Deuteronômio 4

¹ Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for toFor this doctrine stands not in bare knowledge, but in practice of life.do [them], that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers giveth you.

² Ye shallThink not to be more wise than I am.not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall yeGod will not be served by halves, but will have full obedience.diminish [ought] from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.

³ YourGod's judgments executed on other idolaters ought to serve for our instruction, read (Num_25:3-4).eyes have seen what the LORD did because of Baalpeor: for all the men that followed Baalpeor, the LORD thy God hath destroyed them from among you.

⁴ But ye that didAnd were not idolaters.cleave unto the LORD your God [are] alive every one of you this day.

⁵ Behold, I haue taught you ordinances, and lawes, as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should doe euen so within the land whither ye goe to possesse it.

⁶ Keep therefore and do [them]; for this [is] yourBecause all men naturally desire wisdom, he shows how to attain it.wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation [is] a wise and understanding people.

⁷ For what nation [is there so] great, who [hath] God [so]Helping us, and delivering us out of all dangers, as in (2Sa_7:23).nigh unto them, as the LORD our God [is] in all [things that] we call upon him [for]?

⁸ And what nation is so great, that hath ordinances and lawes so righteous, as all this Lawe, which I set before you this day?

⁹ Only take heed to thyself, andHe adds all these words, to show that we can never be careful enough to keep the law of God and to teach it to our posterity.keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons;

¹⁰ Forget not the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord said vnto me, Gather me the people together, and I wil cause them heare my wordes, that they may learne to feare me all the dayes that they shal liue vpon the earth, and that they may teache their children:

¹¹ And ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountainThe law was given with fearful miracles, to declare both that God was the author of it, and also that no flesh was able to abide the rigour of the same.burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness.

¹² And the Lorde spake vnto you out of the middes of the fire, and ye heard the voyce of the wordes, but sawe no similitude, saue a voyce.

¹³ And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you toGod joins this condition to his covenant.perform, [even] ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.

¹⁴ And the Lord commanded me that same time, that I should teach you ordinances & lawes, which ye should obserue in the lande, whither ye goe, to possesse it.

¹⁵ Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw noSignifying, that destruction is prepared for all who make any image to represent God.manner of similitude on the day [that] the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire:

¹⁶ That ye corrupt not your selues, and make you a grauen image or representation of any figure: whither it be the likenes of male or female,

¹⁷ The likenes of any beast that is on earth, or the likenesse of any fethered foule that flieth in the aire:

¹⁸ Or the likenesse of any thing that creepeth on the earth, or the likenesse of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth,

¹⁹ And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, [even] all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hathHe has appointed them to serve man.divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.

²⁰ But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of theHe has delivered you out of most miserable slavery and freely chosen you for his.iron furnace, [even] out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as [ye are] this day.

²¹ And the Lord was angrie with me for your words, and sware that I should not goe ouer Iorden, and that I should not goe in vnto that good land, which the Lord thy God giueth thee for an inheritance.

²² But I must die in this land, I must not go over Jordan: butMoses good affection appears in that while he himself is deprived of such an excellent treasure, he does not envy those who must enjoy it.ye shall go over, and possess that good land.

²³ Take heede vnto your selues, least ye forget the couenant of the Lorde your God which hee made with you, and least ye make you any grauen image, or likenes of any thing, as the Lorde thy God hath charged thee.

²⁴ For the LORD thy God [is] aTo those that come not to him with love and reverence, but rebel against him.consuming fire, [even] a jealous God.

²⁵ When thou shalt beget children, and children's children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shallMeaning by this all superstition and corruption of the true service of God.corrupt [yourselves], and make a graven image, [or] the likeness of any [thing], and shall do evil in the sight of the LORD thy God, to provoke him to anger:

²⁶ IThough men would abuse you, yet the insensible creatures will be witnesses of your disobedience.call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong [your] days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed.

²⁷ And the LORD shallSo that his curse will make his former blessings ineffectual.scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you.

²⁸ And there ye shall serue gods, euen ye worke of mans hand, wood, and stone, which neither see, nor heare, nor eate, nor smell.

²⁹ But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find [him], if thou seek him with all thyNot with outward show or ceremony, but with a true confession of your faults.heart and with all thy soul.

³⁰ When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come vpon thee, at the length if thou returne to the Lorde thy God, and bee obedient vnto his voyce,

³¹ (For the LORD thy God [is] a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which heTo certify to them even more the assurance of their salvation.sware unto them.

³² For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, andMan's negligence is partially the cause for his ignorance of God.[ask] from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been [any such thing] as this great thing [is], or hath been heard like it?

³³ Did euer people heare the voyce of God speaking out of the middes of a fire, as thou hast heard, and liued?

³⁴ Or hath God assayed to go [and] take him a nation from the midst of [another] nation, byBy so manifest proofs that none could doubt of it.temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

³⁵ Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightestHe shows the reason why God did these miracles.know that the LORD he [is] God; [there is] none else beside him.

³⁶ Out of heauen hee made thee heare his voyce to instruct thee, and vpon earth he shewed thee his great fire, and thou heardest his voyce out of the middes of the fire.

³⁷ And becauseFreely, and not because they deserved it.he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt;

³⁸ To thrust out nations greater and mightier then thou, before thee, to bring thee in, and to giue thee their land for inheritance: as appeareth this day.

³⁹ Vnderstande therefore this day, and consider in thine heart, that the Lord, he is God in heauen aboue, and vpon the earth beneath: there is none other.

⁴⁰ Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it mayGod promises reward not for our merits, but to encourage us, and to assure us that our labour will not be lost.go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong [thy] days upon the earth, which the LORD thy God giveth thee, for ever.

⁴¹ Then Moses separated three cities on this side of Iorden toward the sunne rising:

⁴² That the slayer should flee thither, which had killed his neighbour at vnwares, and hated him not in time past, might flee, I say, vnto one of those cities, and liue:

⁴³ That is, Bezer in the wildernesse, in the plaine countrey of the Reubenites: and Ramoth in Gilead among the Gadites: and Golan in Bashan among them of Manasseh.

⁴⁴ So this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel.

⁴⁵ These [are] theThe articles and points of the covenant.testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which Moses spake unto the children of Israel, after they came forth out of Egypt,

⁴⁶ On this side Iorden, in the valley ouer against Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon King of the Amorites, which dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel smote, after they were come out of Egypt:

⁴⁷ And they possessed his land, and the lande of Og King of Bashan, two Kings of the Amorites, which were on this side Iorden towarde the sunne rising:

⁴⁸ From Aroer, which is by the banke of the riuer Arnon, euen vnto mount Sion, which is Hermon,

⁴⁹ And all the plain on this side Jordan eastward, even untoThat is, the salt sea.the sea of the plain, under the springs of Pisgah.