Deuteronomy_Chapter 4

O Israelites, listen to and follow the laws and regulations that I have taught you, so that you may live and enter the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you to inherit.

Do not add or subtract from what I have commanded you, so that you may keep the commandment of the Lord your God.

You have seen with your own eyes what the Lord has done for Baalpeor. The Lord your God has destroyed all those who follow Baalpeor from among you.

Only you, who rely solely on the Lord your God, have all survived today.

I will teach you the laws and regulations as the Lord my God has commanded you, so that you may follow them in the land where you are going to enter and possess it.

So you must observe and follow. This is your wisdom and intelligence in front of all the people. When they hear all these laws, they will say, Truly, the people of this great nation are wise and wise.

Which great nation has a God who is close to them, like the Lord our God, who is close to us when we call on him?

What great nation has such righteous laws and regulations, like all these laws that I have declared before you today?

You only need to be cautious and diligently guard your soul, so as not to forget what you have seen with your own eyes, and so as not to let this matter leave your heart throughout your life. Always pass it on to your descendants.

On the day you stood before the Lord your God on Mount Horeb, the Lord said to me, Gather the people for me, and I will make them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me and teach their children to do so while they live on earth.

At that time, you came close and stood at the foot of the mountain. There is flames soaring up the mountain, and there is darkness, dense clouds, and darkness.

The Lord spoke to you from the flames, and you only heard the sound, but did not see the image.

He will instruct you to keep the ten commandments that he has instructed you to keep, and he will write these commandments on two stone tablets.

At that time, the Lord commanded me to teach you the laws and regulations, so that you may follow them in the land you are going to inherit.

So, you need to be extra cautious. For on the day when the Lord spoke to you from the fire in Mount Horeb, you did not see any image.

Lest you corrupt yourselves and carve idols like some male or female image,

Or images of beasts on the ground, or images of birds flying in the air,

Or an image of crawling objects on the ground, or an image of fish underwater.

And I fear that if you lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun, moon, and stars that the Lord your God has arranged for all the people of the earth, which are all the phenomena of heaven, you will be tempted to worship and serve them.

The Lord has brought you out of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, to be a special people for your inheritance, as it is today.

The Lord is angry with me again because of you, and he has sworn that he will not allow me to cross the Jordan River, nor will he allow me to enter the beautiful land that the Lord your God has given you as an inheritance.

I have to die in this place and cannot cross the Jordan River. But you will go over and take that beautiful land.

Be careful not to forget the covenant that the Lord your God has made with you, and to carve idols for yourself, which the Lord your God forbade you from making.

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

You have been living in that land for a long time, giving birth to children and grandchildren, carving idols like some image, corrupting yourself, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God, and provoking him to anger.

I call heaven and earth as witnesses to you today, that you will quickly perish on the land where you have taken possession of the Jordan River. You cannot stay on that land for long, but you will completely destroy it.

The Lord will scatter you among all the people. Among the nations he led you to, the number of you remaining is scarce.

There, you will serve the gods created by human hands, who are made of wood and stone and cannot be seen, heard, eaten, or smelled.

But there you will seek the Lord your God. When you seek him with all your heart and soul, you will find him.

When you encounter all your troubles in the future, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice.

The Lord your God is a compassionate God. He will never leave you, nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant he swore with your ancestors.

And examine in your previous generations, from one end of heaven to the other, since God created man in this world, what people have heard the voice of God speaking in the midst of fire, as you have heard and can still live? How could such a great event have happened, how could it have been heard?

Has God ever brought out a nation’s people from another land, using trials, miracles, wonders, war, a strong hand, an outstretched arm, and great terror, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

This is to be shown to you, so that you may know that only the Lord is God, and there is no other God besides him.

He made you hear his voice from heaven to teach you, and on earth he made you see his fiery fire and hear his words from the fire.

Because he loved your ancestors, he chose their descendants and personally led you out of Egypt with great power,

I will drive out nations stronger than you from before you, bring you in, and give you their land as an inheritance, as it is today.

Therefore, today you must know and remember in your heart that only the Lord is God in heaven and earth, and there is no other God besides him.

I am giving you his laws and commands today, and you must keep them, so that you and your descendants may be blessed and your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God has given you.

At that time, Moses divided three cities east of the Jordan River towards the sunrise,

So that those who have no hatred and no intention of killing can escape to one of these three cities and survive,

To divide the wilderness and plain for the people of Reuben. Divide Ramoth Gilead for the Gadites. Divide the Golan of Bashan for the Manasseh people.

The law that Moses declared before the Israelites

This is the law, regulations, and ordinances that Moses passed down to the Israelites after they left Egypt.

In the valley opposite Beth Peor on the east side of the Jordan River, in the land of King Sihon of the Amorites, residing in Heshbon. This Sihon was killed by Moses and the Israelites after they left Egypt.

They obtained his land and the land of King Og of Bashan, which is the land of the two Amorite kings facing the sunrise on the east side of the Jordan River.

From Aroer by the Arnon Valley to Mount Xiyun, which is Mount Hermon.

And all the Arabah on the east side of the Jordan River, as far as the Sea of Arabah, near the root of Mount Pisgah.