The Fifth Book of Moses: Deuteronomy

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- Kapitel 4 -

(Deuteronomy 11:1–7)

“Now, you Israelite people, obey all the rules and regulations that I will teach you. If you do that, you will remain alive and you will enter and occupy the land that Yahweh, the God whom your ancestors worshiped, is giving to you.

Do not add anything to what I command you, and do not take anything away from what I tell you. Obey all the commands of Yahweh our God that I am giving to you.

You have seen what Yahweh did at Baal Peor. He destroyed all the people who worshiped the god Baal there,

but all of you who faithfully continued to worship Yahweh our God are still alive today.

Note that I have taught you all the rules and regulations, just like Yahweh our God told me to do. He wants you to obey them when you are living in the land that you are about to enter and occupy.

Obey them faithfully because, if you do that, you will show the people of other nations that you are very wise. When they hear about all these laws, they will say, ‘The people of this great nation of Israel are certainly very wise!’

Even if other nations are great, there is none of them that has a god who is as near to them as Yahweh our God is to us!

And there is no other nation, even if it is a great nation, that has laws that are as just as the laws that I am speaking to you today.

But be very careful! Do not forget what you have seen God do. Remember those things as long as you are alive. Tell them to your children and your grandchildren.

Tell them about the day that your ancestors stood in the presence of Yahweh our God at Mount Sinai, when he said to me, ‘Gather the people together, in order that they can hear what I say. I want them to learn to respect me and honor me for as long as they are alive, and I want them to teach their children to do that also.’

Tell your children that your ancestors came near to the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with a fire that went up to the sky, and the mountain was covered with dark clouds and black smoke.

Then Yahweh spoke to your ancestors out of the middle of the fire. Your ancestors heard him speak, but they did not see him. They only heard his voice.

And he declared to them his covenant that he wants you also to obey. He gave them the Ten Commandments. He wrote those on two stone tablets.

Yahweh commanded me to teach all the rules and regulations to you, in order that you would obey them in the land that you are about to enter and occupy.

A Warning against Idolatry

(Deuteronomy 12:29–32; Ezekiel 6:1–7)

On the day that Yahweh spoke to your ancestors at Mount Sinai, they did not see him. So be careful!

Do not sin by making for yourselves any carved figure! Do not make anything that resembles the likeness of any person, either a man or a woman,

or that resembles any animal or any bird

or any reptile or any fish in the deep ocean.

And be careful to not look up toward the sky and be tempted to worship anything that you see there, the sun or the moon or the stars. Yahweh our God has given those to help all people everywhere, but you must not worship them.

Yahweh has brought your ancestors out of Egypt, where they were suffering as though they were in a blazing furnace, in order that they would be people who belong to him, which is what you are today.

But Yahweh was angry with me because of what your ancestors did. And he promised that I would never enter the land that he is giving to you.

He swore that I would die here in this land and never cross the Jordan River. But you will go across it, and you will occupy that land.

Be sure that you do not forget the covenant that Yahweh our God made with you, and do not make a carved figure in the likeness of anything he has forbidden you.

You must not do that because Yahweh your God wants everyone to worship him alone. He will destroy anyone who worships idols.

When you have been in the land of Canaan for a long time and you have children and grandchildren, do not sin by making a carved figure that represents anything, because Yahweh says that is evil, and if you do that, you will cause him to become angry with you and punish you.

Today I am requesting everyone who is in heaven and everyone who is on the earth to watch what you are doing. If you disobey what I am telling you, you will soon all die in the land that you will be crossing the Jordan River to occupy. You will not live very long there; Yahweh will completely get rid of many of you.

And the rest of you, Yahweh will force you to go and live among the people of many other nations. Only a few of you will survive there.

When you are in those nations, you will worship gods that are made of wood and stone, gods made by humans, gods that cannot see anything or hear anything or eat anything or smell anything.

But while you are there, you will try to know Yahweh your God, and if you try with your entire heart to know him, he will answer you.

In the future, when you are being mistreated there and all those bad things happen to you, you will again worship only Yahweh and obey him.

Yahweh is a God who acts mercifully. If you continue to obey him, he will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the agreement that he solemnly made with your ancestors.”

The LORD Alone Is God

“Now think about the past, about the time before you were born, about all the time since God first created people here on the earth. You could search everywhere, in heaven and on the earth. Has anything like this ever happened that is as great as what Yahweh did for us Israelite people?

Has any group ever remained alive after they heard a god speak to them from the middle of a fire, like we did?

Certainly God has never before tried to take a huge group of people from one nation to another location, like he did for us when he brought us out of Egypt. We saw Yahweh our God use his great power to do miracles to show us who he is, and sent plagues, and did many other things that terrified people, and how he rescued us when the army of Egypt tried to attack us.

Yahweh showed all these things to you, in order that you would know that only he is truly God, and that there is no other God.

He allowed your ancestors to hear him speak from heaven in order that he could discipline them. Here on the earth he allowed them to see his great fire on Mount Sinai, and he spoke to them from the middle of the fire.

Because he loved our ancestors, he chose you Israelites who are their descendants, and by his great power he brought your ancestors out of Egypt.

