Deu 4 | NASB2020 | STEP | “Now , Israel , listen to the statutes and the judgments which I am teaching you to perform , so that you will 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, Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which ^aI am teaching you to perform, so that ^byou will live and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. 2 ^cYou shall not add to the word which ^dI am commanding you, nor take away from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I am commanding you. 3 ^eYour 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 clung 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 are to do these things in the land where you are entering to take possession of 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 ^mbe careful for yourself and watch over 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 have them hear My words ^pso that they may learn to ^{▼▼Or revere}fear Me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may ^rteach their children.’ 11 You came forward and stood at the foot of the mountain, ^sand the mountain was burning with fire to the 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--there was 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, so that you would perform them in the land where you are going over to take possession of it.

15 “So ^wbe very careful ^{▼▼Or for your own lives}yourselves, since you did not see any ^yform on the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, 16 so that you do not ^zact corruptly and ^aamake a carved image for yourselves in the form of any figure, a representation of male or female, 17 a representation of any animal that is on the earth, a representation of ^abany winged bird that flies in the sky, 18 a representation of anything that crawls on the ground, or a representation of any fish that is in the water below the earth. 19 And be careful not to raise your eyes to heaven and look at the sun, the moon, and the stars, ^acall the heavenly ^{▼▼Lit host}lights, ^aeand allow yourself to be drawn away and worship them and serve them, things 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 ^afthe iron furnace, from Egypt, to ^agbe a people of His own possession, as today.

21 “ ^ahNow the Lord was angry with me on your account, and He 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 ^aiI am going to die in this land; I am not crossing the Jordan, but you are going to cross, and you will take possession of this ^ajgood land. 23 So be careful ^{▼▼Or for yourselves}yourselves, ^althat you do not forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, and ^ammake for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything against which the Lord your God has commanded you. 24 For the Lord your God is a ^anconsuming fire, a ^aojealous God.

25 “When you father children and have ^{▼▼Lit children’s children}grandchildren, and you grow old in the land, and you ^aqact corruptly, and ^armake ^{▼▼Or a carved image}an idol in the form of anything, and ^atdo what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God to provoke Him to anger, 26 I ^aucall heaven and earth as witnesses against you today, that you will ^avcertainly perish quickly from the land where you are going over the Jordan to take possession of it. You will not ^{▼▼Lit prolong your days}live long on it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27 The Lord will ^axscatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord drives you. 28 ^ayThere you will serve gods, the work of human hands, ^azwood and stone, ^bawhich neither see nor hear, nor eat nor smell anything. 29 ^bbBut from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him ^bcwith all your heart and all your soul. 30 When you ^bdare in distress and all these things happen to you, ^bein the latter days ^bfyou will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice. 31 For the Lord your God is a ^bgcompassionate God; ^bhHe will not abandon you nor ^bidestroy you, nor ^bjforget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.

32 “Indeed, ^bkask now about the earlier days that were ^{▼▼Lit before you}before your time, since the ^bmday that God created ^{▼▼Or Adam}mankind on the earth, and inquire ^bofrom one end of the heavens to the other. ^bpHas anything been done like this great thing, or has anything been heard like it? 33 ^bqHas any people heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you have heard it, and survived? 34 ^brOr has a god ventured to go to take for himself a nation from within another nation ^bsby trials, by signs and wonders, by war, ^btby a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, ^{▼▼Lit according to all that}just as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord, He is God; ^bvthere is no other besides Him. 36 ^bwOut of the heavens He let you hear His voice ^bxto discipline you; and on earth He let you see His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire. 37 ^byBecause He loved your fathers, He chose ^{▼▼Lit his seed}their descendants after them. And He ^{▼▼Lit with His presence
,} ^cbpersonally 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 ^ccto give you their land as an inheritance, as it is today. 39 Therefore know today, and take it to your heart, that ^cdthe Lord, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other. 40 ^ceSo you shall keep His statutes and His commandments which I am ^{▼▼Lit commanding}giving you today, so that ^cgit may go well for you and for your children after you, and ^chthat you may ^{▼▼Lit prolong your days}live long on the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”

41 ^cjThen Moses set apart three cities across the Jordan to the ^{▼▼Lit sunrise}east, 42 for ^{▼▼Lit one who committed manslaughter}one to flee there who unintentionally killed his neighbor, without having hatred for him in time past; and by fleeing to one of these cities he might live: 43 ^cmBezer in the wilderness on the plateau for the Reubenites, 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 of Egypt, 46 across the Jordan, in the valley ^cnopposite Beth-peor, in the land of ^coSihon king of the Amorites who lived in Heshbon, whom Moses and the sons of Israel ^{▼▼Lit struck}defeated when they came out of Egypt. 47 And they took possession of his land and the land of ^cqOg king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who were across the Jordan to the ^{▼▼Lit sunrise}east, 48 from ^csAroer, which is on the edge of the ^{▼▼Or wadi}Valley of Arnon, even as far as ^cuMount 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.