5.Mose 4 | New International Reader’s Version

Obey the Lord

1 Now, Israel, listen to the rules and laws I’m going to teach you. Obey them and you will live. You will go in and take over the land. The LORD was the God of your people of long ago. He’s giving you the land. 2 Don’t add to what I’m commanding you. Don’t subtract from it either. Instead, obey the commands of the LORD your God that I’m giving you. 3 Your own eyes saw what the LORD your God did at Baal Peor. He destroyed every one of your people who worshipped the Baal that was worshipped at Peor. 4 But all of you who remained true to the LORD your God are still alive today. 5 I have taught you rules and laws, just as the LORD my God commanded me. Obey them in the land you are entering to take as your very own. 6 Be careful to keep them. That will show the nations how wise and understanding you are. They will hear about all these rules. They’ll say, ‘That great nation certainly has wise and understanding people.’ 7 The LORD our God is near us every time we pray to him. What other nation is great enough to have its gods that close to them? 8 I’m giving you the laws of the LORD today. What other nation is great enough to have rules and laws as fair as these? 9 Don’t be careless. Instead, be very careful. Don’t forget the things your eyes have seen. As long as you live, don’t let them slip from your mind. Teach them to your children and their children after them. 10 Remember the day you stood at Mount Horeb. The LORD your God was there. He said to me, ‘Bring the people to me to hear my words. I want them to learn to have respect for me as long as they live in the land. I want them to teach my words to their children.’ 11 You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain. It blazed with fire that reached as high as the very heavens. There were black clouds and deep darkness. 12 Then the LORD spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of his words. But you didn’t see any shape or form. You only heard a voice. 13 He announced his covenant to you. That covenant is the Ten Commandments. He commanded you to obey them. Then he wrote them down on two stone tablets. 14 At that time the LORD instructed me to teach you his rules and laws. You must obey them in the land you are crossing the River Jordan to take as your own.

Don’t make or worship statues of gods

15 The LORD spoke to you at Mount Horeb out of the fire. But you didn’t see any shape or form that day. So be very careful. 16 Make sure you don’t commit a horrible sin. Don’t make for yourselves a statue of a god. Don’t make a god that looks like a man or woman or anything else. 17 Don’t make one that looks like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the sky. 18 Don’t make a statue that looks like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish that swims in the water. 19 When you look up at the heavens, you will see the sun and moon. And you will see huge numbers of stars. Don’t let anyone tempt you to bow down to the sun, moon or stars. Don’t worship things the LORD your God has provided for all the nations on earth. 20 Egypt was like a furnace that melts iron down and makes it pure. But the LORD took you and brought you out of Egypt. He wanted you to be his very own people. And that’s exactly what you are. 21 The LORD was angry with me because of what you did. He promised that he would never let me go across the River Jordan. He promised that I would never enter that good land. It’s the land the LORD your God is giving you as your own. 22 I’ll die here in this land. I won’t go across the Jordan. But you are about to cross over it. You will take that good land as your own. 23 Be careful. Don’t forget the covenant the LORD your God made with you. Don’t make for yourselves a statue of any god at all. He has told you not to. So don’t do it. 24 The LORD your God is like a fire that burns everything up. He wants you to worship only him. 25 So don’t make a statue of a god. Don’t commit that horrible sin. Don’t do it even after you have had children and grandchildren. Don’t do it even after you have lived in the land a long time. If you do, that will be an evil thing in the sight of the LORD your God. You will make him angry. 26 Today I’m calling out to the heavens and the earth to be witnesses against you. Suppose you do these things. Then you will quickly die in the land you are going across the River Jordan to take over. You won’t live there very long. You will certainly be destroyed. 27 The LORD will drive you out of your land. He will scatter you among the nations. Only a few of you will remain alive there. 28 There you will worship gods that men have made out of wood and stone. Those gods can’t see, hear, eat or smell. 29 Perhaps while you are 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. 30 All the things I’ve told you about might happen to you. And you will be in trouble. But later you will return to the LORD your God. You will obey him. 31 The LORD your God is tender and loving. He won’t leave you or destroy you. He won’t forget the covenant he made with your people of long ago. He gave his word when he made it.

