1 And now, Israel, hear the ordinances and judgments, all that I teach you this day to do: that ye may live, and be multiplied, and that ye may go in and inherit the land, which the Lord God of your fathers gives you. 2 Ye shall not add to the word which I command you, and ye shall not take from it: keep the commandments of the Lord our God, all that I command you this day. 3 Your eyes have seen all that the Lord our God did in [the case of] Beel-phegor; for every man that went after Beel-phegor, the Lord your God has utterly destroyed him from among you. 4 But ye that kept close to the Lord your God are all alive to-day. 5 Behold, I have shewn you ordinances and judgments as the Lord commanded me, that ye should do so in the land into which ye go to inherit it. 6 And ye shall keep and do them: for this is your wisdom and understanding before all nations, as many as shall hear all these ordinances; and they shall say, Behold, this great nation [is] a wise and understanding people. 7 For what manner of nation [is so] great, which has God so near to them as the Lord our God [is] in all things in whatsoever we may call upon him? 8 And what manner of nation [is so] great, which has righteous ordinances and judgments according to all this law, which I set before you this day? 9 Take heed to thyself, and keep thy heart diligently: forget not any of the things, which thine eyes have seen, and let them not depart from thine heart all the days of thy life; and thou shalt teach thy sons and thy sons' sons, 10 [even the things that happened in] the day in which ye stood before the Lord our God in Choreb in the day of the assembly; for the Lord said to me, Gather the people to me, and let them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days which they live upon the earth, and they shall teach their sons. 11 And ye drew nigh and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire up to heaven: [there was] darkness, blackness, [and] tempest. 12 And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire a voice of words, which ye heard: and ye saw no likeness, only [ye heard] a voice. 13 And he announced to you his covenant, which he commanded you to keep, even the ten commandments; and he wrote them on two tables of stone. 14 And the Lord commanded me at that time, to teach you ordinances and judgments, that ye should do them on the land, into which ye go to inherit it. 15 And take good heed to your hearts, for ye saw no similitude in the day in which the Lord spoke to you in Choreb in the mountain out of the midst of the fire: 16 lest ye transgress, and make to yourselves a carved image, any kind of figure, the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any beast of those that are on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird which flies under heaven, 18 the likeness of any reptile which creeps on the earth, the likeness of any fish of those which are in the waters under the earth; 19 and lest having looked up to the sky, and having seen the sun and the moon and the stars, and all the heavenly bodies, thou shouldest go astray and worship them, and serve them, which the Lord thy God has distributed to all the nations under heaven. 20 But God took you, and led you forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be to him a people of inheritance, as at this day. 21 And the Lord God was angry with me for the things said by you, and sware that I should not go over this Jordan, and that I should not enter into the land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance. 22 For I am to die in this land, and shall not pass over this Jordan; but ye are to pass over, and shall inherit this good land. 23 Take heed to yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord our God, which he made with you, and ye transgress, and make to yourselves a graven image of any of the things concerning which the Lord thy God commanded thee. 24 For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. 25 And when thou shalt have begotten sons, and shalt have sons' sons, and ye shall have dwelt a long time on the land, and shall have transgressed, and made a graven image of any thing, and shall have done wickedly before the Lord your God to provoke him; 26 I call heaven and earth this day to witness against you, that ye shall surely perish from off the land, into which ye go across Jordan to inherit it there; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall be utterly cut off. 27 And the Lord shall scatter you among all nations, and ye shall be left few in number among all the nations, among which the Lord shall bring you. 28 And ye shall there serve other gods, the works of the hands of men, wood and stones, which cannot see, nor can they hear, nor eat, nor smell. 29 And there ye shall seek the Lord your God, and ye shall find him whenever ye shall seek him with all your heart, and with all your soul in your affliction. 30 And all these things shall come upon thee in the last days, and thou shalt turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt hearken to his voice. 31 Because the Lord thy God [is] a God of pity: he will not forsake thee, nor destroy thee; he will not forget the covenant of thy fathers, which the Lord sware to them. 32 Ask of the former days which were before thee, from the day when God created man upon the earth, and [beginning] at the [one] end of heaven to the other end of heaven, if there has happened any thing like to this great event, if such a thing has been heard: 33 if a nation have heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard and hast lived; 34 if God has assayed to go and take to himself a nation out of the midst of [another] nation with trial, and with signs, and with wonders, and with war, and with a mighty hand, and with a high arm, and with great sights, according to all the things which the Lord our God did in Egypt in thy sight. 35 So that thou shouldest know that the Lord thy God he is God, and there is none beside him. 36 His voice was made audible from heaven to instruct thee, and he shewed thee upon the earth his great fire, and thou heardest his words out of the midst of the fire. 37 Because he loved thy fathers, he also chose you their seed after them, and he brought thee himself with his great strength out of Egypt, 38 to destroy nations great and stronger than thou before thy face, to bring thee in, to give thee their land to inherit, as thou hast it this day. 39 And thou shalt know this day, and shalt consider in thine heart, that the Lord thy God he [is] God in heaven above, and on the earth beneath, and there is none else but he. 40 And keep ye his commandments, and his ordinances, all that I command you this day; that it may be well with thee, and with thy sons after thee, that ye may be long-lived upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for ever. 41 Then Moses separated three cities beyond Jordan on the east, 42 that the slayer might flee thither, who should have slain his neighbour unintentionally, and should not have hated him in times past, and he shall flee to one of these cities and live: 43 Bosor in the wilderness, in the plain country of Ruben, and Ramoth in Galaad [belonging to] Gad, and Gaulon in Basan [belonging to] Manasse. 44 This [is] the law which Moses set before the children of Israel. 45 These [are] the testimonies, and the ordinances, and the judgments, which Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt: 46 on the other side of Jordan, in the valley near the house of Phogor, in the land of Seon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Esebon, whom Moses and the sons of Israel smote when they came out of the land of Egypt. 47 And they inherited his land, and the land of Og king of Basan, two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond Jordan eastward. 48 From Aroer, which is on the border of the brook Arnon, even to the mount of Seon, which is Aermon. 49 All Araba beyond Jordan eastward under Asedoth hewn in the rock.
