A modern English translation drawn directly from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. Translated word-for-word where possible, by a committee with scholarly oversight.
Uses the same source texts as the ESV, NASB, and most academic Bibles, including the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and the Nestle-Aland critical edition.
Deuteronomy 4
Chapter summary coming soon.
Verse 1. Hear now, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances I am teaching you to follow, so that you may live and may enter and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.
Verse 2. You must not add to or subtract from what I command you, so that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I am giving you.
Verse 3. Your eyes have seen what the LORD did at Baal-peor, for the LORD your God destroyed from among you all who followed Baal of Peor.
Verse 4. But you who held fast to the LORD your God are alive to this day, every one of you.
Verse 5. See, I have taught you statutes and ordinances just as the LORD my God has commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land that you are about to enter and possess.
Verse 6. Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the peoples, who will hear of all these statutes and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”
Verse 7. For what nation is great enough to have a god as near to them as the LORD our God is to us whenever we call on Him?
Verse 8. And what nation is great enough to have righteous statutes and ordinances like this entire law I set before you today?
Verse 9. Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen, and so that they do not slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and grandchildren.
Verse 10. The day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, the LORD said to me, “Gather the people before Me to hear My words, so that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach them to their children.”
Verse 11. You came near and stood at the base of the mountain, a mountain blazing with fire to the heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness.
Verse 12. And the LORD spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of the words but saw no form; there was only a voice.
Verse 13. He declared to you His covenant, which He commanded you to follow—the Ten Commandments that He wrote on two tablets of stone.
Verse 14. At that time the LORD commanded me to teach you the statutes and ordinances you are to follow in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.
Verse 15. So since you saw no form of any kind on the day the LORD spoke to you out of the fire at Horeb, be careful
Verse 16. that you do not act corruptly and make an idol for yourselves of any form or shape, whether in the likeness of a male or female,
Verse 17. of any beast that is on the earth or bird that flies in the air,
Verse 18. or of any creature that crawls on the ground or fish that is in the waters below.
Verse 19. When you look to the heavens and see the sun and moon and stars—all the host of heaven—do not be enticed to bow down and worship what the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.
Verse 20. Yet the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of His inheritance, as you are today.
Verse 21. The LORD, however, was angry with me on account of you, and He swore that I would not cross the Jordan to enter the good land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.
Verse 22. For I will not be crossing the Jordan, because I must die in this land. But you shall cross over and take possession of that good land.
Verse 23. Be careful that you do not forget the covenant of the LORD your God that He made with you; do not make an idol for yourselves in the form of anything He has forbidden you.
Verse 24. For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
Verse 25. After you have children and grandchildren and you have been in the land a long time, if you then act corruptly and make an idol of any form—doing evil in the sight of the LORD your God and provoking Him to anger—
Verse 26. I 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 long upon it, but will be utterly destroyed.
Verse 27. Then the 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.
Verse 28. And there you will serve man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.
Verse 29. But if from there you will seek the LORD your God, you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Verse 30. When 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 listen to His voice.
Verse 31. For the LORD your God is a merciful God; He will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers, which He swore to them by oath.
Verse 32. Indeed, ask now from one end of the heavens to the other about the days that long preceded you, from the day that God created man on earth: Has anything as great as this ever happened or been reported?
Verse 33. Has a people ever heard the voice of God speaking out of the fire, as you have, and lived?
Verse 34. Or has any god tried to take as his own a nation out of another nation—by trials, signs, wonders, and war, by a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors—as the LORD your God did for you in Egypt, before your eyes?
Verse 35. You were shown these things so that you would know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides Him.
Verse 36. He let you hear His voice from heaven to discipline you, and on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the fire.
Verse 37. Because He loved your fathers, He chose their descendants after them and brought you out of Egypt by His presence and great power,
Verse 38. to drive out before you nations greater and mightier than you, and to bring you into their land and give it to you for your inheritance, as it is this day.
Verse 39. Know therefore this day and take to heart that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other.
Verse 40. Keep His statutes and commandments, which I am giving you today, so that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may live long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for all time.
Verse 41. Then Moses set aside three cities across the Jordan to the east
Verse 42. to which a manslayer could flee after killing his neighbor unintentionally without prior malice. To save one’s own life, he could flee to one of these cities:
Verse 43. Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau belonging to the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead belonging to the Gadites, or Golan in Bashan belonging to the Manassites.
Verse 44. This is the law that Moses set before the Israelites.
Verse 45. These are the testimonies, statutes, and ordinances that Moses proclaimed to them after they had come out of Egypt,
Verse 46. while they were in the valley across the Jordan facing Beth-peor in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon and was defeated by Moses and the Israelites after they had come out of Egypt.
Verse 47. They took possession of the land belonging to Sihon and to Og king of Bashan—the two Amorite kings across the Jordan to the east—
Verse 48. extending from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Valley as far as Mount Siyon (that is, Hermon),
Verse 49. including all the Arabah on the east side of the Jordan and as far as the Sea of the Arabah, below the slopes of Pisgah.