Deuteronomy 4-6

New Life Version

Moses Tells Israel to Obey

4 “Now, O Israel, listen to the Laws I am teaching you. Do them so that you may live and go in to take the land for your own that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. ² Do not add to the Word that I tell you, and do not take away from it. Keep the Laws of the Lord your God which I tell you. ³ Your eyes saw what the Lord did because of Baal-peor. The Lord your God destroyed from among you all the men who followed the Baal of Peor. ⁴ But you who stayed faithful to the Lord your God are all alive today. ⁵ See, I have taught you Laws just as the Lord my God told me. So you are to live by them in the land you are going to have for your own. ⁶ Keep them and do them. For this will show how wise and understanding you are. The people who will hear all these Laws will say, ‘For sure this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ ⁷ For what great nation is there that has a god so near as the Lord our God is to us every time we call to Him? ⁸ What great nation is there that has laws as right as this whole Law which I am giving you today?

⁹ “Only be careful. Keep watch over your life. Or you might forget the things you have seen. Do not let them leave your heart for the rest of your life. But teach them to your children and to your grandchildren. ¹⁰ Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Mount Sinai. The Lord said to me, ‘Gather the people together before Me, so I may let them hear My words. Then they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and they may teach their children.’ ¹¹ You came near and stood at the bottom of the mountain. And the mountain burned with fire into the heavens, which were covered with darkness and black clouds. ¹² Then the Lord spoke to you from the center of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no body. There was only a voice. ¹³ He told you His agreement which He told you to keep, the Ten Laws. And He wrote them on two pieces of stone. ¹⁴ The Lord told me at that time to teach you Laws. So you might obey them in the land that you are going to have for your own.

Israel Not to Worship False Gods

¹⁵ “So watch yourselves and be careful. For you saw no body on the day the Lord spoke to you in the fire at Mount Sinai. ¹⁶ Do not become sinful and make a false god for yourselves that looks like a body or object, like a male or female, ¹⁷ or like an animal on the earth, or a bird with wings that flies in the sky, ¹⁸ or like anything that moves on the ground, or like any fish in the water below the earth. ¹⁹ Be careful not to lift up your eyes toward heaven and see the sun and moon and stars, all the things of heaven, and be pulled away and worship them and serve them. The Lord your God has given these things to all the nations under the whole heavens. ²⁰ But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron stove, out of Egypt, to be His own people, as you are this day.

²¹ “The Lord was angry with me because of you. He swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and that I should not go into the good land the Lord your God is giving you for your own. ²² For I must die in this land. I will not cross the Jordan. But you will cross and take that good land for your own. ²³ So watch yourselves, so that you do not forget the agreement the Lord your God made with you, or make a false god for yourselves that looks like something which the Lord your God has told you not to do. ²⁴ For the Lord your God is an all-burning fire, a jealous God.

²⁵ “When you become the father of children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, if you become sinful and make a god that looks like anything, and anger the Lord your God by doing what is bad in His eyes, ²⁶ I call heaven and earth to speak against you this day. You will soon be destroyed from the land you are crossing the Jordan to have for your own. You will not live long on it, but will all be destroyed. ²⁷ The Lord will spread you out among the nations. And there will not be many of you left among the nations where the Lord will drive you. ²⁸ There you will work for gods made by man’s hands out of wood and stone. They do not see or hear or eat or smell. ²⁹ But from there you will look for the Lord your God. And you will find Him if you look for Him with all your heart and soul. ³⁰ When you are in trouble and all these things have happened to you in later days, you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice. ³¹ For the Lord your God is a God of loving-pity. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the agreement He promised to your fathers.

³² “Ask about the past days, the days before your time, since the day that God made man on the earth. Ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything been done like this great thing? Has anything been heard like it? ³³ Have any people ever heard the voice of God speaking from the center of the fire, as you have heard it, and still live? ³⁴ Or has a god tried to go to take for himself a nation from within another nation, by trials, special things to see, great works, war, a powerful hand, a long arm, and spreading much fear? The Lord your God did this for you in Egypt in front of your eyes. ³⁵ It was shown to you so you might know that the Lord is God. There is no other except Him. ³⁶ He let you hear His voice from the heavens to teach you. On earth He let you see His great fire. And you heard His words from the center of the fire. ³⁷ He loved your fathers, so He chose their children after them. He Himself brought you from Egypt by His great power. ³⁸ He drove out from in front of you nations greater and more powerful than you. And He brought you in and gave you their land for your own, as it is today. ³⁹ So know this day, take it to your heart, that the Lord is God in the heavens above and on the earth below. There is no other. ⁴⁰ Keep His Laws which I am giving you today. Then it may go well with you and your children after you. And you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”

⁴¹ Then Moses set apart three cities east of the Jordan ⁴² where a person may run to, if he killed his neighbor without meaning to and had not hated him in the past. He might save his life by running to one of these cities: ⁴³ Bezer in the desert on the plain for the Reubenites, and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.

⁴⁴ This is the Law which Moses gave to the children of Israel. ⁴⁵ These are the Laws which Moses spoke to the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt. ⁴⁶ They were on the other side of the Jordan, in the valley beside Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon, king of the Amorites who lived at Heshbon. Moses and the sons of Israel won the war against him when they came out of Egypt. ⁴⁷ They took for their own his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, east of the Jordan, ⁴⁸ from Aroer beside the valley of Arnon, as far as Mount Sion (that is, Hermon). ⁴⁹ They took all the Arabah east of the Jordan, as far as the sea of the Arabah at the bottom of the hills of Pisgah.

