|
Scriptural Text [& Editorial]
|
Commentary & Explanation
|
Footnotes ~ References ~ JST
|
CHAPTER 4
Moses exhorts Israel to keep commandments, to teach them to their children
and to be exemplary before all nations—They are forbidden to make
graven images or worship other gods—To witness that they had heard the
voice of God—Israel shall be scattered among all nations when they
worship other gods—They shall be gathered again in latter days when
they seek the Lord their God—Moses extols mercy and goodness of God to
Israel.
|
|
|
1 NOW therefore hearken,
O Israel, unto the astatutes and unto the
bjudgments, 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 aadd 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
abecause of bBaal-peor: for all the men
that followed Baal-peor, 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 awisdom and your bunderstanding in
the sight of the cnations, which shall hear all these
dstatutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a
wise and understanding people.
7 For what anation is there
so great, who hath God so bnigh 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
astatutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?
9 Only take aheed to thyself, and
keep thy soul diligently, lest thou bforget the things
which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days
of thy life: but cteach them thy dsons,
and thy sons' sons;
10 Specially the day that thou stoodest before
the LORD thy God in aHoreb, when the LORD said unto me,
bGather me the people together, and I will make them
chear my words, that they may learn to
dfear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth,
and that they may teach their echildren.
|
|
|
11 And ye came near and stood aunder
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 avoice of the words, but saw no
bsimilitude; only ye heard a voice.
13 And he declared unto you his
acovenant, which he commanded you to perform, even
bten ccommandments; and he
dwrote them upon two etables of stone.
|
|
|
|
14 ¶ And the LORD commanded me at that time to
ateach 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 acorrupt
yourselves, and make you a graven bimage, 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 astars,
even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to
bworship them, and serve cthem, 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
ainheritance, as ye are this day.
21 Furthermore the LORD was aangry
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
aforget the bcovenant 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
afire, even a bjealous 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 aevil in the sight of the LORD
thy God, to provoke him to banger:
26 I call aheaven and earth to
witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the
land whereunto ye go over bJordan to possess it; ye shall
not prolong your days upon it, but shall cutterly be
destroyed.
|
|
|
27 And the LORD shall ascatter
you among the nationsa, and ye
shall be left few in number
bamong the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you.
28 And there ye shall serve agods,
the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither
bsee, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
|
27a the LORD shall scatter you among the
nations Here again, Moses sets out, well before hand, the coming
of the scattering of Israel into the nations of the earth.
|
|
29 But if from thence thou shalt aseek
the LORD thy God, thou shalt bfind him, if thou seek
him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
30 When thou art in atribulation,
and all these things are come upon thee, even in the
blatter days, if thou cturn to the LORD
thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice;
31 (For the LORD thy God is a
amerciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy
thee, nor forget the bcovenant 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 ahear the
bvoice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as
thou hast heard, and live?
34 Or hath God aassayed to go
and take him a bnation from the midst of
another nation, by ctemptations, by signs, and by
dwonders, and by war, and by a emighty
hand, and by a fstretched 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 aGod; there is
bnone else beside him.
36 Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that
he might ainstruct thee: and upon earth he
bshewed thee his great fire; and thou heardest his words
out of the midst of the fire.
37 And because he aloved thy
fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in
his sight with his mighty power out of bEgypt;
38 To adrive out nations from
before thee greater and mightier than thou art, to bring thee in, to
give thee their land for an binheritance, as it
is this day.
|
|
|
39 Know therefore this day, and consider it in
thine heart, that the LORD he is aGod in heaven
above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.
40 Thou shalt akeep 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
bprolong thy cdays upon the
dearth, which the LORD thy God giveth thee, for ever.
|
|
|
41 ¶ Then Moses asevered three
cities on this side Jordan btoward the sunrising;
42 That the slayer might flee thither, which should
kill his neighbour aunawares, and hated him not in times
past; and that fleeing unto one of these cities he might
blive:
43 Namely, Bezer in the wilderness,
ain the bplain 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 Beth-peor, 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 aArnon, even unto mount bSion,
which is cHermon,
49 And all athe plain on this side
Jordan eastward, even unto bthe sea of the plain,
cunder the springs of Pisgah.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|