Deuteronomy 4

1And now, Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments that I am teaching you to do, so that you may live and go in and take possession of the land that Yahweh, the God of your fathers, is giving to you.

2You shall not add to the word that I am commanding you, nor shall you take away from it, so that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh your God that I am commanding you.

3Your own eyes have seen what Yahweh did at Baal-peor, for every man who went after Baal-peor, Yahweh your God destroyed from your midst.

4But you who hold fast to Yahweh your God are all alive today.

5See, I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as Yahweh my God commanded me, so that you may do so in the midst of the land that you are entering there to possess it.

6So keep them and do them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who will hear all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’

7For what great nation is there that has gods so near to it as Yahweh our God is to us whenever we call on him?

8And what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as all this law that I am setting before you today?

9Only guard yourself carefully, and keep your soul very carefully, lest you forget the things that your eyes saw and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and to your children's children,

10the day when you stood before Yahweh your God at Horeb, when Yahweh said to me, ‘Assemble the people to me, and I will let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.’

11And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain was burning with fire up to the heart of the heavens—darkness, cloud, and thick gloom.

12Then Yahweh spoke to you from the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form—only a voice.

13And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to do, the Ten Words; and he wrote them on two tablets of stone.

14And at that time Yahweh commanded me to teach you statutes and judgments, so that you might do them in the land that you are crossing over to possess.

15So watch yourselves very carefully, since you saw no form on the day Yahweh spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire.

16so that you do not act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female—

17the form of any animal that is on the earth, the form of any winged bird that flies in the heavens,

18the form of any creeping thing on the ground, the form of any fish that is in the waters under the earth.

19And beware lest you lift up your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars—all the host of heaven—you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, which Yahweh your God has allotted to all the peoples under all the heavens.

20But Yahweh took you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be for him a people of inheritance, as it is this day.

21And Yahweh was angry with me because of you, and he swore that I would not cross the Jordan and that I would not enter the good land that Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance.

22For I am dying in this land; I am not crossing the Jordan, but you are crossing over and will take possession of this good land.

23Watch yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of Yahweh your God that he made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image, the likeness of anything that Yahweh your God has commanded you not to make.

24For Yahweh your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

25When you father children and grandchildren, and you have grown old in the land, and you act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do what is evil in the eyes of Yahweh your God, provoking him to anger—

26I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that you will surely perish quickly from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not prolong your days on it, for you will surely be destroyed.

27And Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where Yahweh will drive you.

28And there you will serve gods, the work of human hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.

29But from there you will seek Yahweh your God, and you will find him, if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.

30When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you, in the latter days you will return to Yahweh your God and listen to his voice.

31For Yahweh your God is a compassionate God; he will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the covenant of your fathers that he swore to them.

32For ask now about the former days that were before you, from the day when God created man on the earth, and from one end of the heavens to the other end of the heavens: has anything happened like this great thing, or has anything been heard like it?

33Has any people heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and lived?

34Or has any god ever attempted to go and take for himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

35You were shown these things so that you might know that Yahweh, he is God; there is no other besides him.

36From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you, and on earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from the midst of the fire.

37And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his presence, by his great power.

38to drive out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day.

39So know today, and take it to your heart, that Yahweh, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.

40So you shall keep his statutes and his commandments that I am commanding you today, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and so that you may prolong your days on the land that Yahweh your God is giving you for all your days.

41Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan, toward the sunrise,

42so that a manslayer who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without knowledge, and was not hating him previously, may flee there to one of these cities and live.

43Bezer in the wilderness, in the land of the tableland, for the Reubenite; and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadite; and Golan in Bashan for the Manassite.

44And this is the law that Moses set before the sons of Israel:

45These are the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments that Moses spoke to the sons of Israel when they came out from Egypt.

46beyond the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, whom Moses and the sons of Israel struck down when they came out from Egypt.

47and they took possession of his land, and the land of Og king of Bashan—the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, toward the sunrise.

48from Aroer, which is on the bank of the Arnon Valley, as far as Mount Sion (that is, Hermon),

49and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan eastward, as far as the Sea of the Arabah, below the slopes of Pisgah.