Deuteronomy 4

1 And now, Israel, hear the ordinances and judgments, all that I teach you this day to do: that you may live, and be multiplied, and that you may go in and inherit the land, which the Lord God of your fathers gives you.

And now give ear, O Israel, to the laws and the decisions which I am teaching you, and do them; so that life may be yours, and you may go in and take for yourselves the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you.

2 You shall not add to the word which I command you, and you shall not take from it: keep the commandments of the Lord our God, all that I command you this day.

Make no addition to the orders which I give you, and take nothing from them, but keep the orders of the Lord your God which I give you.

3 Your eyes have seen all that the Lord our God did in [the case of] Beel-phegor; for every man that went after Beel-phegor, the Lord your God has utterly destroyed him from among you.

Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baal-peor: for destruction came from the Lord on all those among you who went after Baal-peor.

4 But you that kept close to the Lord your God are all alive today.

But you who kept faith with the Lord are living, every one of you, today.

5 Behold, I have shown you ordinances and judgments as the Lord commanded me, that you should do so in the land into which you go to inherit it.

I have been teaching you laws and decisions, as I was ordered to do by the Lord my God, so that you might keep them in the land to which you are going to take it for your heritage.

6 And you shall keep and do them: for this is your wisdom and understanding before all nations, as many as shall hear all these ordinances; and they shall say, Behold, this great nation [is] a wise and understanding people.

So keep these laws and do them; for so will your wisdom and good sense be clear in the eyes of the peoples, who hearing all these laws will say, Truly, this great nation is a wise and far-seeing people.

7 For what manner of nation [is so] great, which has God so near to them as the Lord our God [is] in all things in whatever we may call upon him?

For what great nation has a god so near to them as the Lord our God is, whenever we are turned to him in prayer?

8 And what manner of nation [is so] great, which has righteous ordinances and judgments according to all this law, which I set before you this day?

And what great nation has laws and decisions so right as all this law which I put before you today?

9 Take heed to yourself, and keep your heart diligently: forget not any of the things, which your eyes have seen, and let them not depart from your heart all the days of your life; and you shall teach your sons and your sons' sons,

Only take care, and keep watch on your soul, for fear that the things which your eyes have seen go from your memory and from your heart all the days of your life; but let the knowledge of them be given to your children and to your children's children;

10 [even the things that happened in] the day in which you stood before the Lord our God in Choreb in the day of the assembly; for the Lord said to me, Gather the people to me, and let them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days which they live upon the earth, and they shall teach their sons.

That day when you were waiting before the Lord your God in Horeb, and the Lord said to me, Make all the people come together, so that hearing my words they may go in fear of me all the days of their life on earth and give this teaching to their children.

11 And you drew near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire up to heaven: [there was] darkness, blackness, [and] tempest.

And you came near, waiting at the foot of the mountain; and flames of fire went up from the mountain to the heart of heaven, with dark clouds, and all was black as night.

12 And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire a voice of words, which you heard: and you saw no likeness, only [you heard] a voice.

And the voice of the Lord came to you out of the fire: the sound of his words came to your ears but you saw no form; there was nothing but a voice.

13 And he announced to you his covenant, which he commanded you to keep, even the ten commandments; and he wrote them on two tables of stone.

And he gave you his agreement with you, the ten rules which you were to keep, which he put in writing on the two stones of the law.

14 And the Lord commanded me at that time, to teach you ordinances and judgments, that you should do them on the land, into which you go to inherit it.

And the Lord gave me orders at that time to make clear to you these laws and decisions, so that you might do them in the land to which you are going, and which is to be your heritage.

