You must obey the rules, laws, teachings, and commands that he wrote for you. You must obey these things all the time. You must not respect other gods.
I will not cause the people of Israel to leave the land that I gave to their ancestors. [259] I will let the people stay in their land if they obey all the things I commanded them and all the teachings that my servant Moses gave them.”
Josiah did the things that the Lord said were right. Josiah followed God like his ancestor [268] David. Josiah obeyed God’s teachings—he did exactly what God wanted.
Then, if you do wrong and go (live) the wrong way (to the right or to the left), you will hear a voice behind you saying, “This is the right way. You should go this way!”
“‘And my servant David will be the king over them. There will be only one shepherd over all of them. They will live by my rules and obey my laws. They will do the things I tell them.
Then the king will not think that he is better than any of his own people. And he will not turn away from the law, but he will follow it exactly. Then that king and his descendants [112] will rule the kingdom of Israel a long time.
“When you have a very bad skin disease, [148] be very careful to follow all the things the Levite priests teach you. You must follow carefully the things I told the priests to do.
You must not turn away from any of the teachings that I give you today. You must not turn away to the right or to the left. You must not follow other gods to serve them.
People of Israel, listen carefully and obey these laws. Then everything will be fine with you. You will have many children, and you will get the land filled with many good things [35] —just like the Lord, the God of your ancestors, [36] promised.
“You must obey all the commands that I give you today. Why? Because then you will live and grow to become a great nation. You will get the land that the Lord promised to your ancestors. [48]
But you must also be strong and brave about another thing. You must be sure to obey the commands my servant Moses gave you. If you follow his teachings exactly, then you will be successful in everything you do.
“You must be careful to obey all the things the Lord has commanded us. Obey everything that is written in the Book of the Law [73] of Moses. Don’t turn away from that law.
Yes, it would be better for those people to have never known the right way. That would be better than to know the right way and then to turn away from the holy teaching that was given to them.