Deuteronomy 4:1-20

1“Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to do, so that you may live and go in and possess the land that Adonai the God of your fathers is giving you.

2You must not add to the word that I am commanding you or take away from it—in order to keep the mitzvot of Adonai your God that I am commanding you.

3Your eyes have seen what Adonai did at Baal Peor, for Adonai your God has destroyed from among you everyone who followed Baal Peor.

4But you who held tight to Adonai your God are alive today—all of you.

5“See, just as Adonai my God commanded me, I have taught you statutes and ordinances to do in the land that you are about to enter to possess.

6You must keep and do them, for it is your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the peoples, who will hear all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’

7For what great nation is there that has gods so near to them, as Adonai our God is whenever we call on Him?

8What great nation is there that has statutes and ordinances that are righteous—like all of this Torah that I am setting before you today?

9“Only be watchful and watch over your soul closely, so you do not forget the things your eyes have seen and they slip from your heart all the days of your life. You are to make them known to your children and your children’s children.

10The day that you stood before Adonai your God in Horeb, Adonai said to me, ‘Gather the people to Me and I will make them hear My words, so that they learn to fear Me all the days that they live on the earth, and so that they teach their children.’

11“You came near and stood at the bottom of the mountain while the mountain was blazing with fire up to the heart of the heavens—darkness, cloud, and fog.

12Adonai spoke to you from the midst of the fire. The sound of words you heard, but a form you did not see—only a voice.

13He declared to you His covenant, which He commanded you to do—the Ten Words—and He wrote them on two tablets of stone.

14Adonai commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances, so that you might do them in the land you are crossing over to possess.

15“So be very watchful over your souls since you saw no form on the day that Adonai spoke to you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire,

16so that you do not act corruptly and make for yourselves a graven image in the likeness of any figure—the form of a male or female,

17the form of any animal that is on the earth, the form of any winged bird that flies in the sky,

18the form of anything that creeps on the ground, the form of any fish that is in the water under the earth—

19and so that you do not lift up your eyes toward the heavens and see the sun and the moon and the stars—all the heavenly host—and are drawn away and bow down and worship them. Adonai your God has allotted them to all the peoples under all the heavens.

20But you, Adonai has taken, and He brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt to be a people for His own inheritance, as you are this day.