Deuteronomy 4

1 Now, Israel [God prevails], sh'ma ·hear obey· the statutes and to the judgments, which I teach you, to do them; that you may live, and go in and possess the land which Adonai, the God of your fathers, gives you.

2 You shall not add to the word which I enjoin you, neither shall you take away from it, that you may keep the mitzvot ·instructions· of Adonai your God which I enjoin you.

3 Your eyes have seen what Adonai did because of Baal Peor; for all the men who followed Baal Peor, Adonai your God has destroyed them from among you.

4 But you who were faithful to Adonai your God are all alive today.

5 Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as Adonai my God enjoined me, that you should do so in the middle 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, who shall sh'ma ·hear obey· 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 deity so near to them, as Yahweh Eloheikhem [Yahweh our God] is whenever we call on him?

8 What great nation is there, that has statutes and judgement so upright as all this Torah ·Teaching·, which I set before you today?

9 Only be careful, 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 Adonai your God in Horeb [Desert], when Adonai said to me, “Assemble the people to me, and I will make them sh'ma ·hear obey· my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.”

11 You came near and stood under the mountain. The mountain burned with fire to the heart of the sky, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness.

12 Adonai spoke to you out of the middle of the fire: you sh'ma ·hear obey· the voice of words, but you saw no form; you only heard a voice.

13 He declared to you his covenant ·binding contract between two or more parties·, which he enjoined you to perform, even the Ten Words. He wrote them on two stone tablets.

14 Adonai enjoined me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it.

15 Be very careful, for you saw no kind of form on the day that Adonai spoke to you in Horeb [Desert] out of the middle of the fire,

16 lest you corrupt yourselves, and make yourself an engraved image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female,

17 the likeness of any animal 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 you lift up your eyes to the sky, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the army of the sky, you are drawn away and worship them, and abad ·serve· them, which Adonai your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole sky.

20 But Adonai has taken you, and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt [Abode of slavery], to be to him a people of inheritance, as it is today.

21 Furthermore Adonai was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I should not go over the Jordan [Descender], and that I should not go in to that good land, which Adonai your God gives you for an inheritance;

22 but I must die in this land. I must not go over the Jordan [Descender]; but you shall go over, and possess that good land.

23 Be careful, lest you forget the covenant ·binding contract between two or more parties· of Adonai your God, which he made with you, and make yourselves an engraved image in the form of anything which Adonai your God has enjoined forbidden for you.

24 For Yahweh [He sustains breathing] your God is 'Akal 'Esh [Consuming Fire], El Kana' [Jealous God].

25 When you shall father children, and children’s children, and you shall have been long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make an engraved image in the form of anything, and shall do that which is evil in Adonai your God’s sight, to provoke him to anger;

26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from off the land which you go over the Jordan [Descender] to possess it. You will not prolong your days on it, but will utterly be destroyed.

27 Adonai will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations, where Adonai will lead you away.

28 There you shall abad ·serve· deities, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor sh'ma ·hear obey·, nor eat, nor smell.

29 But from there you shall seek Adonai 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 oppression, and all these things have come on you, in the latter days you shall teshuvah ·completely return· to Adonai your God, and sh'ma ·hear obey· to his voice.

31 For Adonai your God is a merciful God. He will not fail you, neither destroy you, nor forget the covenant ·binding contract between two or more parties· 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 on the earth, and from the one end of the sky to the other, whether there has been anything as this great thing is, or has been sh'ma ·heard obeyed· like it?

33 Did a people ever sh'ma ·hear obey· the voice of God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as you have sh'ma ·heard obeyed·, and live?

34 Or has God tried to go and take a nation for himself from among another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that Adonai your God did for you in Egypt [Abode of slavery] before your eyes?

35 It was shown to you so that you might know that Yahweh [He sustains breathing] is God. There is no one else besides him,

36 Out of heaven he made you to sh'ma ·hear obey· his voice, that he might instruct you. On earth he made you to see his great fire; and you sh'ma ·heard obeyed· his words out of the middle of the fire.

37 Because he 'ahav ·affectionately loved· your fathers, therefore he chose their offspring after them, and brought you out with his presence, with his great power, out of Egypt [Abode of slavery];

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 it is today.

39 Know therefore today, and take it to heart, that Yahweh [He sustains breathing] himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. There is no one else.

40 You shall keep his statutes, and his mitzvot ·instructions·, which I enjoin you today, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land, which Adonai your God gives you, forever.

41 Then Moses [Drawn out] set apart three cities beyond the Jordan [Descender] toward the sunrise;

42 that the man slayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unawares, and didn’t hate him in time past; and that fleeing to one of these cities he might live:

43 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 This is the Torah ·Teaching· which Moses [Drawn out] set before the children of Israel [God prevails].

45 These are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which Moses [Drawn out] spoke to the children of Israel [God prevails], when they came out of Egypt [Abode of slavery],

46 beyond the Jordan [Descender], in the valley over against Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites [Descendants of Talkers], who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses [Drawn out] and the children of Israel [God prevails] struck, when they came out of Egypt [Abode of slavery].

47 They took his land in possession, and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites [Descendants of Talkers], who were beyond the Jordan [Descender] toward the sunrise;

48 from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, even to Mount Sion (also called Hermon [Devoted to destruction]),

49 and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan [Descender] eastward, even to the sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.