Deuteronomy 4:1-20

1“Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which 1I am teaching you to perform, so that 2you will live and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. 23You shall not add to the word which 4I am commanding you, nor take away from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I am commanding you. 35Your eyes have seen what the Lord has done in the case of Baal-peor, for all the men who followed Baal-peor, the Lord your God has destroyed 6them from among you. 4But you who clung to the Lord your God are alive today, every one of you.

5“See, I have taught you statutes and judgments 7just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you are to do these things in the land where you are entering to take possession of it. 6So keep and do them, 8for that is 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.’ 7For 9what great nation is there that has a god 10so near to it as is the Lord our God 11whenever we call on Him? 8Or what great nation is there that has 12statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole Law which I am setting before you today?

9“Only 13be careful for yourself and watch over your soul diligently, so that you do not forget the things which your eyes have seen and they do not depart from your heart 14all the days of your life; but 15make them known to your sons and your grandsons. 10Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me, ‘Assemble the people to Me, that I may have them hear My words 16so that they may learn to 17fear Me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may 18teach their children.’ 11You came forward and stood at the foot of the mountain, 19and the mountain was burning with fire to the heart of the heavens: darkness, cloud, and thick gloom. 12Then the Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but you saw no form--there was only a voice. 13So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, that is, 20the Ten 21Commandments; and 22He wrote them on two tablets of stone. 14The Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, so that you would perform them in the land where you are going over to take possession of it.

15“So 23be very careful 24yourselves, since you did not see any 25form on the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, 16so that you do not 26act corruptly and 27make a carved image for yourselves in the form of any figure, a representation of male or female, 17a representation of any animal that is on the earth, a representation of 28any winged bird that flies in the sky, 18a representation of anything that crawls on the ground, or a representation of any fish that is in the water below the earth. 19And be careful not to raise your eyes to heaven and look at the sun, the moon, and the stars, 29all the heavenly 30lights, 31and allow yourself to be drawn away and worship them and serve them, things which the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. 20But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of 32the iron furnace, from Egypt, to 33be a people of His own possession, as today.