1 Nowe therefore hearken, O Israel, vnto the ordinances and to the lawes which I teache you to doe, that ye may liue and goe in, and possesse the lande, which the Lord God of your fathers giueth you. 2 Ye shall put nothing vnto the word which I command you, neither shall ye take ought there from, that ye may keepe the commandements of the Lord your God which I commande you. 3 Your eyes haue seene what the Lord did because of Baal-Peor, for al the men that folowed Baal-Peor the Lord thy God hath destroyed euery one from among you. 4 But ye that did cleaue vnto the Lord your God, are aliue euery one of you this day. 5 Behold, I haue taught you ordinances, and lawes, as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should doe euen so within the land whither ye goe to possesse it. 6 Keepe them therefore, and doe them; for that is your wisdome, and your vnderstanding in the sight of the people, which shall heare all these ordinances, and shall say, Onely this people is wise, and of vnderstanding, and a great nation. 7 For what nation is so great, vnto whome the gods come so neere vnto them, as the Lord our God is neere vnto vs, in all that we call vnto him for? 8 And what nation is so great, that hath ordinances and lawes so righteous, as all this Lawe, which I set before you this day? 9 But take heede to thy selfe, and keepe thy soule diligently, that thou forget not the thinges which thine eyes haue seene, and that they depart not out of thine heart, all the dayes of thy life: but teach them thy sonnes, and thy sonnes sonnes: 10 Forget not the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord said vnto me, Gather me the people together, and I wil cause them heare my wordes, that they may learne to feare me all the dayes that they shall liue vpon the earth, and that they may teache their children: 11 Then came you neere and stoode vnder the mountaine, and the mountaine burnt with fire vnto the mids of heauen, and there was darkenesse, cloudes and mist. 12 And the Lord spake vnto you out of the middes of the fire, and ye heard the voyce of the wordes, but sawe no similitude, saue a voyce. 13 Then hee declared vnto you his couenant which he commanded you to doe, euen the ten commandements, and wrote them vpon two tables of stone. 14 And the Lord commanded me that same time, that I should teach you ordinances and lawes, which ye should obserue in the lande, whither ye goe, to possesse it. 15 Take therefore good heede vnto your selues: for ye sawe no image in the day that the Lord spake vnto you in Horeb out of the middes of the fire: 16 That ye corrupt not your selues, and make you a grauen image or representation of any figure: whither it be the likenes of male or female, 17 The likenes of any beast that is on earth, or the likenesse of any fethered foule that flieth in the aire: 18 Or the likenesse of any thing that creepeth on the earth, or the likenesse of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth, 19 And lest thou lift vp thine eyes vnto heauen, and when thou seest the sunne and the moone and the starres with all the host of heauen, shouldest bee driuen to worship them and serue them, which the Lord thy God hath distributed to all people vnder the whole heauen. 20 But the Lord hath taken you and brought you out of the yron fornace: out of Egypt to be vnto him a people and inheritance, as appeareth this day. 21 And the Lord was angrie with me for your words, and sware that I should not goe ouer Iorden, and that I should not goe in vnto that good land, which the Lord thy God giueth thee for an inheritance. 22 For I must die in this land, and shall not go ouer Iorden: but ye shall goe ouer, and possesse that good land. 23 Take heede vnto your selues, least ye forget the couenant of the Lord your God which hee made with you, and least ye make you any grauen image, or likenes of any thing, as the Lord thy God hath charged thee. 24 For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, and a ielous God. 25 When thou shalt beget children and childrens children, and shalt haue remained long in the land, if ye corrupt your selues, and make any grauen image, or likenes of any thing, and worke euill in the sight of the Lord thy God, to prouoke him to anger, 26 I call heauen and earth to record against you this day, that ye shall shortly perish from the land, whereunto ye goe ouer Iorden to possesse it: ye shall not prolong your dayes therein, but shall vtterly be destroyed. 27 And the Lord shall scatter you among the people, and ye shall be left few in nomber among the nations, whither the Lord shall bring you: 28 And there ye shall serue gods, euen ye worke of mans hand, wood, and stone, which neither see, nor heare, nor eate, nor smelll. 29 But if from thence thou shalt seeke the Lord thy God, thou shalt finde him, if thou seeke him with all thine heart, and with all thy soule. 30 When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come vpon thee, at the length if thou returne to the Lord thy God, and bee obedient vnto his voyce, 31 (For the Lord thy God is a mercifull God) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the couenant of thy fathers, which hee sware vnto them. 32 For inquire now of the dayes that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man vpon the earth, and aske from the one ende of heauen vnto the other, if there came to passe such a great thing as this, or whether any such like thing hath bene heard. 33 Did euer people heare the voyce of God speaking out of the middes of a fire, as thou hast heard, and liued? 34 Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from among nations, by tentations, by signes, and by wonders, and by warre, and by a mightie hand, and by a stretched out arme, and by great feare, according vnto all that the Lord your God did vnto you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 Vnto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest knowe, that the Lord hee is God, and that there is none but he alone. 36 Out of heauen hee made thee heare his voyce to instruct thee, and vpon earth he shewed thee his great fire, and thou heardest his voyce out of the middes of the fire. 37 And because hee loued thy fathers, therefore hee chose their seede after them, and hath brought thee out of Egypt in his sight by his mightie power, 38 To thrust out nations greater and mightier then thou, before thee, to bring thee in, and to giue thee their land for inheritance: as appeareth this day. 39 Vnderstande therefore this day, and consider in thine heart, that the Lord, he is God in heauen aboue, and vpon the earth beneath: there is none other. 40 Thou shalt keepe therefore his ordinances, and his commandements which I commaund thee this day, that it may goe well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayst prolong thy dayes vpon the earth, which the Lord thy God giueth thee for euer. 41 Then Moses separated three cities on this side of Iorden toward the sunne rising: 42 That the slayer should flee thither, which had killed his neighbour at vnwares, and hated him not in time past, might flee, I say, vnto one of those cities, and liue: 43 That is, Bezer in the wildernesse, in the plaine countrey of the Reubenites: and Ramoth in Gilead among the Gadites: and Golan in Bashan among them of Manasseh. 44 So this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel. 45 These are the witnesses, and the ordinances, and the lawes which Moses declared to the children of Israel after they came out of Egypt, 46 On this side Iorden, in the valley ouer against Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon King of the Amorites, which dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel smote, after they were come out of Egypt: 47 And they possessed his land, and the lande of Og King of Bashan, two Kings of the Amorites, which were on this side Iorden towarde the sunne rising: 48 From Aroer, which is by the banke of the riuer Arnon, euen vnto mount Sion, which is Hermon, 49 And all the plaine by Iorden Eastwarde, euen vnto the Sea, of ye plaine, vnder the springs of Pisgah.
Deuteronomy · Geneva Bible (1599)
Deuteronomy 4 Geneva Bible (1599)
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Notes on this text (1)
- Original 16th-century spelling.
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)