Deuteronomy 4
1
`And now, Israel, hearken unto the statutes, and unto the judgments which I am
teaching you to do, so that ye live, and have gone in, and possessed the land
which Jehovah God of your fathers is giving to you. 2 Ye do not add to the word
which I am commanding you, nor diminish from it, to keep the commands of
Jehovah your God which I am commanding you. 3 `Your eyes are seeing that which
Jehovah hath done in Baal-Peor, for every man who
hath gone after Baal-Peor, Jehovah thy God hath
destroyed him from thy midst; 4 and ye who are cleaving to Jehovah your God,
[are] alive, all of you, to-day. 5 `See, I have
taught you statutes and judgments, as Jehovah my God hath commanded me--to do
so, in the midst of the land whither ye are going in to possess it; 6 and ye
have kept and done [them] (for it [is] your wisdom and your understanding)
before the eyes of the peoples who hear all these statutes, and they have said,
Only, a people wise and understanding [is] this great nation. 7 `For which [is]
the great nation that hath God near unto it, as Jehovah our God, in all we have
called unto him? 8 and which [is] the great nation which hath righteous
statutes and judgments according to all this law which I am setting before you
to-day? 9 `Only, take heed to thyself, and watch thy soul exceedingly, lest
thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they turn aside
from thy heart, all days of thy life; and thou hast made them known to thy
sons, and to thy sons' sons. 10 `The day when thou hast stood before Jehovah
thy God in Horeb--in Jehovah's saying unto me,
Assemble to Me the people, and I cause them to hear My words, so that they
learn to fear Me all the days that they are alive on the ground, and their sons
they teach;--11 and ye draw near and stand under the mountain, and the mountain
is burning with fire unto the heart of the heavens--darkness, cloud, yea, thick
darkness: 12 `And Jehovah speaketh unto you out of
the midst of the fire; a voice of words ye are hearing and a similitude ye are
not seeing, only a voice; 13 and He declareth to you
His covenant, which He hath commanded you to do, the Ten Matters, and He writeth them upon two tables of stone. 14 `And me hath
Jehovah commanded at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, for your
doing them in the land whither ye are passing over to possess it; 15 and ye
have been very watchful of your souls, for ye have not seen any similitude in
the day of Jehovah's speaking unto you in Horeb out
of the midst of the fire, 16 lest ye do corruptly, and have made to you a
graven image, a similitude of any figure, a form of male or female--17 a form
of any beast which [is] in the earth--a form of any winged bird which flieth in the heavens--18 a form of any creeping thing on the
ground--a form of any fish which [is] in the waters under the earth; 19 `And
lest thou lift up thine eyes towards the heavens, and hast seen the sun, and
the moon, and the stars, all the host of the heavens, and thou hast been
forced, and hast bowed thyself to them, and served them, which Jehovah thy God
hath apportioned to all the peoples under the whole heavens. 20 `And you hath
Jehovah taken, and He is bringing you out from the iron furnace, from Egypt, to
be to Him for a people--an inheritance, as [at] this day. 21 `And Jehovah hath
shewed himself wroth with me because of your words, and sweareth
to my not passing over the Jordan, and to my not going in unto the good land
which Jehovah thy God is giving to thee--an inheritance; 22 for I am dying in
this land; I am not passing over the Jordan, and ye are passing over, and have
possessed this good land. 23 `Take heed to yourselves, lest ye forget the
covenant of Jehovah your God, which He hath made with you, and have made to
yourselves a graven image, a similitude of anything [concerning] which Jehovah
thy God hath charged thee: 24 for Jehovah thy God is a fire consuming--a
zealous God. 25 `When thou begettest sons and sons'
sons, and ye have become old in the land, and have done corruptly, and have
made a graven image, a similitude of anything, and have done the evil thing in
the eyes of Jehovah, to provoke Him to anger:--26 I have caused to testify
against you this day the heavens and the earth, that ye do perish utterly
hastily from off the land whither ye are passing over the Jordan to possess it;
ye do not prolong days upon it, but are utterly destroyed; 27 and Jehovah hath
scattered you among the peoples, and ye have been left few in number among the
nations, whither Jehovah leadeth you, 28 and ye have
served there gods, work of man's hands, wood and
stone, which see not, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. 29 `And--ye have sought
from thence Jehovah thy God, and hast found, when thou seekest
Him with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, 30 in distress [being] to thee,
and all these things have found thee, in the latter end of the days, and thou
hast turned back unto Jehovah thy God, and hast hearkened to His voice; 31 for
a merciful God [is] Jehovah thy God; He doth not fail thee, nor destroy thee,
nor forget the covenant of thy fathers, which He hath sworn to them. 32 `For,
ask, I pray thee, at the former days which have been before thee, from the day
that God prepared man on the earth, and from the [one] end of the heavens even
unto the [other] end of the heavens, whether there hath been as this great
thing--or hath been heard like it? 33 Hath a people heard the voice of God
speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, thou--and doth live?
34 Or hath God tried to go in to take to Himself, a nation from the midst of a
nation, by trials, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a strong hand,
and by a stretched-out arm, and by great terrors--according to all that Jehovah
your God hath done to you, in Egypt, before your eyes? 35 Thou, thou hast been
shewn [it], to know that Jehovah He [is] God; there is none else besides Him.
36 `From the heavens He hath caused thee to hear His voice, to instruct thee,
and on earth He hath shewed thee His great fire, and His words thou hast heard
out of the midst of the fire. 37 `And because that He hath loved thy fathers,
He doth also fix on their seed after them, and doth bring thee out, in His
presence, by His great power, from Egypt: 38 to dispossess nations greater and
stronger than thou, from thy presence, to bring thee in to give to thee their
land--an inheritance, as [at] this day. 39 `And thou hast known to-day, and
hast turned [it] back unto thy heart, that Jehovah He [is] God, in the heavens
above, and on the earth beneath--there is none else; 40 and thou hast kept His
statutes and His commands which I am commanding thee to-day, so that it is well
to thee, and to thy sons after thee, and so that thou prolongest
days on the ground which Jehovah thy God is giving to thee--all the days.' 41
Then Moses separateth three cities beyond the Jordan,
towards the sun-rising, 42 for the fleeing thither of the man-slayer, who slayeth his neighbour
unknowingly, and he is not hating him heretofore, and he hath fled unto one of
these cities, and he hath lived: 43 Bezer, in the
wilderness, in the land of the plain, of the Reubenite;
and Ramoth, in Gilead, of the Gadite;
and Golan, in Bashan, of the Manassahite. 44 And this
[is] the law which Moses hath set before the sons of Israel; 45 these [are] the
testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which Moses hath spoken unto
the sons of Israel, in their coming out of Egypt, 46 beyond the Jordan, in the
valley over-against Beth-Peor, in the land of Sihon, king of the Amorite, who is dwelling in Heshbon, whom Moses and the sons of Israel have smitten, in
their coming out of Egypt, 47 and they possess his land, and the land of Og king of Bashan, two kings of the Amorite who [are]
beyond the Jordan, [towards] the sun-rising; 48 from Aroer,
which [is] by the edge of the brook Arnon, even unto
mount Sion, which [is] Hermon--49 and all the plain beyond the Jordan eastward,
even unto the sea of the plain, under the springs of Pisgah.