15 And take good heed to your hearts, for you saw no similitude in the day in which the Lord spoke to you in Choreb in the mountain out of the midst of the fire:

So keep watch on yourselves with care; for you saw no form of any sort on the day when the voice of the Lord came to you in Horeb out of the heart of the fire:

16 lest you transgress, and make to yourselves a carved image, any kind of figure, the likeness of male or female,

So that you may not be turned to evil ways and make for yourselves an image in the form of any living thing, male or female,

17 the likeness of any beast of those that are on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird which flies under heaven,

Or any beast of the earth, or winged bird of the air,

18 the likeness of any reptile which creeps on the earth, the likeness of any fish of those which are in the waters under the earth;

Or of anything which goes flat on the earth, or any fish in the water under the earth.

19 and lest having looked up to the sky, and having seen the sun and the moon and the stars, and all the heavenly bodies, you should go astray and worship them, and serve them, which the Lord your God has distributed to all the nations under heaven.

And when your eyes are lifted up to heaven, and you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the army of heaven, do not let yourselves be moved to give them worship, or become the servants of what the Lord has given equally to all peoples under heaven.

20 But God took you, and led you forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be to him a people of inheritance, as at this day.

But the Lord has taken you out of the flaming fire, out of Egypt, to be to him the people of his heritage, as you are today.

21 And the Lord God was angry with me for the things said by you, and sware that I should not go over this Jordan, and that I should not enter into the land, which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance.

And the Lord was angry with me because of you, and made an oath that I was not to go over Jordan into the good land which the Lord is giving you for your heritage:

22 For I am to die in this land, and shall not pass over this Jordan; but you are to pass over, and shall inherit this good land.

But death is to come to me in this land, I may not go over Jordan: but you will go over and take that good land for your heritage.

23 Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord our God, which he made with you, and you transgress, and make to yourselves a graven image of any of the things concerning which the Lord your God commanded you.

Take care that you do not let the agreement of the Lord your God, which he has made with you, go out of your mind, or make for yourselves images of any sort, against the orders which the Lord your God has given you.

24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

For the Lord your God is an all-burning fire, and he will not let the honour which is his be given to any other.

25 And when you shall have begotten sons, and shall have sons' sons, and you shall have lived a long time on the land, and shall have transgressed, and made a graven image of any thing, and shall have done wickedly before the Lord your God to provoke him;

If, when you have had children and children's children, and have been living a long time in the land, you are turned to evil ways, and make an image of any sort, and do evil in the eyes of the Lord your God, moving him to wrath:

26 I call heaven and earth this day to witness against you, that you shall surely perish from off the land, into which you go across Jordan to inherit it there; you shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall be utterly cut off.

May heaven and earth be my witnesses against you today, that destruction will quickly overtake you, cutting you off from that land which you are going over Jordan to take; your days will not be long in that land, but you will come to a complete end.

27 And the Lord shall scatter you among all nations, and you shall be left few in number among all the nations, among which the Lord shall bring you.

And the Lord will send you wandering among the peoples; only a small band of you will be kept from death among the nations where the Lord will send you.

28 And you shall there serve other gods, the works of the hands of men, wood and stones, which can’t see, nor can they hear, nor eat, nor smell.

There you will be the servants of gods, made by men's hands, of wood and stone, having no power of seeing or hearing or taking food or smelling.

29 And there you shall seek the Lord your God, and you shall find him whenever you shall seek him with all your heart, and with all your soul in your affliction.

But if in those lands you are turned again to the Lord your God, searching for him with all your heart and soul, he will not keep himself from you.

30 And all these things shall come upon you in the last days, and you shall turn to the Lord your God, and shall listen to his voice.

When you are in trouble and all these things have come on you, if, in the future, you are turned again to the Lord your God, and give ear to his voice:

31 Because the Lord your God [is] a God of pity: he will not forsake you, nor destroy you; he will not forget the covenant of your fathers, which the Lord sware to them.

Because the Lord your God is a God of mercy, he will not take away his help from you or let destruction overtake you, or be false to the agreement which he made by an oath with your fathers.

