Deuteronomy
Chapter 4
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Leningrad Codex, through the Open Scriptures Westminster Leningrad Codex. The written consonants are printed. A Masoretic reading is footnoted when it differs. No Dead Sea reading was substituted unless it was read from a fragment. The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions are witnesses, not the default.
A dotted word is a harder one. Point at it, or tap it, for a short definition.
1Now, Israel, listen to the Rules that are meant to last. and the rules that I am teaching you to do, so that you may live, and go in, and take possession of the land that God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary., the God of your fathers, is giving you.
2You shall not add to the word that I am commanding you, and you shall not take away from it, so that you keep the commands of God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God that I am commanding you.
3Your eyes have seen what God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. did at Baal-peor, for every man who walked after Baal-peor, God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God destroyed him from your midst.
4But you who held fast to God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God are all alive today.
5See, I have taught you Rules that are meant to last. and rules, as God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. my God commanded me, so that you do them in the midst of the land you are going into to take possession of it.
6You shall keep them and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the eyes of the peoples who hear all these Rules that are meant to last. and say, Only a wise and discerning people is this great nation.
7For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. our God is, in all our calling to him?
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- Translation
Elohim is plural in form here, with a plural adjective, “near ones.” The line is about Yahweh our God. “Gods” is not printed as if other gods were meant.
8And what great nation is there that has Rules that are meant to last. and rules as right as all this instruction that I am setting before you today?
9Only keep yourself, and guard your life carefully, so that you do not forget the things your eyes saw, and so that they do not turn aside from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and to your children’s children.
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- Translation
Nefesh is life, as elsewhere in these books.
10The day you stood before God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God at Horeb, when God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. said to me, Assemble the people to me, and I will make them hear my words, so that they learn to fear me all the days they live on the soil, and so that they teach their children.
11You came near and stood under the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire to the heart of the sky, darkness, cloud, and thick gloom.
12God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. spoke to you from the midst of the fire. You heard a sound of words, and you saw no form, nothing but a sound.
13He told you his A solemn agreement that binds God and people., which he commanded you to do, the ten words, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone.
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- Translation
Berit is covenant. See the glossary. Aseret ha-devarim is the ten words.
14God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. commanded me at that time to teach you Rules that are meant to last. and rules, so that you do them in the land you are crossing into to take possession of it.
15Keep yourselves very careful, for you saw no form on the day God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire,
16so that you do not ruin yourselves and make for yourselves a carved image, the form of any figure, the pattern of male or female,
17the pattern of any animal that is on the earth, the pattern of any winged bird that flies in the sky,
18the pattern of anything that creeps on the ground, the pattern of any fish that is in the water under the earth.
19And so that you do not lift your eyes to the sky and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of the sky, and be drawn away and bow to them and serve them, which God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole sky.
20But God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as it is this day.
21God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. was angry with me on account of your words, and he swore that I would not cross the Jordan and that I would not go into the good land that God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God is giving you as an inheritance.
22For I am going to die in this land. I am not crossing the Jordan. You are crossing, and you shall take possession of this good land.
23Keep yourselves, so that you do not forget the A solemn agreement that binds God and people. of God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God that he cut with you, and make for yourselves a carved image, the form of anything, which God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God has commanded you not to do.
24For God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God is a consuming fire. He is a jealous God.
25When you have children and children’s children, and you have been long in the land, and you ruin yourselves and make a carved image, the form of anything, and do what is evil in the eyes of God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God, to provoke him,
26I call the sky and the earth to witness against you today that you will perish, perish quickly from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of. You will not lengthen your days on it, for you will be destroyed, destroyed.
27God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. drives you.
28There you will serve gods, the work of human hands, wood and stone, which do not see and do not hear and do not eat and do not smell.
29From there you will seek God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God, and you will find him, if you search for him with all your heart and with all your life.
30When you are in distress, and all these things have found you, in later days, you will return to God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God and listen to his voice.
31For God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God is a compassionate God. He will not let you drop, and he will not destroy you, and he will not forget the A solemn agreement that binds God and people. of your fathers that he swore to them.
32For ask, please, about the first days that were before you, from the day God created a human on the earth, and from one end of the sky to the other end of the sky. Has anything been like this great thing, or has anything like it been heard?
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- Translation
Elohim alone is God. Adam here is a human, not a personal name carried over from Genesis.
33Has a people heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and lived?
34Or has God tried to come and take for himself a nation from the midst of a nation, by tests, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a strong hand, and by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
35You have been shown, so that you know that God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary., he is God. There is no other besides him.
36From the sky he made you hear his voice, to discipline you, and on the earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from the midst of the fire.
37Because he loved your fathers, he chose their seed after them, and he brought you out from Egypt in his presence, by his great power,
38to dispossess nations greater and stronger than you from before you, to bring you in, to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day.
39Know today, and bring it back to your heart, that God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary., he is God in the sky above and on the earth below. There is no other.
40You shall keep his Rules that are meant to last. and his commands that I am commanding you today, so that it goes well for you and for your children after you, and so that you lengthen your days on the soil that God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God is giving you, all the days.
41Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan, toward the sunrise,
42for a killer to flee there who kills his fellow without knowing, and he had not hated him in time past, and he flees to one of these cities and lives.
43Bezer in the wilderness, in the land of the plain, for the Reubenite, and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadite, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassite.
44This is the instruction that Moses set before the sons of Israel.
45These are the testimonies, the Rules that are meant to last., and the rules that Moses spoke to the sons of Israel when they came out of Egypt,
46beyond the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorite, who lived in Heshbon, whom Moses and the sons of Israel struck when they came out of Egypt.
47They took possession of his land, and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorite who were beyond the Jordan, toward the sunrise,
48from Aroer, which is on the lip of the A stream bed that keeps water, or runs when the rain comes. Arnon, as far as Mount Sion, that is, Hermon,
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The name written here is Sion, and the line says it is Hermon. It is not the name of the city hill Zion.
49and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan, on the east, as far as the sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.