Deuteronomy 4
1 “Now, Israel, listen to the decrees and laws I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live, enter, and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.
2 Do not add anything to the word I command you, and do not take anything away from it. Keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you.
3 Your eyes have seen what the LORD did at Baal-peor: the LORD your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed Baal-peor.
4 But all of you who held fast to the LORD your God are alive today.
5 Look, I have taught you decrees and laws, as the LORD my God commanded me, so that you may observe them in the land you are entering to possess.
6 Keep them and observe them, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the peoples. When they hear all these decrees, they will say, ‘This great nation is truly a wise and understanding people.’
7 For what great nation has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is whenever we call to him?
8 And what great nation has decrees and laws as just as this whole Law I am setting before you today?
9 Only be careful and watch yourselves closely, so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart any day of your life. Teach them to your children and your grandchildren.
10 That was the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when the LORD said to me, ‘Gather the people before me, and I will make them hear my words. Then they will learn to fear me all the days they live on the earth, and they will teach this to their children.’
11 You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain blazed with fire up to the heart of heaven, in darkness, cloud, and thick gloom.
12 The LORD spoke to you from the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form—only a voice.”
13 “He declared his covenant to you, which he commanded you to observe: the Ten Words. And he wrote them on two stone tablets.
14 At that time the LORD commanded me to teach you decrees and laws for you to observe in the land you are crossing over to possess.
15 So be very careful with yourselves, because you saw no form on the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire.
16 Do not corrupt yourselves by making a carved image for yourselves in the form of any figure, whether male or female,
17 or in the form of any animal on the earth, or any winged bird that flies in the sky,
18 or anything that crawls on the ground, or any fish in the waters beneath the earth.
19 And do not raise your eyes to the sky and, when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars—all the host of heaven—be drawn away to bow down to them and serve them. The LORD your God has allotted them to all the peoples under the whole heaven.
20 But the LORD took you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of his own inheritance, as you are today.
21 The LORD was angry with me because of you, and he swore that I would not cross the Jordan or enter the good land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.
22 I am going to die in this land; I will not cross the Jordan. But you will cross over and take possession of this good land.
23 Be careful not to forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you. Do not make a carved image for yourselves in the form of anything, as the LORD your God commanded you.
24 For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
25 When you have children and grandchildren, and you have lived in the land a long time, you may corrupt yourselves by making a carved image in any form and doing what is evil in the eyes of the LORD your God, provoking him to anger.”
26 “Today I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you: you will soon perish from the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, for you will be utterly destroyed.
27 The LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will remain among the nations where the LORD drives you.
28 There you will serve gods made by human hands, of wood and stone, which cannot see, hear, eat, or smell.
29 From there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find him if you search for him with all your heart and all your soul.
30 When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, in the latter days you will return to the LORD your God and listen to his voice.
31 For the LORD your God is a compassionate God. He will not abandon you or destroy you, and he will not forget the covenant with your ancestors that he swore to them.
32 Ask about the former times, before you, from the day God created humanity on the earth, and 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?
33 Has any people heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you heard, and remained alive?
34 Or has any god ever tried to come and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, signs, and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great and terrifying deeds, as the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
35 You were shown this so that you might know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides him.
36 From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you; on earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from the midst of the fire.
37 Because he loved your ancestors and chose their descendants after them, he himself brought you out of Egypt by his great power.”
38 “He drove out before you nations greater and stronger than you, to bring you into their land and give it to you as an inheritance, as you are today.
39 Know this today, and take it to heart: the LORD is God in heaven above and on earth below; there is no other.
40 Keep his decrees and commandments that I am giving you today, so that things may go well for you and your children after you, and so that you may live long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for all time.”
41 Then Moses set apart three cities east of the Jordan, toward the sunrise.
42 Anyone who killed a neighbor unintentionally, without having been an enemy in the past, could flee to one of these cities and live.
43 Bezer in the wilderness, in the plateau land, for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.
44 This is the Law Moses set before the Israelites.
45 These are the testimonies, decrees, and laws that Moses spoke to the Israelites when they came out of Egypt.
46 This was across the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon. Moses and the Israelites defeated him when they came out of Egypt.
47 They took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan—the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan, toward the sunrise—
48 from Aroer on the bank of the Arnon Valley to Mount Sion, that is, Hermon,
49 and all the Arabah east of the Jordan, as far as the Sea of the Arabah, below the slopes of Pisgah.
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