Catholic Public Domain Version

Deuteronomy 4:16-27 Catholic Public Domain Version (CPDV)

16. Otherwise, perhaps being deceived, you might have made a graven image, or an image of male or female,

17. a likeness of any of the beasts, which are upon the earth, or of birds, which fly under heaven,

18. or of reptiles, which move across the earth, or of fish, which abide in the waters under the earth.

19. Otherwise, perhaps lifting up your eyes to heaven, you might look upon the sun and the moon and all the stars of heaven, and being deceived by error, you might adore and worship these things, which the Lord your God created for the service of all the nations, which are under heaven.

20. But the Lord has taken you up, and led you away from the iron furnaces of Egypt, in order to have a people of inheritance, just as it is to the present day.

21. And the Lord became angry against me because of your words, and he swore that I would not cross over the Jordan, nor enter into the excellent land, which he will give to you.

22. Behold, I shall die on this soil. I shall not cross over the Jordan. You shall cross it, and you shall possess the singular land.

23. Be careful, lest you at sometime forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he has formed with you, and lest you make for yourselves a graven likeness of those things which the Lord has prohibited to be made.

24. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

25. When you will have conceived sons and grandsons while abiding in the land, and if, having been deceived, you make for yourselves any likeness, accomplishing evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to wrath,

26. I call heaven and earth as witnesses this day, that you shall quickly perish from the land, which, when you have crossed over the Jordan, you will possess. You will not live in it for a long time; instead, the Lord will destroy you.

27. And he will scatter you among all the nations, and few of you will remain among those nations, to which the Lord will lead you.