The Lord is God

32 Ask now about the days of long ago. Find out what happened long before your time. Ask about what has happened since the time God created human beings on the earth. Ask from one end of the world to the other. Has anything as great as this ever happened? Has anything like it ever been heard of? 33 You heard the voice of God speaking out of fire. And you lived! Has that happened to any other people? 34 Has any god ever tried to take one nation out of another to be his own? Has any god done it by testing his people? Has any god done it with signs and amazing deeds or with war? Has any god reached out his mighty hand and powerful arm? Or has any god shown his people his great and wonderful acts? The LORD your God did all those things for you in Egypt. With your very own eyes you saw him do them. 35 The LORD showed you those things so that you might know he is God. There is no other God except him. 36 From heaven he made you hear his voice. He wanted to teach you. On earth he showed you his great fire. You heard his words coming out of the fire. 37 He loved your people of long ago. He chose their children after them. So he brought you out of Egypt. He used his great strength to do it. 38 He drove out nations to make room for you. They were greater and stronger than you are. He will bring you into their land. He wants to give it to you as your very own. The whole land is as good as yours right now. 39 The LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below. Today you must agree with that and take it to heart. There is no other God. 40 I’m giving you his rules and commands today. Obey them. Then things will go well with you and your children after you. You will live a long time in the land. The LORD your God is giving you the land for all time to come.

Cities to run to for safety

41 Then Moses set apart three cities east of the River Jordan. 42 Suppose someone killed a person they didn’t hate and without meaning to do it. That person could run to one of those cities and stay alive. 43 Here are the names of the cities. Bezer was for the people of Reuben. It was in the high plains in the desert. Ramoth was for the people of Gad. It was in Gilead. Golan was for the people of Manasseh. It was in Bashan.

Moses gives the law to Israel

44 Here is the law Moses gave the Israelites. 45 Here are its terms, rules and laws. Moses gave them to the people when they came out of Egypt. 46 They were now east of the River Jordan in the valley near Beth Peor. They were in the land of Sihon, the king of the Amorites. He ruled in Heshbon. But Moses and the Israelites won the battle over him after they came out of Egypt. 47 They captured his land and made it their own. They also took the land of Og, the king of Bashan. Sihon and Og were the two Amorite kings east of the River Jordan. 48 Their land reached from Aroer on the rim of the River Arnon valley to Mount Hermon. 49 It included the whole Arabah Valley east of the Jordan. It included land all the way to the Dead Sea below the slopes of Pisgah.

English Standard Version

Moses Commands Obedience

1 “And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules* that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. 2 You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you. 3 Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal-peor, for the Lord your God destroyed from among you all the men who followed the Baal of Peor. 4 But you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today. 5 See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 6 Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ 7 For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? 8 And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today? 9 “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children— 10 how on the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’ 11 And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom. 12 Then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice. 13 And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments,* and he wrote them on two tablets of stone. 14 And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and rules, that you might do them in the land that you are going over to possess.

Idolatry Forbidden

15 “Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, 16 beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. 19 And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. 20 But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day. 21 Furthermore, the Lord was angry with me because of you, and he swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and that I should not enter the good land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance. 22 For I must die in this land; I must not go over the Jordan. But you shall go over and take possession of that good land. 23 Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you. 24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. 25 “When you father children and children’s children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger, 26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27 And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. 28 And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. 29 But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. 31 For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.

The Lord Alone Is God

32 “For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. 33 Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? 34 Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him. 36 Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire. 37 And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them* and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, 38 driving out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day, 39 know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. 40 Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”

Cities of Refuge

41 Then Moses set apart three cities in the east beyond the Jordan, 42 that the manslayer might flee there, anyone who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without being at enmity with him in time past; he may flee to one of these cities and save his life: 43 Bezer in the wilderness on the tableland for the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.

Introduction to the Law

44 This is the law that Moses set before the people of Israel. 45 These are the testimonies, the statutes, and the rules, which Moses spoke to the people of Israel when they came out of Egypt, 46 beyond the Jordan in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the people of Israel defeated when they came out of Egypt. 47 And they took possession of his land and the land of Og, the king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who lived to the east beyond the Jordan; 48 from Aroer, which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon, as far as Mount Sirion* (that is, Hermon), 49 together with all the Arabah on the east side of the Jordan as far as the Sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.

5.Mose 4 | New International Reader’s Version English Standard Version