Deuteronomy 4
Open in the reader1Hear now, O Strives-with-God, the statutes and ordinances I am teaching you to follow, so that you may live and may enter and take possession of the land that He-Who-Is, the God of your fathers, is giving you.
2You must not add to or subtract from what I command you, so that you may keep the commandments of He-Who-Is your God that I am giving you.
3Your eyes have seen what He-Who-Is did at Baal-of-Peor, for He-Who-Is your God destroyed from among you all who followed Baal-of-Peor of Peor.
4But you who held fast to He-Who-Is your God are alive to this day, every one of you.
5See, I have taught you statutes and ordinances just as He-Who-Is my God has commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land that you are about to enter and possess.
6Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the peoples, who will hear of all these statutes and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”
7For what nation is great enough to have a God as near to them as He-Who-Is our God is to us whenever we call on Him?
8And what nation is great enough to have righteous statutes and ordinances like this entire teaching I set before you today?
9Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen, and so that they do not slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and grandchildren.
10The day you stood before He-Who-Is your God at Desolate, the He-Who-Is said to me, “Gather the people before Me to hear My words, so that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach them to their children.”
11You came near and stood at the base of the mountain, a mountain blazing with fire to the heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness.
12And He-Who-Is spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of the words but saw no form; there was only a voice.
13He declared to you His covenant, which He commanded you to follow—the Ten Commandments that He wrote on two tablets of stone.
14At that time He-Who-Is commanded me to teach you the statutes and ordinances you are to follow in the land that you are crossing the Descender to possess.
15So since you saw no form of any kind on the day He-Who-Is spoke to you out of the fire at Desolate, be careful
16that you do not act corruptly and make an idol for yourselves of any form or shape, whether in the likeness of a male or female,
17of any beast that is on the earth or bird that flies in the air,
18or of any creature that crawls on the ground or fish that is in the waters below.
19When you look to the heavens and see the sun and moon and stars—all the host of heaven—do not be enticed to bow down and worship what He-Who-Is your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.
20Yet He-Who-Is has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Two-Straits, to be the people of His inheritance, as you are today.
21He-Who-Is, however, was angry with me on account of you, and He swore that I would not cross the Descender to enter the good land that He-Who-Is your God is giving you as an inheritance.
22For I will not be crossing the Descender, because I must die in this land. But you shall cross over and take possession of that good land.
23Be careful that you do not forget the covenant of He-Who-Is your God that He made with you; do not make an idol for yourselves in the form of anything He-Who-Is has forbidden you.
24For He-Who-Is your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
25After you have children and grandchildren and you have been in the land a long time, if you then act corruptly and make an idol of any form—doing evil in the sight of He-Who-Is your God and provoking Him to anger—
26I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Descender to possess. You will not live long upon it, but will be utterly destroyed.
27Then He-Who-Is will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which He-Who-Is will drive you.
28And there you will serve man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.
29But if from there you will seek He-Who-Is your God, you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
30When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to He-Who-Is your God and listen to His voice.
31For He-Who-Is your God is a merciful God; He will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers, which He swore to them by oath.
32Indeed, ask now from one end of the heavens to the other about the days that long preceded you, from the day that God created man on earth: Has anything as great as this ever happened or been reported?
33Has a people ever heard the voice of God speaking out of the fire, as you have, and lived?
34Or has any God tried to take as his own a nation out of another nation—by trials, signs, wonders, and war, by a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors—as He-Who-Is your God did for you in Two-Straits, before your eyes?
35You were shown these things so that you would know that He-Who-Is is God; there is no other besides Him.
36He let you hear His voice from heaven to discipline you, and on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the fire.
37Because He loved your fathers, He chose their descendants after them and brought you out of Two-Straits by His presence and great power,
38to drive out before you nations greater and mightier than you, and to bring you into their land and give it to you for your inheritance, as it is this day.
39Know therefore this day and take to heart that He-Who-Is is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other.
40Keep His statutes and commandments, which I am giving you today, so that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may live long in the land that He-Who-Is your God is giving you for all time.
41Then Drawn-Out set aside three cities across the Descender to the east
42to which a manslayer could flee after killing his neighbor unintentionally without prior malice. To save one’s own life, he could flee to one of these cities:
43Stronghold in the wilderness on the plateau belonging to the See-a-Son-One, Heights in Heap-of-Witness belonging to the Fortune-One, or Exile in Fertile-Plain belonging to the Causing-to-Forgets.
44This is the teaching that Drawn-Out set before the children of Strives-with-God.
45These are the testimonies, statutes, and ordinances that Drawn-Out proclaimed to them after they had come out of Two-Straits,
46while they were in the valley across the Descender facing House-of-Peor in the land of Tempestuous king of the Mountaineers, who lived in Reckoning and was defeated by Drawn-Out and the children of Strives-with-God after they had come out of Two-Straits.
47They took possession of the land belonging to Tempestuous and to Og king of Fertile-Plain—the two Mountaineer kings across the Descender to the east—
48extending from Bare-Place on the rim of the Rushing-Stream Valley as far as Mount Lofty (that is, Abrupt),
49including all the Arabah on the east side of the Descender and as far as the Sea of the Arabah, below the slopes of The-Cleft.