Deuteronomy 4

1Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to follow, so that you may live and go in and take possession of the land that Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.

2Do not add to what I command you, and do not take anything away from it, so that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh your God that I am giving you.

3Your own eyes have seen what Yahweh did at Baal of Peor. Yahweh your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed Baal of Peor,

4but all of you who held fast to Yahweh your God are alive today.

5See, I have taught you statutes and ordinances as Yahweh my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land that you are entering to take possession of.

6Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the peoples. When they hear about all these statutes, they will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’

7For what great nation has a god so near to it as Yahweh our God is to us whenever we call on him?

8And what great nation has statutes and ordinances as righteous as this whole law that I am setting before you today?

9Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely, so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen, and so that they do not slip from your heart as long as you live. Make them known to your children and your grandchildren—

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

11You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain while the mountain blazed with fire to the heart of heaven, with darkness, cloud, and thick gloom.

12Then Yahweh spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but you saw no form; there was only a voice.

13He declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to keep, the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two stone tablets.

14At that time Yahweh commanded me to teach you statutes and ordinances for you to follow in the land that you are crossing over to take possession of.

15So watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form of any kind on the day Yahweh spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire,

16do not act corruptly by making for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female,

17the likeness of any animal on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky,

18the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, or the likeness of any fish in the waters below the earth.

19And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, do not be drawn away to bow down to them and serve them, things that Yahweh your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.

20But Yahweh has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of his inheritance, as you are today.

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

22I am going to die in this land; I will not cross the Jordan. But you are about to cross over and take possession of this good land.

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

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

25When you have had children and grandchildren and have been in the land a long time, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and do what is evil in the eyes of Yahweh your God, provoking him to anger,

26I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of. You will not live long there; you will be utterly destroyed.

27Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will be left among the nations where Yahweh will drive you.

28There you will serve gods made by human hands, gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.

29But from there you will seek Yahweh your God, and you will find him if you search for him with all your heart and with all your soul.

30When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, in the days to come you will return to Yahweh your God and listen to his voice.

31For Yahweh your God is a merciful God. He will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors that he swore to them.

32Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of heaven to the other: Has anything as great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of?

33Has any people ever heard the voice of God speaking out of the fire, as you have heard it, and lived?

34Or has any god ever tried to go and take for himself one nation out of another nation by trials, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, as Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

35You were shown these things so that you would know that Yahweh is God; there is no other besides him.

36From heaven he let you hear his voice to discipline you, and on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the fire.

37Because he loved your ancestors, he chose their descendants after them, and he brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power,

38to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you, to bring you in and give you their land as an inheritance, as it is today.

39So know today and take it to heart that Yahweh is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other.

40Keep his statutes and his commandments, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, and so that you may live long in the land that Yahweh your God is giving you for all time.”

41Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan, to the east,

42so that a manslayer could flee there, someone who killed his neighbor unintentionally without having hated him in the past. He could flee to one of these cities and live:

43Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau 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 Israelites.

45These are the decrees, the statutes, and the ordinances that Moses spoke to the Israelites when they came out of 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 Israelites defeated when they came out of Egypt.

47They took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to the east,

48from Aroer on the edge of the Arnon Valley as far as Mount Sion, that is, Hermon,

49and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan to the east, as far as the Sea of the Arabah, below the slopes of Pisgah.