Deuteronomy 4

1 And now, O Israel, hearken to the statutes and to the ordinances, which I teach you, to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which Jehovah, the God of your fathers, gives you.

2 Ye shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish from it, that ye may keep the commandments of Jehovah your God which I command you.

3 Your eyes have seen what Jehovah did because of Baal-peor. For all the men who followed Baal-peor, Jehovah thy God has destroyed them from the midst of thee.

4 But ye who clung to Jehovah your God are alive every one of you this day.

5 Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, even as Jehovah my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the midst of the land where ye 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, who 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 near to them, as Jehovah 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 thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes saw, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life, but make them known to thy sons and thy son's sons-

10 the day that thou stood before Jehovah thy God in Horeb, when Jehovah said to me, Assemble the people to me, 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 sons.

11 And ye 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 Jehovah spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. Ye heard the voice of words, but ye saw no form, 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 upon two tablets of stone.

14 And Jehovah commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances, that ye might do them in the land where ye go over to possess it.

15 Take ye therefore good heed to yourselves, for ye saw no manner of form on the day that Jehovah spoke to you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire.

16 Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make for 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 sky,

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 thou lift up thine eyes to heaven, and when thou see the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the host of heaven, thou be drawn away and worship them, and serve them, which Jehovah thy God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.

20 But Jehovah 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 Jehovah was angry with me because of you, and swore that I would not go over the Jordan, and that I would not go in to that good land, which Jehovah thy God gives thee for an inheritance,

22 but I must die in this land. I must not go over the Jordan, but ye shall go over, and possess that good land.

23 Take heed to yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of Jehovah your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image in the form of anything which Jehovah thy God has forbidden thee.

24 For Jehovah thy God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

25 When thou shall beget sons, and son's sons, and ye 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 Jehovah thy God, to provoke him to anger,

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

27 And Jehovah will scatter you among the peoples, and ye shall be left few in number among the nations where Jehovah shall lead you away.

28 And there ye 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 ye shall seek Jehovah thy God. And thou shall find him when thou search after him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

30 When thou are in tribulation, and all these things have come upon thee, in the latter days thou shall return to Jehovah thy God, and hearken to his voice.

31 For Jehovah thy God is a merciful God. He will not fail thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he swore to them.

32 For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and from the one end of heaven to the other, whether there has been anything as this great thing is, or has been heard like it?

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

34 Or has God assayed to go and take for 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 Jehovah your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

35 It was shown to thee, that thou might know that Jehovah he is God. There is none else besides him.

36 Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he might instruct thee. And upon earth he made thee to see his great fire, and thou heard his words out of the midst of the fire.

37 And because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out with his presence, with his great power, out of Egypt,

38 to drive out nations from before thee greater and mightier than thou, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance, as at this day.

39 Know therefore this day, and lay it to thy heart, that Jehovah he is God in heaven above and upon the earth beneath. There is none else.

40 And thou shall keep his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy sons after thee, and that thou may prolong thy days in the land, which Jehovah thy God gives thee, forever.

41 Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise,

42 that the manslayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unawares, and did not hate him 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 sons of Israel.

45 These are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, when they came forth out of Egypt,

46 beyond 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 sons 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 sunrise,

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.