CHAPTER 4
1 And now, thou Israel, hear the behests and dooms which I teach thee, that thou do those [or them], and live, and that thou enter and wield the land which the Lord God of your fathers shall give to you.
2 Ye shall not add to the word which I speak to you, neither ye shall take away from it; keep ye the commandments of your Lord God, which I command to you.
3 Your eyes saw all things which the Lord did against Baalpeor; how he all-brake all the worshippers of him from the midst of you.
4 Forsooth ye that cleaved to your Lord God live all till into present day.
5 Ye know that I taught you the behests and the rightwisenesses, as my Lord God commanded to me; so ye shall do them in the land that ye shall wield,
6 and ye shall keep, and fulfill them in work. For this is your wisdom and understanding before [the] peoples, that all men hear these behests, and say, Lo! a wise people and an under-standing! a great folk!
7 None other nation is so great, that hath Gods nighing to itself, as our God is ready to all our beseechings.
8 For what other folk is so noble, that it hath ceremonies, and just [or rightwise] dooms, and all the law, which I shall set forth today before your eyes?
9 Therefore keep thyself, and thy soul busily; forget thou not the words which thine eyes have seen, and fall they not down from thine heart, in all the days of thy life. Thou shalt teach those [or them]to thy sons, and thy sons’ sons.
10 Tell thou to them the day in which thou stoodest before thy Lord God in Horeb, when the Lord spake to me, and said, Gather thou the people to me, that it hear my words, and that it learn for to dread me in all time in which it liveth in earth, and teach his sons.
11 And ye nighed to the root of the hill, that burnt till to heaven; and darknesses, and cloud, and mist were therein.
12 And the Lord spake to you from the midst of [the] fire; ye heard the voice of his words, and utterly ye saw no form, or shape.
13 And he showed to you his covenant, which he commanded that ye should do, and [the] ten words, which he wrote in two tables of stone.
14 And he commanded to me in that time, that I should teach you ceremonies and dooms, which ye owe to do in the land which ye shall wield.
15 Therefore keep ye busily your minds; ye saw not any likeness in the day in which the Lord spake to you in Horeb, from the midst of the fire;
16 lest peradventure ye be deceived, and make to you a graven likeness, either an image of male, either female;
17 or a likeness of all beasts that be on earth, either of birds flying under heaven,
18 either of creeping beasts that be moved in the earth, either of fishes that dwell under the earth in waters;
19 lest peradventure, when thine eyes be raised up to heaven, thou see the sun, and the moon, and all the stars of heaven, and thou be deceived by error, and worship those things, and honour them, the which things thy Lord God made of nought, into the service of all folks that be under heaven.
20 Forsooth the Lord took you, and led you out of the iron furnace, or strong tribulation, of Egypt, that he should have a people of heritage, as it is in [the] present day.
21 And the Lord was wroth against me for your words, and swore that I should not pass over Jordan, and that I should not enter into the best land, which he shall give to you.
22 Lo! I die in this land; I shall not pass over Jordan; ye shall pass over it, and shall wield the noble land.
23 Be ye ware, lest any time thou forget the covenant of thy Lord God, which he made with thee, and lest thou make to thee a graven likeness of those things which the Lord hath forbidden thee to make.
24 For thy Lord God is a fire wasting; a jealous God.
25 If ye beget sons, and sons of sons, and ye dwell in the land, and ye be deceived, and make to you any likeness, or image, and do evil before your Lord God, that ye stir him to great wrath,
26 I call witness today heaven and earth, that ye shall perish soon from the land, that ye shall wield, when ye have passed over Jordan; ye shall not live long time therein, but the Lord shall do away you,
27 and he shall scatter you abroad among all heathen men, and ye shall dwell few among the nations, to which the Lord shall lead you.
28 And there ye shall serve to gods, that be made by men’s hands, to tree and to stone, that neither see, neither hear, neither eat, neither smell.
29 And when thou hast sought there thy Lord God, thou shalt find him; if nevertheless thou seekest him with all thy heart, and with all the tribulation of thy soul.
30 After that all things have found thee, that be before-said, soothly in the last time, thou shalt turn again to thy Lord God, and thou shalt hear his voice.
31 For thy Lord God is a merciful God; he shall not forsake thee, neither he shall do thee away utterly, neither he shall forget the covenant, in which he swore to thy fathers.
32 Ask thou of [the] eld [or old] days, or times, that were before thee, from the day in which thy Lord God made of nought man upon earth, ask thou from the one end of heaven unto the tother end thereof, that is, take heed to all things that ever were done, if such a thing was done any time,
33 either if it was ever known, that a people heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard and seen;
34 either if that God went in, and took to himself a folk from the midst of nations, by temptations, miracles, and great wonders, by battle, and strong hand, and arm stretched forth, and horrible sights, by all things which your Lord God did for you in Egypt, in sight of thine eyes;
35 that thou shouldest know, that the Lord himself is God, and none other is, besides one.
36 From heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he should teach thee; and in [the] earth he showed to thee his full great fire, and thou heardest his words from [the] midst of the fire;
37 for he loved thy fathers, and chose their seed after them. And he led thee out of Egypt, and went before thee in his great strength,
38 that he should do away the greatest nations, and stronger than thou, in thine entering, and that he should lead thee in, and should give to thee their land into possession, as thou seest in present day.
39 Therefore know thou today, and think in thine heart, that the Lord himself is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath, and none other is.
40 Keep thou his behests, and his commandments, which I command to thee, that it be well to thee, and to thy sons after thee, and that thou dwell much time upon the land, which thy Lord God shall give to thee.
41 Then Moses separated three cities beyond Jordan at the east coast,
42 that he flee to those [or them], that slayeth his neighbour not willfully, and was not enemy before one and the tother day, and that he may flee to some of these cities;
43 Bezer in the wilderness, which is set in the field land, of the lineage of Reuben; and Ramoth in Gilead, which is in the lineage of Gad; and Golan in Bashan, which is in the lineage of Manasseh.
44 This is the law which Moses setted forth [or purposed] before the sons of Israel,
45 and these be the witnessings, and ceremonies, and the dooms, which he spake to the sons of Israel, when they went out of Egypt,
46 beyond Jordan, in the valley against the temple of Bethpeor, in the land of Sihon, king of Amorites, that dwelled in Heshbon, whom Moses killed. And the sons of Israel went out of Egypt,
47 and wielded his land, and the land of Og, king of Bashan, two kings of Amorites, that were beyond Jordan, at the rising of the sun;
48 from Aroer, which is set on the brink of the strand [or stream] of Arnon, till to the hill of Sion, which is Hermon;
49 and they wielded all the plain beyond Jordan, at the east coast, unto the sea of wilderness, and unto the roots of the hill of Pisgah.