might know he is God. There is no other God except him.
36. From heaven he made you hear his voice. He wanted to teach you. On earth he showed you his great fire. You heard his words coming out of the fire.
37. He loved your people long ago. He chose their children after them. So he brought you out of Egypt. He used his great strength to do it.
38. He drove out nations to make room for you. They were greater and stronger than you are. He will bring you into their land. He wants to give it to you as your very own. The whole land is as good as yours right now.
39. The Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below. Today you must agree with that and take it to heart. There is no other God.
40. I'm giving you his rules and commands today. Obey them. Then things will go well with you and your children after you. You will live a long time in the land. The Lord your God is giving you the land for all time to come.
41. I set apart three cities east of the Jordan River.
42. Anyone who killed a person he didn't hate and without meaning to do it could run to one of those cities. He could go there and stay alive.
43. Here are the names of the cities. Bezer was for the people of Reuben. It was in the high flatlands in the desert. Ramoth was for the people of Gad. It was in Gilead. Golan was for the people of Manasseh. It was in Bashan.
44. Here is the law I gave the people of Israel.
45. Here are its terms, rules and laws. I gave them to the people when they came out of Egypt.
46. They were now east of the Jordan River in the valley near Beth Peor. They were in the land of Sihon, the king of the Amorites. He ruled in Heshbon. But the people of Israel and I won the battle over him after we came out of Egypt.
47. We captured his land and made it our own. We also took the land of Og, the king of Bashan. Sihon and Og were the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan River.