Deuteronomy 4

King James Version

4 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.

²Ye 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.

³Your 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.

⁴But ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day.

⁵Behold, 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.

⁶Keep 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.

⁷For 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?

⁸And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?

⁹Only 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;

¹⁰Specially 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.

¹¹And 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.

¹²And 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.

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

¹⁴And 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.

¹⁵Take 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:

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

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

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

¹⁹And 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.

²⁰But 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.

²¹Furthermore 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:

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

²³Take 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.

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

²⁵When 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:

²⁶I 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.

²⁷And 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.

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

²⁹But 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.

³⁰When 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.

³²For 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?

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

³⁴Or 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?

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

³⁶Out 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.

³⁷And 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;

³⁸To 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.

³⁹Know 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.

⁴⁰Thou 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.

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

⁴²That 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:

⁴³Namely, 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.

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

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

⁴⁶On 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:

⁴⁷And 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;

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

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

Deuteronomy 4

New Catholic Bible

Chapter 4

Benefits of Obedience. ¹Now listen, O Israel, to the statutes and the ordinances that I am teaching you to observe so that you might live and go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. ²^[a]You will not add to what I command you, nor will you take away from it, so that you might observe the commandments of the Lord, your God, that I am giving you. ³Your own eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baal-peor, for the Lord, your God, wiped out from all of those who followed Baal-peor from your midst. ⁴But every one of you who clung to the Lord, your God, is alive today.

⁵Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances just as the Lord, my God, commanded me, so that you might enter into the land into which you are going and take possession of it. ⁶Carefully observe them, for the nations will consider this is your wisdom and your understanding. They will hear all these statutes and say, “Truly this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” ⁷For what nation is as great as we are? Who has God as near to them, as the Lord, our God, is whenever we call upon him? ⁸What nation is so great that it has statutes and ordinances as righteous as this law that I set before you today?

⁹Only be careful and watch yourselves closely lest you ever forget the things that your eyes have seen or you let them slip out of your mind. Teach them to your children and your children’s children, ¹⁰especially about the day that you stood before the Lord, your God, in Horeb, when the Lord said to me, “Assemble the people before me so that I might let them hear my words. They will thus learn to fear me all the days that they live upon the earth, and they will be able to teach their children.” ¹¹You approached and stood at the base of the mountain. The mountain blazed with flames reaching the very heavens, and it was covered with dark clouds and thick darkness. ¹²The Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but you did not see a form. There was only a voice. ¹³He proclaimed his covenant to you which he ordered you to fulfill, the Ten Commandments, that he wrote upon two tablets of stone. ¹⁴The Lord then commanded me to teach you the statutes and ordinances so that you might observe them in the land that you were crossing over to possess.

¹⁵Pitfalls of Idolatry. Therefore, guard yourselves carefully, for you did not see any kind of form when the Lord spoke to you on Horeb from the midst of the fire. ¹⁶Do not become perverse and make an idol for yourselves of any shape or likeness, whether male or female, ¹⁷whether it be a land animal or a bird that flies in the skies, ¹⁸or like something that crawls on the ground or a fish in the waters beneath the earth. ¹⁹When you look up into the skies and you see the sun and the moon and stars, all the hosts of heaven, do not be enticed to worship and serve the things that the Lord, your God, has assigned to every other nation under the heavens. ²⁰But as for you, the Lord has chosen you and taken you out from the iron furnace,^[b] out of Egypt, to be a people who are his own possession, as you are today.

²¹The Lord was angry with me because of you and he swore that I would not cross over the Jordan nor enter the fertile land that the Lord, your God, has given to you as an inheritance. ²²I must die in this land; I will not cross over the Jordan. But you will cross over and take possession of this fertile land. ²³Therefore, keep guard over yourselves, lest you forget the covenant that the Lord, your God, has made with you and you make an idol in the form of anything that the Lord, your God, has prohibited. ²⁴The Lord, your God, is a consuming fire and a jealous God.

²⁵When you have borne children and grandchildren and have dwelt in the land for a long time, if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord, your God, and provoking him to anger, ²⁶I will call upon the heavens and the earth to give witness against you on that day so that you might be utterly obliterated from the land that you are crossing over the Jordan to possess. You will not remain there long, but you will be totally wiped out.

