Deuteronomy 4:4–20

⁴but those of you who were faithful to the Lord your God are still alive today.

⁵“I have taught you all the laws, as the Lord my God told me to do. Obey them in the land that you are about to invade and occupy. ⁶Obey them faithfully, and this will show the people of other nations how wise you are. When they hear of all these laws, they will say, ‘What wisdom and understanding this great nation has!’

⁷“No other nation, no matter how great, has a god who is so near when they need him as the Lord our God is to us. He answers us whenever we call for help. ⁸No other nation, no matter how great, has laws so just as those that I have taught you today. ⁹Be on your guard! Make certain that you do not forget, as long as you live, what you have seen with your own eyes. Tell your children and your grandchildren ¹⁰about the day you stood in the presence of the Lord your God at Mount Sinai,^d when he said to me, ‘Assemble the people. I want them to hear what I have to say, so that they will learn to obey me as long as they live and so that they will teach their children to do the same.’

^11*“Tell your children how you went and stood at the foot of the mountain which was covered with thick clouds of dark smoke and fire blazing up to the sky. ^12*Tell them how the Lord spoke to you from the fire, how you heard him speaking but did not see him in any form at all. ^13*He told you what you must do to keep the covenant he made with you—you must obey the Ten Commandments, which he wrote on two stone tablets. ^14*The Lord told me to teach you all the laws that you are to obey in the land that you are about to invade and occupy.

Warning against Idolatry

¹⁵“When the Lord spoke to you from the fire on Mount Sinai, you did not see any form. For your own good, then, make certain ^16*that you do not sin by making for yourselves an idol in any form at all—whether man or woman, ^17*animal or bird, ^18*reptile or fish. ¹⁹Do not be tempted to worship and serve what you see in the sky—the sun, the moon, and the stars. The Lord your God has given these to all other peoples for them to worship. ^20*But you are the people he rescued from Egypt, that blazing furnace. He brought you out to make you his own people, as you are today.