32 Ask of the former days which were before you, from the day when God created man upon the earth, and [beginning] at the [one] end of heaven to the other end of heaven, if there has happened any thing like to this great event, if such a thing has been heard:

Give thought now to the days which are past, before your time, from the day when God first gave life to man on the earth, and searching from one end of heaven to the other, see if such a great thing as this has ever been, or if anything like it has been talked of in story.

33 if a nation have heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard and have lived;

Has any people ever gone on living after hearing the voice of God out of the heart of the fire as you did?

34 if God has assayed to go and take to himself a nation out of the midst of [another] nation with trial, and with signs, and with wonders, and with war, and with a mighty hand, and with a high arm, and with great sights, according to all the things which the Lord our God did in Egypt in your sight.

Has God ever before taken a nation for himself from out of another nation, by punishments and signs and wonders, by war and by a strong hand and a stretched-out arm and great acts of wonder and fear, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes?

35 So that you should know that the Lord your God he is God, and there is none beside him.

All this he let you see, so that you might be certain that the Lord is God and there is no other.

36 His voice was made audible from heaven to instruct you, and he showed you upon the earth his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire.

Out of heaven itself his voice came to you, teaching you; and on earth he let you see his great fire; and his words came to your ears out of the heart of the fire.

37 Because he loved your fathers, he also chose you their seed after them, and he brought you himself with his great strength out of Egypt,

And because of his love for your fathers, he took their seed and made it his, and he himself, present among you, took you out of Egypt by his great power;

38 to destroy nations great and stronger than you before your face, to bring you in, to give you their land to inherit, as you have it this day.

Driving out before you nations greater and stronger than you, to take you into their land and give it to you for your heritage, as at this day.

39 An you shall know this day, and shall consider in your heart, that the Lord your God he [is] God in heaven above, and on the earth beneath, and there is none else but he.

So today be certain, and keep the knowledge deep in your hearts, that the Lord is God, in heaven on high and here on earth; there is no other God.

40 And keep you his commandments, and his ordinances, all that I command you this day; that it may be well with you, and with your sons after you, that you may be long-lived upon the earth, which the Lord your God gives you for ever.

Then keep his laws and his orders which I give you today, so that it may be well for you and for your children after you, and that your lives may be long in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for ever.

41 Then Moses separated three cities beyond Jordan on the east,

Then Moses had three towns marked out on the far side of Jordan looking to the east;

42 that the slayer might flee there, who should have slain his neighbor unintentionally, and should not have hated him in times past, and he shall flee to one of these cities and live:

To which anyone causing the death of his neighbour in error and not through hate, might go in flight; so that in one of these towns he might be kept from death:

43 Bosor in the wilderness, in the plain country of Ruben, and Ramoth in Galaad [belonging to] Gad, and Gaulon in Basan [belonging to] Manasse.

The names of the towns were Bezer in the waste land, in the table-land, for the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for Manasseh.

44 This [is] the law which Moses set before the children of Israel.

This is the law which Moses put before the children of Israel:

45 These [are] the testimonies, and the ordinances, and the judgments, which Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt:

These are the rules and the laws and the decisions which Moses gave to the children of Israel after they came out of Egypt;

46 on the other side of Jordan, in the valley near the house of Phogor, in the land of Seon king of the Amorites, who lived in Esebon, whom Moses and the sons of Israel struck when they came out of the land of Egypt.

On the far side of Jordan, in the valley facing Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who was ruling in Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel overcame after they had come out of Egypt:

47 And they inherited his land, and the land of Og king of Basan, two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond Jordan eastward.

And they took his land for a heritage, and the land of Og, king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, whose lands were on the other side of Jordan to the east;

48 From Aroer, which is on the border of the brook Arnon, even to the mount of Seon, which is Aermon.

From Aroer on the edge of the valley of the Arnon as far as Mount Sion, which is Hermon,

49 All Araba beyond Jordan eastward under Asedoth hewn in the rock.

And all the Arabah on the far side of Jordan to the east, as far as the sea of the Arabah under the slopes of Pisgah.