²⁷The Lord will scatter you among the nations and only a few of you will survive among the foreign peoples where the Lord has led you. ²⁸There you will serve gods, the work of human hands, made of wood and stone, which cannot see nor hear nor eat nor smell.

The Lord Is God.

²⁹But if you seek the Lord, your God, and you strive with all your heart and your soul, you will find him there. ³⁰When you are in distress and all of these things happen to you in the future, you are to return to the Lord,^[c] your God, and obey his voice, ³¹and he will not abandon you, nor destroy you nor forget the covenant that he made with your fathers, confirming it to them by oath, for the Lord, your God, is a merciful God.

³²Ask now about the days of old, the former times. From the day that God created humans upon the earth, inquire from one end of the heavens to the other, has anything so great ever happened or has anything like it been heard of? ³³Has any other people heard the voice of God speak from the midst of the flame, as you heard, and still live? ³⁴Did God ever go and lead one nation from the midst of another nation by trials, signs, wonders, and battle, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great and wondrous deeds, all things that the Lord, your God, did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

³⁵You were shown these things so that you might come to know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him. ³⁶He had you hear his voice from out of the heavens so that he might instruct you. He showed you his great fire upon the earth so that you might hear his voice from the midst of the flames. ³⁷It was because he loved your fathers and had chosen their descendants after them that he brought you out of Egypt before him by his great strength. ³⁸He drove out greater and more powerful nations before you so that he might bring you into their land to give it to you as an inheritance, just as it is today.

³⁹So today acknowledge it and take it to heart that the Lord is God in the heavens above and on the earth below. There is no other. ⁴⁰You shall obey his statutes and the commandments that I give you today, so that all may go well with you and your children after you, and that you may live long in the land that the Lord, your God, has given you for all time.

⁴¹Cities of Refuge. Then Moses set aside three cities on the east of the Jordan ⁴²to which anyone who unintentionally killed another person with whom he had not previously been at enmity might flee. He could flee to one of these cities and save his life. ⁴³They were Bezer,^[d] on the desert plateau, for the Reubenites, and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the men of Manasseh.

Moses’ Second Address

The Covenant with Israel^[e]

⁴⁴Introduction. This is the law that Moses set before the Israelites. ⁴⁵These are the stipulations, the statutes, and the judgments that Moses declared to the Israelites when they came out of Egypt ⁴⁶and they were dwelling in the valley near Beth-peor on the east of the Jordan, in the land of Sihon, the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and who was defeated by Moses and the Israelites when they came out of Egypt. ⁴⁷They took possession of his land and also the land of Og, the king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites who reigned on the east side of the Jordan. ⁴⁸This land extended from Aroer, that is on the bank of the Arnon River, up to Mount Sion (that is Hermon). ⁴⁹It included all of the plain on the east side of the Jordan up to the Sea in the Arabah, at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah.

Footnotes

Deuteronomy 4:2 Observing God’s laws in their entirety secures for us the fullness of life.
Deuteronomy 4:20 Iron furnace: referring to Egypt by this term implies the spiritual cleansing “by fire” that the Israelites encountered there. Also used in 1 Ki 8:51 and Jer 11:4.
Deuteronomy 4:30 Return to the Lord: reconciliation and restoration of our relationship with the Lord, then as now, hinges on the sinner’s repentance.
Deuteronomy 4:43 Bezer: perhaps Umm el-Aniad, to the east of Mount Nebo; Ramoth: perhaps Tell Ramit, east of the Jordan between the Jabbok and Yarmuk Rivers; Golan: perhaps Sahem el-Giolan, east of the Lake of Gennesaret.
Deuteronomy 4:44 This discourse existed, in great part, in the first edition of the book. The author hides behind the authority of Moses as he urges Israel to live the covenant to the full.

Deuteronomy 4

New King James Version

Moses Commands Obedience

4 “Now, O Israel, listen to ^(A)the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live, and go in and ^[a]possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you. ²^(B)You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. ³Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at ^(C)Baal Peor; for the Lord your God has destroyed from among you all the men who followed Baal of Peor. ⁴But you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive today, every one of you.

