Deu 4 | NASB1995 | STEP | “ Now , O Israel , listen to the statutes and the judgments which I am teaching you to perform , so that you may live and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord , the God of your fathers , is giving you.

Deuteronomy 4

Israel Urged to Obey God’s Law

1 “Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which ^aI am teaching you to perform, so that ^byou may live and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. 2 ^c“You shall not add to the word which ^dI am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. 3 ^e“Your eyes have seen what the Lord has done in the case of Baal-peor, for all the men who followed Baal-peor, the Lord your God has destroyed ^{▼▼ Lit him}them from among you. 4 “But you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive today, every one of you.

5 “See, I have taught you statutes and judgments ^gjust as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do thus in the land where you are entering to possess it. 6 “So keep and do them, ^hfor that is 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 ⁱwhat great nation is there that has a god ^jso near to it as is the Lord our God ^kwhenever we call on Him? 8 “Or what great nation is there that has ^lstatutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today?

9 “Only ^mgive heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, so that you do not forget the things which your eyes have seen and they do not depart from your heart ⁿall the days of your life; but ^omake them known to your sons and your grandsons. 10 “Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me, ‘Assemble the people to Me, that I may let them hear My words ^pso they may learn to ^{▼▼ Or reverence}fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may ^rteach their children.’ 11 “You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, ^sand the mountain burned with fire to the very heart of the heavens: darkness, cloud and thick gloom. 12 “Then the Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but you saw no form— only a voice. 13 “So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, that is, ^tthe Ten ^{▼▼ Lit Words}Commandments; and ^vHe wrote them on two tablets of stone. 14 “The Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might perform them in the land where you are going over to possess it.

15 “So ^wwatch yourselves carefully, since you did not see any ^xform on the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, 16 so that you do not ^yact corruptly and ^zmake a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of ^aaany winged bird that flies in the sky, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water below the earth. 19 “And beware not to lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, ^aball the host of heaven, ^acand be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. 20 “But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of ^adthe iron furnace, from Egypt, to ^aebe a people for His own possession, as today.

21 ^af“Now the Lord was angry with me on your account, and swore that I would not cross the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. 22 “For ^agI will die in this land, I shall not cross the Jordan, but you shall cross and take possession of this ^ahgood land. 23 “So watch yourselves, ^aithat you do not forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, and ^ajmake for yourselves a graven image in the form of anything against which the Lord your God has commanded you. 24 “For the Lord your God is a ^akconsuming fire, a ^aljealous God.

25 “When you ^{▼▼ Lit beget}become the father of children and children’s children and have remained long in the land, and ^anact corruptly, and ^aomake an ^{▼▼ Or a graven image}idol in the form of anything, and ^aqdo that which is evil in the sight of the Lord your God so as to provoke Him to anger, 26 I ^arcall heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will ^assurely perish quickly from the land where you are going over the Jordan to possess it. You shall not ^{▼▼ Lit prolong your days}live long on it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27 “The Lord will ^auscatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord drives you. 28 ^av“There you will serve gods, the work of man’s hands, ^awwood and stone, ^axwhich neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. 29 ^ay“But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him ^azwith all your heart and all your soul. 30 “When you ^baare in distress and all these things have come upon you, ^bbin the latter days ^bcyou will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice. 31 “For the Lord your God is a ^bdcompassionate God; ^beHe will not fail you nor ^bfdestroy you nor ^bgforget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.

32 “Indeed, ^bhask now concerning the former days which were before you, since the ^biday that God created ^{▼▼ Or Adam}man on the earth, and inquire ^bkfrom one end of the heavens to the other. ^blHas anything been done like this great thing, or has anything been heard like it? 33 ^bm“Has any people heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you have heard it, and survived? 34 ^bn“Or has a god tried to go to take for himself a nation from within another nation ^boby trials, by signs and wonders and by war and ^bpby a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm and by great terrors, ^{▼▼ Lit according to all that}as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 “To you it was shown that you might know that the Lord, He is God; ^brthere is no other besides Him. 36 ^bs“Out of the heavens He let you hear His voice ^btto discipline you; and on earth He let you see His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire. 37 ^{▼▼ Lit And instead, because
,} ^bv“Because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose ^{▼▼ Lit his seed}their descendants after them. And He ^{▼▼ Lit with His presence
,} ^bypersonally brought you from Egypt by His great power, 38 driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in and ^bzto give you their land for an inheritance, as it is today. 39 “Know therefore today, and take it to your heart, that ^cathe Lord, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other. 40 ^cb“So you shall keep His statutes and His commandments which I am ^{▼▼ Lit commanding}giving you today, that ^cdit may go well with you and with your children after you, and ^cethat you may ^{▼▼ Lit prolong your days}live long on the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”

41 ^cgThen Moses set apart three cities across the Jordan to the ^{▼▼ Lit sunrise}east, 42 that a manslayer might flee there, who unintentionally slew his neighbor without having enmity toward him in time past; and by fleeing to one of these cities he might live: 43 ^ciBezer in the wilderness on the plateau for the Reubenites, and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.

44 Now this is the law which Moses set before the sons of Israel; 45 these are the testimonies and the statutes and the ordinances which Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, when they came out from Egypt, 46 across the Jordan, in the valley ^cjopposite Beth-peor, in the land of ^ckSihon king of the Amorites who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the sons of Israel ^{▼▼ Lit smote}defeated when they came out from Egypt. 47 They took possession of his land and the land of ^cmOg king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who were across the Jordan to the ^{▼▼ Lit sunrise}east, 48 from ^coAroer, which is on the edge of the ^{▼▼ Or wadi}valley of Arnon, even as far as ^cqMount Sion (that is, Hermon), 49 with all the Arabah across the Jordan to the east, even as far as the sea of the Arabah, ^{▼▼ Lit under}at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah.