Deuteronomy 4

Deuteronomy 4:1 “Now, Israel, listen to the prescriptions[1] and rules I am teaching you to follow so that you may stay alive,[2] enter, and take possession of the land Yahveh, the God of your fathers is giving you.

Deuteronomy 4:2 You must not add anything to what I command you or take anything away from it so that you may watch the commands of Yahveh, your God I am giving you.

Deuteronomy 4:3 Your eyes have seen what Yahveh did at Baal-Peor, for Yahveh your God exterminated every one of you who followed Baal of Peor.

Deuteronomy 4:4 But you who have remained faithful to Yahveh your God are all alive today.

Deuteronomy 4:5 Look, I have taught you prescriptions and rules as Yahveh my God has commanded me so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of.

Deuteronomy 4:6 Be careful and do them, because this will show your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the people. When they hear about all these prescriptions, they will say, ‘This great nation is indeed a wise and understanding people.’

Deuteronomy 4:7 For what great nation is there that has a god near to it like Yahveh our God is to us whenever we call to him?

Deuteronomy 4:8 And what great nation has righteous prescriptions and rules like this entire instruction I set before you today?

Deuteronomy 4:9 “Only be careful and diligently watch your throats,[3] or else[4] you will forget the things your eyes have seen and they will slip from your mind as long as you live. Teach them to your children and your grandchildren.

Deuteronomy 4:10 The day you stood before Yahveh your God at Horeb, Yahveh said to me, ‘Collect[5] the people before me, and I will let them hear my words so that they may learn to fear me all the days they live on the land and may instruct their children.’

Deuteronomy 4:11 You came near and stood below the mountain, a mountain blazing with fire into the heart[6] of the sky and enveloped in a totally black cloud.

Deuteronomy 4:12 Then Yahveh spoke to you from the fire. You kept hearing the sound of the words but didn’t see a form; there was only a voice.

Deuteronomy 4:13 He declared his covenant to you. He commanded you to do the Ten Words,[7] which he wrote on two stone tablets.

Deuteronomy 4:14 At that time, Yahveh commanded me to teach you prescriptions and rules for you to follow in the land you are about to cross into and take possession of.

Deuteronomy 4:15 “Diligently watch your throats – because you did not see any form on the day Yahveh spoke to you out of the fire at Horeb –

Deuteronomy 4:16 or else you will act corruptly[8] and make an idol for yourselves in the shape of some figure: a male or female form,

Deuteronomy 4:17 or the form of some animal on the land, some winged creature that flies in the sky,

Deuteronomy 4:18 some creature that crawls on the ground, or some fish in the water under the land.

Deuteronomy 4:19 When you look to the sky and see the sun, moon, and stars – all the stars in the sky – or else you might be led astray to bow in worship to them and serve them. Yahveh your God has provided them for all people everywhere under the sky.

Deuteronomy 4:20 But Yahveh selected you and brought you out of Egypt’s iron furnace to be a people for his inheritance, as you are today.

Deuteronomy 4:21 “Yahveh was angry with me because of your thing. He swore that I would not cross the Jordan and enter the good land Yahveh your God is giving you as an inheritance.

Deuteronomy 4:22 I won’t be crossing the Jordan because I am going to die in this land. But you are about to cross over and take possession of this good land.

Deuteronomy 4:23 Be careful, or else you will forget the covenant of Yahveh your God that he established[9] with you, and make an idol for yourselves in the shape of anything he has forbidden you

Deuteronomy 4:24 because Yahveh, your God, is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

Deuteronomy 4:25 “When you have children and grandchildren and have been in the land a long time, and if you act corruptly, make an idol in the form of anything, and do what is evil in the sight of Yahveh your God, angering him,

Deuteronomy 4:26 I call sky and land as witnesses against you today that you will rapidly[10] be destroyed[11] from the land you are about to cross the Jordan to take possession of. You will not live long there, but you will indeed be exterminated.

Deuteronomy 4:27 Yahveh will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be reduced to a few survivors among the nations where Yahveh, your God, will drive you.

Deuteronomy 4:28 There you will worship human-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see, hear, eat, or smell.

Deuteronomy 4:29 But from there, you will search for Yahveh, your God, and you will find him when you seek him with all your heart and all your throat.

Deuteronomy 4:30 When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, in the future, you will return to Yahveh, your God, and obey him.

Deuteronomy 4:31 He will not leave you, destroy you, or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them by oath because Yahveh, your God, is a compassionate God.

Deuteronomy 4:32 “Indeed, ask about the earlier days that preceded you, from the day God created humankind on the land and from one end of the sky to the other: Has anything like this great event ever happened, or has anything like it been heard of?

Deuteronomy 4:33 Has a people heard God’s voice speaking from the fire as you have, and stayed alive?

Deuteronomy 4:34 Or has a god attempted to go and take a nation as his own out of another nation, by trials, signs, wonders, and war, by a strong hand and an outstretched arm, by great terrors, as Yahveh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

Deuteronomy 4:35 You were shown these things so that you would know that Yahveh is God; there is no other besides him.

Deuteronomy 4:36 He let you hear his voice from the sky to instruct you. He showed you his great fire on the land, and you listened to his words from the fire.

