Deuteronomy4
New International Version
1Now, Israel, hear the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.
2Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.
3You saw with your own eyes what the Lord did at Baal Peor. The Lord your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor,
4but all of you who held fast to the Lord your God are still alive today.
5See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the Lord my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it.
6Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”
7What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?
8And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?
9Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.
10Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when he said to me, “Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.”
11You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain while it blazed with fire to the very heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness.
12Then the Lord spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice.
13He declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two stone tablets.
14And the Lord directed me at that time to teach you the decrees and laws you are to follow in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.
15You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully,
16so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman,
17or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air,
18or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below.
19And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.
20But as for you, the Lord took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of his inheritance, as you now are.
21The Lord was angry with me because of you, and he solemnly swore that I would not cross the Jordan and enter the good land the Lord your God is giving you as your inheritance.
22I will die in this land; I will not cross the Jordan; but you are about to cross over and take possession of that good land.
23Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the Lord your God has forbidden.
24For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
25After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time—if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and arousing his anger,
26I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed.
27The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the Lord will drive you.
28There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.
29But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.
30When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey him.
31For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath.
32Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of?
33Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived?
34Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?
35You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other.
36From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the fire.
37Because he loved your ancestors and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength,
38to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today.
39Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other.
40Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the Lord your God gives you for all time.
41Then Moses set aside three cities east of the Jordan,
42to which anyone who had killed a person could flee if they had unintentionally killed a neighbor without malice aforethought. They could flee into one of these cities and save their life.
43The cities were these: Bezer in the wilderness plateau, for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead, for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, for the Manassites.
44This is the law Moses set before the Israelites.
45These are the stipulations, decrees and laws Moses gave them when they came out of Egypt
46and were in the valley near Beth Peor east of the Jordan, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon and was defeated by Moses and the Israelites as they came out of Egypt.
47They took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan.
48This land extended from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Gorge to Mount Sirion (that is, Hermon),
49and included all the Arabah east of the Jordan, as far as the Dead Sea, below the slopes of Pisgah.
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Deuteronomy 4.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: Earnest exhortations to obedience, and dissuasives from idolatry. (1–23). Warnings against disobedience, and promises of mercy. (24–40). Cities of refuge appointed. (41–49).
vv1-23
The power and love of God to Israel are here made the ground and reason of a number of cautions and serious warnings; and although there is much reference to their national covenant, yet all may be applied to those who live under the gospel. What are laws made for but to be observed and obeyed? Our obedience as individuals cannot merit salvation; but it is the only evidence that we are partakers of the gift of God, which is eternal life through Jesus Christ, Considering how many temptations we are compassed with, and what corrupt desires we have in our bosoms, we have great need to keep our hearts with all diligence. Those cannot walk aright, who walk carelessly. Moses charges particularly to take heed of the sin of idolatry. He shows how weak the temptation would be to those who thought aright; for these pretended gods, the sun, moon, and stars, were only blessings which the Lord their God had imparted to all nations. It is absurd to worship them; shall we serve those that were made to serve us? Take heed lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God. We must take heed lest at any time we forget our religion. Care, caution, and watchfulness, are helps against a bad memory.
vv24-40
Moses urged the greatness, glory, and goodness of God. Did we consider what a God he is with whom we have to do, we should surely make conscience of our duty to him, and not dare to sin against him. Shall we forsake a merciful God, who will never forsake us, if we are faithful unto him? Whither can we go? Let us be held to our duty by the bonds of love, and prevailed with by the mercies of God to cleave to him. Moses urged God's authority over them, and their obligations to him. In keeping God's commandments they would act wisely for themselves. The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. Those who enjoy the benefit of Divine light and laws, ought to support their character for wisdom and honour, that God may be glorified thereby. Those who call upon God, shall certainly find him within call, ready to give an answer of peace to every prayer of faith. All these statutes and judgments of the Divine law are just and righteous, above the statutes and judgments of any of the nations. What they saw at mount Sinai, gave an earnest of the day of judgment, in which the Lord Jesus shall be revealed in flaming fire. They must also remember what they heard at mount Sinai. God manifests himself in the works of the creation, without speech or language, yet their voice is heard, Ps 19:1, 3; but to Israel he made himself known by speech and language, condescending to their weakness. The rise of this nation was quite different from the origin of all other nations. See the reasons of free grace; we are not beloved for our own sakes, but for Christ's sake. Moses urged the certain benefit and advantage of obedience. This argument he had begun with, verse 1, That ye may live, and go in and possess the land; and this he concludes with, verse 40, That it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee. He reminds them that their prosperity would depend upon their piety. Apostacy from God would undoubtedly be the ruin of their nation. He foresees their revolt from God to idols. Those, and those only, shall find God to their comfort, who seek him with all their heart. Afflictions engage and quicken us to seek God; and, by the grace of God working with them, many are thus brought back to their right mind. When these things are come upon thee, turn to the Lord thy God, for thou seest what comes of turning from him. Let all the arguments be laid together, and then say, if religion has not reason on its side. None cast off the government of their God, but those who first abandon the understanding of a man.
