Deuteronomy 4
New Living Translation
Moses Urges Israel to Obey
4 “And now, Israel, listen carefully to these decrees and regulations that I am about to teach you. Obey them so that you may live, so you may enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. 2 Do not add to or subtract from these commands I am giving you. Just obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you.
3 “You saw for yourself what the Lord did to you at Baal-peor. There the Lord your God destroyed everyone who had worshiped Baal, the god of Peor. 4 But all of you who were faithful to the Lord your God are still alive today—every one of you.
5 “Look, I now teach you these decrees and regulations just as the Lord my God commanded me, so that you may obey them in the land you are about to enter and occupy. 6 Obey them completely, and you will display your wisdom and intelligence among the surrounding nations. When they hear all these decrees, they will exclaim, ‘How wise and prudent are the people of this great nation!’ 7 For what great nation has a god as near to them as the Lord our God is near to us whenever we call on him? 8 And what great nation has decrees and regulations as righteous and fair as this body of instructions that I am giving you today?
9 “But watch out! Be careful never to forget what you yourself have seen. Do not let these memories escape from your mind as long as you live! And be sure to pass them on to your children and grandchildren. 10 Never forget the day when you stood before the Lord your God at Mount Sinai,[a] where he told me, ‘Summon the people before me, and I will personally instruct them. Then they will learn to fear me as long as they live, and they will teach their children to fear me also.’
11 “You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while flames from the mountain shot into the sky. The mountain was shrouded in black clouds and deep darkness. 12 And the Lord spoke to you from the heart of the fire. You heard the sound of his words but didn’t see his form; there was only a voice. 13 He proclaimed his covenant—the Ten Commandments[b]—which he commanded you to keep, and which he wrote on two stone tablets. 14 It was at that time that the Lord commanded me to teach you his decrees and regulations so you would obey them in the land you are about to enter and occupy.
A Warning against Idolatry
15 “But be very careful! You did not see the Lord’s form on the day he spoke to you from the heart of the fire at Mount Sinai. 16 So do not corrupt yourselves by making an idol in any form—whether of a man or a woman, 17 an animal on the ground, a bird in the sky, 18 a small animal that scurries along the ground, or a fish in the deepest sea. 19 And when you look up into the sky and see the sun, moon, and stars—all the forces of heaven—don’t be seduced into worshiping them. The Lord your God gave them to all the peoples of the earth. 20 Remember that the Lord rescued you from the iron-smelting furnace of Egypt in order to make you his very own people and his special possession, which is what you are today.
21 “But the Lord was angry with me because of you. He vowed that I would not cross the Jordan River into the good land the Lord your God is giving you as your special possession. 22 You will cross the Jordan to occupy the land, but I will not. Instead, I will die here on the east side of the river. 23 So be careful not to break the covenant the Lord your God has made with you. Do not make idols of any shape or form, for the Lord your God has forbidden this. 24 The Lord your God is a devouring fire; he is a jealous God.
25 “In the future, when you have children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time, do not corrupt yourselves by making idols of any kind. This is evil in the sight of the Lord your God and will arouse his anger.
26 “Today I call on heaven and earth as witnesses against you. If you break my covenant, you will quickly disappear from the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy. You will live there only a short time; then you will be utterly destroyed. 27 For the Lord will scatter you among the nations, where only a few of you will survive. 28 There, in a foreign land, you will worship idols made from wood and stone—gods that neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. 29 But from there you will search again for the Lord your God. And if you search for him with all your heart and soul, you will find him.
30 “In the distant future, when you are suffering all these things, you will finally return to the Lord your God and listen to what he tells you. 31 For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the solemn covenant he made with your ancestors.
There Is Only One God
32 “Now search all of history, from the time God created people on the earth until now, and search from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything as great as this ever been seen or heard before? 33 Has any nation ever heard the voice of God[c] speaking from fire—as you did—and survived? 34 Has any other god dared to take a nation for himself out of another nation by means of trials, miraculous signs, wonders, war, a strong hand, a powerful arm, and terrifying acts? Yet that is what the Lord your God did for you in Egypt, right before your eyes.
35 “He showed you these things so you would know that the Lord is God and there is no other. 36 He let you hear his voice from heaven so he could instruct you. He let you see his great fire here on earth so he could speak to you from it. 37 Because he loved your ancestors, he chose to bless their descendants, and he personally brought you out of Egypt with a great display of power. 38 He drove out nations far greater than you, so he could bring you in and give you their land as your special possession, as it is today.
39 “So remember this and keep it firmly in mind: The Lord is God both in heaven and on earth, and there is no other. 40 If you obey all the decrees and commands I am giving you today, all will be well with you and your children. I am giving you these instructions so you will enjoy a long life in the land the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”
Eastern Cities of Refuge
41 Then Moses set apart three cities of refuge east of the Jordan River. 42 Anyone who killed another person unintentionally, without previous hostility, could flee there to live in safety. 43 These were the cities: Bezer on the wilderness plateau for the tribe of Reuben; Ramoth in Gilead for the tribe of Gad; Golan in Bashan for the tribe of Manasseh.
Introduction to Moses’ Second Address
44 This is the body of instruction that Moses presented to the Israelites. 45 These are the laws, decrees, and regulations that Moses gave to the people of Israel when they left Egypt, 46 and as they camped in the valley near Beth-peor east of the Jordan River. (This land was formerly occupied by the Amorites under King Sihon, who ruled from Heshbon. But Moses and the Israelites destroyed him and his people when they came up from Egypt. 47 Israel took possession of his land and that of King Og of Bashan—the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan. 48 So Israel conquered the entire area from Aroer at the edge of the Arnon Gorge all the way to Mount Sirion,[d] also called Mount Hermon. 49 And they conquered the eastern bank of the Jordan River as far south as the Dead Sea,[e] below the slopes of Pisgah.)
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
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