Deuteronomy 4

And now, Israel, hear the statutes and the judgments which I teach you today to do, so that you may live and be multiplied, and go in and inherit the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you.

You shall not add to the word which I command you, and you shall not take away from it; keep the commandments of the Lord your God, all that I command you today.

Your eyes have seen all that the Lord our God did in the matter of Beelphegor: every person who followed after Beelphegor, the Lord your God wiped him out from among you.

But you who clung to the Lord your God are all alive today.

See, I have shown you statutes and judgments, as the Lord commanded me, so to do in the land into which you are entering there to inherit it.

And you shall keep them and do them, for this is your wisdom and understanding before all the nations, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say: Behold, a wise and knowledgeable people, this great nation.

For what great nation is there that has a god so near to them as the Lord our God is in all things in which we call upon him?

And what great nation is there that has statutes and righteous judgments according to all this law which I set before you today?

Take heed to yourself and guard your soul diligently, lest you forget all the words which your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; and you shall instruct your sons and your sons' sons.

the day on which you stood before the Lord your God at Choreb, on the day of the assembly, when the Lord said to me, Assemble the people to me, and let them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live upon the earth, and that they may teach their sons.

And you drew near and stood under the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire up to heaven: darkness, gloom, tempest, a great voice.

And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire: a sound of words you heard, but a likeness you did not see, only a voice.

And he announced to you his covenant, which he commanded you to do, the ten words; and he wrote them on two stone tablets.

And to me the Lord gave command at that time to teach you ordinances and judgments, for you to do them in the land into which you are entering there to inherit it.

And you shall guard your souls diligently, for you saw no likeness on the day the Lord spoke to you at Choreb on the mountain out of the midst of the fire;

lest you act lawlessly and make for yourselves a carved likeness, any image whatever, a likeness of male or female,

a likeness of any beast that is on the earth, a likeness of any winged bird that flies under heaven,

a likeness of any creeping thing that creeps on the earth, a likeness of any fish, of all that are in the waters beneath the earth.

and lest, looking up to heaven and seeing the sun and the moon and the stars and all the ordered host of heaven, you be led astray and bow down to them and serve them, which the Lord your God apportioned to all the nations under heaven.

But you God took, and he brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be to him a people of inheritance, as at this day.

And the Lord was angry with me concerning the things said by you, and he swore that I should not cross this Jordan and that I should not enter into the land which the Lord God gives you as an inheritance.

For I am dying in this land and am not crossing this Jordan; but you are crossing over and will inherit this good land.

Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which he made with you, and make for yourselves a carved likeness of any of the things which the Lord your God has enjoined.

For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

But if you beget sons and sons' sons, and you linger long in the land, and act lawlessly and make a carved likeness of anything, and do what is evil before the Lord your God, to provoke him to anger,

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that with utter destruction you shall be destroyed from the land into which you are crossing the Jordan there to inherit it; you shall not prolong days upon it, but shall be utterly wiped out.

And the Lord will scatter you among all the nations, and you will be left few in number among the nations into which the Lord will bring you there.

And there you will serve other gods, works of men's hands, wood and stones, which will not see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.

And there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him when you search him out with all your heart and with all your soul, in your affliction.

And all these words will find you at the end of the days, and you will turn back to the Lord your God and will hearken to his voice.

For the Lord your God is a compassionate God; he will not forsake you nor utterly destroy you; he will not forget the covenant of your fathers which he swore to them.

Ask about former days, those that came before you, from the day on which God created man upon the earth, and from one end of heaven to the other end of heaven, whether there has ever been anything like this great matter, whether the like has been heard.

Whether a nation has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and lived.

Whether God attempted, going in, to take for himself a nation from the midst of a nation, by trial and by signs and by wonders and by war and by a mighty hand and by an uplifted arm and by great visions, according to all that the Lord our God did in Egypt before you as you looked on.

so that you might know that the Lord your God, he is God, and there is no other besides him.

Out of heaven his voice was made audible, to discipline you; and upon the earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire.

Because he loved your fathers, he also chose their seed after them, namely you; and he himself brought you out by his great strength from Egypt,

to destroy nations great and stronger than you from before you, to bring you in, to give you their land to inherit, as you have today.

And you shall know today and turn back in your mind that the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and on the earth below, and there is no other besides him.

And you shall keep his ordinances and his commandments, as many as I command you today, that it may be well with you and with your sons after you, so that you may be long-lived upon the land which the Lord your God gives you all the days.

Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan, toward the rising of the sun,

for the manslayer to flee there, whoever kills his neighbour unwittingly, and he was not hating him before that time; and he shall flee to one of these cities and live:

Bosor in the wilderness, in the plain country, for Rouben; and Ramoth in Galaad for Gaddi; and Gaulon in Basan for Manasse.

This is the law which Moses set before the sons of Israel.

These are the testimonies and the ordinances and the judgments which Moses spoke to the sons of Israel in the wilderness, after they had come out of the land of Egypt,

beyond the Jordan, in the valley near the house of Phogor, in the land of Seon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Esebon, whom Moses and the sons of Israel struck down after they came out of the land of Egypt.

And they inherited his land and the land of Og king of Basan, two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan toward the rising of the sun,

from Aroer, which is on the bank of the wadi Arnon, and to Mount Seon, which is Aermon,

all the Araba beyond the Jordan toward the rising of the sun, below Asedoth the hewn.