4“Now, Israel, listen to the rules and to the regulations that I am teaching you to do, in order that you may live and you may go in and you may take possession of the land that Yahweh, the God of your ancestors,^a is giving to you. ²You must not add to the word that I am commanding you, and you shall not take away from it in order to keep^b the commands of Yahweh your God that I am commanding you to observe. ³Your eyes have seen^c what Yahweh did with^d the case of Baal Peor, for each^e man that followed after Baal Peor Yahweh your God destroyed from your midst. ⁴But you, the ones holding fast to Yahweh your God, are all alive today.^f

⁵See, I now teach^g you rules and regulations just as Yahweh my God has commanded me, to observe them just so in the midst of the land where you are going, to take possession of it. ⁶And you must observe them diligently,^h for that is your wisdom and your insight before the eyes of the people, who will hear all of these rules, and they will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people.’ ⁷For what great nation has for it a god near to it as Yahweh our God, wheneverⁱ we call upon him? ⁸And what other great nation has for it^j just rules and regulations just like^k this whole^l law that I am setting before^m you today?ⁿ

⁹“However, take care^o for yourself and watch your inner self^p closely, so that you do not forget the things that your eyes have seen, so that they do not slip from your mind all the days of your life; and you shall make them known to your children and to your grandchildren.^q ¹⁰Remember the day that you stood before^r Yahweh your God at Horeb when Yahweh said to me,^s ‘Summon for me the people so that I can tell them my words, that they may learn to fear me all of the days they are alive on the earth and so that they may teach their children.’ ¹¹And so you came near, and you stood under the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire up to the heart of the heaven, dark with a very thick cloud.^t ¹²And Yahweh spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard^u a sound of words, but you did not see^v a form—only a voice. ¹³And he declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments,^w which he charged you to observe,^x and he wrote them on the two tablets of stone. ¹⁴And Yahweh charged me at that time to teach you rules and regulations for your observation of them^y in the land that you are about to cross into^z to take possession of it.

Read in Logos

Deuteronomy 4:7: For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him?

Footnotes

aOr “fathers”
bOr “observe”
cLiterally “your eyes the seeing what”
dOr “in”
eLiterally “every one of”
fLiterally “the day”
gOr “I have taught” (compare NASB, NEB)
hLiterally “you must observe and you must do”
iLiterally “in every matter/every time we call ”
jLiterally “which/that is for him it”
kLiterally “as”
lLiterally “all of”
mLiterally “to the face of”
nLiterally “the day”
oLiterally “watch”
pOr “soul”
qLiterally “the children of your children”
rLiterally “to the face of”
sLiterally “when to say Yahweh”
tLiterally “darkness, cloud, and very thick darkness”
uLiterally “you were hearing”
vLiterally “you were not seeing”
wLiterally “the ten words”
xLiterally “to do”
yLiterally “for your doing them”
zLiterally “about to cross into there”