Deuteronomy 4 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Now, Israel, listen to the rules and standards I'm teaching you to follow, so that you'll live and go in and take possession of the land that Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.

Don't add anything to what I'm commanding you and don't take anything away from it. Keep the commands of Yahweh your God that I'm giving you.

You saw with your own eyes what Yahweh did at Baal Peor — Yahweh your God completely destroyed everyone among you who followed the Baal of Peor.

But all of you who held on to Yahweh your God are still alive today.

Look—I've taught you rules and standards just as Yahweh my God commanded me, so you can follow them in the land you're about to enter and possess.

Guard them and practice them, because this is your wisdom and your understanding in the eyes of the nations. When they hear about all these rules, they'll say, "This great nation is truly a wise and understanding people."

What great nation has a god so close to them the way Yahweh our God is close to us whenever we call out to him?

And what great nation has rules and standards as just as this entire body of teaching I'm putting in front of you today?

Just be careful and watch yourself closely so that you don't forget the things your eyes have seen, and so they don't slip from your mind as long as you live. Teach them to your children and your grandchildren.

The day you stood before Yahweh your God at Horeb, when Yahweh told me, "Gather the people to me so I can let them hear my words, so they'll learn to respect me all the days they live on the earth, and teach their children too" —

you came close and stood at the base of the mountain while the mountain burned with fire all the way up into the sky, with darkness, cloud, and deep gloom.

Yahweh spoke to you from inside the fire. You heard the sound of words, but you didn't see any form — only a voice.

He announced to you his covenant that he commanded you to keep — the Ten Declarations — and he wrote them on two stone tablets.

And Yahweh commanded me at that time to teach you rules and standards for you to follow in the land you're crossing over to possess.

So watch yourselves very carefully—since you didn't see any form on the day Yahweh spoke to you at Horeb from inside the fire—

don't corrupt yourselves by making a carved figure in any shape at all — whether it looks like a man or a woman,

or any animal on the ground, or any bird that flies in the sky,

or anything that crawls on the ground, or any fish in the waters below the earth.

And when you look up at the sky and see the sun, the moon, and the stars — the whole army of the sky — don't be pulled into bowing down to them and serving them. Yahweh your God has assigned those to all the peoples under the whole sky.

But you — Yahweh took you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be his own people, his own possession, as you are today.

Yahweh was angry with me because of you and swore that I wouldn't cross the Jordan or enter the good land that Yahweh your God is giving you as your inheritance.

I'm going to die in this land. I won't be crossing the Jordan. But you're about to cross over and take possession of that good land.

Watch yourselves so you don't forget the covenant of Yahweh your God that he made with you, and make a carved figure in the shape of anything that Yahweh your God has forbidden.

Because Yahweh your God is a consuming fire — a God who demands an exclusive relationship.

When you have children and grandchildren and have been in the land a long time, if you corrupt yourselves by making a carved figure in any shape and do what Yahweh your God considers wrong, provoking him —

I call the sky and the earth as witnesses against you today: you will quickly and completely perish from the land you're crossing the Jordan to possess. You won't live long in it — you'll be totally wiped out.

Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations where Yahweh drives you.

There you'll serve gods made by human hands—wood and stone that can't see, can't hear, can't eat, and can't smell.

But if from there you search for Yahweh your God, you'll find him — if you look for him with everything you've got, with all your heart and all your life.

When you're in deep trouble and all these things have happened to you, in the days to come you'll return to Yahweh your God and listen to his voice.

Because Yahweh your God is a merciful God. He won't abandon you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors that he swore to them.

Go ahead—ask about the ancient past, from the day God created humans on the earth. Search from one end of the sky to the other. Has anything this incredible ever happened? Has anyone ever heard of anything like it?

Has any people ever heard the voice of God speaking from inside fire—like you did—and survived?

Or has any god ever tried to go and take a nation for himself out of another nation, using trials, signs, wonders, war, a powerful hand, an outstretched arm, and absolutely terrifying acts — like everything Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt, right before your eyes?

You were shown all this so you would know that Yahweh is God—there's no one else besides him.

From the sky he let you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from inside the fire.

And because he loved your ancestors, he chose their descendants after them and brought you out of Egypt himself, with his great power,

to drive out nations greater and stronger than you from in front of you, to bring you in and give you their land as your inheritance—as it is today.

So know today, and take it to heart: Yahweh is God in the sky above and on the earth below. There is no other.

Keep his rules and his commands that I'm giving you today, so things will go well for you and for your children after you, and so you'll live long in the land that Yahweh your God is giving you for all time.

Then Moses set apart three cities on the east side of the Jordan,

so that someone who killed another person unintentionally, without any prior hostility, could flee to one of these cities and survive.

These cities were: Bezer in the desert plateau for the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead for the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan for the tribe of Manasseh.

This is the body of teaching that Moses placed before the Israelites.

These are the testimonies, the rules, and the standards that Moses spoke to the Israelites after they came out of Egypt,

on the east side of the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, whom Moses and the Israelites defeated after they came out of Egypt.

They took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan—the two Amorite kings on the east side of the Jordan—

from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Valley all the way to Mount Sion (that is, Hermon),

plus the entire Arabah on the east side of the Jordan, all the way to the Dead Sea, at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah.