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Deuteronomy 4

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1Hear now, O Israel, the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you.

2Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.

3You saw with your own eyes what the Lord did at Baal Peor. The Lord your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor,

4but all of you who held fast to the Lord your God are still alive today.

5See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the Lord my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it.

6Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”

7What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?

8And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?

9Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.

10Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when he said to me, “Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.”

11You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain while it blazed with fire to the very heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness.

12Then the Lord spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice.

13He declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two stone tablets.

14And the Lord directed me at that time to teach you the decrees and laws you are to follow in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.

15You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully,

16so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman,

17or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air,

18or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below.

19And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars–all the heavenly array–do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.

20But as for you, the Lord took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of his inheritance, as you now are.

21The Lord was angry with me because of you, and he solemnly swore that I would not cross the Jordan and enter the good land the Lord your God is giving you as your inheritance.

22I will die in this land; I will not cross the Jordan; but you are about to cross over and take possession of that good land.

23Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the Lord your God has forbidden.

24For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

25After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time–if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and provoking him to anger,

26I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed.

27The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the Lord will drive you.

28There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.

29But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.

30When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey him.

31For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which he confirmed to them by oath.

32Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created man on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of?

33Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived?

34Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

35You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other.

36From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the fire.

37Because he loved your forefathers and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength,

38to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today.

39Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other.

40Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the Lord your God gives you for all time.

41Then Moses set aside three cities east of the Jordan,

42to which anyone who had killed a person could flee if he had unintentionally killed his neighbor without malice aforethought. He could flee into one of these cities and save his life.

43The cities were these: Bezer in the desert plateau, for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead, for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, for the Manassites.

44This is the law Moses set before the Israelites.

45These are the stipulations, decrees and laws Moses gave them when they came out of Egypt

46and were in the valley near Beth Peor east of the Jordan, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon and was defeated by Moses and the Israelites as they came out of Egypt.

47They took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan.

48This land extended from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Gorge to Mount Siyon (that is, Hermon),

49and included all the Arabah east of the Jordan, as far as the Sea of the Arabah, below the slopes of Pisgah.

Commentary

CHAPTER 4De 4:1-13. An Exhortation to Obedience.1. hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you—By statutes were meant all ordinances respecting religion and the rites of divine worship; and by judgments, all enactments relative to civil matters. The two embraced the whole law of God.

4:1-23 The power and love of God to Israel are here made the ground and reason of a number of cautions and serious warnings; and although there is much reference to their national covenant, yet all may be applied to those who live under the gospel. What are laws made for but to be observed and obeyed? Our obedience as individuals cannot merit salvation; but it is the only evidence that we are partakers of the gift of God, which is eternal life through Jesus Christ, Considering how many temptations we are compassed with, and what corrupt desires we have in our bosoms, we have great need to keep our hearts with all diligence. Those cannot walk aright, who walk carelessly. Moses charges particularly to take heed of the sin of idolatry. He shows how weak the temptation would be to those who thought aright; for these pretended gods, the sun, moon, and stars, were only blessings which the Lord their God had imparted to all nations. It is absurd to worship them; shall we serve those that were made to serve us? Take heed lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God. We must take heed lest at any time we forget our religion. Care, caution, and watchfulness, are helps against a bad memory.

Chapter 4 In this chapter we have, I. A most earnest and pathetic exhortation to obedience, both in general, and in some particular instances, backed with a great variety of very pressing arguments, repeated again and again, and set before them in the most moving and affectionate manner imaginable (v. 1–40). II. The appointing of the cities of refuge on that side Jordan (v. 41–43). III. The particular description of the place where Moses delivered the following repetition of the law (v. 44, etc.).Verses 1-40 This most lively and excellent discourse is so entire, and the particulars of it are so often repeated, that we must take it altogether in the exposition of it, and endeavour to digest it into proper heads, for we cannot divide it into paragraphs.I. In general, it is the use and application of the foregoing history; it comes in by way of inference from it: Now therefore harken, O Israel, v. 1. This use we should make of the review of God’s providences concerning us, we should by them be quickened and engaged to duty and obedience. The histories of the years of ancient times should in like manner be improved by us.II. The scope and drift of his discourse is to persuade them to keep close to God and to his service, and not to forsake him for any other god, nor in any instance to decline from their duty to him. Now observe what he says to them, with a great deal of divine rhetoric, both by way of exhortation and direction, and also by way of motive and argument to enforce his exhortations.1. See here how he charges and commands them, and shows them what is good, and what the Lord requires of them.(1.) He demands their diligent attention to the word of God, and to the statutes and judgments that were taught them: Hearken, O Israel. He means, not only that they must now give him the hearing, but that whenever the book of the law was read to them, or read by them, they should be attentive to it. "Hearken to the statutes, as containing the great commands of God and the great concerns of your own souls, and therefore challenging your utmost attention." At Horeb God had made them hear his words (v. 10), hear them with a witness; the attention which was then constrained by the circumstances of the delivery ought ever after to be engaged by the excellency of the things themselves. What God so spoke once, we should hear twice, hear often.(2.) He charges them to preserve the divine law pure and entire among them, v. 2. Keep it pure, and do not add to it; keep it entire, and do not diminish from it. Not in practice, so some: "You shall not add by committing the evil which the law forbids, nor diminish by omitting the good which the law requires." Not in opinion, so others: "You shall not add your own inventions, as if the divine institutions were defective, nor introduce, much less impose, any rites of religious worship other than what God has appointed; nor shall you diminish, or set aside, any thing that is appointed, as needless or superfluous." God’s work is perfect, nothing can be put to it, nor taken from it, without making it the worse. See Eccl. 3:14. The Jews understand it as prohibiting the alteration of the text or letter of the law, even in the least jot or tittle; and to their great care and exactness herein we are very much indebted, under God, for the purity and integrity of the Hebrew code. We find a fence like this made about the New Testament in the close of it, Rev. 22:18, 19.(3.) He charges them to keep God’s commandments (v. 2), to do them (v. 5, 14), to keep and do them (v. 6), to perform the covenant, v. 13. Hearing must be in order to doing, knowledge in order to practice. God’s commandments were the way they must keep in, the rule they must keep to; they must govern themselves by the moral precepts, perform their devotion according to the divine ritual, and administer justice according to the judicial law. He concludes his discourse (v. 40) with this repeated charge: Thou shalt keep his statutes and his commandments which I command thee. What are laws made for but to be observed and obeyed?(4.) He charges them to be very strict and careful in their observance of the law (v. 9): Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently; and (v. 15), Take you therefore good heed unto yourselves; and again (v. 23), Take heed to yourselves. Those that would be religious must be very cautious, and walk circumspectly.

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Translations8 · 5

AMHEVG አሁንም፥ እስራኤል ሆይ፥ እንድታደርጉአቸው በሕይወትም እንድትኖሩ፥ የአባቶቻችሁም አምላክ እግዚአብሔር ወደሚሰጣችሁ ምድር ገብታችሁ እንድትወርሱ፥ የማስተምራችሁን ሥርዓትና ፍርድ ስሙ። አማርኛ BCV “ሕዚ ድማ፥ ኦ እስራኤል! ምእንቲ ብህይወት ክትነብሩን ናብታ እግዚኣብሄር ኣምላኽ ኣቦታትኩም ዝህበኩም ምድሪ ኽትኣትዉን ክትወርስዋን፥ ነዝ ኣነ ኽትገብርዎ ኢለ ዝምህረኩም ዘለኹ ሕግጋትን ፍ… ትግርኛ GAZBIB Museen itti fufee saba sanaan,“Ammas isin yaa saba Israa'el, akka jiraattaniif, biyya Waaqayyo gooftaan inni kan abboot… Afaan Oromoo BCV GIZ ወይእዜኒ እስራኤል ስምዑ ኵነኔሁ ወፍትሖ ዛእሜህረክሙ አነ ዮም ከመ ትግበሩ ወትኅየው ወትትባዝኁ ወትባኡ ወትትዋረስዋ ለምድር እንተ ይሁበክሙ እግዚአብሔር አምላኮሙ ለአበዊክሙ። giz GAZGAZ Museen itti fufee saba sanaan,“Ammas isin yaa saba Israa'el, akka jiraattaniif, biyya Waaqayyo gooftaan inni kan abboot… Afaan Oromoo BCV aksum “ሕዚ ድማ፥ ኦ እስራኤል! ምእንቲ ብህይወት ክትነብሩን ናብታ እግዚኣብሄር ኣምላኽ ኣቦታትኩም ዝህበኩም ምድሪ ኽትኣትዉን ክትወርስዋን፥ ነዝ ኣነ ኽትገብርዎ ኢለ ዝምህረኩም ዘለኹ ሕግጋትን ፍ… ትግርኛ AMHNIV አሁንም እስራኤል ሆይ፤ በሕይወት እንድትኖሩ፣ የአባቶቻችሁ አምላክእግዚአብሔር (ኤሎሂም ያህዌ) ወደሚሰጣችሁ ምድር እንድትገቡና እንድትወርሱ የማስተምራችሁን ሥርዐትና ሕግ ስሙ፤ ጠብቋቸውም። አማርኛ SWAHSUV Na sasa, Ee Israeli, zisikilizeni amri na hukumu niwafundishazo, ili mzitende; mpate kuishi na kuingia na kuimiliki nch… Kiswahili