Deuteronomy 4
Lexham English Bible
Introduction to the Stipulations
4 “Now, Israel, listen to the rules and to the regulations that I am teaching you to do, in order that you may live and you may go in and you may take possession of the land that Yahweh, the God of your ancestors,[a] is giving to you. 2 You must not add to the word that I am commanding you, and you shall not take away from it in order to keep[b] the commands of Yahweh your God that I am commanding you to observe. 3 Your eyes have seen[c] what Yahweh did with[d] the case of Baal Peor, for each[e] man that followed after Baal Peor Yahweh your God destroyed from your midst. 4 But you, the ones holding fast to Yahweh your God, are all alive today.[f]
5 See, I now teach[g] you rules and regulations just as Yahweh my God has commanded me, to observe them just so in the midst of the land where you are going, to take possession of it. 6 And you must observe them diligently,[h] for that is your wisdom and your insight before the eyes of the people, who will hear all of these rules, and they will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people.’ 7 For what great nation has for it a god near to it as Yahweh our God, whenever[i] we call upon him? 8 And what other great nation has for it[j] just rules and regulations just like[k] this whole[l] law that I am setting before[m] you today?[n]
9 “However, take care[o] for yourself and watch your inner self[p] closely, so that you do not forget the things that your eyes have seen, so that they do not slip from your mind all the days of your life; and you shall make them known to your children and to your grandchildren.[q] 10 Remember the day that you stood before[r] Yahweh your God at Horeb when Yahweh said to me,[s] ‘Summon for me the people so that I can tell them my words, that they may learn to fear me all of the days they are alive on the earth and so that they may teach their children.’ 11 And so you came near, and you stood under the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire up to the heart of the heaven, dark with a very thick cloud.[t] 12 And Yahweh spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard[u] a sound of words, but you did not see[v] a form—only a voice. 13 And he declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments,[w] which he charged you to observe,[x] and he wrote them on the two tablets of stone. 14 And Yahweh charged me at that time to teach you rules and regulations for your observation of them[y] in the land that you are about to cross into[z] to take possession of it.
15 “So you must be very careful for yourselves,[aa] because you did not see[ab] any form on the day Yahweh spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, 16 so that you do not ruin yourselves[ac] and make for yourselves a divine image in a form of any image, a replica of male or female, 17 a replica of any animal that is upon the earth, a replica of any winged bird that flies in the air, 18 a replica of any creeping thing on the ground, a replica of any fish that is in the water below[ad] the earth. 19 And do this so that you do not lift[ae] your eyes toward heaven and observe[af] the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of the heaven, and be led astray and bow down to them and serve them, things that Yahweh your God has allotted to all of the peoples under all of the heaven. 20 But Yahweh has taken you and brought you out from the furnace of iron, from Egypt, to be a people of inheritance to[ag] him, as it is this day.[ah]
21 “And Yahweh was angry with me because of you,[ai] and he swore that I would not cross the Jordan[aj] and that I would not go to the good land[ak] that Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance. 22 For I am going to die in this land; I am not going to cross the Jordan, but you are going to cross, and you are going to take possession of this good land. 23 Watch out for yourselves so that you do not forget the covenant of Yahweh your God that he had made[al] with you and make for yourselves a divine image of the form of anything that Yahweh your God has forbidden,[am] 24 for Yahweh your God is a devouring fire, a jealous[an] God.
25 “When you have had children and grandchildren[ao] and you have grown old in the land and you act corruptly and you make a divine image of the form of anything and you do evil in the eyes of Yahweh your God, thus provoking him to anger, 26 I call[ap] to witness against you today the heaven and the earth, that you will perish soon and completely from the land that you are crossing the Jordan into it to take possession of it; you will not live long on it,[aq] but you will be completely destroyed. 27 And Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number[ar] among the nations to where Yahweh will lead you.[as] 28 And you will there serve gods made by human hands,[at] of wood and stone, gods that cannot see and cannot hear and cannot eat and cannot smell. 29 But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God and will find him, if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.[au] 30 In your distress[av] when[aw] all these things have found you in the latter days,[ax] then[ay] you will return to Yahweh your God, and you will listen to his voice. 31 For Yahweh your God is a compassionate God; he will not abandon you,[az] and he will not destroy you, and he will not forget the covenant of your ancestors[ba] that he swore to them.
