Old Testament · Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 4

An Exhortation to Obedience

(Deuteronomy 11:1–7)

1And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes^a and to the judgments^b which I am teaching you to do, that you may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving to you. 2You shall not add to the word which I am commanding^c you, and you shall not take away from it, to keep the commandments^d of the LORD your God which I am commanding you.

3Your eyes are the ones that have seen what the LORD did at Baal-peor; for every man^e who went after the Baal of Peor, the LORD your God destroyed him from your midst. 4But you who cleave to the LORD your God are living^f, all of you, this day.

5See, I have taught you statutes and judgments, as the LORD my God commanded me, to do so in the midst of the land to which you are going in to possess it. 6And you shall keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the eyes of the peoples, who will hear all these statutes and say, "Surely a wise and understanding people is this great nation."

7For what great nation is there that has God near to it, as the LORD our God is in all our calling upon him? 8And what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments so righteous as all this Torah which I am setting before you this day?

9Only take heed to yourself, and keep your soul^g diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes saw, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; and you shall make them known to your sons and to your sons' sons — 10the day that you stood before the LORD your God in Horeb, when the LORD said to me, "Assemble to me the people, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they are living upon the ground^h, and that they may teach their sons."

11And you came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain was burning with fire to the heart of the heavens, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness. 12And the LORD spoke to you from the midst of the fire; the voice of words you were hearing, but a form you were not seeing — only a voice. 13And he declared to you his covenantⁱ, which he commanded you to do, the ten words; and he wrote them upon two tablets of stone.

14And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, for you to do them in the land to which you are passing over to possess it.

A Warning against Idolatry

(Deuteronomy 12:29–32; Ezekiel 6:1–7)

15And you shall take good heed to your souls — for you saw no form on the day that the LORD spoke to you in Horeb from the midst of the fire — 16lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a graven image, the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the heavens, 18the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters under the earth;

19and lest you lift up your eyes to the heavens, and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of the heavens, and you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve^j them, which the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under all the heavens. 20But you the LORD has taken, and brought you out from the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be to him a people of inheritance, as it is this day.

21And the LORD was angry with me on account of your words, and swore that I should not pass over the Jordan, and that I should not go into the good land which the LORD your God is giving to you as an inheritance. 22For I am dying in this land; I am not passing over the Jordan; but you are passing over and shall possess that good land.

23Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God which he made with you, and make for yourselves a graven image, the likeness of anything which the LORD your God has commanded you. 24For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous god.

25When you beget sons and sons' sons, and you have grown old in the land, and act corruptly, and make a graven image, the form of anything, and do the evil in the eyes of the LORD your God, to provoke him to anger; 26I call to witness against you this day the heavens and the earth, that you shall surely perish quickly from off the land to which you are passing over the Jordan to possess it; you shall not prolong days upon it, but shall surely be destroyed.

27And the LORD shall scatter you among the peoples, and you shall be left few in number among the nations to which the LORD shall lead you. 28And there you shall serve gods, the work of the hands of man^k, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.

29But from there you shall seek the LORD your God, and you shall find him, when you search for him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30In your distress, and all these things have found you, in the latter end of days, you shall return to the LORD your God and listen to his voice. 31For the LORD your God is a merciful god; he will not fail you, nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which he swore to them.

The LORD Alone Is God

32For ask now of the former days which were before you, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and from one end of the heavens to the other end of the heavens, whether there has been like this great thing, or whether there has been heard like it. 33Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live? 34Or has God tried to go to take to himself a nation from the midst of a nation, by trials, by signs^l, and by wonders^m, and by war, and by a strong hand, and by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

35To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD, he is God; there is none else besides him.

36From the heavens he made you hear his voice, to instruct you; and upon the earth he showed you his great fire; and his words you heard from the midst of the fire. 37And because he loved your fathers, and chose their seed after them, and brought you out with his presence, with his great power, from Egypt, 38to drive out nations greater and mightier than you from before you, to bring you in, to give to you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day;

39And you shall know this day, and lay it to your heart, that the LORD, he is God in the heavens above and upon the earth beneath; there is none else. 40And you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I am commanding you this day, that it may go well with you, and with your sons after you, and that you may prolong days upon the ground which the LORD your God is giving to you, all the days.

Cities of Refuge

(Numbers 35:9–34; Deuteronomy 19:1–14; Joshua 20:1–9)

41Then Moses separated three cities beyond the Jordan toward the rising of the sun, 42that the manslayer might flee there, who slays his neighbor without knowledge, and he did not hate him in time past; and he shall flee to one of these cities and live: 43Bezer in the wilderness, in the land of the plain, for the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead, for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, for the Manassites.

Introduction to the Law

44And this is the Torah which Moses set before the children of Israel. 45These are the testimoniesⁿ, and the statutes, and the judgments, which Moses spoke to the children of Israel, when they came out of Egypt, 46beyond the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel struck when they came out of Egypt;

47and they took in possession his land, and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan toward the rising of the sun; 48from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of Arnon, even to mount Sion — that is Hermon — 49and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan eastward, even to the sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.