⁵“Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess. ⁶Therefore be careful to observe them; for this is ^(D)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 ^(E)what great nation is there that has ^(F)God^[b] so near to it, as the Lord our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him? ⁸And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day? ⁹Only take heed to yourself, and diligently ^(G)keep yourself, lest you ^(H)forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And ^(I)teach them to your children and your grandchildren, ¹⁰especially concerning ^(J)the day you stood before the Lord your God in Horeb, when the Lord said to me, ‘Gather the people to Me, and I will let them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.’

¹¹“Then you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the midst of heaven, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness. ¹²^(K)And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words, but saw no ^[c]form; ^(L)you only heard a voice. ¹³^(M)So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, ^(N)the Ten Commandments; and ^(O)He wrote them on two tablets of stone. ¹⁴And ^(P)the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might ^[d]observe them in the land which you cross over to possess.

Beware of Idolatry

¹⁵^(Q)“Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no ^(R)form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, ¹⁶lest you ^(S)act corruptly and ^(T)make for yourselves a carved image in the ^[e]form of any figure: ^(U)the likeness of male or female, ¹⁷the likeness of any animal that is on the earth or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, ¹⁸the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth. ¹⁹And take heed, lest you ^(V)lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, ^(W)all the host of heaven, you feel driven to ^(X)worship them and serve them, which the Lord your God has ^[f]given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage. ²⁰But the Lord has taken you and ^(Y)brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be ^(Z)His people, an inheritance, as you are this day. ²¹Furthermore ^(AA)the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that ^(AB)I would not cross over the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. ²²But ^(AC)I must die in this land, ^(AD)I must not cross over the Jordan; but you shall cross over and ^[g]possess ^(AE)that good land. ²³Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, ^(AF)and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you. ²⁴For ^(AG)the Lord your God is a consuming fire, ^(AH)a jealous God.

²⁵“When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and ^(AI)do evil in the sight of the Lord your God to provoke Him to anger, ²⁶^(AJ)I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess; you will not ^[h]prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed. ²⁷And the Lord ^(AK)will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. ²⁸And ^(AL)there you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, ^(AM)which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. ²⁹^(AN)But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. ³⁰When you are in ^[i]distress, and all these things come upon you in the ^(AO)latter days, when you ^(AP)turn to the Lord your God and obey His voice ³¹(for the Lord your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor ^(AQ)destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.

³²“For ^(AR)ask now concerning the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask ^(AS)from one end of heaven to the other, whether any great thing like this has happened, or anything like it has been heard. ³³^(AT)Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live? ³⁴Or did God ever try to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, ^(AU)by trials, ^(AV)by signs, by wonders, by war, ^(AW)by a mighty hand and ^(AX)an outstretched arm, ^(AY)and by great ^[j]terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? ³⁵To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord Himself is God; ^(AZ)there is none other besides Him. ³⁶^(BA)Out of heaven He let you hear His voice, that He might instruct you; on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire. ³⁷And because ^(BB)He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their ^[k]descendants after them; and ^(BC)He brought you out of Egypt with His Presence, with His mighty power, ³⁸^(BD)driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day. ³⁹Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that ^(BE)the Lord Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. ⁴⁰^(BF)You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that ^[l]it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may ^[m]prolong your days in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”

Cities of Refuge East of the Jordan

⁴¹Then Moses ^(BG)set apart three cities on this side of the Jordan, toward the rising of the sun, ⁴²^(BH)that the manslayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without having hated him in time past, and that by fleeing to one of these cities he might live: ⁴³^(BI)Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau for the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.

Introduction to God’s Law

⁴⁴Now this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel. ⁴⁵These are the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which Moses spoke to the children of Israel after they came out of Egypt, ⁴⁶on this side of the Jordan, ^(BJ)in the valley opposite Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel ^(BK)defeated^[n] after they came out of Egypt. ⁴⁷And they took possession of his land and the land ^(BL)of Og king of Bashan, two kings of the Amorites, who were on this side of the Jordan, toward the ^[o]rising of the sun, ⁴⁸^(BM)from Aroer, which is on the bank of the River Arnon, even to Mount ^[p]Sion (that is, ^(BN)Hermon), ⁴⁹and all the plain on the east side of the Jordan as far as the Sea of the Arabah, below the ^(BO)slopes of Pisgah.