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The events at Mount Horeb

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. 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.

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, but all of you who stayed true to the Lord your God are alive today. 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. 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!” 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? Or does any great nation have regulations and case laws as righteous as all this Instruction that I am setting before you today?

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

  1. Deuteronomy 4:7 MT; LXX, Syr, Tg a god so close
  2. Deuteronomy 4:10 Heb lacks remember that.
  3. Deuteronomy 4:13 Or the ten words
  4. Deuteronomy 4:28 LXX; MT lacks other.
  5. Deuteronomy 4:29 Heb lacks him.
  6. Deuteronomy 4:48 Syr Sirion; see 3:9.

Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you.

Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.

Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baalpeor: for all the men that followed Baalpeor, the Lord thy God hath destroyed them from among you.

But ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day.

Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it.

Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.

For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for?

And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?

Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons;

10 Specially the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.

11 And ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness.

12 And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice.

13 And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.

14 And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it.

15 Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire:

16 Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,

17 The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air,

18 The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth:

19 And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.

20 But the Lord hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day.

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 unto that good land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance:

22 But I must die in this land, I must not go over Jordan: but ye shall go over, and possess that good land.

23 Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye 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 thy God hath forbidden thee.

24 For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.

25 When thou shalt beget children, and children's children, and ye 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 thy God, to provoke him to anger:

26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed.

27 And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the Lord shall lead you.

28 And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.

29 But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

30 When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice;

31 (For the Lord thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.

32 For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it?

33 Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live?

34 Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

35 Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the Lord he is God; there is none else beside him.

36 Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he might instruct thee: and upon earth he shewed thee his great fire; and thou heardest his words out of the midst of the fire.

37 And because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt;

38 To drive out nations from before thee greater and mightier than thou art, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance, as it is this day.

39 Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.

40 Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, for ever.

41 Then Moses severed three cities on this side Jordan toward the sunrising;

42 That the slayer might flee thither, which should kill his neighbour unawares, and hated him not in times past; and that fleeing unto one of these cities he might live:

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.

44 And this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel:

45 These are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which Moses spake unto the children of Israel, after they came forth out of Egypt.

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 smote, after they were come forth out of Egypt:

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;

48 From Aroer, which is by the bank of the river Arnon, even unto mount Sion, which is Hermon,

49 And all the plain on this side Jordan eastward, even unto the sea of the plain, under the springs of Pisgah.

当守律法

“以色列人啊,要聆听我传授给你们的律法,要切实遵行,以便你们可以存活,并进入你们祖先的上帝耶和华赐给你们的那片土地。 我吩咐你们的,你们不可做任何增减,这是你们的上帝耶和华的命令,你们要遵守。 你们亲眼看见耶和华在巴力·毗珥事件中的作为,你们的上帝耶和华毁灭了你们中间所有拜巴力·毗珥的人, 但你们这些信靠你们的上帝耶和华的人至今还活着。 看啊,遵照我的上帝耶和华的吩咐,我把律例和典章传授给你们,好让你们在将要占领的土地上遵守。 你们要谨遵这些律例和典章,因为这样就会让外族人看见你们的智慧和聪明。他们听见这些律法后,必说,‘这伟大的民族真有智慧和聪明!’ 我们的上帝耶和华与我们如此亲近,随时垂听我们的呼求,有哪个伟大民族的神明能与之相比? 有哪个伟大的民族拥有我今天所传授给你们的如此公义的律例和典章?

“要谨慎、小心,不可忘记亲眼所见的事,要一生铭记在心,并且告诉子子孙孙。 10 那天,你们在何烈山站在你们的上帝耶和华面前,耶和华对我说,‘把民众招聚起来,让他们听我的教诲,学习一生敬畏我,并传授给自己的儿女。’ 11 你们来到山脚下,站在那里,山上烈焰冲天、乌云密布、极其幽暗。 12 耶和华在火焰中对你们说话,你们只听见祂的声音,却看不见祂的形象。 13 祂向你们宣告祂的约,就是祂吩咐你们遵守的十诫,并写在两块石版上。 14 那时,耶和华吩咐我把律例和典章传授给你们,好让你们在将要占领的土地上遵守。

