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The Book of Deuteronomy 4

4 Now, you Israelite people, obey all the rules and regulations that I will teach you. If you do that, you will remain alive. You will be able to enter and occupy the land that Yahweh, the God whom your ancestors worshiped, is giving to you. 2 Do not change the words of my commands to you. Obey all the commands of Yahweh our God that I am giving to you.

3 You have seen what Yahweh did at Baal Peor, for example, when he destroyed all the people who worshiped the god Baal there. 4 However, all of you who faithfully continued to worship Yahweh our God are still alive today.

5 Never forget that I have taught you all the rules and regulations, just as Yahweh our God told me to do. He wants you to obey them when you are living in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. 6 Obey them faithfully because, if you do that, you will show the people of other nations that you are very wise. When they hear about all these rules, they will say, ‘The people of this great nation of Israel are certainly very wise!’ 7 Even if other nations are great, there is none of them that has a god who cares for them as Yahweh our God cares for us! 8 And there is no other nation, even if it is a great nation, which has laws that are as just as the laws that I am speaking to you today.

9 But be very careful! Do not forget what you have seen God do. Remember those things as long as you are alive. Tell them to your children and your grandchildren. 10 Tell them about the day that your parents stood in the presence of Yahweh our God at Mount Sinai, when he said to me, ‘Gather the people together in order that they can hear what I say. I want them to learn to respect me and honor me as long as they are alive. I want them to teach their children to do the same.’ 11 Tell your children that your parents came near to the foot of the mountain while the mountain burned with a fire that went up to the sky, and the mountain was covered with darkness, clouds, and smoke. 12 Then Yahweh spoke to your parents out of the middle of the fire. Your parents only heard him speak, but they did not see him. 13 And he declared to them his covenant that he wants you also to obey. He gave them the Ten Commandments. He wrote those on two stone tablets. 14 Yahweh told me to teach all the rules and regulations to you in order that you would obey them. He wants you to obey them in the land that you are about to enter and occupy.

15 On the day that Yahweh spoke to your parents at Mount Sinai, they did not see him. So be very careful! 16 Do not sin by making for yourselves any carved figure! Do not make anything that resembles the likeness of anything: man, woman, 17 any animal, any bird, 18 any reptile, or any fish. 19 Do not look up toward the sky and be tempted to worship anything that you see there—the sun or the moon or the stars. Yahweh our God has given those to help all people everywhere. 20 Yahweh has brought your families out of Egypt, where they were suffering as though they were in a blazing furnace. That is so that they would be people who belong to him, which is what you are today.

21 But Yahweh was angry with me because of what your parents did. He declared that I would never enter the land that he is giving to you. 22 He swore that I would die here in this land and never cross the Jordan River. But you will go across it, and you will occupy that land. 23 Be sure that you do not forget the covenant that Yahweh our God made with you, and do not make a carved figure in the likeness of anything about which he has forbidden you. 24 This is because Yahweh your God wants everyone to worship him alone. He will destroy anyone who worships idols.

25 When you have been in the land of Canaan for a long time and you have children and grandchildren, do not sin by making a carved figure that represents anything. Yahweh says that is evil, and if you do that, you will cause him to become angry. 26 Today I am requesting everyone who is in heaven and earth to watch what you are doing. But if you disobey what I am telling you, you will soon all die in the land that you will be crossing the Jordan River to occupy. You will not live very long there, because Yahweh will get rid of you. 27 Yahweh will force the rest of you to go and live among the people of many other nations. Only a few of you will survive there. 28 When you are in those nations, you will worship gods that are made by humans from wood and stone. They will be gods that cannot see, hear, eat, or smell anything. 29 But while you are there, you will try to know Yahweh your God. If you try as much as you can to know him, he will answer you. 30 In the future, when you are being mistreated there and all those bad things happen to you, you will again worship only Yahweh and obey him. 31 Yahweh is a God who acts mercifully. If you obey him, he will not abandon you, cause you to die, or forget the agreement that he solemnly made with your ancestors.

32 Now please think about the past, about the time before you were born, about all the time since God first created people here on the earth. You could search everywhere. Certainly, nothing has ever happened that is as great as what Yahweh did for the Israelite people. 33 Certainly no group has ever remained alive after they heard their God speak to them from the middle of a fire like we did. 34 Certainly God has never before tried to take a huge group of people from one nation to another location as he did for us when he brought us out of Egypt. We saw Yahweh our God use his power when he performed miracles, sent plagues, terrified people, and fought the Egyptians for us.

35 Yahweh showed all these things to you in order that you would know that only he is truly God and that there is no other God. 36 He allowed your parents to hear him speak from heaven in order that he could discipline them. Here on the earth, he allowed them to see his great fire on Mount Sinai. He spoke to them from the middle of the fire. 37 Because he loved our ancestors, he chose you Israelites, who are their descendants. By his great power, he brought us out of Egypt. 38 As they traveled, he expelled the people of nations that were greater and more powerful than we were. This is so that we could capture and live in their land, as we are about to do today.

39 So today you should think about the fact that Yahweh is God, that he rules in heaven and also on the earth, and that there is no other god. 40 Obey all the rules and regulations that I am giving to you today. This is so that things will go well for you and your descendants. And it is so that you will live a long time in the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you, so it will belong to you forever.”

41 Then Moses chose three cities that are on the east side of the Jordan River. 42 If someone accidentally killed another person, a person who had not been his enemy previously, he could escape to one of those cities. He would be safe there because the people there would protect him. 43 For the tribe of Reuben, Moses chose the city of Bezer in the wilderness. For the tribe of Gad, he chose the city of Ramoth in the region of Gilead. For the tribe of Manasseh, he chose the city of Golan in the region of Bashan.

44 Moses gave God’s instructions to the Israelite people. 45 They included all the instructions, rules, and regulations that Moses told the Israelite people after they had come out of Egypt, 46 when they were in the valley east of the Jordan River. They were across from the town of Beth Peor, in the land that previously was ruled by Sihon, the king of the Amor people group, who lived in the city of Heshbon. Moses and the other Israelites had defeated his army when they came out of Egypt. 47 They captured Sihon’s land and the land that Og, the king of the region of Bashan, had ruled. Those were the two kings who ruled the Amor people group in the area east of the Jordan River. 48 Their land extended from the city of Aroer in the south along the Arnon River, as far north as Mount Sirion, which most people call Mount Hermon. 49 It also included all the area in the plain east of the Jordan River valley, extending to the Dead Sea and east to the slopes of Mount Pisgah.

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