Deuteronomy 4:37 Because he cared about[12] your fathers, he chose their descendants after them and brought you out of Egypt by his presence and great power,

Deuteronomy 4:38 to take possession from nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you in and give you their land as an inheritance, as is now taking place.

Deuteronomy 4:39 Today, recognize and keep in mind that Yahveh is God in the sky above and on the land below; there is no other.

Deuteronomy 4:40 Watch his prescriptions and commands, which I am giving you today so that you and your children after you may prosper and so that you may live long in the land Yahveh your God is commanding you for all the days.”

Deuteronomy 4:41 Then Moses separated[13] three cities across the Jordan to the east.

Deuteronomy 4:42 Someone could flee there who committed manslaughter, killing his neighbor accidentally without previously hating him. He could escape to one of these cities and stay alive:

Deuteronomy 4:43 Bezer in the open country on the plateau land, belonging to the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead, belonging to the Gadites; or Golan in Bashan, belonging to the Manassites.

Deuteronomy 4:44 This is the instruction Moses placed before the Israelites.

Deuteronomy 4:45 These are the reminders,[14] prescriptions, and rules Moses proclaimed to them after they came out of Egypt,

Deuteronomy 4:46 across the Jordan in the valley facing Beth-Peor in the land of King Sihon of the Amorites. He lived in Heshbon, and Moses and the Israelites defeated him after they came out of Egypt.

Deuteronomy 4:47 They took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two Amorite kings who were across the Jordan to the east,

Deuteronomy 4:48 from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Valley as far as Mount Sion (that is, Hermon)

Deuteronomy 4:49 and all the Arabah on the east side of the Jordan as far as the Dead Sea below the slopes of Pisgah.

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[1]חק = prescription. Deuteronomy 4:1, 5-6, 8, 14, 40, 45; 5:1, 31; 6:1, 17, 20, 24; 7:11; 11:32; 12:1; 16:12; 17:19; 26:16-17; 27:10.

[2]חָיָה = stay alive. Deuteronomy 4:1, 33, 42; 5:24, 26, 33; 6:24; 8:1, 3; 16:20; 19:4-5; 20:16; 30:16, 19; 32:39; 33:6.

[3]נֶפֶשׁ = throat. Deuteronomy 4:9, 15, 29; 6:5; 10:12, 22; 11:13, 18; 12:23; 13:3, 6; 14:26; 19:6, 21; 21:14; 24:6-7, 15; 26:16; 27:25; 28:65; 30:2, 6, 10.

[4]פֵּן = or else. Deuteronomy 4:9, 16; 6:15; 7:25; 8:12; 9:28; 15:9; 19:6; 20:5-7; 22:9; 25:3; 29:18.

[5]קהל = collect. Deuteronomy 4:10; 31:12, 28.

[6]לֵב = heart. Deuteronomy 4:11; 28:65; 29:4, 19.

[7]Exod. 34:28; Deut. 4:13; 10:4.

[8]שָׁחַת = corruptly. Deuteronomy 4:16, 25, 31; 9:12, 26; 10:10; 20:19-20; 31:29; 32:5.

[9]כָּרַת = establish. Deuteronomy 4:23; 5:2-3; 7:2; 9:9; 12:29; 19:1, 5; 20:19-20; 23:1; 29:1, 12, 14, 25; 31:16.

[10]מהר = rapidly. Deuteronomy 4:26; 7:4, 22; 9:3, 12, 16; 28:20.

[11]אָבַד = be destroyed. Deuteronomy 4:26; 7:10, 20, 24; 8:19-20; 9:3; 11:4, 17; 12:2-3; 22:3; 26:5; 28:20, 22, 51, 63; 30:18; 32:28.

[12]אָהַב care about, care for. Deuteronomy 4:37; 5:10; 6:5; 7:8-9, 13; 10:12, 15, 18-19; 11:1, 13, 22; 13:3; 15:16; 19:9; 21:15-16; 23:5; 30:6, 16, 20.

[13]בּדל = separate. Deuteronomy 4:41; 10:8; 19:2, 7; 29:21.

[14]עֵדוּת = reminder. Deuteronomy 4:45; 6:17, 20.

Deuteronomy 4 quotes:

“Deut. 4 is in essence a miniature sermon on the covenant and the law, in which historical recollection is employed in a more general didactic fashion. The “sermon” prepares the way for the presentation of the Decalog and the other laws which begins in ch. 5.”

Craigie Peter C. The Book of Deuteronomy. Eerdmans 1976. p. 129.

Deuteronomy 4 links:

a consuming fire, a jealous God
are we there yet?
consumed
God of the sky and the land
God’s mercy and the death-state
in retrospect- a great God and a great people
invaded
lesser and weaker
life or death quest
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Friday, August 3, 2018
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Saturday, August 3, 2024
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Saturday, August 4, 2018
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Thursday, August 2, 2018
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Wednesday, May 31, 2023
our responsibility to teach
protective clothing – immortal body
representing the invisible God
respect for life
RETURNING TO THE LORD
The broader scope of the mission
the earlier days
the purpose of obedience
The sky above – shamayim, the land beneath – erets
the transjordon possessions
what God has done for you

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The DEUTERONOMY shelf in Jeff’s library.