Chapter 4

`And now, Israel, hearken unto the statutes, and unto the judgments which I am teaching you to do, so that ye live, and have gone in, and possessed the land which Yehovah God of your fathers is giving to you.

Ye do not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor diminish from it, to keep the commands of Yehovah your God which I am commanding you.

`Your eyes are seeing that which Yehovah hath done in Baal-Peor, for every man who hath gone after Baal-Peor, Yehovah thy God hath destroyed him from thy midst;

and ye who are cleaving to Yehovah your God, are alive, all of you, to-day.

`See, I have taught you statutes and judgments, as Yehovah my God hath commanded me -- to do so, in the midst of the land whither ye are going in to possess it;

and ye have kept and done them (for it is your wisdom and your understanding) before the eyes of the peoples who hear all these statutes, and they have said, Only, a people wise and understanding is this great nation.

`For which is the great nation that hath God near unto it, as Yehovah our God, in all we have called unto him?

and which is the great nation which hath righteous statutes and judgments according to all this law which I am setting before you to-day?

`Only, take heed to thyself, and watch thy soul exceedingly, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they turn aside from thy heart, all days of thy life; and thou hast made them known to thy sons, and to thy sons` sons.

`The day when thou hast stood before Yehovah thy God in Horeb -- in Yehovah`s saying unto me, Assemble to Me the people, and I cause them to hear My words, so that they learn to fear Me all the days that they are alive on the ground, and their sons they teach; --

and ye draw near and stand under the mountain, and the mountain is burning with fire unto the heart of the heavens -- darkness, cloud, yea, thick darkness:

`And Yehovah speaketh unto you out of the midst of the fire; a voice of words ye are hearing and a similitude ye are not seeing, only a voice;

and He declareth to you His covenant, which He hath commanded you to do, the Ten Matters, and He writeth them upon two tables of stone.

`And me hath Yehovah commanded at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, for your doing them in the land whither ye are passing over to possess it;

and ye have been very watchful of your souls, for ye have not seen any similitude in the day of Yehovah`s speaking unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire,

lest ye do corruptly, and have made to you a graven image, a similitude of any figure, a form of male or female --

a form of any beast which is in the earth -- a form of any winged bird which flieth in the heavens --

a form of any creeping thing on the ground -- a form of any fish which is in the waters under the earth;

`And lest thou lift up thine eyes towards the heavens, and hast seen the sun, and the moon, and the stars, all the host of the heavens, and thou hast been forced, and hast bowed thyself to them, and served them, which Yehovah thy God hath apportioned to all the peoples under the whole heavens.

`And you hath Yehovah taken, and He is bringing you out from the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be to Him for a people -- an inheritance, as at this day.

`And Yehovah hath shewed himself wroth with me because of your words, and sweareth to my not passing over the Jordan, and to my not going in unto the good land which Yehovah thy God is giving to thee -- an inheritance;

for I am dying in this land; I am not passing over the Jordan, and ye are passing over, and have possessed this good land.

`Take heed to yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of Yehovah your God, which He hath made with you, and have made to yourselves a graven image, a similitude of anything concerning which Yehovah thy God hath charged thee:

for Yehovah thy God is a fire consuming -- a zealous God.

`When thou begettest sons and sons` sons, and ye have become old in the land, and have done corruptly, and have made a graven image, a similitude of anything, and have done the evil thing in the eyes of Yehovah, to provoke Him to anger: --

I have caused to testify against you this day the heavens and the earth, that ye do perish utterly hastily from off the land whither ye are passing over the Jordan to possess it; ye do not prolong days upon it, but are utterly destroyed;

and Yehovah hath scattered you among the peoples, and ye have been left few in number among the nations, whither Yehovah leadeth you,

and ye have served there gods, work of man`s hands, wood and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.

`And -- ye have sought from thence Yehovah thy God, and hast found, when thou seekest Him with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,

in distress being to thee, and all these things have found thee, in the latter end of the days, and thou hast turned back unto Yehovah thy God, and hast hearkened to His voice;

for a merciful God is Yehovah thy God; He doth not fail thee, nor destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers, which He hath sworn to them.

`For, ask, I pray thee, at the former days which have been before thee, from the day that God prepared man on the earth, and from the one end of the heavens even unto the other end of the heavens, whether there hath been as this great thing -- or hath been heard like it?

Hath a people heard the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, thou -- and doth live?

Or hath God tried to go in to take to Himself, a nation from the midst of a nation, by trials, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a strong hand, and by a stretched-out arm, and by great terrors -- according to all that Yehovah your God hath done to you, in Egypt, before your eyes?

Thou, thou hast been shewn it, to know that Yehovah He is God; there is none else besides Him.

`From the heavens He hath caused thee to hear His voice, to instruct thee, and on earth He hath shewed thee His great fire, and His words thou hast heard out of the midst of the fire.

`And because that He hath loved thy fathers, He doth also fix on their seed after them, and doth bring thee out, in His presence, by His great power, from Egypt:

to dispossess nations greater and stronger than thou, from thy presence, to bring thee in to give to thee their land -- an inheritance, as at this day.

`And thou hast known to-day, and hast turned it back unto thy heart, that Yehovah He is God, in the heavens above, and on the earth beneath -- there is none else;

and thou hast kept His statutes and His commands which I am commanding thee to-day, so that it is well to thee, and to thy sons after thee, and so that thou prolongest days on the ground which Yehovah thy God is giving to thee -- all the days.`

Then Moses separateth three cities beyond the Jordan, towards the sun-rising,

for the fleeing thither of the man-slayer, who slayeth his neighbour unknowingly, and he is not hating him heretofore, and he hath fled unto one of these cities, and he hath lived:

Bezer, in the wilderness, in the land of the plain, of the Reubenite; and Ramoth, in Gilead, of the Gadite; and Golan, in Bashan, of the Manassahite.

And this is the law which Moses hath set before the sons of Israel;

these are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which Moses hath spoken unto the sons of Israel, in their coming out of Egypt,

beyond the Jordan, in the valley over-against Beth-Peor, in the land of Sihon, king of the Amorite, who is dwelling in Heshbon, whom Moses and the sons of Israel have smitten, in their coming out of Egypt,

and they possess his land, and the land of Og king of Bashan, two kings of the Amorite who are beyond the Jordan, towards the sun-rising;

from Aroer, which is by the edge of the brook Arnon, even unto mount Sion, which is Hermon --

and all the plain beyond the Jordan eastward, even unto the sea of the plain, under the springs of Pisgah.