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Chapter 4 |
| 1 |
Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments,
which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the
land which the LORD God of your fathers giveth you. |
|
2 | Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you,
neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of
the LORD your God which I command you. |
| 3 | Your eyes have seen what the LORD did because of
Baalpeor: for all the men that followed Baalpeor, the LORD thy God hath
destroyed them from among you. |
| 4
| But ye that did cleave unto the LORD your God are alive every one of
you this day. |
| 5 | Behold, I
have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me,
that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. |
| 6 | Keep therefore and do them; for this is
your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall
hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and
understanding people. |
| 7 |
For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD
our God is in all things that we call upon him for? |
|
8 | And what nation is there so great, that hath
statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you
this day? |
| 9 | Only take
heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things
which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of
thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons; |
| 10 | Specially the day that thou stoodest
before the LORD thy God in Horeb, when the LORD said unto me, Gather me the
people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to
fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may
teach their children. |
| 11 |
And ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with
fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness. |
| 12 | And the LORD spake unto
you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no
similitude; only ye heard a voice. |
|
13 | And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to
perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone. |
| 14 | And the LORD commanded me
at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the
land whither ye go over to possess it. |
| 15 | Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw
no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of
the midst of the fire: |
| 16 |
Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of
any figure, the likeness of male or female, |
| 17 | The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the
likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air, |
|
18 | The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the
ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth: |
| 19 | And lest thou lift up
thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the
stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and
serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the
whole heaven. |
| 20 | But the
LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of
Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day. |
| 21 | Furthermore the LORD was angry
with me for your sakes, and sware that I should not go over Jordan, and that I
should not go in unto that good land, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an
inheritance: |
| 22 | But I
must die in this land, I must not go over Jordan: but ye shall go over, and
possess that good land. |
| 23 |
Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the LORD your
God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of
any thing, which the LORD thy God hath forbidden thee. |
| 24 | For the LORD thy God is a consuming
fire, even a jealous God. |
| 25 |
When thou shalt beget children, and children's children, and ye shall have
remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven
image, or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the LORD
thy God, to provoke him to anger: |
|
26 | I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye
shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to
possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be
destroyed. |
| 27 | And the
LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number
among the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you. |
|
28 | And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's
hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. |
| 29 | But if from thence thou
shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy
heart and with all thy soul. |
| 30
| When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee,
even in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be
obedient unto his voice; |
| 31 |
(For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither
destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto
them. |
| 32 | For ask now of
the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created
man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether
there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like
it? |
| 33 | Did ever people
hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast
heard, and live? |
| 34 | Or
hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation,
by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and
by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD
your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? |
|
35 | Unto thee it was showed, that thou mightest know
that the LORD he is God; there is none else beside him. |
| 36 | Out of heaven he made thee to hear his
voice, that he might instruct thee: and upon earth he showed thee his great
fire; and thou heardest his words out of the midst of the fire. |
| 37 | And because he loved thy fathers,
therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in his sight
with his mighty power out of Egypt; |
|
38 | To drive out nations from before thee greater and mightier than
thou art, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance, as it
is this day. |
| 39 | Know
therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the LORD he is God in
heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else. |
| 40 | Thou shalt keep therefore his
statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go
well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong
thy days upon the earth, which the LORD thy God giveth thee, for ever. |
| 41 | Then Moses severed three
cities on this side Jordan toward the sunrising; |
|
42 | That the slayer might flee thither, which should
kill his neighbor unawares, and hated him not in times past; and that fleeing
unto one of these cities he might live: |
| 43 | Namely, Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country,
of the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead, of the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan,
of the Manassites. |
| 44 |
And this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel: |
| 45 | These are the testimonies, and the
statutes, and the judgments, which Moses spake unto the children of Israel,
after they came forth out of Egypt. |
|
46 | On this side Jordan, in the valley over against Bethpeor, in the
land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moses and the
children of Israel smote, after they were come forth out of Egypt: |
| 47 | And they possessed his land, and
the land of Og king of Bashan, two kings of the Amorites, which were on this
side Jordan toward the sunrising; |
|
48 | From Aroer, which is by the bank of the river Arnon, even unto
mount Sion, which is Hermon, |
| 49
| And all the plain on this side Jordan eastward, even unto the sea of
the plain, under the springs of Pisgah. |