不可拜偶像

15 “你们要格外小心,耶和华在何烈山的火焰中对你们说话时,你们没有看见任何形象, 16 所以不可堕落,去为自己制造任何形状的神像——男人、女人、 17 飞禽走兽、 18 爬虫或鱼类。 19 当你们举目观看你们的上帝耶和华赐给天下万民的日、月、星辰等天上万象时,不要受诱惑去跪拜、供奉它们。 20 耶和华拯救你们脱离埃及那座熔铁炉,让你们做祂自己的子民,正如今日的情形。 21 因你们的缘故,耶和华向我发怒,起誓不让我过约旦河、进入祂赐给你们作产业的那片佳美之地。 22 我将死在约旦河这边,过不了约旦河。但你们必过去得到那片佳美之地。 23 你们要谨慎,不可忘记你们的上帝耶和华与你们所立的约,不可违背你们上帝耶和华的禁令,去制造任何形状的神像。 24 因为你们的上帝耶和华是烈火,是痛恨不贞的上帝。

25 “将来,即使你们在那里安顿已久、子孙满堂,也不可堕落、制造任何形状的神像,不可做你们的上帝耶和华视为邪恶的事,惹祂发怒。 26 否则,今天我叫天地作证,你们必很快从约旦河对面将要占领的土地上灭亡,你们必被彻底消灭,不得在那里长久居住。 27 耶和华必把你们驱散到列邦,使你们在列邦中的人数所剩无几。 28 你们必在那里供奉人用木石造的不会看、不会听、不会吃、不会闻的神像。 29 但你们若在那里寻求你们的上帝耶和华,全心全意地寻求祂,就必寻见。 30 日后,当你们遭遇这些事,受尽苦难的时候,必归向你们的上帝耶和华,听从祂。 31 因为你们的上帝耶和华充满怜悯,祂不会抛弃你们,灭绝你们,也不会忘记祂与你们祖先所立的誓约。

独一的上帝

32 “你们可以查考历史,自上帝创造世人以来,这样的奇事,天地之间何曾有过?谁曾听闻? 33 有哪个民族像你们一样,听见了上帝在火中说话,还活了下来? 34 有哪个神明像你们的上帝耶和华那样在埃及当着你们的面降灾祸、行神迹奇事、兴起战争、伸出臂膀、施展大能的手、以伟大而可畏的作为拯救一族脱离异邦? 35 耶和华行这样的事,是要叫你们知道祂是上帝,除祂以外,别无他神。 36 祂让你们听见祂从天上来的声音,好教导你们,又在地上让你们看见祂的烈火,并听见祂在烈火中说的话。 37 因为祂爱你们的祖先,所以拣选你们,亲自用大能把你们从埃及领出来, 38 赶走比你们强大的民族,领你们进入他们的土地,把他们的土地赐给你们作产业,正如今日的情形。 39 所以,今天你们要知道并谨记,耶和华是天上地下的上帝,此外别无他神。 40 我今天将祂的律例和诫命传授给你们,你们要遵守,以便你们及子孙都蒙福,在你们上帝耶和华所赐的土地上得享长寿。”

设立避难城

41 那时,摩西在约旦河东划出三座城作避难城, 42 供素无冤仇却误杀他人者逃往避难。 43 三座城分别是旷野高原的比悉——供吕便人避难,基列的拉末——供迦得人避难,巴珊的哥兰——供玛拿西人避难。

重申律法

44 以下是摩西颁布给以色列人的律法, 45 即在离开埃及后传授给他们的法度、律例和典章。 46 当时他们在约旦河以东伯·毗珥对面的山谷,那里原属于希实本的亚摩利王西宏。摩西领以色列人离开埃及后消灭了西宏, 47 占领了他的土地,还占领了巴珊王噩的土地。西宏和噩是约旦河东亚摩利人的两个王, 48 其国土从亚嫩谷边的亚罗珥一直到西云山,即黑门山, 49 包括约旦河东的整个亚拉巴,远至毗斯迦山脚的亚拉巴海。