Deuteronomy 4:4–20

⁴But you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today. ⁵See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. ^6aKeep them and do them, for ^bthat will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ ⁷For ^cwhat great nation is there that has ^da god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? ⁸And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so ^erighteous as all this law that I set before you today?

^9f“Only take care, and ^gkeep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. ^hMake them known to your children and your children’s children— ¹⁰how on ⁱthe day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, ^j‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, ^kso that they may learn to fear ^lme all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’ ¹¹And ^myou came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while ⁿthe mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom. ¹²Then ^othe Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, ^pbut saw no form; ^qthere was only a voice. ^13rAnd he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, ^sthe Ten Commandments,^{2 t}and he wrote them on two tablets of stone. ¹⁴And ^uthe Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and rules, that you might do them in the land that you are going over to possess.

Idolatry Forbidden

^15v“Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since ^wyou saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, ¹⁶beware ^xlest you act corruptly ^yby making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, ^zthe likeness of male or female, ¹⁷the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, ¹⁸the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. ¹⁹And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see ^athe sun and the moon and the stars, ^ball the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. ²⁰But the Lord has taken you and ^cbrought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, ^dto be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day.