.
Chapter 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.
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 Baal Peor.
For all the men that followed Baal Peor, 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 has 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, 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make your graven image the similitude of any figure,
the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any beast that is on the
earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flyeth in the air, the likeness of
anything that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the
waters beneath the earth.
And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun,
and the moon, and the stars, even all the hosts of heaven, should it be driven to
worship them, and serve them, which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations
under the whole heaven.
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.
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.
But I must die in this land.
I must not go over Jordan, but ye shall go over and possess that good land.
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 anything
which the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee.
For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.
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 anything, and shall do evil in the sight of the Lord
thy God to provoke him to anger, 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,
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.
And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone,
which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
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, 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,
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.
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.
Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire,
as thou hast heard, and live?
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?
Unto thee it was showed, that thou mightest know that the Lord, he is God.
There is none else beside him.
Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he might instruct thee.
And upon earth he showed thee his great fire, and thou heardest his words out of
the midst of the fire.
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, 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.
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.
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.
Then Moses severed three cities on this side Jordan toward the sun rising,
that the slayer might flee thither, which should kill his neighbor unawares,
and hated him not in times past, and that fleeing unto one of these cities
he might live, 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.
And this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel.
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.
On this side Jordan, in the valley over against Beth Peor, 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.
And they possessed his land, and the land of Og, king of Bashan, two kings of the
Amorites, which were on this side of Jordan toward the sun rising, from Aror,
which is by the bank of the river Arnon, even unto Mount Sion, which is Hermon,
and all the plain on this side of Jordan eastward, even unto the sea of the plain,
under the springs of Pisgah.