Deuteronomy 4-6

Deuteronomy 4

¹Hear now, O Israel, 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 the LORD, 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 the LORD your God that I am giving you.

³Your eyes have seen what the LORD did at Baal-peor, for the LORD your God destroyed from among you all who followed Baal of Peor.

⁴But you who held fast to the LORD your God are alive to this day, every one of you.

⁵See, I have taught you statutes and ordinances just as the LORD 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 the LORD 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 law 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 the LORD your God at Horeb, the LORD 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 the LORD 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 the LORD commanded me to teach you the statutes and ordinances you are to follow in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.

¹⁵So since you saw no form of any kind on the day the LORD spoke to you out of the fire at Horeb, 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 the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.

²⁰Yet the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of His inheritance, as you are today.

²¹The LORD, however, was angry with me on account of you, and He swore that I would not cross the Jordan to enter the good land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

²²For I will not be crossing the Jordan, 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 the LORD your God that He made with you; do not make an idol for yourselves in the form of anything He has forbidden you.

²⁴For the LORD 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 the LORD 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 Jordan to possess. You will not live long upon it, but will be utterly destroyed.

²⁷Then the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the LORD 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 the LORD 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 the LORD your God and listen to His voice.

³¹For the LORD 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 the LORD your God did for you in Egypt, before your eyes?

³⁵You were shown these things so that you would know that the LORD 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 Egypt 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 the LORD 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 the LORD your God is giving you for all time.

⁴¹Then Moses set aside three cities across the Jordan 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:

⁴³Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau belonging to the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead belonging to the Gadites, or Golan in Bashan belonging to the Manassites.

⁴⁴This is the law that Moses set before the Israelites.

⁴⁵These are the testimonies, statutes, and ordinances that Moses proclaimed to them after they had come out of Egypt,

⁴⁶while they were in the valley across the Jordan facing Beth-peor in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon and was defeated by Moses and the Israelites after they had come out of Egypt.

⁴⁷They took possession of the land belonging to Sihon and to Og king of Bashan—the two Amorite kings across the Jordan to the east—

⁴⁸extending from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Valley as far as Mount Siyon (that is, Hermon),

⁴⁹including all the Arabah on the east side of the Jordan and as far as the Sea of the Arabah, below the slopes of Pisgah.

Deuteronomy 5

¹Then Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances that I declare in your hearing this day. Learn them and observe them carefully.

²The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.

³He did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with all of us who are alive here today.

⁴The LORD spoke with you face to face out of the fire on the mountain.

⁵At that time I was standing between the LORD and you to declare to you the word of the LORD, because you were afraid of the fire and would not go up the mountain. And He said:

⁶“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

⁷You shall have no other gods before Me.

⁸You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in the heavens above, on the earth below, or in the waters beneath.

⁹You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

¹⁰but showing loving devotion to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.

¹¹You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave anyone unpunished who takes His name in vain.

¹²Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you.

¹³Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

¹⁴but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God, on which you must not do any work—neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox or donkey or any of your livestock, nor the foreigner within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest as you do.

¹⁵Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. That is why the LORD your God has commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

¹⁶Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

¹⁷You shall not murder.

¹⁸You shall not commit adultery.

¹⁹You shall not steal.

²⁰You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

²¹You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house or field, or his manservant or maidservant, or his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

²²The LORD spoke these commandments in a loud voice to your whole assembly out of the fire, the cloud, and the deep darkness on the mountain; He added nothing more. And He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

²³And when you heard the voice out of the darkness while the mountain was blazing with fire, all the heads of your tribes and your elders approached me,

²⁴and you said, “Behold, the LORD our God has shown us His glory and greatness, and we have heard His voice out of the fire. Today we have seen that a man can live even if God speaks with him.

²⁵But now, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us, and we will die, if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any longer.

²⁶For who of all flesh has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the fire, as we have, and survived?

²⁷Go near and listen to all that the LORD our God says. Then you can tell us everything the LORD our God tells you; we will listen and obey.”

²⁸And the LORD heard the words you spoke to me, and He said to me, “I have heard the words that these people have spoken to you. They have done well in all that they have spoken.

²⁹If only they had such a heart to fear Me and keep all My commandments always, so that it might be well with them and with their children forever.

³⁰Go and tell them: ‘Return to your tents.’

³¹But you stand here with Me, that I may speak to you all the commandments and statutes and ordinances you are to teach them to follow in the land that I am giving them to possess.”

³²So be careful to do as the LORD your God has commanded you; you are not to turn aside to the right or to the left.

³³You must walk in all the ways that the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.

Deuteronomy 6

¹These are the commandments and statutes and ordinances that the LORD your God has instructed me to teach you to follow in the land that you are about to enter and possess,

²so that you and your children and grandchildren may fear the LORD your God all the days of your lives by keeping all His statutes and commandments that I give you, and so that your days may be prolonged.

³Hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe them, so that you may prosper and multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you.

⁴Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One.

⁵And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

⁶These words I am commanding you today are to be upon your hearts.

⁷And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

⁸Tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

⁹Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.

¹⁰And when the LORD your God brings you into the land He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that He would give you—a land with great and splendid cities that you did not build,

¹¹with houses full of every good thing with which you did not fill them, with wells that you did not dig, and with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant—and when you eat and are satisfied,

¹²be careful not to forget the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

¹³Fear the LORD your God, serve Him only, and take your oaths in His name.

¹⁴Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you.

¹⁵For the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God. Otherwise the anger of the LORD your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth.

¹⁶Do not test the LORD your God as you tested Him at Massah.

¹⁷You are to diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God and the testimonies and statutes He has given you.

¹⁸Do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD, so that it may be well with you and that you may enter and possess the good land that the LORD your God swore to give your fathers,

¹⁹driving out all your enemies before you, as the LORD has said.

²⁰In the future, when your son asks, “What is the meaning of the decrees and statutes and ordinances that the LORD our God has commanded you?”

²¹then you are to tell him, “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

²²Before our eyes the LORD inflicted great and devastating signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his household.

²³But He brought us out from there to lead us in and give us the land that He had sworn to our fathers.

²⁴And the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes and to fear the LORD our God, that we may always be prosperous and preserved, as we are to this day.

²⁵And if we are careful to observe every one of these commandments before the LORD our God, as He has commanded us, then that will be our righteousness.”