The Call of Wisdom

Moses Commands Obedience

4 “Now, O Israel, listen to ^(A)the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live, and go in and ^[a]possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you. ^2 (B)You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. ³ Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at ^(C)Baal Peor; for the Lord your God has destroyed from among you all the men who followed Baal of Peor. ⁴ But you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive today, every one of you.

⁵ “Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess. ⁶ Therefore be careful to observe them; for this is ^(D)your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’

⁷ “For ^(E)what great nation is there that has ^(F)God^[b] so near to it, as the Lord our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him? ⁸ And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day? ⁹ Only take heed to yourself, and diligently ^(G)keep yourself, lest you ^(H)forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And ^(I)teach them to your children and your grandchildren, ¹⁰ especially concerning ^(J)the day you stood before the Lord your God in Horeb, when the Lord said to me, ‘Gather the people to Me, and I will let them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.’

¹¹ “Then you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the midst of heaven, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness. ^12 (K)And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words, but saw no ^[c]form; ^(L)you only heard a voice. ^13 (M)So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, ^(N)the Ten Commandments; and ^(O)He wrote them on two tablets of stone. ¹⁴ And ^(P)the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might ^[d]observe them in the land which you cross over to possess.

Beware of Idolatry

^15 (Q)“Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no ^(R)form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, ¹⁶ lest you ^(S)act corruptly and ^(T)make for yourselves a carved image in the ^[e]form of any figure: ^(U)the likeness of male or female, ¹⁷ the likeness of any animal that is on the earth or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, ¹⁸ the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth. ¹⁹ And take heed, lest you ^(V)lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, ^(W)all the host of heaven, you feel driven to ^(X)worship them and serve them, which the Lord your God has ^[f]given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage. ²⁰ But the Lord has taken you and ^(Y)brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be ^(Z)His people, an inheritance, as you are this day. ²¹ Furthermore ^(AA)the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that ^(AB)I would not cross over the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. ²² But ^(AC)I must die in this land, ^(AD)I must not cross over the Jordan; but you shall cross over and ^[g]possess ^(AE)that good land. ²³ Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, ^(AF)and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you. ²⁴ For ^(AG)the Lord your God is a consuming fire, ^(AH)a jealous God.

²⁵ “When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and ^(AI)do evil in the sight of the Lord your God to provoke Him to anger, ^26 (AJ)I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess; you will not ^[h]prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed. ²⁷ And the Lord ^(AK)will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. ²⁸ And ^(AL)there you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, ^(AM)which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. ^29 (AN)But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. ³⁰ When you are in ^[i]distress, and all these things come upon you in the ^(AO)latter days, when you ^(AP)turn to the Lord your God and obey His voice ³¹ (for the Lord your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor ^(AQ)destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.

³² “For ^(AR)ask now concerning the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask ^(AS)from one end of heaven to the other, whether any great thing like this has happened, or anything like it has been heard. ^33 (AT)Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live? ³⁴ Or did God ever try to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, ^(AU)by trials, ^(AV)by signs, by wonders, by war, ^(AW)by a mighty hand and ^(AX)an outstretched arm, ^(AY)and by great ^[j]terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? ³⁵ To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord Himself is God; ^(AZ)there is none other besides Him. ^36 (BA)Out of heaven He let you hear His voice, that He might instruct you; on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire. ³⁷ And because ^(BB)He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their ^[k]descendants after them; and ^(BC)He brought you out of Egypt with His Presence, with His mighty power, ^38 (BD)driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day. ³⁹ Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that ^(BE)the Lord Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. ^40 (BF)You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that ^[l]it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may ^[m]prolong your days in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”

Cities of Refuge East of the Jordan

⁴¹ Then Moses ^(BG)set apart three cities on this side of the Jordan, toward the rising of the sun, ^42 (BH)that the manslayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without having hated him in time past, and that by fleeing to one of these cities he might live: ^43 (BI)Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau for the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.

Introduction to God’s Law

⁴⁴ Now this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel. ⁴⁵ These are the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which Moses spoke to the children of Israel after they came out of Egypt, ⁴⁶ on this side of the Jordan, ^(BJ)in the valley opposite Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel ^(BK)defeated^[n] after they came out of Egypt. ⁴⁷ And they took possession of his land and the land ^(BL)of Og king of Bashan, two kings of the Amorites, who were on this side of the Jordan, toward the ^[o]rising of the sun, ^48 (BM)from Aroer, which is on the bank of the River Arnon, even to Mount ^[p]Sion (that is, ^(BN)Hermon), ⁴⁹ and all the plain on the east side of the Jordan as far as the Sea of the Arabah, below the ^(BO)slopes of Pisgah.

Jonah’s Anger and God’s Kindness

4 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. ² So he prayed to the Lord, and said, “Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I ^(A)fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a ^(B)gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm. ^3 (C)Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for ^(D)it is better for me to die than to live!”

⁴ Then the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

⁵ So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would become of the city. ⁶ And the Lord God prepared a ^[a]plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah ^[b]was very grateful for the plant. ⁷ But as morning dawned the next day God prepared a worm, and it so damaged the plant that it withered. ⁸ And it happened, when the sun arose, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he grew faint. Then he wished death for himself, and said, ^(E)“It is better for me to die than to live.”

⁹ Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

And he said, “It is right for me to be angry, even to death!”

¹⁰ But the Lord said, “You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which ^[c]came up in a night and perished in a night. ¹¹ And should I not pity Nineveh, ^(F)that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons ^(G)who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock?”

Perilous Times and Perilous Men

3 But know this, that ^(A)in the last days ^[a]perilous times will come: ² For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, ³ unloving, ^[b]unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, ^4 (B)traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ^5 (C)having a form of godliness but ^(D)denying its power. And ^(E)from such people turn away! ⁶ For ^(F)of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, ⁷ always learning and never able ^(G)to come to the knowledge of the truth. ^8 (H)Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: ^(I)men of corrupt minds, ^(J)disapproved concerning the faith; ⁹ but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, ^(K)as theirs also was.