Deuteronomy · Brenton's English Septuagint
Deuteronomy 4 Brenton's English Septuagint
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Notes on this text (2)
- Square brackets mark words Brenton supplied for English sense.
- Old Testament only (no New Testament). First printed 1844; the 1851 edition added the deuterocanonical books.
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Moses
Drawn from the Nile, he led Israel out of Egypt and received God's Law.
Cited in the guide: Exodus 2–Deuteronomy 34
Cross references (48)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Romans 10:5; Ezekiel 20:11; Deuteronomy 8:1; Leviticus 18:5; Deuteronomy 5:1
- 2 Proverbs 30:6; Deuteronomy 12:32; Revelation 22:18–19; Joshua 1:7; Matthew 5:18
- 3 Numbers 25:1–9; Psalm 106:28–29; Hosea 9:10; Numbers 26:64; Numbers 31:16
- 4 Deuteronomy 10:20; Joshua 23:8; John 6:67–69; Romans 12:9; Revelation 14:4
- 5 Matthew 28:20; 1 Thessalonians 4:1–2; Hebrews 3:5; Deuteronomy 4:1; Proverbs 22:19–20
- 6 Psalm 111:10; Job 28:28; 2 Timothy 3:15; Proverbs 1:7; 1 Kings 10:6–9
- 7 Psalm 145:18; 2 Samuel 7:23; Psalm 34:18; Psalm 73:28; James 4:8
- 8 Psalm 147:19–20; Romans 7:12–14; Psalm 119:127–128; Psalm 119:86; Psalm 19:7–11
- 9 Deuteronomy 6:7; Deuteronomy 11:19; Psalm 78:3–8; Genesis 18:19; Deuteronomy 32:46
- 10 Exodus 19:9; Hebrews 12:18–19; Exodus 19:16; Deuteronomy 17:19; Exodus 20:20
- 11 Deuteronomy 5:23; Exodus 19:16–18; Hebrews 12:18–19; Exodus 20:18–19
- 12 Deuteronomy 5:4; Deuteronomy 5:22; Deuteronomy 4:15; John 12:28–30; Matthew 3:17
- 13 Exodus 34:28; Exodus 31:18; Deuteronomy 9:9–11; Exodus 24:12; Exodus 19:5
- 14 Ezekiel 21:1–23; Psalm 105:44–45
- 15 Deuteronomy 4:12; 2 Corinthians 4:4–6; Isaiah 40:18; Malachi 2:15; Jeremiah 17:21
- 16 Acts 17:29; Deuteronomy 5:8; Romans 1:22–24; Deuteronomy 4:23; Exodus 20:4–5
- 17 Romans 1:23
- 19 Romans 1:25; Deuteronomy 17:3; 2 Kings 21:3; Genesis 1:16–18; 2 Kings 17:16
- 20 1 Kings 8:51; Jeremiah 11:4; Exodus 19:5–6; Deuteronomy 32:9; Psalm 135:4
- 21 Numbers 20:12; Deuteronomy 1:37; Psalm 106:32–33; Deuteronomy 3:26; Deuteronomy 31:2
- 22 Deuteronomy 3:25; Deuteronomy 3:27; 2 Peter 1:13–15; Hebrews 12:6–10; 1 Kings 13:21–22
- 23 Deuteronomy 4:9; Isaiah 24:5; Ezekiel 16:59; Joshua 23:16; Deuteronomy 29:25
- 24 Hebrews 12:29; Deuteronomy 9:3; Exodus 24:17; Nahum 1:6; Isaiah 33:14
- 25 Deuteronomy 4:16; 1 Corinthians 10:22; Hosea 9:9; Exodus 32:7; 2 Kings 21:14–16
- 26 Deuteronomy 32:1; Micah 6:2; Deuteronomy 30:18–19; Isaiah 1:2; Jeremiah 22:29
- 27 Deuteronomy 28:62–64; Leviticus 26:33; Nehemiah 1:8–9; Ezekiel 32:26; Ezekiel 12:15
- 28 Deuteronomy 28:64; Jeremiah 16:13; Isaiah 46:7; Deuteronomy 28:36; 1 Samuel 26:19
- 29 Jeremiah 29:12–14; Psalm 119:2; 2 Chronicles 15:4; Isaiah 55:6–7; Psalm 119:10
- 30 Joel 2:12–13; Jeremiah 23:20; Hosea 3:5; Deuteronomy 31:29; Genesis 49:1
- 31 Deuteronomy 31:8; Psalm 116:5; Nehemiah 9:31; Jonah 4:2; 2 Chronicles 30:9
- 32 Job 8:8; Psalm 44:1; Deuteronomy 32:7; Matthew 24:31; Joel 1:2
