DEUTERONOMY 4

And now, O Israel, attend to the statutes and regulations which I teach you, and observe them, so that you may live and go in and take possession of the land which Yehowah the God of your fathers is giving you. 2 You shall not add to the words which I command you, nor shall you take away from them, so that you may keep the commandments of Yehowah your God which I command you. 3 Your eyes have seen what Yehowah has done because of Baal-peor; for Yehowah your God has destroyed from among you all the men who went after Baal-peor; 4 but all of you who clung to Yehowah your God are alive today. 5 See, I have taught you statutes and regulations, even as Yehowah my God commanded me, so that you might observe them in the midst of the land which you are entering to possess. 6 Therefore take care to observe them; for this is your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and will say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. 7 For what great nation is there which has gods so near to it as Yehowah our God is, whenever we call upon him? 8 And what great nation is there which has statutes and regulations so righteous as all this law which I set before you today?

9 Only take care what you do, and be on your guard, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart, all the days of your life; but make them known to your sons and grandsons- 10 make known the day when you stood before Yehowah your God at Horeb, when Yehowah said to me, Call the people together to me, and I will make them hear my words so that they may learn to fear me for as long as they live in the land, and so that they may teach their sons. 11 And you came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire even to the heart of heaven, with darkness, cloud, and pitch darkness. 12 And Yehowah spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but you saw no form; you only heard a voice. 13 And he declared to you his covenant which he commanded you to observe-the ten commandments; and he wrote them on two tablets of stone. 14 And Yehowah commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and regulations, so that you might observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess.

15 Then take good care what you do; since you did not see any form on the day when Yehowah spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, 16 take care not to corrupt yourselves by making for yourselves a carved image in the form of any likeness, the figure of a male or a female, 17 the figure of any animal which is on the earth, the figure of any winged bird which flies in the heavens, 18 the figure of any thing which creeps on the ground, the figure of any fish which is in the waters beneath the earth; 19 and take care not to lift up your eyes to heaven to see the sun and moon and stars, all the host of heaven, and to be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things which Yehowah your God has assigned to all the peoples under the whole heaven. 20 But Yehowah has taken you, and brought you out of the iron-furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his inheritance, as at this day.

21 And Yehowah was angry with me on your account, and swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and that I should not go into that good land which Yehowah your God gives you for an inheritance; 22 but I must die in this land, I am not to cross the Jordan; but you shall cross over and take possession of that good land. 23 Take care what you do, lest you forget the covenant of Yehowah your God which he made with you, by making yourselves carved images, the form of anything about which Yehowah your God has commanded you. 24 For Yehowah your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

25 When you have sons and grandsons, and grow old in the land, and corrupt yourselves and make carved images, the form of anything, and do evil in the sight of Yehowah your God, to provoke him, 26 I call the heavens and the earth to witness against you today that soon you will entirely perish from the land which you will cross the Jordan to possess; you will not prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27 And Yehowah will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations to which Yehowah will lead you. 28 And there you will serve gods, the work of men's hands, of wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. 29 But if while you are there you seek Yehowah your God, you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and soul. 30 When you are in tribulation, and all these things come on you, even in later days, if you turn to Yehowah your God and attend to his voice- 31 for Yehowah your God is a compassionate God-he will not leave you alone, or destroy you, or forget the covenant of your fathers which he swore to them.

32 For ask now about the early days which were before your time, since the day when God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether anything has happened like this great thing, or anything has been heard like it. 33 Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you have heard it, and live? 34 Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by temptations, signs, and wonders, and by war, and by a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all which Yehowah your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 It was shown to you so that you might know that Yehowah alone is God; there is no other besides him.

36 He made you hear his voice out of heaven so that he might instruct you; and on the earth he made you see his great fire, and out of the midst of the fire you heard his words. 37 And because he loved your fathers, he therefore chose their descendants after them, and brought you out of Egypt in his presence by his great power, 38 driving out before you nations greater and more numerous than you, and bringing you in to give you their land for an inheritance, as at this day. 39 So you shall know today, and take it to heart, that Yehowah alone is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. 40 And you shall keep his statutes and commandments which I give you today, so that it may go well with you and your sons after you, and so that you may prolong your days in the land which Yehowah your God gives you for ever.

41 Then Moses set apart three cities across the Jordan towards the sunrise, 42 so that the manslayer might flee there if he killed his neighbour inadvertently, without hating him in the past, so that by fleeing to one of these cities he might live: 43 Bezer in the desert, in the plain-country, for the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead, for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, for the Manassites.

44 And this is the law which Moses set before the sons of Israel. 45 These are the testimonies, statutes, and regulations which Moses spoke to the sons of Israel when they had come out of Egypt, 46 across the Jordan in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, whom Moses and the sons of Israel defeated when they had come out of Egypt. 47 Then they took possession of his land and the land of Og the king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites who were across the Jordan towards the sunrise, 48 from Aroer, which is by the bank of the river Arnon, as far as Mount Sion, which is Hermon, 49 and all the Arabah across the Jordan eastwards, as far as the sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.