Deut 4
1
And now, O Israel, hearken to the statutes and to the ordinances, which I teach you,
to do them; that you may live, and go in and possess the land which YHWH, the God
of your fathers, gives you.
2
You shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish from
it, that you may keep the commandments of YHWH your God which I command you.
3
Your eyes have seen what YHWH did because of Baal-peor; for all the men that followed
Baal-peor, YHWH your God has destroyed them from the midst of you.
4
But you that did cleave to YHWH your God are alive every one of you this day.
5
Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, even as YHWH my God commanded me,
that you should do so in the midst of the land where you go in to possess it.
6
Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the
sight of the peoples, that shall 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 a god so nigh to them, as YHWH our God is
whenever we call upon him?
8
And what great nation is there, that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all
this law, which I set before you this day?
9
Only take heed to yourself, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things
which your eyes saw, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life;
but make them known to your children and your children`s children;
10
the day that you stood before YHWH your God in Horeb, when YHWH said to me, Assemble
me the people, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me
all the days that they live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.
11
And you came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire
to the heart of heaven, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness.
12
And YHWH spoke to you out of the midst of the fire: you heard the voice of words,
but you saw no form; only [you heard] a voice.
13
And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even the ten
commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.
14
And YHWH commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances, that you
might do them in the land where you go over to possess it.
15
Take you therefore good heed to yourselves; for you saw no manner of form on the day
that YHWH spoke to you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire.
16
Lest you corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image in the form of any figure,
the likeness of male or female,
17
the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that
flies in the heavens,
18
the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that
is in the water under the earth;
19
and lest you lift up your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and
the stars, even all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and worship them, and serve
them, which YHWH your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.
20
But YHWH has taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt,
to be to him a people of inheritance, as at this day.
21
Furthermore YHWH was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I should not go
over the Jordan, and that I should not go in to that good land, which YHWH your God
gives you for an inheritance:
22
but I must die in this land, I must not go over the Jordan; but you shall go over,
and possess that good land.
23
Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of YHWH your God, which he made
with you, and make you a graven image in the form of anything which YHWH your God
has forbidden you.
24
For YHWH your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.
25
When you shall engender children, and children`s children, and you shall have been
long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image in the form
of anything, and shall do that which is evil in the sight of YHWH 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 to which you go over the Jordan to possess it; you shall
not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed.
27
And YHWH will scatter you among the peoples, and you shall be left few in number among
the nations, where YHWH shall lead you away.
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 from there you shall seek YHWH your God, and you shall find him, when you search
after him with all your heart and with all your soul.
30
When you are in tribulation, and all these things are come upon you, in the latter
days you shall return to YHWH your God, and hearken to his voice:
31
for YHWH your God is a merciful God; he will not fail you, neither destroy you, nor
forget the covenant of your fathers which he swore to them.
32
For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God
created man upon the earth, and from the one end of heaven to the other, whether there
has been [any such thing] as this great thing is, or has been heard like it?
33
Did ever a people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as
you have heard, and live?
34
Or has God tried to go and take him 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 YHWH your God did for you in Egypt
before your eyes?
35
To you it was showed, that you might know that YHWH he is God; there is none else
besides him.
36
Out of heaven he made you to hear his voice, that he might instruct you: and upon
earth he made you to see his great fire; 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 with his presence, with his great power, out of Egypt;
38
to drive out nations from before you greater and mightier than you, to bring you in,
to give you their land for an inheritance, as at this day.
39
Know therefore this day, and lay it to your heart, that YHWH he is God in heaven above
and upon the earth beneath; there is none else.
40
And you shall keep his statutes, and his commandments, which I command you this day,
that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, and that you may prolong
your days in the land, which YHWH your God gives you, for ever.
41
Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan toward the sunrising;
42
that the manslayer might flee there, that slays his neighbor unawares, and hated him
not in time past; and that fleeing to one of these cities he might live:
43
[namely], Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, for the Reubenites; and Ramoth
in Gilead, for 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 ordinances, which Moses spoke
to the children of Israel, when they came forth out of Egypt,
46
beyond the Jordan, in the valley over against Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon king
of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel smote,
when they came forth out of Egypt.
47
And they took his land in possession, and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings
of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan toward the sunrising;
48
from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, even to mount Sion (the
same is Hermon),
49
and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan eastward, even to the sea of the Arabah, under
the slopes of Pisgah.