- 33 Deuteronomy 5:24; Judges 6:22; Exodus 33:20; Deuteronomy 5:26; Exodus 24:11
- 34 Deuteronomy 26:8; Deuteronomy 5:15; Exodus 6:6; Deuteronomy 7:19; Deuteronomy 7:8–9
- 35 Isaiah 45:18; 1 Samuel 2:2; Isaiah 45:5; Isaiah 44:8; Deuteronomy 4:39
- 36 Exodus 19:19; Exodus 19:9; Deuteronomy 4:33; Nehemiah 9:13; Hebrews 12:25
- 37 Deuteronomy 10:15; Isaiah 63:11–12; Exodus 13:9; Exodus 13:3; Exodus 13:14
- 38 Deuteronomy 7:1; Exodus 23:27–28; Deuteronomy 11:23; Deuteronomy 9:1–5; Psalm 44:2–3
- 39 Joshua 2:11; Deuteronomy 4:35; 1 Chronicles 29:11; Hosea 7:2; Psalm 135:6
- 40 Deuteronomy 6:3; Ephesians 6:3; Deuteronomy 12:25; Leviticus 22:31; Deuteronomy 12:28
- 41 Numbers 35:6; Numbers 35:14–15; Joshua 20:2–9
- 42 Deuteronomy 19:1–10; Hebrews 6:18; Numbers 35:6; Numbers 35:15–28; Numbers 35:11–12
- 43 Joshua 20:8; 1 Chronicles 6:71; 1 Chronicles 6:80; Joshua 21:27; 1 Kings 4:13
- 44 Deuteronomy 27:26; Leviticus 27:34; Malachi 4:4; Deuteronomy 27:8; Deuteronomy 1:5
- 45 1 Kings 2:3; Psalm 119:14; Psalm 119:24; Deuteronomy 6:20; Deuteronomy 4:1
- 46 Deuteronomy 3:29; Numbers 32:19; Deuteronomy 2:30–36; Deuteronomy 3:8; Deuteronomy 1:4–5
- 47 Deuteronomy 29:7–8; Numbers 21:33–35; Deuteronomy 3:1–14
- 48 Deuteronomy 3:9; Deuteronomy 2:36; Deuteronomy 3:12; Psalm 133:3; Joshua 13:24–33
- 49 Deuteronomy 3:17; Deuteronomy 34:1; Joshua 13:20
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
… And he does thus explain what are meant by the things in heaven: "Lest when," he says, "looking towards heaven, and observing the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and all the ornament of heaven, falling into error, thou shouldest adore and serve them." And Moses himself, being a man of God, was indeed given as a god before …
… their own pride, as fowls of the air, nor their own curiosities, by which (like the fishes of the sea) they wander over the unknown paths of the abyss, nor their own extravagance, as the "beasts of the field," that Thou, Lord, "a consuming fire," mayest burn up their lifeless cares and renew them immortally.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
"For ye shall not add," saith he, "unto the word which I command you this day, and ye shall not take away from it." But not the less were they innovating; as in this instance, that one ought not to eat with unwashen hands, that we must wash cups and brazen vessels, that we must wash also ourselves.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
Wherefore Moses saith also to the Israelites: And take ye good heed to your own souls, for ye saw no similitude.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
… (God), even if, as those who are skilful in these matters say, it were derived from Theein (to run) or from Aithein (to blaze), from continual motion, and because He consumes evil conditions of things (from which fact He is also called A Consuming Fire), would still be one of the Relative Names, and not an Absolute one; as again …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)