Deuteronomy 4:15; Deuteronomy 4:16–6:25

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Deuteronomy 4:15

Idolatry Forbidden

15 vTherefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since wyou saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire,


Deuteronomy 4:16–6:25

16 beware xlest you act corruptly yby making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, zthe 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 athe sun and the moon and the stars, ball 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 cbrought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, dto be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day. 21 Furthermore, ethe 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; fI must not go over the Jordan. But you shall go over and take possession of gthat good land. 23 hTake care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and imake a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you. 24 For jthe Lord your God is a consuming fire, ka jealous God.

25 When you father children and children’s children, and have grown old in the land, lif you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and mby doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger, 26 I ncall 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 owill scatter you among the peoples, pand you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. 28 And qthere you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, rthat neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. 29 sBut 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 tin the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. 31 For the Lord your God is ua merciful God. vHe 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 wask 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 xDid 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, yby signs, by wonders, and zby war, aby a mighty hand and ban 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, cthat you might know that the Lord is God; dthere is no other besides him. 36 eOut of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and xyou heard his words out of the midst of the fire. 37 And because fhe loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them1 and brought you out of Egypt gwith his own presence, by his great power, 38 hdriving 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 ithe Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; jthere is no other. 40 kTherefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, lthat 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 mset apart three cities in the east beyond the Jordan, 42 that nthe 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 oBezer in the wilderness on the ptableland 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 qin the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, rwhom Moses and the people of Israel defeated when they came out of Egypt. 47 And they took possession of his land and the land sof Og, the king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who lived to the east beyond the Jordan; 48 tfrom Aroer, which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon, as far as Mount uSirion2 (that is, vHermon), 49 together with all the Arabah on the east side of the Jordan as far as wthe Sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.

The Ten Commandments

And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the rules that I speak in your hearing today, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them. xThe Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. yNot with our fathers did the Lord make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today. The Lord spoke with you zface to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, awhile I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord. For byou were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up into the mountain. He said:

cI am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

You shall have no other gods before3 me.

You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 10 but showing steadfast love to dthousands4 of those who love me and keep my commandments.

11 You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

12 Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but ethe seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, fthat your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15 gYou shall remember that you were a slave5 in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there hwith a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

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

17 jYou shall not murder.6

18 jAnd you shall not commit adultery.

19 And you shall not steal.

20 And you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

21 And you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.

22 These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly kat the mountain out of the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and he added no more. And lhe wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. 23 And mas soon as you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes, and your elders. 24 And you said, Behold, the Lord our God has shown us his glory and ngreatness, and owe have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire. This day we have seen God speak with man, and man pstill live. 25 Now therefore why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. qIf we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, we shall die. 26 pFor who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of fire as we have, and has still lived? 27 Go near and hear all that the Lord our God will say, and rspeak to us all that the Lord our God will speak to you, and we will hear and do it.

28 And the Lord heard your words, when you spoke to me. And the Lord said to me, I have heard the words of this people, which they have spoken to you. sThey are right in all that they have spoken. 29 tOh that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, uthat it might go well with them and with their descendants7 forever! 30 Go and say to them, Return to your tents. 31 But you, stand here by me, and vI will tell you the whole commandment and the statutes and the rules that you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land that I am giving them to possess. 32 You shall be careful therefore to do as the Lord your God has commanded you. wYou shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. 33 xYou shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and ythat it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess.

The Greatest Commandment

Now this is zthe commandmentthe statutes and the rules8that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that ayou may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and bthat your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, cas the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.

Hear, O Israel: dThe Lord our God, the Lord is one.9 You eshall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And fthese words that I command you today shall be on your heart. gYou shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. hYou shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. iYou shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

10 And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give youwith great and good cities jthat you did not build, 11 and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plantand when you eat and are full, 12 kthen take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 13 It is lthe Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and mby his name you shall swear. 14 You shall not ngo after other gods, othe gods of the peoples who are around you 15 for pthe Lord your God in your midst qis a jealous Godrlest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.

16 sYou shall not put the Lord your God to the test, tas you tested him at Massah. 17 You shall udiligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies and his statutes, which he has commanded you. 18 vAnd you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with you, and that you may go in and take possession of the good land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers 19 wby thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has promised.

20 xWhen your son asks you in time to come, What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you? 21 then you shall say to your son, yWe were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22 And zthe Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. 23 And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. 24 And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, ato fear the Lord our God, bfor our good always, that che might preserve us alive, as we are this day. 25 And dit will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.