Deuteronomy 4:5-31

5Look! I have taught you rules and laws, as the Lord my God told me to do. Now you must obey them when you go into the land where you will live.

6Obey them carefully. That will show people of other nations that you are wise. They will hear about all your laws. Then they will say, ‘The people of this great nation are very wise and clever!’

7No other nation has a god who is near to them like the Lord our God. Even great nations have no god like that. But when we pray to the Lord our God, he listens!

8And no other great nation has rules and laws that are as fair as ours. That is God's Law that I am giving to you today.

9But be very careful! Never forget the things that you yourselves have seen. Remember these things for as long as you live. Tell your children and your grandchildren about all the things that God has done.

10Remember when you stood in front of the Lord your God at Sinai. He said to me, ‘Bring all the people here to me so that I can tell them my commands. Then they will learn to respect me and obey me. They will do this for as long as they live and they will teach my commands to their children.’

11At that time, you came and you stood at the edge of the mountain. You saw that the fire on the mountain reached up to the sky. But the sky was full of black clouds and it was dark.

12Then the Lord spoke to you from the middle of the fire. You heard him as he spoke, but you did not see him. You only heard a voice.

13He told you about his covenant and the ten commands that he wrote on two flat pieces of stone. He commanded you to obey them.

14At that time, the Lord commanded me to teach you his rules and his laws. You must obey them in the land that you will now go in to live there.

15Remember when the Lord spoke to you at Mount Horeb from the middle of the fire. You did not see him in any shape. So be very careful about everything that you do.

16Do not make any image to be your god. That would be a sin. Do not make an image in any shape as your idol. Do not copy the shape of a man or a woman,

17or the shape of any animal or bird.

18Do not copy the shape of anything that moves along the ground, or any fish that swims in the deep water.

19When you look up at the sky, you see the sun, the moon and the stars. They all shine up in the sky. But do not bend down low to them or worship them. They are there because the Lord your God has made them. He has given them to people everywhere in the world.

20But you belong to the Lord. He brought you out of Egypt, which was like a hot oven where you had much pain. He rescued you, to be his own special people, as you are today.

21The Lord your God became angry with me, because of you. He told me very strongly that I would not go across the Jordan River. He said that I would not go into the good land that he is now giving to you.

22So I will die here. I will not cross the Jordan River. But you will soon cross over. That good land will belong to you as your home.

23Be careful! Do not forget the covenant that the Lord your God has made with you. Do not make for yourselves any kind of image as your idol. That is the command that he has given to you.

24That is because the Lord your God wants you to belong to him alone. He is like a fire that destroys all bad things.

25One day, you will have lived in the land for a long time. You will have children and grandchildren. Remember that you still must not make any kind of image as your idol. That would be a sin. Do not do any evil things that will cause the Lord your God to become angry.

26I am warning you today, as everyone on earth and everyone in heaven hears what I say. If you do not obey this command, you will soon die. You will not live long in the land that is your home on the other side of the Jordan River. You will die very soon.

27The Lord will send you out of that land to live among other nations. Only a few of you will continue to be alive.

28Among those nations, you will worship gods that men have made from wood and stone. Those gods cannot see or hear or eat or smell anything.

29But even in those places, if you look for the Lord your God, you will find him. If you want to serve him with everything that you think and with everything that you do, you will find him.

30When trouble happens to you in the future, you will turn back to him. When all these bad things happen to you, you will obey God again.

31That is because the Lord your God is very kind. So he will not leave you alone. He will never destroy you. He will never forget the covenant that he made with your ancestors. That was a serious promise that he made to them.