Deuteronomy
4
- Hear now, O Israel, the decrees and laws
I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and
take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving
you.
- Do not add to what I command you and do
not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give
you.
- You saw with your own eyes what the LORD
did at Baal Peor. The LORD your God destroyed from among you everyone who
followed the Baal of Peor,
- but all of you who held fast to the LORD
your God are still alive today.
- See, I have taught you decrees and laws
as the LORD my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you
are entering to take possession of it.
- Observe them carefully, for this will show
your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these
decrees and say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding
people."
- What other nation is so great as to have
their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray
to him ?
- And what other nation is so great as to
have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before
you today ?
- 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 as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their
children after them.
- Remember the day you stood before the LORD
your God at Horeb, when he said to me, "Assemble the people before me
to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live
in the land and may teach them to their children."
- You came near and stood at the foot of the
mountain while it blazed with fire to the very heavens, with black clouds
and deep darkness.
- Then the LORD spoke to you out of the fire.
You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice.
- He declared to you his covenant, the Ten
Commandments, which he commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two
stone tablets.
- And the LORD directed me at that time to
teach you the decrees and laws you are to follow in the land that you are
crossing the Jordan to possess.
- You saw no form of any kind the day the
LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very
carefully,
- so that you do not become corrupt and make
for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or
a woman,
- or like any animal on earth or any bird
that flies in the air,
- or like any creature that moves along the
ground or any fish in the waters below.
- And when you look up to the sky and see
the sun, the moon and the stars -- all the heavenly array -- do not be enticed
into bowing down to them and worshiping things the LORD your God has apportioned
to all the nations under heaven.
- But as for you, the LORD took you and brought
you out of the iron-smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of his
inheritance, as you now are.
- The LORD was angry with me because of you,
and he solemnly swore that I would not cross the Jordan and enter the good
land the LORD your God is giving you as your inheritance.
- I will die in this land; I will not cross
the Jordan; but you are about to cross over and take possession of that good
land.
- Be careful not to forget the covenant of
the LORD your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol
in the form of anything the LORD your God has forbidden.
- For the LORD your God is a consuming fire,
a jealous God.
- After you have had children and grandchildren
and have lived in the land a long time -- if you then become corrupt and make
any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the LORD your God and provoking
him to anger,
- I call heaven and earth as witnesses against
you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing
the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be
destroyed.
- The LORD will scatter you among the peoples,
and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the LORD will
drive you.
- There you will worship man-made gods of
wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.
- But if from there you seek the LORD your
God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all
your soul.
- When you are in distress and all these things
have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the LORD your
God and obey him.
- For the LORD your God is a merciful God;
he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers,
which he confirmed to them by oath.
- Ask now about the former days, long before
your time, from the day God created man on the earth; ask from one end of
the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or
has anything like it ever been heard of ?
- Has any other people heard the voice of
God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived ?
- Has any god ever tried to take for himself
one nation out of another nation, by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders,
by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome
deeds, like all the things the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your
very eyes ?
- You were shown these things so that you
might know that the LORD is God; besides him there is no other.
- 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 out of the fire.
- Because he loved your forefathers and chose
their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence
and his great strength,
- to drive out before you nations greater
and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to give it to you for
your inheritance, as it is today.
- Acknowledge and take to heart this day that
the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other.
- Keep his decrees and commands, which I am
giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after
you and that you may live long in the land the LORD your God gives you for
all time.
- Then Moses set aside three cities east of
the Jordan,
- to which anyone who had killed a person
could flee if he had unintentionally killed his neighbor without malice aforethought.
He could flee into one of these cities and save his life.
- The cities were these: Bezer in the desert
plateau, for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead, for the Gadites; and Golan
in Bashan, for the Manassites.
- This is the law Moses set before the Israelites.
- These are the stipulations, decrees and
laws Moses gave them when they came out of Egypt
- and were in the valley near Beth Peor east
of the Jordan, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon
and was defeated by Moses and the Israelites as they came out of Egypt.
- They took possession of his land and the
land of Og king of Bashan, the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan.
- This land extended from Aroer on the rim
of the Arnon Gorge to Mount Siyon (that is, Hermon),
- and included all the Arabah east of the
Jordan, as far as the Sea of the Arabah, below the slopes of Pisgah.
Back |
Home |
Next