32 “Yes, ask, please, about former days that preceded you[bb] from the day that God created humankind on the earth; ask even from one end of the heaven up to the other end of heaven whether anything ever happened[bc] like this great thing or whether anything like it was ever heard.[bd] 33 Has a people ever heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, just as you heard it, and lived? 34 Or has a god ever attempted to go to take for himself[be] a nation from the midst of a nation, using trials and signs and wonders and war, with an outstretched arm and with great and awesome deeds, like all that Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 You yourselves[bf] were shown this wonder in order for you to acknowledge that Yahweh is the God;[bg] there is no other God besides him.[bh] 36 From heaven he made you hear his voice to teach you, and on the earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from the midst of the fire. 37 And because he loved your ancestors[bi] he chose their descendants[bj] after them. And he brought you forth from Egypt with his own presence,[bk] by his great strength, 38 to drive out nations greater and more numerous than you from before you,[bl] to bring you and to give to you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day. 39 So you shall acknowledge today,[bm] and you must call to mind[bn] that Yahweh is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. There is no other God. 40 And you shall keep his rules and his commandments that I am commanding you today,[bo] so that it may go well[bp] for you and for your children[bq] after you, and so that you may remain a long time[br] on the land that Yahweh your God is giving to you during all of those days.”
41 Then Moses set apart three cities on the other side of the Jordan,[bs] toward the east,[bt] 42 in order for a manslayer[bu] to flee there who has killed his neighbor without intent[bv] and was not hating him previously,[bw] and so he could flee to one of these cities and be safe.[bx] 43 He set apart Bezer in the wilderness[by] in the land of the plateau of the Reubenites;[bz] Ramoth in Gilead of the Gadites,[ca] and Golan in Bashan of the Manassites.[cb]
44 Now this is the law[cc] that Moses set before[cd] the Israelites;[ce] 45 these are the legal provisions and the rules and the regulations that Moses spoke to the Israelites[cf] when they left Egypt,[cg] 46 beyond the Jordan in the valley opposite Beth Peor in the land of Sihon the king of the Amorites,[ch] who was reigning in Heshbon and whom Moses and the Israelites[ci] defeated when they came out of Egypt.[cj] 47 And so they took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites[ck] who were beyond the Jordan, eastward,[cl] 48 from Aroer, which is on the bank of the wadi[cm] of Arnon and as far as Mount Sirion; that is, Hermon, 49 and all of the Arabah[cn] beyond the Jordan, eastward, and as far as the Sea of the Arabah[co] under the slopes of Pisgah.
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 4:1 Or “fathers”
- Deuteronomy 4:2 Or “observe”
- Deuteronomy 4:3 Literally “your eyes the seeing what”
- Deuteronomy 4:3 Or “in”
- Deuteronomy 4:3 Literally “every one of”
- Deuteronomy 4:4 Literally “the day”
- Deuteronomy 4:5 Or “I have taught” (compare NASB, NEB)
- Deuteronomy 4:6 Literally “you must observe and you must do”
- Deuteronomy 4:7 Literally “in every matter/every time we call ”
- Deuteronomy 4:8 Literally “which/that is for him it”
- Deuteronomy 4:8 Literally “as”
- Deuteronomy 4:8 Literally “all of”
- Deuteronomy 4:8 Literally “to the face of”
- Deuteronomy 4:8 Literally “the day”
- Deuteronomy 4:9 Literally “watch”
- Deuteronomy 4:9 Or “soul”
- Deuteronomy 4:9 Literally “the children of your children”
- Deuteronomy 4:10 Literally “to the face of”
- Deuteronomy 4:10 Literally “when to say Yahweh”
- Deuteronomy 4:11 Literally “darkness, cloud, and very thick darkness”
- Deuteronomy 4:12 Literally “you were hearing”
- Deuteronomy 4:12 Literally “you were not seeing”
- Deuteronomy 4:13 Literally “the ten words”
- Deuteronomy 4:13 Literally “to do”
- Deuteronomy 4:14 Literally “for your doing them”
- Deuteronomy 4:14 Literally “about to cross into there”
- Deuteronomy 4:15 Literally “watch yourselves diligently with respect to your souls”
- Deuteronomy 4:15 Or “have not seen”
- Deuteronomy 4:16 Literally “corrupt yourselves”
- Deuteronomy 4:18 Literally “under”
- Deuteronomy 4:19 Literally “And lest you lift up”
- Deuteronomy 4:19 Literally “see”
- Deuteronomy 4:20 Or “for”; a people of inheritance = a people who is his very own possession
- Deuteronomy 4:20 Literally “as the day the this” = as you are now
- Deuteronomy 4:21 Literally “because of your matter”
- Deuteronomy 4:21 Literally “not I to cross the Jordan”
- Deuteronomy 4:21 Literally “not I going to the land”
- Deuteronomy 4:23 Literally “cut”
- Deuteronomy 4:23 Literally “has commanded you about”
- Deuteronomy 4:24 Or “zealous” or “impassioned”
- Deuteronomy 4:25 Literally “children of children”
- Deuteronomy 4:26 Or “I shall call to witness”
