Deuteronomy 4

Keep the Commandments of Yahweh

“So now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which ^aI am teaching you to do, so that ^byou may live and go in and take possession of the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, is giving you. 2 ^aYou shall not add to the word which ^bI am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh your God which I am commanding you. 3 ^aYour eyes have seen what Yahweh has done in the case of Baal-peor, for all the men who walked after Baal-peor, Yahweh your God has destroyed ¹them from among you. 4 But you who clung to Yahweh your God are alive today, every one of you.
5 “See, I have taught you statutes and judgments ^ajust as Yahweh my God commanded me, that you should do thus in the land where you are entering to possess it. 6 You shall keep and do them, ^afor that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ 7 For ^awhat great nation is there that has a god ^bso near to it as is Yahweh our God ^cwhenever we call on Him? 8 Or what great nation is there that has ^astatutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today?
9 “Only ^akeep yourself and keep your soul very carefully, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen and lest they depart from your heart ^ball the days of your life. But ^cmake them known to your sons and to your grandsons. 10 Remember the day you stood before Yahweh your God at Horeb, when Yahweh said to me, ‘Assemble the people to Me, that I may cause them to hear My words ^aso they may learn to ¹fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may ^bteach their children.’ 11 And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, ^aand the mountain burned with fire to the very heart of the heavens: darkness, cloud, and dense gloom. 12 Then Yahweh spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but you saw no form—only a voice. 13 So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to do, that is, ^athe Ten ¹Commandments; and ^bHe wrote them on two tablets of stone. 14 And Yahweh commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it.
15 “So ^akeep your souls very carefully, since you did not see any ^bform on the day Yahweh spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, 16 lest you ^aact corruptly and ^bmake a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of ^aany winged bird that flies in the sky, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water below the earth, 19 and lest you lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, ^aall the host of heaven, ^band be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which Yahweh your God has apportioned for all the peoples under the whole heaven. 20 But Yahweh has taken you and brought you out of ^athe iron furnace, from Egypt, to ^bbe a people for His own inheritance, as today.
21 “^aNow Yahweh was angry with me on your account and swore that I would not cross the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance. 22 For ^aI will die in this land, I shall not cross the Jordan, but you shall cross and take possession of this ^bgood land. 23 So keep yourselves, ^alest you forget the covenant of Yahweh your God which He cut with you and ^bmake for yourselves a graven image in the form of anything against which Yahweh your God has commanded you. 24 For Yahweh your God is a ^aconsuming fire, a ^bjealous God.
25 “When you ¹become the father of children and children’s children and remain long in the land and ^aact corruptly and ^bmake ²a graven image in the form of anything and ^cdo that which is evil in the sight of Yahweh your God so as to provoke Him to anger, 26 I ^acall heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will ^bsurely perish quickly from the land where you are going over the Jordan to possess it. You shall not prolong your days on it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27 And Yahweh will ^ascatter you among the peoples, and you will remain few in number among the nations where Yahweh drives you. 28 ^aAnd there you will serve gods, the work of man’s hands, ^bwood and stone, ^cwhich neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. 29 ^aBut from there you will seek Yahweh your God, and you will find Him, for you will search for Him ^bwith all your heart and all your soul. 30 When you ^aare in distress and all these things have come upon you, ^bin the last days ^cyou will return to Yahweh your God and listen to His voice. 31 For Yahweh your God is a ^acompassionate God; ^bHe will not fail you nor ^cdestroy you nor ^dforget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.
32 “Indeed, ^aask now concerning the former days which were before you, since the ^bday that God created ¹man on the earth, and inquire ^cfrom one end of the heavens to the other. ^dHas anything been done like this great thing, or has anything been heard like it? 33 ^aHas any people heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you have heard it, and lived? 34 ^aOr has a god tried to go to take for himself a nation from within another nation ^bwith trials, with signs and wonders and with war and ^cwith a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with great terrors, ¹as Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 To you it was shown that you might know that Yahweh, He is God; ^athere is no other besides Him. 36 ^aOut of the heavens He caused you to hear His voice ^bto discipline you; and on earth He caused you to see His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire. 37 ¹^aBecause He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their seed after them. And He ²^bpersonally brought you from Egypt by His great power, 38 dispossessing before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in and ^ato give you their land for an inheritance, as it is today. 39 Know therefore today, and take it to your heart, that ^aYahweh, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other. 40 ^aSo you shall keep His statutes and His commandments which I am commanding you today, that ^bit may go well with you and with your children after you, and ^cthat you may prolong your days on the land which Yahweh your God is giving you for all the days.”
41 ^aThen Moses set apart three cities across the Jordan to the east toward the sunrise, 42 that a manslayer might flee there, who slew his neighbor ¹without premeditation, ²not hating him previously; so he shall flee to one of these cities that he might live: 43 ^aBezer in the wilderness on the plateau for the Reubenites, and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.
44 Now this is the law which Moses set before the sons of Israel; 45 these are the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments which Moses spoke to the sons of Israel when they came out from Egypt, 46 across the Jordan, in the valley ^aopposite Beth-peor, in the land of ^bSihon king of the Amorites who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the sons of Israel struck down when they came out from Egypt. 47 And they took possession of his land and the land of ^aOg king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who were across the Jordan to the east toward the sunrise, 48 from ^aAroer, which is on the edge of the ¹valley of Arnon, even as far as ^bMount Sion (that is, Hermon), 49 with all the Arabah across the Jordan to the east, even as far as the sea of the Arabah, ¹at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah.

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