Deuteronomy 4:1-20

1Now, Israel, pay attention to the statutes and ordinances I am about to teach you, so that you might live and go on to enter and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.

2Do not add a thing to what I command you nor subtract from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I am delivering to you.

3You have witnessed what the Lord did at Baal Peor, how he eradicated from your midst everyone who followed Baal Peor.

4But you who remained faithful to the Lord your God are still alive to this very day, every one of you.

5Look! I have taught you statutes and ordinances just as the Lord my God told me to do, so that you might carry them out in the land you are about to enter and possess.

6So be sure to do them, because this will testify of your wise understanding to the people who will learn of all these statutes and say, “Indeed, this great nation is a very wise people.”

7In fact, what other great nation has a god so near to them like the Lord our God whenever we call on him?

8And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this whole law that I am about to share with you today?

9Again, however, pay very careful attention, lest you forget the things you have seen and disregard them for the rest of your life; instead teach them to your children and grandchildren.

10You stood before the Lord your God at Horeb and he said to me, “Assemble the people before me so that I can tell them my commands. Then they will learn to revere me all the days they live in the land, and they will instruct their children.”

11You approached and stood at the foot of the mountain, a mountain ablaze to the sky above it and yet dark with a thick cloud.

12Then the Lord spoke to you from the middle of the fire; you heard speech but you could not see anything – only a voice was heard.

13And he revealed to you the covenant he has commanded you to keep, the ten commandments, writing them on two stone tablets.

14Moreover, at that same time the Lord commanded me to teach you statutes and ordinances for you to keep in the land which you are about to enter and possess.

15Be very careful, then, because you saw no form at the time the Lord spoke to you at Horeb from the middle of the fire.

16I say this so you will not corrupt yourselves by making an image in the form of any kind of figure. This includes the likeness of a human male or female,

17any kind of land animal, any bird that flies in the sky,

18anything that crawls on the ground, or any fish in the deep waters of the earth.

19When you look up to the sky and see the sun, moon, and stars – the whole heavenly creation – you must not be seduced to worship and serve them, for the Lord your God has assigned them to all the people of the world.

20You, however, the Lord has selected and brought from Egypt, that iron-smelting furnace, to be his special people as you are today.