Deuteronomy 3:23-4:49

New King James Version

Moses Forbidden to Enter the Land

²³ “Then ^(A)I pleaded with the Lord at that time, saying: ²⁴ ‘O Lord God, You have begun to show Your servant ^(B)Your greatness and Your ^[a]mighty hand, for ^(C)what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do anything like Your works and Your mighty deeds? ²⁵ I pray, let me cross over and see ^(D)the good land beyond the Jordan, those pleasant mountains, and Lebanon.’

²⁶ “But the Lord ^(E)was angry with me on your account, and would not listen to me. So the Lord said to me: ‘Enough of that! Speak no more to Me of this matter. ^27 (F)Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift your eyes toward the west, the north, the south, and the east; behold it with your eyes, for you shall not cross over this Jordan. ²⁸ But ^(G)command^[b] Joshua, and encourage him and strengthen him; for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you will see.’

²⁹ “So we stayed in ^(H)the valley opposite Beth Peor.

Moses Commands Obedience

4 “Now, O Israel, listen to ^(I)the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live, and go in and ^[c]possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you. ^2 (J)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 ^(K)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 ^(L)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 ^(M)what great nation is there that has ^(N)God^[d] 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 ^(O)keep yourself, lest you ^(P)forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And ^(Q)teach them to your children and your grandchildren, ¹⁰ especially concerning ^(R)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 (S)And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words, but saw no ^[e]form; ^(T)you only heard a voice. ^13 (U)So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, ^(V)the Ten Commandments; and ^(W)He wrote them on two tablets of stone. ¹⁴ And ^(X)the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might ^[f]observe them in the land which you cross over to possess.

Beware of Idolatry

^15 (Y)“Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no ^(Z)form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, ¹⁶ lest you ^(AA)act corruptly and ^(AB)make for yourselves a carved image in the ^[g]form of any figure: ^(AC)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 ^(AD)lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, ^(AE)all the host of heaven, you feel driven to ^(AF)worship them and serve them, which the Lord your God has ^[h]given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage. ²⁰ But the Lord has taken you and ^(AG)brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be ^(AH)His people, an inheritance, as you are this day. ²¹ Furthermore ^(AI)the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that ^(AJ)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 ^(AK)I must die in this land, ^(AL)I must not cross over the Jordan; but you shall cross over and ^[i]possess ^(AM)that good land. ²³ Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, ^(AN)and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you. ²⁴ For ^(AO)the Lord your God is a consuming fire, ^(AP)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 ^(AQ)do evil in the sight of the Lord your God to provoke Him to anger, ^26 (AR)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 ^[j]prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed. ²⁷ And the Lord ^(AS)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 ^(AT)there you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, ^(AU)which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. ^29 (AV)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 ^[k]distress, and all these things come upon you in the ^(AW)latter days, when you ^(AX)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 ^(AY)destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.

³² “For ^(AZ)ask now concerning the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask ^(BA)from one end of heaven to the other, whether any great thing like this has happened, or anything like it has been heard. ^33 (BB)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, ^(BC)by trials, ^(BD)by signs, by wonders, by war, ^(BE)by a mighty hand and ^(BF)an outstretched arm, ^(BG)and by great ^[l]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; ^(BH)there is none other besides Him. ^36 (BI)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 ^(BJ)He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their ^[m]descendants after them; and ^(BK)He brought you out of Egypt with His Presence, with His mighty power, ^38 (BL)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 ^(BM)the Lord Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. ^40 (BN)You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that ^[n]it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may ^[o]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 ^(BO)set apart three cities on this side of the Jordan, toward the rising of the sun, ^42 (BP)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 (BQ)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, ^(BR)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 ^(BS)defeated^[p] after they came out of Egypt. ⁴⁷ And they took possession of his land and the land ^(BT)of Og king of Bashan, two kings of the Amorites, who were on this side of the Jordan, toward the ^[q]rising of the sun, ^48 (BU)from Aroer, which is on the bank of the River Arnon, even to Mount ^[r]Sion (that is, ^(BV)Hermon), ⁴⁹ and all the plain on the east side of the Jordan as far as the Sea of the Arabah, below the ^(BW)slopes of Pisgah.