King James Bible
"Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day:"
Moses warns against spiritual amnesia—forgetting God's character and past faithfulness, especially as Israel prepares to enter prosperity in the Promised Land. The Hebrew verb for 'forget' implies not merely mental lapse but practical neglect, treating God as irrelevant to daily life. Forgetting God manifests concretely through disobedience to His revealed will. The three terms form a comprehensive picture of God's law: commandments (direct orders), judgments (case laws for specific situations), and statutes (permanent decrees), emphasizing that covenant faithfulness touches every area of life. Moses speaks with present urgency, stressing that these are not ancient relics but living obligations renewed 'this day.' This phrase appears frequently in Deuteronomy, underscoring that each generation must freshly commit to covenant obedience.