Deuteronomy 4:1-20

1Now therefore hearken, O Israel, to the statutes and to the judgments, which I teach you, to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers giveth you.

2Ye shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish any thing from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.

3Your eyes have seen what the LORD did because of Baalpeor: for all the men that followed Baalpeor, the LORD thy God hath destroyed them from among you.

4But ye who held fast to the LORD your God are alive each one of you this day.

5Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land where ye go to possess it.

6Keep therefore and do them ; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.

7For what nation is there so great, which hath God so near to them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for ?

8And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?

9Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou shouldest forget the things which thy eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them to thy sons, and thy sons’ sons;

10Especially the day that thou stoodest before the LORD thy God in Horeb, when the LORD said to me, Gather the people to me, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.

11And ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire to the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness.1

12And the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice.2

13And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.

14And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land where ye go over to possess it.

15Take ye therefore good heed to yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spoke to you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire:

16Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make to you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,

17The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air,

18The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth:

19And lest thou shouldest lift up thy eyes to heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided to all nations under the whole heaven.3

20But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you out of the iron furnace, even from Egypt, to be to him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day.