Deuteronomy Chapter 4

Deuteronomy Chapter 4
1 Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto
the ordinances and to the laws which I
teach you to do, that ye may live and go
in, and possess the land, which the Lord
God of your fathers giveth you.
2 Ye shall put nothing unto the word
which I command you, neither shall ye
take ought there from, that ye may keep
the commandments of the Lord your God
which I command you.
3 Your eyes have seen what the Lord did
because of Baal-Peor, for all the men
that followed Baal-Peor, the Lord thy
God hath destroyed every one from
among you.
4 But ye that did cleave unto the Lord
your God, are alive every one of you this
day.
5 Behold, I have taught you ordinances,
and laws, as the Lord my God
commanded me, that ye should do even
so within the land whither ye go to
possess it.
6 Keep them therefore, and do them; for
that is your wisdom, and your
understanding in the sight of the people,
which shall hear all these ordinances,
and shall say, Only this people is wise,
and of understanding, and a great nation.
7 For what nation is so great, unto whom
the gods come so near unto them, as the
Lord our God is near unto us, in all that
we call unto him for?
8 And what nation is so great, that hath
ordinances and laws so righteous, as all
this law, which I set before you this day?
9 But take heed to thyself, and keep thy
soul diligently, that thou forget not the
things which thine eyes have seen, and
that they depart not out of thine heart, all
the days of thy life: but teach them thy
sons, and thy sons’ sons: 10 Forget not
the day that thou stoodest before the
Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord
said unto me, Gather me the people
together, and I will cause them hear my
words, that they may learn to fear me all
the days that they shall live upon the
earth, and that they may teach their
children: 11 Then came you near and
stood under the mountain, and the
mountain burned with fire unto the midst
of heaven, and there was darkness,
clouds and mist.
12 And the Lord spake unto you out of
the midst of the fire, and ye heard the
voice of the words, but saw no
similitude, save a voice.
13 Then he declared unto you his
covenant which he commanded you to
do, even the ten commandments, and
wrote them upon two tables of stone. 14
And the Lord commanded me that same
time, that I should teach you ordinances
and laws, which ye should observe in
the land, whither ye go, to possess it.
15 Take therefore good heed unto
yourselves: for ye saw no image in the
day that the Lord spake unto you in
Horeb out of the midst of the fire: 16
That ye corrupt not yourselves, and make
you a graven image or representation of
any figure: whither it be the likeness of
male or female, 17 The likeness of any
beast that is on earth, or the likeness of
any fathered fowl that flieth in the air:
18 Or the likeness of any thing that
creepeth on the earth, or the likeness of
any fish that is in the waters beneath the
earth,
19 And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto
heaven, and when thou seest the sun and
the moon and the stars with all the host
of heaven, shouldest be driven to
worship them and serve them, which the
Lord thy God hath distributed to all
people under the whole heaven.
20 But the Lord hath taken you and
brought you out of the iron furnace: out
of Egypt to be unto him a people and
inheritance, as appeareth this day. 21
And the Lord was angry with me for
your words, and swear that I should not
go over Jordan, and that I should not go
in unto that good land, which the Lord
thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.
22 For I must die in this land, and shall
not go over Jordan: but ye shall go over,
and possess that good land.
23 Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye
forget the covenant of the Lord your God
which he made with you, and lest ye
make you any graven image, or likeness
of anything, as the Lord thy God hath
charged thee. 24 For the Lord thy God is
a consuming fire, and a jealous God. 25
When thou shalt beget children and
children’s’ children, and shalt have
remained long in the land, if ye corrupt
yourselves, and make any graven image,
or likeness of anything, and work evil in
the sight of the Lord thy God, to provoke
him to anger,
26 I call heaven and earth to record
against you this day, that ye shall shortly
perish from the land, whereunto ye go
over Jordan to possess it: ye shall not
prolong your days therein, but shall
utterly be destroyed.
27 And the Lord shall scatter you among
the people, and ye shall be left few in
number among the nations, whither the
Lord shall bring you:
28 And there ye shall serve gods, even
the work of man’s hand, wood, and
stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor
eat, nor smell.
29 But if from thence thou shalt seek the
Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou
seek him with all thine heart, and with
all thy soul.
30 When thou art in tribulation, and all
these things are come upon thee, at the
length if thou return to the Lord thy God,
and be obedient unto his voice, 31 (For
the Lord thy God is a merciful God) he
will not forsake thee, neither destroy
thee, nor forget the covenant of thy
fathers, which he swear unto them.
32 For inquire now of the days that are
past, which were before thee, since the
day that God created man upon the earth,
and ask from the one end of heaven unto
the other, if there came to pass such a
great thing as this, or whether any such
like thing hath been heard.
33 Did ever people hear the voice of
God speaking out of the midst of a fire,
as thou hast heard, and lived?
34 Or hath God assayed to go and take
him a nation from among nations, by
temptations, by signs, and by wonders,
and by war, and by a mighty hand, and
by a stretched out arm, and by great fear,
according unto all that the Lord your
God did unto you in Egypt before your
eyes?
35 Unto thee it was showed, that thou
mightest know, that the Lord he is God,
and that there is none but he alone.
36 Out of heaven he made thee hear his
voice to instruct thee, and upon earth he
showed thee his great fire, and thou
heardest his voice out of the midst of the
fire.
37 And because he loved thy fathers,
therefore he chose their seed after them,
and hath brought thee out of Egypt in his
sight by his mighty power, 38 To thrust
out nations greater and mightier than
thou, before thee, to bring thee in, and to
give thee their land for inheritance: as
appeareth this day. 39 Understand
therefore this day, and consider in thine
heart, that the Lord, he is God in heaven
above, and upon the earth beneath: there
is none other. 40 Thou shalt keep
therefore his ordinances, and his
commandments which I command thee
this day, that it may go well with thee,
and with thy children after thee, and that
thou mayest prolong thy days upon the
earth, which the Lord thy God giveth
thee forever.
41 Then Moses separated three cities on
this side of Jordan toward the sun rising:
42 That the slayer should flee thither,
which had killed his neighbor at
unawares, and hated him not in time
past, might flee, I say, unto one of those
cities, and live:
43 That is, Bezer in the wilderness, in
the plain country of the Reubenites: and
Ramoth in Gilead among the Gadites:
and Golan in Bashan among them of
Manasseh.
44 So this is the law which Moses set
before the children of Israel. 45 These
are the witnesses, and the ordinances,
and the laws which Moses declared to
the children of Israel after they came out
of Egypt, 46 On this side Jordan, in the
valley over against Beth-peor, in the
land of Sihon king of the Amorites,
which dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moses
and the children of Israel smote, after
they were come out of Egypt:
47 And they possessed his land, and the
land of Og king of Bashan, two kings of
the Amorites, which were on this side
Jordan toward the sun rising: 48 From
Aroer, which is by the bank of the river
Arnon, even unto mount Sion, which is
Hermon,
49 And all the plain by Jordan eastward,
even unto the sea, of the plain, under the
springs of Pisgah.