- Deuteronomy 4:26 Literally “you will not extend days”
- Deuteronomy 4:27 Literally “people of number,” as opposed to people without number
- Deuteronomy 4:27 Literally “he will lead Yahweh you there”
- Deuteronomy 4:28 Literally “the work of the hands of human”
- Deuteronomy 4:29 Or “inner self”
- Deuteronomy 4:30 Literally “In the distress for you”
- Deuteronomy 4:30 Hebrew “and”
- Deuteronomy 4:30 Literally “in the last of the days”
- Deuteronomy 4:30 Hebrew “and”
- Deuteronomy 4:31 Literally “will not leave you alone”
- Deuteronomy 4:31 Or “fathers”
- Deuteronomy 4:32 Literally “that they were to the face of you”
- Deuteronomy 4:32 Literally “was it ever”
- Deuteronomy 4:32 Literally “was it ever heard as it”
- Deuteronomy 4:34 Hebrew “for him”
- Deuteronomy 4:35 Emphatic use of pronoun; plural meaning implied
- Deuteronomy 4:35 The definite article indicates that Israel’s God is alone the true God and the one who revealed himself to them
- Deuteronomy 4:35 Literally “except him” or “to him alone”
- Deuteronomy 4:37 Or “fathers”
- Deuteronomy 4:37 Literally “seed”
- Deuteronomy 4:37 Literally “with his faces”
- Deuteronomy 4:38 Literally “from your face”
- Deuteronomy 4:39 Literally “the day”
- Deuteronomy 4:39 Literally “you shall bring back to your heart”
- Deuteronomy 4:40 Literally “the day”
- Deuteronomy 4:40 Literally “he/it is good”
- Deuteronomy 4:40 Or “descendants”
- Deuteronomy 4:40 Literally “you may make long/prolong days”
- Deuteronomy 4:41 Literally “in the beyond of the Jordan”
- Deuteronomy 4:41 Literally “toward rising of the sun”
- Deuteronomy 4:42 Literally “a killer of a man”
- Deuteronomy 4:42 Literally “without previous knowledge”
- Deuteronomy 4:42 Literally “the day before yesterday”
- Deuteronomy 4:42 Literally “and live”
- Deuteronomy 4:43 Or “desert”
- Deuteronomy 4:43 Hebrew “Reubenite”
- Deuteronomy 4:43 Hebrew “Gadite”
- Deuteronomy 4:43 Hebrew “Manassite”
- Deuteronomy 4:44 Hebrew “the torah” = teaching, instruction, law
- Deuteronomy 4:44 Literally “before the faces of”
- Deuteronomy 4:44 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
- Deuteronomy 4:45 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
- Deuteronomy 4:45 Literally “at their going out from Egypt”
- Deuteronomy 4:46 Hebrew “Amorite”
- Deuteronomy 4:46 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
- Deuteronomy 4:46 Literally “at their going out from Egypt”
- Deuteronomy 4:47 Hebrew “Amorite”
- Deuteronomy 4:47 Literally “toward the rising of the sun”
- Deuteronomy 4:48 A valley that is dry most of the year, but contains a stream during the rainy season
- Deuteronomy 4:49 Or “valley” in this instance
- Deuteronomy 4:49 Commonly known today as the Dead Sea
Deuteronomy 4
Common English Bible
The events at Mount Horeb
4 Now, Israel, in light of all that, listen to the regulations and the case laws that I am teaching you to follow, so that you may live, enter, and possess the land that the Lord, your ancestors’ God, is giving to you. 2 Don’t add anything to the word that I am commanding you, and don’t take anything away from it. Instead, keep the commands of the Lord your God that I am commanding all of you.
3 You saw with your own eyes what the Lord did concerning the Baal of Peor. The Lord your God destroyed everyone who followed the Baal of Peor, 4 but all of you who stayed true to the Lord your God are alive today. 5 So pay attention! I am teaching all of you the regulations and the case laws exactly as the Lord my God commanded me. You must do these in the land you are entering to possess. 6 Keep them faithfully because that will show your wisdom and insight to the nations who will hear about all these regulations. They will say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and insightful people!” 7 After all, is there any great nation that has gods[a] as close to it as the Lord our God is close to us whenever we call to him? 8 Or does any great nation have regulations and case laws as righteous as all this Instruction that I am setting before you today?
9 But be on guard and watch yourselves closely so that you don’t forget the things your eyes saw and so they never leave your mind as long as you live. Teach them to your children and your grandchildren. 10 Remember that[b] day when you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me: “Gather the people to me. I will declare my words to them so that they will learn to fear me every day of their lives on the fertile land, and teach their children to do the same.” 11 Then you all came close and stood at the foot of the mountain. The mountain was blazing with fire up to the sky, with darkness, cloud, and thick smoke! 12 The Lord spoke to you out of the very fire itself. You heard the sound of words, but you didn’t see any form. There was only a voice. 13 The Lord declared his covenant to you, which he commanded you to do—the Ten Commandments[c]—and wrote them on two stone tablets. 14 At that time, the Lord commanded me to teach you all the regulations and the case laws that you must keep in the land that you are entering to possess.
