Deuteronomy 4

1Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and judgments that I am teaching you to keep, so that you may live and enter to possess the land that Yahweh, God of your fathers, is giving you.

2Do not add to what I command you, nor take away from it, so that you keep the commandments of Yahweh your God that I command you.

3Your eyes saw what Yahweh did at Baal-Peor, for Yahweh your God destroyed from your midst every man who went after Baal-Peor.

4But you who clung to Yahweh your God are all alive today.

5See, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, just as Yahweh my God commanded me, that you do so in the midst of the land where you are entering to possess it.

6Keep and carry them out, for it is your wisdom and understanding before the eyes of the peoples, who will hear all these statutes and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people.”

7For what great nation has God close to them as Yahweh our God whenever we call to him?

8What great nation has righteous statutes and judgments like all this law that I place before you today?

9Only watch yourself closely and guard your life diligently, lest you forget the things your eyes saw, and lest they slip from your heart all the days of your life, but teach them to your children and your children's children.

10the day you stood before Yahweh your God in Horeb, when Yahweh said to me, "Assemble the people to me, and I will let them hear my words, so they learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and so they teach their children."

11You drew near and stood beneath the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the heart of the heavens—darkness, cloud, and thick darkness.

12Yahweh spoke to you from amid the fire: you heard the sound of words, but saw no likeness—only a voice.

13He made his covenant known to you, which he commanded you to do—the ten words—and he wrote them on two stone tablets.

14Yahweh commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, so you would do them in the land where you cross over to possess it.

15Guard yourselves very diligently, for you saw no likeness at all on the day Yahweh spoke to you at Horeb from amid the fire.

16Lest you corrupt yourselves and make a carved image for yourselves, a likeness of any figure, the form of male or female.

17a form of any beast on the earth, a form of any winged bird that flies in the sky,

18the form of anything that creeps on the ground, the form of any fish that is in the waters under the earth.

19Lest you raise your eyes toward the heavens and see the sun, the moon, and the stars—all the host of the heavens—and be drawn away to bow down to them and serve them, which Yahweh your God has allotted to all peoples under the whole heavens.

20But Yahweh took you and brought you out from the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be to him a people of inheritance, as this day.

21Yahweh grew angry with me because of your words and swore that I would not cross the Jordan or enter the good land that Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance.

22For I will die in this land—I will not cross the Jordan—but you will cross over and possess this good land.

23Be careful not to forget the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the likeness of anything that Yahweh your God commanded you.

24For Yahweh your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

25When you father sons and grandsons and grow old in the land, if you corrupt yourselves by carving an image—a likeness of anything—and commit evil in the sight of Yahweh your God, provoking him,

26I call heaven and earth to testify against you today that you will utterly perish quickly from the land you are crossing the Jordan into to possess it; you will not prolong your days upon it, for you will surely be destroyed.

27Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you will remain few in number among the nations where Yahweh will lead you there.

28There you will serve gods made by human hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.

29From there you will seek Yahweh your God, and you will find him when you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.

30When you are in distress and all these things overtake you, in the days to come you will turn back to Yahweh your God and hear his voice.

31For Yahweh your God is a compassionate God; he will not abandon you, nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers that he swore to them.

32Indeed, ask now about the ancient days that were before you, from the day God created man on the earth, and from one end of heaven to the other: has there been anything like this great thing, or has its like been heard?

33Has a people heard the voice of God speaking from within the fire, as you yourself heard, and lived?

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

35You have been shown this to know that Yahweh—he is God; there is no other besides him.

36From heaven he caused you to hear his voice to discipline you, and on earth he caused you to see his great fire; you heard his words from the midst of the fire.

37Because he loved your fathers, he chose their offspring after them and brought you out of Egypt in his presence, with his great power.

38to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you from before you, to bring you in to give you their land as an inheritance, as on this day.

39Acknowledge today and take it to heart that Yahweh—he is God in heaven above and upon the earth beneath; there is no other.

40Keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, so it goes well for you and your children after you, and so you prolong your days upon the land that Yahweh your God gives you for all time.

41Then Moses separated three cities beyond the Jordan toward the rising sun.

42so the slayer might flee there who kills his neighbor without realizing it, he who had not hated him previously, and might live by fleeing to one of these cities.

43Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain land, for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.

44This is the law that Moses set before the sons of Israel.

45These are the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments that Moses spoke to the sons of Israel when they came out from Egypt.

46Beyond the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon, king of the Amorites who lived in Heshbon, whom Moses and the sons of Israel struck when they came out from Egypt.

47They took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan toward the sun's rising.

48From Aroer, which is on the bank of the Arnon valley, to Mount Sion, that is Hermon.

49and all the Arabah east of the Jordan, extending to the sea of the Arabah beneath the springs of Pisgah.