4:1 Now, Israel, pay attention to¹ the statutes and ordinances² I am about to teach you so that you might live and go on to enter and take possession of the land that the LORD, God of your ancestors, is giving you. 4:2 Do not add a thing to what I command you nor subtract from it so that you may wholly keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I am delivering to³ you. 4:3 You⁴ have witnessed what the LORD did at Baal Peor,⁵ how he⁶ eradicated from your midst everyone⁷ who followed Baal Peor. 4:4 But you who kept faithful to⁸ the LORD your God are still alive to this very day, everyone of you. 4:5 Look! I have taught you statutes and ordinances just as he⁹ told me to do, so that you might carry them out¹⁰ in the midst of the land where you are headed to take possession. 4:6 So be sure to do them because this will testify of your wise understanding¹¹ to the people who will learn of all these statutes and say, “Indeed, this great nation has a very wise¹² people.” 4:7 Indeed, what other great nation has a god so near it like the LORD our God whenever we call upon him? 4:8 And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as pure¹³ as this whole law¹⁴ that I am about to share with you today?

4:9 Again, however, pay very careful attention¹⁵ lest you forget what you have seen and disregard them¹⁶ for the rest of your life; instead teach them¹⁷ to your children and grandchildren. 4:10 At the time¹⁸ you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb and he¹⁹ said to me, “Assemble the people before me so that I can tell them my words and teach them to revere²⁰ me all the days they live in the land and also to instruct their children.” 4:11 You approached and stood at the foot of the mountain, a mountain ablaze to the sky above it,²¹ and yet dark with a thick cloud.²² 4:12 Then the LORD spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you indeed heard speech²³ but you could not see anything—only a voice. 4:13 And he revealed to you the covenant²⁴ he has commanded you to keep, the ten commandments,²⁵ writing them upon two stone tablets. 4:14 Moreover, the LORD commanded me at that same time to teach you statutes and ordinances for you to keep in the land to which you are going as your inheritance.

4:15 Be most careful,²⁶ then, because you saw nothing at the time the LORD spoke to you at Horeb from the fire’s midst. 4:16 I say this so that you will not corrupt yourselves by making an image in the form of any kind of figure, the likeness of a human male or a female, 4:17 or that of any kind of land animal, or of a winged bird flying in the sky, 4:18 or of any insect²⁷ on the ground, or of any fish in the deep waters of the earth.²⁸ 4:19 It is also to guard you against looking up to the sky and seeing the sun, moon, and stars—the whole heavenly creation²⁹—and then being seduced by and worshiping and serving them, things that the LORD your God has distributed among all the people of the world.³⁰ 4:20 You, however, the LORD has selected³¹ and brought from Egypt, the “iron furnace,”³²

so that you might be the inheritance people that you are today. 4:21 But the LORD became angry with me because of you and swore that I would never cross the Jordan nor enter the good land that he³³ is about to give you as an inheritance. 4:22 So I must die here in this land—there is no crossing of the Jordan for me; but you are going over and you will possess that good land. 4:23 Be on guard so that you will not forget the covenant of the LORD your God that he has made with you, and that you might not make an image of any shape, just as he³⁴ has forbidden you. 4:24 For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.³⁵

4:25 After you have produced children and grandchildren and, having been in the land a long time, you become corrupted and make an image of any kind³⁶ and do other evil things before the LORD your God that enrage him, 4:26 I invoke heaven and earth as witnesses against you³⁷ today that you will surely and swiftly be destroyed from the very land which you are about to cross the Jordan to possess; you will not last long there³⁸ because you will be totally devastated. 4:27 Then the LORD will scatter you among the peoples and there will be very few of you³⁹ in the nations where the LORD will drive you. 4:28 There you will worship gods made by human hand, wood and stone that can neither see, hear, eat, nor smell. 4:29 But if⁴⁰ you seek the LORD your God from there, you will find him, if, indeed, you seek him with all your heart and soul. 4:30 In your distress when you find all these things, in the latter days, if you return to the LORD your God and listen to him,⁴¹ 4:31 (for he⁴² is a merciful God), he will not let you down or destroy you, for he cannot forget the covenant with your ancestors that he swore to them.

4:32 Indeed, ask about earlier days that have preceded you, from the day God created mankind⁴³ on the earth and from one end of heaven to the other, whether there has ever been such a great thing as this or even a rumor of it.⁴⁴ 4:33 Have a people ever heard the voice of God speaking from amidst fire as you yourselves have and lived to tell about it? 4:34 Or has God ever before tried to deliver⁴⁵ a nation to himself from the middle of another nation, accompanied by testings, signs, wonders, war, strength, power,⁴⁶ and other very terrifying things as the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? 4:35 You have been made to understand⁴⁷ that the LORD only is God—there is no other besides him. 4:36 From heaven he spoke to you⁴⁸ in order to teach you, and on earth showed you his great fire from which you also heard him.⁴⁹ 4:37 Moreover, because he loved⁵⁰ your ancestors he chose their⁵¹ descendants who followed⁵² them,⁵³ and personally⁵⁴ brought you out of Egypt with great power 4:38 so that you might dispossess nations greater and more powerful than you and brought you in to give you their land as an inheritance—just as it has taken place today. 4:39 May you understand today and take it to heart that the LORD is God in heaven above and on earth below—there is no other. 4:40 And may you keep his statutes and commandments that I am propounding⁵⁵ today so that it may go well with you and your descendants and that you might enjoy length of days forever in the land that the LORD your God is about to give you.

4:41 After all this Moses separated off three cities in the Transjordan, toward the East, 4:42 so that anyone who accidentally killed another,⁵⁶ never having hated him in the past, could flee there to one of those cities and be safe.⁵⁷ 4:43 These cities are Bezer, in the desert plateau, for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for the Manassehites.

4:44 Finally, this is the instruction that Moses set before the Israelites—4:45 the stipulations, statutes, and requirements that he⁵⁸ spoke to them⁵⁹ after he had brought them out of Egypt‚ 4:46 in the Transjordan, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites who lived in Heshbon. (It is he whom Moses and the Israelites attacked after they came out of Egypt. 4:47 They possessed his land and that of Og king of Bashan—both being Amorite kings in the Transjordan, to the east—4:48 from Aroer at the edge of the Arnon valley as far as Mount Siyon⁶⁰—that is, Hermon— 4:49 all the Arabah of the Transjordan in the east to the Arabah Sea, beneath the watershed⁶¹ of Pisgah.)