Deuteronomy 4

Listen to the Statutes and Judgments

1“And now, Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments that I am teaching you to do, so that you may live and go in and possess the land that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. 2You shall not add to the word that I command you, and you shall not take away from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you. 3Your eyes have seen what the LORD did at Baal-Peor, for every man who went after the Baal of Peor, the LORD your God destroyed from your midst. 4But you who clung to the LORD your God are all alive today.

This Is Your Wisdom before the Nations

5“See, I have taught you statutes and judgments, as the LORD my God commanded me, so that you may do so in the midst of the land that you are entering to possess. 6Keep them and do them, for this will be your wisdom and your understanding in the eyes of the peoples, who will hear all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ 7For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is whenever we call to him? 8And what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as all this instruction that I am setting before you today?

Do Not Forget What Your Eyes Have Seen

9“Only guard yourself and guard your life diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children— 10the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when the LORD said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, and I will make them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the ground and may teach their children.’ 11You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the heart of the heavens, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness. 12The LORD spoke to you from the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but you saw no form—only a voice. 13He declared to you his covenant that he commanded you to do, the Ten Words, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone. 14And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, so that you might do them in the land that you are crossing over to possess.

You Saw No Form

15“So guard your lives diligently, for you saw no form on the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, 16lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the heavens, 18the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth. 19And lest you lift your eyes to the heavens and see the sun, moon, and stars, all the host of the heavens, and be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them—things that the LORD your God allotted to all the peoples under the whole heavens. 20But the LORD took you and brought you out from the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be for him a people of inheritance, as you are this day.

The LORD Is a Consuming Fire

21“The LORD was angry with me because of your words and swore that I would not cross the Jordan and would not enter the good land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance. 22For I will die in this land; I will not cross the Jordan. But you are crossing over and will possess this good land. 23Guard yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God that he made with you and make for yourselves a carved image, the form of anything that the LORD your God has forbidden you. 24For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

If You Seek Him, You Will Find Him

25“When you father children and children’s children and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything and do what is evil in the eyes of the LORD your God to provoke him to anger, 26I call the heavens and the earth to witness against you today that you will surely perish quickly from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not prolong your days upon it but will surely be destroyed. 27The LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD drives you. 28There you will serve gods, the work of human hands—wood and stone—which do not see or hear or eat or smell. 29But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find him if you search for him with all your heart and with all your life. 30When you are in distress and all these things find you in the latter days, you will return to the LORD your God and listen to his voice. 31For the LORD your God is a compassionate God. He will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors that he swore to them.

Has Anything Like This Ever Happened?

32“Indeed, ask now concerning the former days that were before you, from the day God created humanity upon the earth, and from one end of the heavens to the other: Has there ever been anything like this great thing, or has anything like it been heard? 33Has a people ever heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you heard, and lived? 34Or has a god ever tried to go and take for himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, signs, wonders, war, a strong hand, an outstretched arm, and great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35You were shown this so that you might know that the LORD—he is God; there is no other besides him. 36From the heavens he made you hear his voice to discipline you, and upon the earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from the midst of the fire. 37Because he loved your ancestors and chose their offspring after them, he brought you out from Egypt by his presence, by his great power, 38to drive out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in and give you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day. 39Know therefore today and bring it back to your heart that the LORD—he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. 40Keep his statutes and his commandments that I command you today, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and so that you may prolong your days upon the ground that the LORD your God is giving you for all days.

Three Cities of Refuge East of the Jordan

41Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise, 42so that the manslayer who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without hating him previously, may flee there. He may flee to one of these cities and live: 43Bezer in the wilderness on the tableland for the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.

This Is the Instruction Moses Set before Israel

44This is the instruction that Moses set before the children of Israel. 45These are the testimonies, statutes, and judgments that Moses spoke to the children 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 children of Israel struck when they came out from Egypt. 47They possessed his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise, 48from Aroer, which is on the edge of the Wadi Arnon, as far as Mount Sion—that is, Hermon— 49and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise, as far as the Sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.