Deuteronomy 4

The Covenant at Horeb Deuteronomy 4:11–24

¹¹Verse 11. You came near and stood under the mountain. The mountain burned with fire to the heart of the sky, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness. ¹²Verse 12. Yahweh spoke to you out of the middle of the fire: you heard the voice of words, but you saw no form; you only heard a voice. ¹³Verse 13. He declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even the ten commandments. He wrote them on two stone tablets. ¹⁴Verse 14. Yahweh commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances, that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it.

¹⁵Verse 15. Be very careful, for you saw no kind of form on the day that Yahweh spoke to you in Horeb out of the middle of the fire, ¹⁶Verse 16. lest you corrupt yourselves, and make yourself a carved image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, ¹⁷Verse 17. the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky, ¹⁸Verse 18. the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth; ¹⁹Verse 19. and lest you lift up your eyes to the sky, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the army of the sky, you are drawn away and worship them, and serve them, which Yahweh your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole sky.

²⁰Verse 20. But Yahweh has taken you, and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be to him a people of inheritance, as it is today. ²¹Verse 21. Furthermore Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I should not go over the Jordan, and that I should not go in to that good land, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance; ²²Verse 22. but I must die in this land. I must not go over the Jordan; but you shall go over, and possess that good land. ²³Verse 23. Be careful, lest you forget the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he made with you, and make yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which Yahweh your God has forbidden you.

²⁴Verse 24. For Yahweh your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.

Warning of Consequences for Idolatry Deuteronomy 4:25–31

²⁵Verse 25. When you shall father children, and children’s children, and you shall have been long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a carved image in the form of anything, and shall do that which is evil in Yahweh your God’s sight, to provoke him to anger; ²⁶Verse 26. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from off the land which you go over the Jordan to possess it. You will not prolong your days on it, but will utterly be destroyed. ²⁷Verse 27. Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations, where Yahweh will lead you away.

²⁸Verse 28. There you shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. ²⁹Verse 29. But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God, and you shall find him, when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. ³⁰Verse 30. When you are in oppression, and all these things have come on you, in the latter days you shall return to Yahweh your God, and listen to his voice. ³¹Verse 31. For Yahweh your God is a merciful God. He will not fail you, neither destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which he swore to them.

God's Unique Relationship with Israel Deuteronomy 4:32–40

³²Verse 32. For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and from the one end of the sky to the other, whether there has been anything as this great thing is, or has been heard like it? ³³Verse 33. Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as you have heard, and live? ³⁴Verse 34. Or has God tried to go and take a nation for himself from among another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

³⁵Verse 35. It was shown to you so that you might know that Yahweh is God. There is no one else besides him. ³⁶Verse 36. Out of heaven he made you to hear his voice, that he might instruct you. On earth he made you to see his great fire; and you heard his words out of the middle of the fire. ³⁷Verse 37. Because he loved your fathers, therefore he chose their offspring after them, and brought you out with his presence, with his great power, out of Egypt; ³⁸Verse 38. to drive out nations from before you greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is today.

³⁹Verse 39. Know therefore today, and take it to heart, that Yahweh himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. There is no one else. ⁴⁰Verse 40. You shall keep his statutes, and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land, which Yahweh your God gives you, forever.

Cities of Refuge and Summary of Law Deuteronomy 4:41–49

⁴¹Verse 41. Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise; ⁴²Verse 42. that the man slayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unawares, and didn’t hate him in time past; and that fleeing to one of these cities he might live: ⁴³Verse 43. Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, for the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead, for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, for the Manassites. ⁴⁴Verse 44. This is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel. ⁴⁵Verse 45. These are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which Moses spoke to the children of Israel, when they came out of Egypt,

⁴⁶Verse 46. beyond the Jordan, in the valley over against Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel struck, when they came out of Egypt. ⁴⁷Verse 47. They took his land in possession, and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise; ⁴⁸Verse 48. from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, even to Mount Sion (also called Hermon), ⁴⁹Verse 49. and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan eastward, even to the sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.