Deuteronomy 4

¹“Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord

²You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord

³Your eyes have seen what the Lord

⁴But you who held fast to the Lord

⁵“Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the Lord

⁶Therefore be careful to observe 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.’

⁷“For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the Lord

⁸And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day?

⁹Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren,

¹⁰especially concerning the day you stood before the Lord

¹¹“Then you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the midst of heaven, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness.

¹²And the Lord

¹³So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone.

¹⁴And the Lord

¹⁵“Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the Lord

¹⁶lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure: the likeness of male or female,

¹⁷the likeness of any animal that is on the earth or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air,

¹⁸the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth.

¹⁹And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the Lord

²⁰But the Lord

²¹Furthermore the Lord

²²But I must die in this land, I must not cross over the Jordan; but you shall cross over and possess that good land.

²³Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord

²⁴For the Lord

²⁵“When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do evil in the sight of the Lord

²⁶I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess; you will not prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed.

²⁷And the Lord

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

²⁹But from there you will seek the Lord

³⁰When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the Lord

³¹(for the Lord

³²“For ask now concerning the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether any great thing like this has happened, or anything like it has been heard.

³³Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live?

³⁴Or did God ever try to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord

³⁵To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord

³⁶Out of heaven He let you hear His voice, that He might instruct you; on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire.

³⁷And because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them; and He brought you out of Egypt with His Presence, with His mighty power,

³⁸driving out from 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.

³⁹Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the Lord

⁴⁰You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord

⁴¹Then Moses set apart three cities on this side of the Jordan, toward the rising of the sun,

⁴²that the manslayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without having hated him in time past, and that by fleeing to one of these cities he might live:

⁴³Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau for the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.

⁴⁴Now this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel.

⁴⁵These are the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which Moses spoke to the children of Israel after they came out of Egypt,

⁴⁶on this side of 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 defeated after they came out of Egypt.

⁴⁷And they took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, two kings of the Amorites, who were on this side of the Jordan, toward the rising of the sun,

⁴⁸from Aroer, which is on the bank of the River Arnon, even to Mount Sion (that is, Hermon),

⁴⁹and all the plain on the east side of the Jordan as far as the Sea of the Arabah, below the slopes of Pisgah.