Deuteronomy Chapter 4

Moses’ exhortation

4:1 Now therefore listen, O Israel, to the laws and to the rules, which I instructing you to observe, that y’all may enter, and occupy the land which the LORD God of your fathers gives you.
4:2 Y’all shall not add anything to what I command you or shall y’all take anything away from it, but keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I instructed you.
4:3 Your eyes have seen what the LORD did because of Baalpeor for all the men that followed Baalpeor, the LORD your God has destroyed them from among you.
4:4 While y’all, who held fast to the LORD your God [are] alive every one of you this day.
4:5 See, I have taught you laws and rules, even as the LORD my God commanded me, for y’all to abibe by in the land where ever y’all go to occupy it.
4:6 Observe them faithfully, for that will be proof of your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these laws, and say, Surely this great nation [is] a wise and understanding people.
4:7 For what nation [is there so] great, who [has] a God [so] close at hand as the LORD our God whenever we call upon Him?
4:8 And what nation [is there so] great, that has laws and rules as perfect as all this Teaching, that I set before you this day ?
4:9 But take utmost care yourself, and watch yourselves scrupulously, so that you do not forget the things which your eyes have seen, and so that they do not fade depart from your mind all the days of your life but teach them your sons, and your sons’ sons ;
4:10 [Specially] the day that you stood before the LORD your God in Horeb, when the LORD said to me, Gather me the people together, and I will let them hear my words, that they may learn to revere Me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and [that] they may teach their children.
4:11 You came forward and stood at the foot of the mountain ; and the mountain was ablaze with flames to the very skies with dark dense clouds.
4:12 And the LORD spake to you out of the midst of the fire you heard the sound of the words, but perceived no shape ; [you heard ] only a voice.
4:13 And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to observe, the Ten commandments ; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.
4:14 And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you laws and rules, that y’all might do them in the land where ever y’all go over to occupy it.
4:15 For your own sake be most careful ; since you saw no shape when the LORD spake to you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire
4:16 Unless y’all corrupt [yourselves], and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,
4:17 The likeness of any beast that [is] on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flies in the air,
4:18 The likeness of any thing that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that [is] in the waters beneath the earth
4:19 And unless you lift up your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, [even] all the host of heaven, should be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD your God has divided to all nations under the whole heaven.
4:20 But the LORD has taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, [even] out of Egypt, to be to him a people of inheritance, as [y’all are] this day.
4:21 Furthermore the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, and sware that I should not go over Jordan, and that I should not go in to that good land, which the LORD your God gives y’all [for] an inheritance
4:22 But I must die in this land, I must not go over Jordan but y’all shall go over, and possess that good land.
4:23 Take heed to yourselves, unless y’all forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, [or] the likeness of any [thing], which the LORD your God has forbidden y’all.
4:24 For the LORD your God [is] a consuming fire, [even] a jealous God.
4:25 When you will beget children, and children’s children, and y’all shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt [yourselves], and make a graven image, [or] the likeness of any [thing], and shall do evil in the sight of the LORD your God, to provoke him to anger
4:26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that y’all shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto y’all go over Jordan to possess it; y’all shall not prolong [your] days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed.
4:27 And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and y’all shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you.
4:28 And there y’all shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
4:29 But if from there you will seek the LORD your God, you will find [him], if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.
4:30 When you are in tribulation, and all these things are come upon y’all, [even] in the latter days, if you turn to the LORD your God, and will be obedient to his voice ;
4:31(For the LORD your God [is] a merciful God;) he will not forsake y’all, neither destroy y’all, or forget the covenant of your fathers which he sware to them.
4:32 For ask now of the days that are past, which were before y’all, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and [ask] from the one side of heaven to the other, has there been [any such thing ] as this great thing [is], or has been heard like it?
4:33 Did [ever] people hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as y’all have heard, and live ?
4:34 Or has any god ventured to go [and] take him a nation from the midst of [another] nation, by impressively great acts, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a outstretched arm, and by awesome power, according to all that the LORD your God did for y’all in Egypt before your very eyes ?
4:35 It has been clearly demonstrated to y’all, that you might know that the LORD he [alone is] God ; [there is] none else beside Him.
4:36 Out of heaven he made y’all to hear his voice, that he might instruct y’all and upon earth he shown y’all his great fire ; and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire.
4:37 And because he loved your fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought y’all out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt ;
4:38 To drive out nations from before y’all greater and mightier than you [are], to bring y’all in, to give y’all their land [for] an inheritance, as [it is] this day.
4:39 Know therefore this day, and consider [it] in your heart, that the LORD he [is] God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath [there is] none else.
4:40 You will keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments, which I command y’all this day, that it may go well with y’all, and with your children after y’all, and that you may prolong [your] days upon the earth, which the LORD your God gives y’all, for ever.

Cities of refuge chosen.

4:41 Then Moses severed three cities on this side Jordan toward the sunrising;
4:42 That the slayer might flee there, which should kill his neighbour unawares, and hated him not in times past ; and that fleeing to one of these cities he might live
4:43 [Namely], Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, of the Reubenites ; and Ramoth in Gilead, of the Gadites ; and Golan in Bashan, of the Manassites.
4:44 And this [is] the law which Moses set before the children of Israel
4:45 These [are] the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which Moses spake to the children of Israel, after they came forth out of Egypt,
4:46 On this side Jordan, in the valley over against Bethpeor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel struck, after they were come forth out of Egypt
4:47 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 sunrising;
4:48 From Aroer, which [is] by the bank of the river Arnon, even to mount Sion, which [is] Hermon,
4:49 And all the plain on this side Jordan eastward, even to the sea of the plain, under the springs of Pisgah.