“1 Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the
judgments, which I teach you, for to do [them], that ye may live, and go
in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers giveth you. 2
Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye
diminish [ought] from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD
your God which I command you. 3 Your 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 did cleave
unto the LORD your God [are] alive every one of you this day. 5 Behold,
I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God
commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess
it. 6 Keep therefore and do [them]; for this [is] your 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] nigh unto them, as the LORD our God [is] in all [things that]
we call upon him [for]? 8 And what nation [is there so] great, that hath
statutes and judgments [so] righteous as all this law, which I set
before you this day? 9 Only take heed to thyself, and 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 [Specially] the day that thou stoodest
before the LORD thy God in Horeb, when the LORD said unto me, Gather me
the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may
learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and
[that] they may teach their children. 11 And ye came near and stood
under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst of
heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness. 12 And the LORD spake
unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words,
but saw no similitude; only [ye heard] a voice. 13 And he declared unto
you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, [even] ten
commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone. 14 And the
LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that
ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it. 15 Take
ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of
similitude on the day [that] the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the
midst of the fire: 16 Lest ye corrupt [yourselves], and make you a
graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or
female, 17 The likeness of any beast that [is] on the earth, the
likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air, 18 The likeness of
any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness 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 hath divided unto all
nations under the whole heaven. 20 But the LORD hath taken you, and
brought you forth out of the iron furnace, [even] out of Egypt, to be
unto him a people of inheritance, as [ye are] this day. 21 Furthermore
the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, and sware that I should not
go over Jordan, and that I should not go in unto that good land, which
the LORD thy God giveth thee [for] an inheritance: 22 But I must die in
this land, I must not go over Jordan: but ye shall go over, and possess
that good land. 23 Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the
covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make you a
graven image, [or] the likeness of any [thing], which the LORD thy God
hath forbidden thee. 24 For the LORD thy God [is] a 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 shall 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 I 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 shall 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 serve gods, the work of
men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor
smell. 29 But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou
shalt find [him], if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy
soul. 30 When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come
upon thee, [even] in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God,
and shalt be obedient unto his voice; 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 he 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, and [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 [ever] people hear
the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast
heard, and live? 34 Or hath God assayed to go [and] take him a nation
from the midst of [another] nation, by 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
mightest know that the LORD he [is] God; [there is] none else beside
him. 36 Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he might
instruct thee: and upon earth he shewed thee his great fire; and thou
heardest his words out of the midst of the fire. 37 And because 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 drive out
nations from before thee greater and mightier than thou [art], to bring
thee in, to give thee their land [for] an inheritance, as [it is] this
day. 39 Know therefore this day, and consider [it] in thine heart, that
the LORD he [is] God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: [there
is] none else. 40 Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes, and his
commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may 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 severed three cities on this side Jordan toward the
sunrising; 42 That the slayer might flee thither, which should kill his
neighbour unawares, and hated him not in times past; and that fleeing
unto one of these cities he might live: 43 [Namely], Bezer in the
wilderness, in the plain country, of the Reubenites; and Ramoth in
Gilead, of the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, of the Manassites. 44 And
this [is] the law which Moses set before the children of Israel: 45
These [are] the 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 Jordan, in the valley over against Bethpeor, in
the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moses
and the children of Israel smote, after they were come forth out of
Egypt: 47 And they possessed his land, and the land of Og king of
Bashan, two kings of the Amorites, which [were] on this side Jordan
toward the sunrising; 48 From Aroer, which [is] by the bank of the river
Arnon, even unto mount Sion, which [is] Hermon, 49 And all the plain on
this side Jordan eastward, even unto the sea of the plain, under the
springs of Pisgah.” (Deuteronomy 4:1-49 AV)
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