Deuteronomy 4

1 Now, therefore, O Israel, hearken thou unto the statutes, and unto the regulations, which, I, am teaching you, to do [them], —to the end ye may live and enter and possess the land, which, Yahweh, the God of your fathers, is giving unto you.

2 Ye shall not add unto the word which, I, am commanding you, neither shall ye take away therefrom, —that ye may keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, which, I, am commanding you.

3 Yours are the eyes, that have seen what Yahweh did in Baal-peor, for every man who went after Baal-peor, did Yahweh thy God destroy out of thy midst;

4 but, ye who kept on cleaving unto Yahweh your God, alive, are ye all to-day.

5 See! I have taught you statutes, and regulations, as Yahweh my God commanded me, —that ye should do so, in the midst of the land whereinto ye are entering to possess it.

6 Therefore shall ye observe, and do [them], for that, will be your wisdom, and discernment, in the eyes of the peoples, —who will hear all these statutes, and will say—Nevertheless, a people wise and discerning, is this great nation.

7 For what great nation is there which hath gods nigh unto it, —like Yahweh our God, whensoever we have cried out unto him.

8 Or what great nation which hath righteous statutes and regulations, like all this law, which, I, am setting before you to-day?

9 Only take thou heed to thyself and keep thy soul diligently, so that thou forget not the things which thine own eyes have seen, and so that they go not out of thy heart, all the days of thy life, —but thou shalt make them known unto thy sons and unto thy sons’ sons: —

10 What day thou didst stand before Yahweh thy God, in Horeb, when Yahweh said unto me, Gather unto me the people, that I may let them hear my words, —which they must learn that they may revere me all the days which they are living upon the soil, their children also, must they teach.

11 So ye drew near and stood, under the mountain. Now, the mountain, was burning with fire, up to the midst of the heavens, —darkness, cloud, and thick gloom.

12 Then spake Yahweh unto you out of the midst of the fire, —a voice of words, ye were hearing, no form, were ye seeing, there was only a voice.

13 Then declared he unto you his covenant which he commanded you to do, the ten words, —and wrote them upon two tables of stone.

14 And unto me, gave Yahweh command, at that time, to teach you statutes and regulations, —that ye should do them, in the land whereinto ye are passing over to possess it.

15 Ye must take diligent heed, therefore unto your own souls, for ye saw no manner of form, on the day Yahweh spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire;

16 lest ye should break faith, and make you an image, a form of any likeness, —a model of male or female;

17 a model of any beast that is in the earth, —a model of any winged bird, that flieth in the heavens;

18 a model of any thing that creepeth on the ground, —a model of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth;

19 or lest thou shouldest lift up thine eyes towards the heavens and see the sun and the moon, and the stars—all the host of the heavens, and shouldest be seduced, and shouldest bow thyself down to them and he led to serve them, —the which Yahweh thy God hath assigned unto all the peoples under all the heavens;

20 whereas you, hath Yahweh taken, and brought you forth out of a smelting-pot of iron, out of Egypt, —that ye might become his own inherited people as at this day.

21 But, Yahweh shewed himself angry with me, for your sakes, —and sware that I should not pass over the Jordan, and that I should not enter into the good land, which, Yahweh thy God, is giving unto thee as an inheritance;

22 for, I, am about to die in this land, I am not to pass over the Jordan, —but, ye, are to pass over, and possess this good land.

23 Take heed to yourselves lest ye forget the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he hath solemnised with you, —and so make for yourselves an image, the form of anything, the which Yahweh thy God hath forbidden thee;

24 seeing that as for Yahweh thy God, a consuming fire, he is, —a jealous GOD.

25 When thou shalt beget sons, and sons’ sons, and become careless in the land and break faith and make an image the form of any thing, and shalt do the thing that is wicked in the eyes of Yahweh thy God provoking him to anger,

26 I take both the heavens and the earth to witness against you to-day, that ye shall, perish, speedily, from off the land which ye are passing over the Jordan to possess, —ye shall not prolong your days thereupon; for, ye shall surely be laid waste;

27 and Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, —and ye shall have left remaining of you men easily counted, among the nations whither Yahweh will drive you;

28 and ye will serve there gods made by the hands of man, —wood or stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.

29 If thou shalt seek from thence, Yahweh thy God, then shalt thou find him, —when thou shalt search after him with all thy heart, and with all thy soul.

30 In thy distress, when all these things have found thee out—in the afterpart of the days, thou wilt return unto Yahweh thy God, and wilt hearken to his voice.

31 For, a GOD of compassion, is Yahweh thy God, he will not forsake thee neither will he destroy thee, —nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.

32 For ask, I pray you, of the former days which were before thee, even from the day when God created man upon the earth, yea from one end of the heavens even to the other end of the heavens, —whether aught was ever brought to pass, like this great thing, or was ever heard of like it:

33 Did a people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of fire, as, thou, didst hear, and yet live?

34 Or did a god ever make trial of entering in to take unto him a nation out of the midst of a nation, by provings, by signs and by wonders and by fighting, and by a firm hand and by a stretched-out arm, and by great terrors, —according to all that Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt, before your eyes?

35 Thou, wast allowed to see that thou mightest know, that Yahweh, he is God, there is none other than he alone.

36 Out of the heavens, he let thee hear his voice to instruct thee, —and, upon the earth, he let thee see his great fire, and his own words, thou didst hear out of the midst of the fire.

37 And because that he loved thy fathers, therefore chose he his seed after him, —and brought thee forth with his presence with his great might, out of Egypt;

38 to dispossess nations, greater and stronger than thou from before thee, —to bring thee in. to give unto thee their land for an inheritance: As at this day.

39 So then thou must consider to-day, and bring it back to thy heart, that, Yahweh, he is God in the heavens above and upon the earth beneath, —there is none other.

40 So shalt thou keep his statutes and his commandments which, I, am commanding thee to-day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy sons after thee, —and to the end thou mayest prolong thy days upon the soil, which Yahweh thy God, is giving thee, all the days.

41 Then, did Moses set apart three cities, over the Jordan, —towards the rising of the sun:

42 that the manslayer might flee thither who should slay his neighbour unawares, he, not having hated him, aforetime, —and might flee unto one of these cities, and live:

43 namely Bezer, in the desert of the table-land, for the Reubenites, —and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan, for the Manassites.

44 This, then is the law which Moses set before the sons of Israel:

45 These, are the testimonies, and the statutes and the regulations, —which Moses spake unto the sons of Israel when they came forth out of Egypt:

46 over the Jordan in the valley over against Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, —whom Moses and the sons of Israel smote, when they came forth out of Egypt:

47 so they took possession of his land, and the land of Og king of Bashan the two kings of the Amorites, who were over the Jordan, —towards the rising of the sun;

48 from Aroer which is on the edge of the ravine of Arnon, even unto Mount Sion, the same, is Hermon;

49 and all the waste plain over the Jordan, towards sunrise, even unto the sea of the waste plain, —under the slopes of the Pisgah.