Deuteronomy 4 Chapter Introduction

Structure and Formatting

1. Moses encourages the Israelites to obey Yahweh (1–40)2. Cities of refuge selected for the Reubenites, Gadites, and Manassites (41–43)3. Moses’ introduction of the Law (44–49)

Religious and Cultural Concepts in This Chapter

Moses’ instructions

God will not allow Moses to enter into the land he had promised to Israel. Since the Israelites are getting ready to possess the land, Moses gives them some last instructions before his death. (See: promisedland)

Cities of refuge

Verses 41–43 discuss cities of refuge, which are towns to which a manslayer could flee. In this case, a manslayer is anyone who accidentally kills another person. A close family member of the deceased would be obligated to take revenge for the killing of his family member by finding and killing the person who killed their family member. Yahweh provides protection for the manslayer so that they will not be punished too harshly.(See: refuge and avenge)

Likeness

Verses 15–31 warn the Israelites against creating idols. The other people groups in the land worshiped entities in nature such as the sun, moon, stars, trees, and so on. They created idols that looked like (in the likeness of) these entities. Yahweh forbids the Israelites from making likenesses of anything for the purpose of worshiping it. (See: likeness and falsegod)

Translation Issues in This Chapter

Words for the law

- statutes - ordinances - judgmentsMoses uses several words to refer to the law that Yahweh commanded the Israelites to obey. It is unclear what the differences are between these terms. If your language has different terms for the law, you could use them here to differentiate between the different Hebrew words. (See: translate-unknown)

“you” and “your” singular and plural

In verses 1–22 “you” and “your” are sometimes singular and sometimes plural; see notes for details.In verses 23–40 “you” and “your” are all singular.Moses is speaking to the Israelites who are alive, but he refers to events that happened to their ancestors. The pronouns “you” or “your” are plural in these instances unless otherwise noted. If it would be helpful for your readers, you could explicitly state that these events happened to their ancestors. (See: writing-pronouns and figs-youcrowd)