As they traveled, he expelled the people of nations that were greater and more powerful than they were, in order that they could capture their land and cause it to become yours, which is what is happening now.

So today you should think about the fact that Yahweh is God, that he rules in heaven and also on the earth, and that there is no other god.

Obey all the rules and regulations that I am giving to you today, in order that things will go well for you and for your descendants, and that you will live a long time in the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you, for it to belong to you forever.”

Cities of Refuge

(Numbers 35:9–34; Deuteronomy 19:1–14; Joshua 20:1–9)

Then Moses chose three cities that are on the east side of the Jordan River.

If someone accidentally killed another person, a person who had not been his enemy previously, he could escape to one of those cities. He would be safe in one of those cities because the people there would protect him.

For the tribe of Reuben, Moses chose the city of Bezer in the wilderness; for the tribe of Gad, he chose the city of Ramoth in the region of Gilead. For the tribe of Manasseh, Moses chose the city of Golan in the region of Bashan.

Introduction to the Law

Moses gave God’s laws to the Israelite people.

They included all the solemn commands, instructions and laws that Moses spoke to the people of Israel after they had come out of Egypt,

when they were in the valley east of the Jordan River. They were across from the town of Beth Peor, in the land that previously was ruled by Sihon, the king of the Amor people group, who lived in Heshbon. Moses and the other Israelites had defeated his army when they came out of Egypt.

They captured Sihon’s land and the land that Og, the king of the region of Bashan, had ruled. Those were the two kings who ruled the Amor people group in the area east of the Jordan River.

Their land extended from the city of Aroer in the south along the Arnon River, as far north as Mount Sirion, which most people call Mount Hermon.

It also included all the area in the plain east of the Jordan River valley, extending to the Sea of Arabah (known as the Dead Sea) and east to the slopes of Mount Pisgah.

(Deuteronomy 11:1–7)

Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and to the ordinances which I teach you, to do them, that you may live and go in and possess the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, gives you.

You shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall you take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.

Your eyes have seen what the LORD did because of Baal Peor; for the LORD your God has destroyed all the men who followed Baal Peor from among you.

But you who were faithful to the LORD your God are all alive today.

Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should do so in the middle of the land where you go in to possess it.

Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who shall hear all these statutes and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”

For what great nation is there that has a god so near to them as the LORD our God is whenever we call on him?

What great nation is there that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law which I set before you today?

Only be careful, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes saw, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your children and your children’s children—

the day that you stood before the LORD your God in Horeb, when the LORD said to me, “Assemble the people to me, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.”

You came near and stood under the mountain. The mountain burned with fire to the heart of the sky, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness.

The LORD spoke to you out of the middle of the fire: you heard the voice of words, but you saw no form; you only heard a voice.

He declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even the ten commandments. He wrote them on two stone tablets.

The LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances, that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it.

A Warning against Idolatry

(Deuteronomy 12:29–32; Ezekiel 6:1–7)

Be very careful, for you saw no kind of form on the day that the LORD spoke to you in Horeb out of the middle of the fire,

lest you corrupt yourselves, and make yourself a carved image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female,

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

the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth;

and lest you lift up your eyes to the sky, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the army of the sky, you are drawn away and worship them, and serve them, which the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole sky.

But the LORD has taken you, and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be to him a people of inheritance, as it is today.

Furthermore the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I should not go over the Jordan, and that I should not go in to that good land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance;

but I must die in this land. I must not go over the Jordan, but you shall go over and possess that good land.

Be careful, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the LORD your God has forbidden you.

For the LORD your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.

When you father children and children’s children, and you have been long in the land, and then corrupt yourselves, and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do that which is evil in the LORD your God’s sight to provoke him to anger,

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from off the land which you go over the Jordan to possess it. You will not prolong your days on it, but will utterly be destroyed.

The LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will lead you away.

There you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.

But from there you shall seek the LORD your God, and you will find him when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.

When you are in oppression, and all these things have come on you, in the latter days you shall return to the LORD your God and listen to his voice.

For the LORD your God is a merciful God. He will not fail you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which he swore to them.

The LORD Alone Is God

For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and from the one end of the sky to the other, whether there has been anything as great as this thing is, or has been heard like it?

Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as you have heard, and live?

Or has God tried to go and take a nation for himself from among another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

It was shown to you so that you might know that the LORD is God. There is no one else besides him.

Out of heaven he made you to hear his voice, that he might instruct you. On earth he made you to see his great fire; and you heard his words out of the middle of the fire.

Because he loved your fathers, therefore he chose their offspring after them, and brought you out with his presence, with his great power, out of Egypt;

to drive out nations from before you greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is today.

Know therefore today, and take it to heart, that the LORD himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. There is no one else.

You shall keep his statutes and his commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the LORD your God gives you for all time.

Cities of Refuge

(Numbers 35:9–34; Deuteronomy 19:1–14; Joshua 20:1–9)

Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise,

that the man slayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unintentionally and didn’t hate him in time past, and that fleeing to one of these cities he might live:

Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, for the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.

Introduction to the Law

This is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel.

These are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the ordinances which Moses spoke to the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt,

beyond the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel struck when they came out of Egypt.

They took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise;

from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, even to Mount Zion (also called Hermon),

and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan eastward, even to the sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.