Lexham English Bible

Deuteronomy 4:11-27 Lexham English Bible (LEB)

11. And so you came near, and you stood under the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire up to the heart of the heaven, dark with a very thick cloud.

12. And Yahweh spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard a sound of words, but you did not see a form—only a voice.

13. And he declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he charged you to observe, and he wrote them on the two tablets of stone.

14. And Yahweh charged me at that time to teach you rules and regulations for your observation of them in the land that you are about to cross into to take possession of it.

15. “So you must be very careful for yourselves, because you did not see any form on the day Yahweh spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire,

16. so that you do not ruin yourselves and make for yourselves a divine image in a form of any image, a replica of male or female,

17. a replica of any animal that is upon the earth, a replica of any winged bird that flies in the air,

18. a replica of any creeping thing on the ground, a replica of any fish that is in the water below the earth.

19. And do this so that you do not lift your eyes toward heaven and observe the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of the heaven, and be led astray and bow down to them and serve them, things that Yahweh your God has allotted to all of the peoples under all of the heaven.

20. But Yahweh has taken you and brought you out from the furnace of iron, from Egypt, to be a people of inheritance to him, as it is this day.

21. “And Yahweh was angry with me because of you, and he swore that I would not cross the Jordan and that I would not go to the good land that Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance.

22. For I am going to die in this land; I am not going to cross the Jordan, but you are going to cross, and you are going to take possession of this good land.

23. Watch out for yourselves so that you do not forget the covenant of Yahweh your God that he had made with you and make for yourselves a divine image of the form of anything that Yahweh your God has forbidden,

24. for Yahweh your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.

25. “When you have had children and grandchildren and you have grown old in the land and you act corruptly and you make a divine image of the form of anything and you do evil in the eyes of Yahweh your God, thus provoking him to anger,

26. I call to witness against you today the heaven and the earth, that you will perish soon and completely from the land that you are crossing the Jordan into it to take possession of it; you will not live long on it, but you will be completely destroyed.

27. And Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations to where Yahweh will lead you.