vv41-49
Here is the introduction to another discourse, or sermon, Moses preached to Israel, which we have in the following chapters. He sets the law before them, as the rule they were to work by, the way they were to walk in. He sets it before them, as the glass in which they were to see their natural face, that, looking into this perfect law of liberty, they might continue therein. These are the laws, given when Israel was newly come out of Egypt; and they were now repeated. Moses gave these laws in charge, while they encamped over against Beth-peor, an idol place of the Moabites. Their present triumphs were a powerful argument for obedience. And we should understand our own situation as sinners, and the nature of that gracious covenant to which we are invited. Therein greater things are shown to us than ever Israel saw from mount Sinai; greater mercies are given to us than they experienced in the wilderness, or in Canaan. One speaks to us, who is of infinitely greater dignity than Moses; who bare our sins upon the cross; and pleads with us by His dying love.
Key Words
עַתָּה: at this time, whether adverb, conjunction or expletive
יִשְׂרָאֵל: Jisrael, a symbolical name of Jacob; also (typically) of his posterity
שָׁמַע: to hear intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience, etc.; causatively, to tell, etc.)
חֹק: an enactment; hence, an appointment (of time, space, quantity, labor or usage)
מִשְׁפָּט: properly, a verdict (favorable or unfavorable) pronounced judicially, especially a sentence or formal decree (human or (participant's) divine law, individual or collective), including the act, the place, the suit, the crime, and the penalty; abstractly, justice, including a participant's right or privilege (statutory or customary), or even a style
אֲשֶׁר: who, which, what, that; also (as an adverb and a conjunction) when, where, how, because, in order that, etc.
לָמַד: properly, to goad, i.e. (by implication) to teach (the rod being an Oriental incentive)
עָשָׂה: to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest application
מַעַן: properly, heed, i.e. purpose; used only adverbially, on account of (as a motive or an aim), teleologically, in order that
חָיָה: to live, whether literally or figuratively; causatively, to revive
Cross References
Deuteronomy 4Direct parallel forbidding adding to or diminishing from God's commands.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
The historical account of the judgment at Baal-peor referenced by Moses.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Directly quotes 'our God is a consuming fire' in the context of the Sinai revelation.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Direct historical fulfillment of Moses setting apart these three specific cities of refuge east of Jordan.
Explicitly links Egypt with the metaphor of the iron furnace.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Solomon's prayer repeating the 'iron furnace' description of the Exodus.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Parallels God's self-revelation as a 'jealous God' who demands exclusive worship.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Deuteronomy's ultimate promise of restoration and gathering when seeking God from captivity.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Prophetic fulfillment of finding God when searched for with all the heart in exile.
Supported by Matthew Henry
The original command from Yahweh to designate three cities of refuge on this side of Jordan.
Wisdom literature parallel warning against adding to God's words.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Jesus condemns teaching human commandments as divine doctrines.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
The original historical account of the fire, thick cloud, and darkness at Sinai.
Supported by Matthew Poole
The explicit covenant warning of being scattered and serving gods of wood and stone.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Classic polemic detailing the utter helplessness of idols made by human hands.
Supported by Matthew Henry
New Testament comparison to the terrifying sights and sounds of the fire at Sinai.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Expands on election based purely on God's love and oath to the patriarchs.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Stresses that driving out mightier nations was God's work, not Israel's righteousness.
Supported by John Calvin
Elaborates the legal definition of manslaughter without prior hatred or intent, matching the terminology here.
Historical account of the defeat of Sihon, king of the Amorites, in the land mentioned here.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Historical account of the defeat of Og, king of Bashan, whose land was possessed.
Supported by Matthew Henry
The Queen of Sheba's confession exemplifies nations recognizing Israel's wisdom.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Wisdom literature defining the fear of the Lord as true understanding.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Internal repetition warning against forgetting the covenant and making graven images.
Supported by Matthew Henry
New Testament description of the terrifying physical phenomena at Sinai/Horeb.
Supported by Matthew Henry
The Second Commandment prohibiting the creation of any graven image.
Supported by JFB
Paul describes the pagan corruption of God's glory into animal images.
Supported by JFB
Provides the background for Moses being barred from Jordan because of the people.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Moses formally summons heaven and earth as perpetual legal witnesses against Israel.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Affirms God's merciful nature and commitment to covenant loyalty despite rebellion.
Supported by Matthew Henry
The historical account of the voice speaking out of the thick cloud.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
The foundational Shema affirming that the Lord is one and there is none else.
Supported by JFB
Reiterates the core Deuteronomic promise of prolonged life and blessing through obedience.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Parallels the introductory statement of Moses declaring or setting forth the law beyond Jordan.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Parallel geographical description of the Salt Sea under the slopes of Pisgah eastward.
Parallel summary of Israel's duty to fear, walk with, and serve God.
Supported by Matthew Henry