Deuteronomy 4:1-23

Israel Urged to Obey God’s Law

¹“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. ²You shall not add to the word which I 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. ³Your 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 them from among you. ⁴But you who clung to the Lord your God are alive today, every one of you.

⁵“See, I have taught you statutes and judgments just 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. ⁶So keep and do them, for 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.’ ⁷For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as is the Lord our God whenever we call on Him? ⁸Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole Law which I am setting before you today?

⁹“Only be 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 all the days of your life; but make them known to your sons and your grandsons. ¹⁰Remember 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 so that they may learn to fear Me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.’ ¹¹You came forward and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire to the heart of the heavens: darkness, cloud, and thick gloom. ¹²Then 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. ¹³So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone. ¹⁴The 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 be very careful yourselves, since you did not see any form on the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, ¹⁶so that you do not act corruptly and make a carved image for yourselves in the form of any figure, a representation of male or female, ¹⁷a representation of any animal that is on the earth, a representation of any winged bird that flies in the sky, ¹⁸a representation of anything that crawls on the ground, or a representation of any fish that is in the water below the earth. ¹⁹And be careful not to raise your eyes to heaven and look at the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the heavenly lights, and 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. ²⁰But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be a people of His own possession, as today.

²¹“Now 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. ²²For I 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 good land. ²³So be careful yourselves, that you do not forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything against which the Lord your God has commanded you.