God’s Ten Great Laws

5 Then Moses called all Israel, and said to them, “Listen, O Israel, to the Laws which I speak in your hearing today. Learn them and be careful to live by them. ² The Lord our God made an agreement with us at Mount Sinai. ³ The Lord did not make this agreement with our fathers, but with us, all those of us alive here today. ⁴ The Lord spoke to you face to face at the mountain from the center of the fire. ⁵ I was standing between the Lord and you then, to tell you the Word of the Lord. For you were afraid because of the fire and did not go up the mountain. He said:

⁶ ‘I am the Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house where you were servants.

⁷ ‘Have no other gods except Me.

⁸ ‘Do not make a false god for yourselves, or anything that is like what is in heaven above or on the earth below or in the water under the earth. ⁹ Do not bow down to them or serve them. I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. I punish the children, the grandchildren and the great-grandchildren for the sins of their fathers who hate Me. ¹⁰ But I show loving-kindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Laws.

¹¹ ‘Do not use the name of the Lord your God in a bad way. For the Lord will punish the one who uses His name in a bad way.

¹² ‘Remember the Day of Rest, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God told you. ¹³ Six days you will do all your work. ¹⁴ But the seventh day is a Day of Rest to the Lord your God. You, your son, your daughter, your man servant, your woman servant, your bull, donkey or any of your cattle, or the traveler who stays with you, must not do any work on this day. So your man servant and woman servant may rest as well as you. ¹⁵ Remember that you were servants in the land of Egypt. The Lord your God brought you out of there by a powerful hand and a long arm. So the Lord your God told you to keep the Day of Rest.

¹⁶ ‘Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has told you. So your life may be long and it may go well with you in the land the Lord your God gives you.

¹⁷ ‘Do not kill another person.

¹⁸ ‘Do not do sex sins.

¹⁹ ‘Do not steal.

²⁰ ‘Do not tell a lie about your neighbor.

²¹ ‘Do not have a desire for your neighbor’s wife. Do not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his man servant, his bull, his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.’

²² “The Lord spoke these words to you while you were all gathered at the mountain. He spoke with a loud voice from the center of the fire, the cloud and the darkness. He added no more. And He wrote them on two pieces of stone and gave them to me.

The People Are Afraid

²³ “When you heard the voice from the center of the darkness while the mountain burned with fire, you came to me with all the heads of your families and your leaders. ²⁴ And you said, ‘See, the Lord our God has shown us His shining-greatness. We have heard His voice from the center of the fire. Today we have seen that God speaks with man and man still lives. ²⁵ But why should we die now? For this big fire will burn us up. If we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, we will die. ²⁶ For who of all flesh has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking from the center of the fire, as we have heard, and lived? ²⁷ Go near and hear all the Lord our God says. Then tell us all the Lord our God says to you, and we will listen and do it.’

²⁸ “The Lord heard what you said when you spoke to me. And the Lord said to me, ‘I have heard the words which the people have spoken to you. They have done well in all that they have said. ²⁹ If only they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and live by all My Laws always! Then it would go well with them and with their children forever. ³⁰ Go and say to them, “Return to your tents.” ³¹ But you stand here by Me. And I will tell you all the Laws which you should teach them, so they may keep them in the land I give them for their own.’ ³² Be careful to do just as the Lord your God has told you. Do not turn aside to the right or to the left. ³³ Walk in all the way the Lord your God has told you. Then you may live, it may be well with you, and you may live a long time in the land that will belong to you.

The Greatest Law

6 “These are the Laws which the Lord your God has told me to teach you. You are to do them in the land you are going to take for your own. ² Then you and your son and your grandson will fear the Lord your God. You will obey all His Laws that I tell you, all the days of your life. And then you will have a longer life. ³ O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do them. Then it will go well with you. And you will become many in a land flowing with milk and honey. This is what the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you.

⁴ “Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord! ⁵ And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ Keep these words in your heart that I am telling you today. ⁷ Do your best to teach them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road and when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as something special to see on your hand and on your forehead. ⁹ Write them beside the door of your house and on your gates.

¹⁰ “The Lord your God will bring you into the land He promised to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give to you. There will be big and beautiful cities which you did not build. ¹¹ Houses will be full of good things which you did not fill. There will be pools for keeping water which you did not dig, and grape vines and olive trees which you did not plant. You will eat and be filled. ¹² But then be careful not to forget the Lord Who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the land where you were held as servants. ¹³ You must fear the Lord your God. You must worship Him, and swear by His name. ¹⁴ Do not follow other gods, any of the gods of the people around you. ¹⁵ Or the anger of the Lord your God will burn against you. He will destroy you from the earth. For the Lord your God Who is among you is a jealous God.

¹⁶ “Do not test the Lord your God, as you put Him to the test at Massah. ¹⁷ Be careful to keep all the Laws which the Lord your God has told you. ¹⁸ Do what is right and good in the eyes of the Lord. Then it will be well with you. And you may go in and take the good land for your own which the Lord promised to give to your fathers. ¹⁹ You will drive out of your way all who hate you, as the Lord has promised.

²⁰ “In time to come your son will ask you, ‘What do all the Laws mean which the Lord told you?’ ²¹ Then say to your son, ‘We were servants of Pharaoh in Egypt. But the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand. ²² The Lord showed us great and powerful works against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all those of his house. ²³ The Lord brought us out from there to bring us into the land He had promised to our fathers.’ ²⁴ So the Lord told us to do all these Laws and to fear the Lord our God for our good always, as it is today. ²⁵ We will be right with the Lord our God if we are careful to obey all of the Law before Him, just as He told us.