Deuteronomy 4:4–20

⁴But you that adhere to the Lord your God, are all alive until this present day.

⁵You know that I have taught you statutes and justices, as the Lord my God hath commanded me: so shall you do them in the land which you shall possess:

⁶And you shall observe, and fulfil them in practice. For this is your wisdom, and understanding in the sight of nations, that hearing all these precepts, they may say: Behold a wise and understanding people, a great nation.

⁷Neither is there any other nation so great, that hath gods so nigh them, as our God is present to all our petitions.

⁸For what other nation is there so renowned that hath ceremonies, and just judgments, and all the law, which I will set forth this day before our eyes?

⁹Keep thyself therefore, and thy soul carefully. Forget not the words that thy eyes have seen, and let them not go out of thy heart all the days of thy life. Thou shalt teach them to thy sons and to thy grandsons,

¹⁰From the day in which thou didst stand before the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord spoke to me, saying: Call together the people unto me, that they may hear my words, and may learn to fear me all the time that they live on the earth, and may teach their children.

¹¹And you came to the foot of the mount, which burned even unto heaven: and there was darkness, and a cloud and obscurity in it.

¹²And the Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire. You heard the voice of his words, but you saw not any form at all.

¹³And he shewed you his covenant, which he commanded you to do, and the ten words that he wrote in two tables of stone.

¹⁴And he commanded me at that time that I should teach you the ceremonies and judgments which you shall do in the land, that you shall possess.

¹⁵Keep therefore your souls carefully. You saw not any similitude in the day that the Lord God spoke to you in Horeb from the midst of the fire:

¹⁶Lest perhaps being deceived you might make you a graven similitude, or image of male or female,

¹⁷The similitude of any beasts, that are upon the earth, or of birds, that fly under heaven,

¹⁸Or of creeping things, that move on the earth, or of fishes, that abide in the waters under the earth:

¹⁹Lest perhaps lifting up thy eyes to heaven, thou see the sun and the moon, and all the stars of heaven, and being deceived by error thou adore and serve them, which the Lord thy God created for the service of all the nations, that are under heaven.

²⁰But the Lord hath taken you and brought you out of the iron furnaces of Egypt, to make you his people of inheritance, as it is this present day.