DeuteronomyChapter 4

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¹Now, Israel, listen to the laws and rules I am teaching you. Obey them so that you may live. Then you may go in and take over the land the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you. ²Do not add anything to what I command you. Do not take anything away from it. Then you will keep the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you. ³You saw with your own eyes what the LORD did at Baal-peor. The LORD your God destroyed every one of you who followed Baal of Peor. ⁴But you held on tight to the LORD your God. And every one of you is still alive today. ⁵Look, I have taught you laws and rules, just as the LORD my God commanded me. Follow them in the land you are about to enter and take over. ⁶Be careful to obey them. This will show the other nations how wise you are and how much you understand. They will hear about all these laws. They will say, "This great nation must be a wise and understanding people!" ⁷What other nation is so great? What other nation has a god as close to them as the LORD our God is to us? He is near whenever we call to him. ⁸And what other nation is so great that it has laws and rules as right as this whole law? I am giving it to you today. ⁹But be on guard! Watch yourselves closely. Don't forget the things you have seen with your own eyes. Don't let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and your grandchildren. ¹⁰Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb. The LORD said to me, "Bring the people together in front of me to hear my words. Then they will learn to fear me as long as they live on the earth. And they will teach my words to their children." ¹¹You came near and stood at the bottom of the mountain. The mountain was burning with fire that reached up to the sky. There were black clouds and deep darkness. ¹²Then the LORD spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of his words, but you did not see any shape. There was only a voice. ¹³He told you about his covenant, which he commanded you to keep. It was the Ten Commandments. He wrote them on two stone tablets. ¹⁴At that time the LORD commanded me to teach you laws and rules. You are to follow them in the land you are crossing the Jordan to take over. ¹⁵You did not see any shape at all on the day the LORD spoke to you out of the fire at Horeb. So be careful. ¹⁶Don't do evil by making an idol for yourselves. Don't make one in any shape or form. Don't make one that looks like a man or a woman, ¹⁷or like any animal on the earth, or like any bird that flies in the air, ¹⁸or like any creature that crawls on the ground, or like any fish in the waters below. ¹⁹You may look up to the sky and see the sun, moon, and stars, all the lights in the sky. Don't be pulled away to bow down and worship them. The LORD your God has given them to all the nations under heaven. ²⁰But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of Egypt, out of that furnace for melting iron. He did it so you would be his very own people, as you are today. ²¹But the LORD was angry with me because of you. He swore that I would not cross the Jordan. I would not go into the good land the LORD your God is giving you as your own. ²²I will not cross the Jordan, because I must die in this land. But you will cross over and take that good land. ²³Be careful not to forget the covenant the LORD your God made with you. Do not make an idol for yourselves in the shape of anything. He has told you not to. ²⁴For the LORD your God is a fire that burns everything up. He is a jealous God. ²⁵Someday you will have children and grandchildren. You will have lived in the land a long time. Then you may do evil and make an idol of any shape. You may do what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God and make him angry. ²⁶If you do, I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today. You will quickly perish from the land you are crossing the Jordan to take. You will not live there long. You will be completely destroyed. ²⁷The LORD will scatter you among the peoples. Only a few of you will be left alive among the nations where the LORD will drive you. ²⁸There you will serve gods made by human hands. They are made of wood and stone. They cannot see or hear or eat or smell. ²⁹But if you look for the LORD your God from there, you will find him. You will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul. ³⁰You will be in trouble, and all these things will happen to you. Then, in days to come, you will come back to the LORD your God and obey his voice. ³¹For the LORD your God is a God of mercy. He will not leave you or destroy you. He will not forget the covenant he made with your fathers. He swore to it with an oath. ³²Ask about the days long before you, from the day God made people on the earth. Ask from one end of the sky to the other. Has anything this great ever happened? Has anyone ever heard of such a thing? ³³Has any people ever heard the voice of God speaking out of the fire, as you did, and lived? ³⁴Has any god ever tried to take a nation for himself out of another nation? Has any god done it with tests, signs, wonders, and war? Has any god done it with a strong hand and an arm stretched out, and with great terrors? The LORD your God did all this for you in Egypt, right in front of you! ³⁵You were shown these things so you would know that the LORD is God. There is no other God besides him. ³⁶He let you hear his voice from heaven to teach you and correct you. On earth he showed you his great fire. And you heard his words out of the fire. ³⁷He loved your fathers. So he chose their descendants after them. He himself brought you out of Egypt with his great power. ³⁸He drove out nations ahead of you that were greater and stronger than you. He brought you into their land and gave it to you as your own. That is what is happening today. ³⁹So know this today, and keep it in your heart. The LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. ⁴⁰Keep his laws and commands that I am giving you today. Then things will go well for you and your children after you. You will live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you for all time. ⁴¹Then Moses set apart three cities east of the Jordan. ⁴²A person who killed his neighbor by accident could run to one of them. He had to be someone who did not hate his neighbor before. He could run to one of these cities to save his life. ⁴³The cities were Bezer, Ramoth, and Golan. Bezer was in the wilderness on the high plain. It belonged to the tribe of Reuben. Ramoth was in Gilead and belonged to the tribe of Gad. Golan was in Bashan and belonged to the tribe of Manasseh. ⁴⁴This is the law Moses gave to the Israelites. ⁴⁵These are the laws, rules, and decrees Moses gave them after they came out of Egypt. ⁴⁶At that time they were in the valley east of the Jordan, across from Beth-peor. It was in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon. Moses and the Israelites had defeated him after they came out of Egypt. ⁴⁷They took over the land of Sihon and the land of Og king of Bashan. These were the two Amorite kings who lived east of the Jordan. ⁴⁸The land stretched from Aroer on the edge of the Arnon Valley to Mount Siyon, which is Hermon. ⁴⁹It included all the Arabah east of the Jordan. It went as far as the Sea of the Arabah, below the slopes of Pisgah.