Deuteronomy 4

1. “And now, O Israel, hearken to the statutes and to the judgments which I teach you, in order to do them, so that you may live and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers gives to you.

2. You shall not add to the word which I command you; neither shall you take away from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.

3. Your eyes have seen what the LORD did because of Baal Peor. For the LORD your God has destroyed from among you all the men that followed Baal Peor.

4. And you who held fast to the LORD your God are alive, every one of you, this day.

5. Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, so that you should do so in the land where you go to possess it.

6. And you shall keep and do them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’

7. For what nation is so great whose God is so near to them, as the LORD our God is, whenever we call upon Him?

8. And what great nation has statutes and judgments that are so righteous as all this law which I set before you today?

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

10. To remember the day that you stood before the LORD your God in Horeb, when the LORD said to me, ‘Gather the people to Me, and I will make them hear My words so that they may learn to fear Me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and they may teach their children.’

11. And you came near and stood at the bottom of the mountain. And the mountain burned with fire up to the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness.

12. And the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the voice of the words, but saw no likeness, only a voice.

13. And He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, even the ten commandments. And He wrote them on two tablets of stone.

14. And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments so that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it.

15. Therefore, take good heed to yourselves, for you did not see any form at all on the day the LORD spoke to you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire,

16. Lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a graven image, the likeness of any figure, the likeness of male or female, or

17. The likeness of any beast on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flies in the air, or

18. The likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish in the waters beneath the earth;

19. And take heed, lest you lift up your eyes to the heavens—when you see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven—lest you should be driven to worship them and serve them, which the LORD your God has divided for signs and seasons At creation God created them to rule over the day and night— not for the nations to worship.unto all nations under all the heavens.

20. But the LORD has taken you and brought you out from the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be to Him a people of His own possession, as you are today.

21. And the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I should not go over Jordan, and that I should not go into that good land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance.

22. But I must die in this land; I must not go over Jordan. But you shall go over and possess that good land.

23. Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which He made with you, and make you a graven image, a likeness of anything which the LORD your God has forbidden you,

24. For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealouszealousGod.

25. When you shall beget children and grandchildren, and when you shall have remained long in the land and have dealt corruptly by making a graven image, the likeness of anything, and shall do evil in the sight of the LORD your God to provoke Him to anger,

26. I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day that you shall soon utterly perish from off the land which you are crossing over Jordan to possess. You shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed.

27. And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and you shall be left few in number among the nations where the LORD shall drive you.

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

29. But if you shall seek the LORD your God from there, you shall find Him, if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

30. When you are in trouble and when all these things have come upon you in the latter days, then you shall return to the LORD your God and shall be obedient to His voice,

31. For the LORD your God is a merciful God. He will not forsake you, nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them;

32. For ask now of the days past which were before you, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and from the one end of the heavens to the other end of the heavens, where there has been any thing as great as this, or has been heard any thing like it.

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

34. Or has any god attempted to go and take a nation for himself 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 awe-inspiring terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

35. It was shown to you so that you might know that the LORD is God, and there is none other beside Him.

36. He made you hear His voice out of heaven so that He might teach you. And He showed you His great fire upon the earth. And you heard His words out of the midst of the fire.

37. And because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their seed after them, and brought you out in His sight with His great power out of Egypt,

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

39. Therefore, know this day and fix it in your heart that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. There is none other.

40. Therefore, you shall keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you this day, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and so that you may prolong your days upon the earth which the LORD your God gives you forever.”

41. Then Moses separated three cities on this side of Jordan toward the rising of the sun,

42. So that the slayer might flee there, he who may accidentally kill his neighbor through error and who did not hate him in times past, and he who flees to one of these cities might live.

43. They were Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, of the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead of the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, for the Manassites.

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

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

46. Beyond Jordan, in the valley over against Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel killed after they had come forth out of Egypt.

47. And they possessed 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,

48. From Aroer on the edge of the river Arnon, even to Mount Zion, which is Hermon,

49. And all the plain on this side of the Jordan eastward, even to the sea of the plain, under the Slopes of Pisgah.