Deuteronomy 4–12

CALL TO OBEDIENCE

4“Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and ordinances^k I am teaching you to follow, so that you may live,^l enter, and take possession of the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors,^m is giving you. ²You must not add anything to what I command you or take anything away from it,ⁿ so that you may keep the commands of the Lord your God I am giving you. ³Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal-peor, for the Lord your God destroyed every one of you who followed Baal of Peor.^{o 4}But you who have remained faithful^B to the Lord your God are all alive today. ⁵Look, I have taught you statutes and ordinances as the Lord my God has commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to possess. ⁶Carefully follow them, for this will show your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the peoples. When they hear about all these statutes, they will say, ‘This great nation is indeed a wise and understanding people.’ ⁷For what great nation is there that has a god near to it as the Lord our God is to us whenever we call to him?^{p 8}And what great nation has righteous statutes and ordinances like this entire law I set before you today?^q

⁹“Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves,^r so that you don’t forget^s the things your eyes have seen and so that they don’t slip from your mind^C as long as you live. Teach them to your children and your grandchildren.^{t 10}The day you stood before the Lord your God^u at Horeb, the Lord said to me, ‘Assemble the people before me, and I will let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me^a all the days they live on the earth and may instruct their children.’ ¹¹You came near and stood at the base of the mountain,^b a mountain blazing with fire^c into the heavens and enveloped in a totally black cloud.^{d 12}Then the Lord spoke to you from the fire.^e You kept hearing the sound of the words, but didn’t see a form; there was only a voice.^{f 13}He declared his covenant^g to you. He commanded you to follow the Ten Commandments,^h which he wrote on two stone tablets.^{i 14}At that time the Lord commanded me to teach you statutes and ordinances for you to follow in the land you are about to cross into and possess.

WORSHIPING THE TRUE GOD

¹⁵“Diligently watch yourselves—because you did not see any form on the day the Lord spoke to you out of the fire at Horeb—¹⁶so you don’t act corruptly and make an idol for yourselves in the shape of any figure: a male or female form, ¹⁷or the form of any animal on the earth, any winged creature that flies in the sky, ¹⁸any creature that crawls on the ground, or any fish in the waters under the earth. ¹⁹When you look to the heavens and see the sun, moon, and stars—all the stars in the sky—do not be led astray to bow in worship to them and serve them.^j The Lord your God has provided them for all people everywhere under heaven.^{k 20}But the Lord selected you and brought you out of Egypt’s iron furnace^l to be a people for his inheritance, as you are today.

²¹“The Lord was angry with me on your account.^m He swore that I would not cross the Jordan and enter the good landⁿ the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.^{o 22}I won’t be crossing the Jordan because I am going to die in this land.^p But you are about to cross over and take possession of this good land. ²³Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he made with you, and make an idol for yourselves in the shape of anything he has forbidden you. ²⁴For the Lord your God is a consuming fire,^q a jealous God.^r

²⁵“When you have children and grandchildren and have been in the land a long time, and if you act corruptly, make an idol in the form of anything, and do what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, angering him, ²⁶I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that you will quickly perish^s from the land you are about to cross the Jordan to possess. You will not live long there, but you will certainly be destroyed. ²⁷The Lord will scatter you among the peoples,^t and you will be reduced to a few survivors^A among the nations where the Lord your God will drive you. ²⁸There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see, hear, eat, or smell. ²⁹But from there, you will search for the Lord your God, and you will find him when you seek him with all your heart and all your soul.^{u 30}When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, in the future you will return to the Lord your God and obey him. ³¹He will not leave you, destroy you, or forget the covenant^v with your ancestors that he swore to them by oath, because the Lord your God is a compassionate God.^w

³²“Indeed, ask about the earlier days that preceded you, from the day God created mankind^B on the earth and from one end of the heavens to the other: Has anything like this great event ever happened, or has anything like it been heard of? ³³Has a people heard God’s voice speaking from the fire as you have, and lived? ³⁴Or has a god attempted to go and take a nation as his own out of another nation, by trials, signs, wonders, and war, by a strong hand and an outstretched arm, by great terrors, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? ³⁵You were shown these things so that you would know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him.^{x 36}He let you hear his voice from heaven to instruct you.^y He showed you his great fire on earth, and you heard his words from the fire.^{z 37}Because he loved^aa your ancestors, he chose their descendants after them and brought you out of Egypt by his presence and great power, ³⁸to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you in and give you their land as an inheritance,^ab as is now taking place. ³⁹Today, recognize and keep in mind that the Lord is God in heaven above and on earth below; there is no other. ⁴⁰Keep his statutes and commands, which I am giving you today, so that you and your children after you may prosper and so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”

CITIES OF REFUGE

⁴¹Then Moses set apart three cities across the Jordan to the east. ⁴²Someone could flee there who committed manslaughter, killing his neighbor accidentally without previously hating him. He could flee to one of these cities and stay alive: ⁴³Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau land, belonging to the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead, belonging to the Gadites; or Golan in Bashan, belonging to the Manassites.^a

INTRODUCTION TO THE LAW

⁴⁴This is the law Moses gave the Israelites. ⁴⁵These are the decrees, statutes, and ordinances Moses proclaimed to them after they came out of Egypt, ⁴⁶across the Jordan in the valley facing Beth-peor in the land of King Sihon of the Amorites. He lived in Heshbon, and Moses and the Israelites defeated him after they came out of Egypt. ⁴⁷They took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two Amorite kings who were across the Jordan to the east, ⁴⁸from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Valley as far as Mount Sion (that is, Hermon) ⁴⁹and all the Arabah on the east side of the Jordan as far as the Dead Sea below the slopes of Pisgah.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

5Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “Israel, listen to the statutes and ordinances I am proclaiming as you hear them today. Learn and follow them carefully. ²The Lord our God made a covenant^b with us at Horeb. ³He did not make this covenant with our ancestors,^c but with all of us who are alive here today. ⁴The Lord spoke to you face to face from the fire on the mountain. ⁵At that time I was standing between the Lord and you to report the word^A of the Lord to you, because you were afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain. And he said:

⁶I am the Lord your God,^d who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.^e

⁷Do not have other gods besides me.

⁸Do not make an idol for yourself in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. ⁹Do not bow in worship to them, and do not serve them, because I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me,^{f 10}but showing faithful love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commands.

¹¹Do not misuse the name^g of the Lord your God, because the Lord will not leave anyone unpunished who misuses his name.

¹²Be careful to remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy as the Lord your God has commanded you. ¹³You are to labor six days and do all your work, ¹⁴but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. Do not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, your ox or donkey, any of your livestock, or the resident alien who lives within your city gates, so that your male and female slaves may rest as you do.

¹⁵Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. That is why the Lord your God has commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

¹⁶Honor your father and your mother,^h as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and so that you may prosper in the land the Lord your God is giving you.ⁱ

¹⁷Do not murder.^j

¹⁸Do not commit adultery.^k

¹⁹Do not steal.

²⁰Do not give dishonest testimony against your neighbor.^l

²¹Do not covet your neighbor’s wife or desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his male or female slave, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.^m

THE PEOPLE’S RESPONSE

²²“The Lord spoke these commands in a loud voice to your entire assembly from the fire, cloud, and total darkness on the mountain; he added nothing more. He wrote them on two stone tablets and gave them to me. ²³All of you approached me with your tribal leaders and elders when you heard the voice from the darkness and while the mountain was…