English Standard Version

Deuteronomy 4:11-24 English Standard Version (ESV)

11. And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom.

12. Then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice.

13. And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone.

14. And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and rules, that you might do them in the land that you are going over to possess.

15. “Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire,

16. beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female,

17. the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air,

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

19. And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.

20. But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day.

21. Furthermore, the Lord was angry with me because of you, and he swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and that I should not enter the good land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.

22. For I must die in this land; I must not go over the Jordan. But you shall go over and take possession of that good land.

23. Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you.

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