15 So watch your conduct closely, because you didn’t see any form on the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the very fire itself. 16 Don’t ruin everything and make an idol for yourself: a form of any image, any likeness—male or female— 17 or any likeness whatsoever, whether of a land animal, a bird that flies in the sky, 18 an insect that crawls on the earth, or a fish that lives in the sea. 19 Don’t look to the skies, to the sun or the moon or the stars, all the heavenly bodies, and be led astray, worshipping and serving them. The Lord your God has granted these things to all the nations who live under heaven. 20 But the Lord took you and brought you out of that iron furnace, out of Egypt, so that you might be his own treasured people, which is what you are right now.
21 The Lord was angry with me because of your deeds and swore that I couldn’t cross the Jordan River or enter the wonderful land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. 22 I will die here in this land. I won’t cross the Jordan River. But you will, and you will take possession of that wonderful land. 23 So all of you, watch yourselves! Don’t forget the covenant that the Lord your God made with you by making an idol or an image of any kind or anything the Lord your God forbids, 24 because the Lord your God is an all-consuming fire. He is a passionate God.
Warnings and teachings about future disobedience
25 Once you have had children and grandchildren and have grown old on the land, if you ruin things by making an idol, in any form whatsoever, and do what is evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and anger him, 26 I call heaven and earth as my witnesses against you today: You will definitely disappear—and quickly—from the land that you are crossing over the Jordan River to possess. You won’t extend your time there but will instead be totally destroyed. 27 The Lord will scatter you among the nations. Only a very few of you will survive in the countries where the Lord will drag you. 28 There you will worship other[d] gods, made of wood and stone by human hands—gods that cannot see, listen, eat, or smell. 29 You will seek the Lord your God from there, and you will find him[e] if you seek him with all your heart and with all your being. 30 In your distress, when all these things happen to you in the future, you will return to the Lord your God and you will obey his voice, 31 because the Lord your God is a compassionate God. He won’t let you go, he won’t destroy you, and he won’t forget the covenant that he swore to your ancestors.
32 Now look into it: into days long past, before your time—all the way back to the day God first created human beings on earth, from one end of heaven to the other. Has anything this amazing ever happened? Has anything like it ever been heard of before? 33 Has any people ever listened to a god’s voice speaking out of fire, as each of you have, and survived? 34 Or has any god ever tried to take one nation out of another nation using tests, miracles, wonders, war, a strong hand and outstretched arm, or awesome power like all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt while you watched? 35 You were shown these things so that you would know this: The Lord is the only God. There’s no other god except him. 36 From heaven he made you hear his voice in order to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire. You heard his words from that very fire. 37 And because he loved your ancestors and chose their descendants after them, God brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his own great power, 38 in order to remove larger and stronger nations from before you and bring you into their land, giving it to you as an inheritance. That’s where things stand right now. 39 Know then today and keep in mind that the Lord is the only God in heaven above or on earth below. There is no other. 40 Keep the Lord’s regulations and his commandments. I’m commanding them to you today for your well-being and for the well-being of your children after you, so that you may extend your time on the fertile land that the Lord your God is giving you forever.
Cities of refuge
41 Then Moses set aside three cities on the eastern side of the Jordan River 42 so that anyone who killed someone accidentally and without prior hatred could flee to one of these cities and be safe: 43 Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau for the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.
The second heading: Recounting the Horeb covenant
44 Now this is the Instruction that Moses set before the Israelites. 45 These are the laws and the regulations and the case laws that Moses spoke to the Israelites when they came out of Egypt. 46 This took place across the Jordan River, in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon the Amorite king who ruled in Heshbon, whom Moses and the Israelites defeated when they came out of Egypt. 47 They took possession of his land and the land of Og, Bashan’s king—the two Amorite kings across the Jordan River to the east— 48 from Aroer, which is on the banks of the Arnon River, all the way to Mount Sion,[f] also known as Hermon, 49 and all the desert regions across the Jordan River, on the east, down to the Dead Sea, beneath the slopes of Mount Pisgah.
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 4:7 MT; LXX, Syr, Tg a god so close
- Deuteronomy 4:10 Heb lacks remember that.
- Deuteronomy 4:13 Or the ten words
- Deuteronomy 4:28 LXX; MT lacks other.
- Deuteronomy 4:29 Heb lacks him.
- Deuteronomy 4:48 Syr Sirion; see 3:9.
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