1‘And now, O Israel; Listen to the rules and decisions – everything that I’m going to teach you today – so that you can live, grow, and inherit the land that Jehovah the God of your ancestors is giving you. 2And don’t add anything to or take anything away from these Commandments that I’m giving you… obey the Commandments of Jehovah our God and do everything that I’m commanding you today! 3‘Why, you’ve seen everything that Jehovah our God did to the men [who started worshiping] Beel Phegor. Jehovah destroyed them all from among you… 4and it’s only because you stayed close to your God that you’re all still alive today! 5‘{Look} I’ve shown you the rules and decisions, just as Jehovah gave them to me, so you may follow them in the land that you’re traveling to and which you will inherit. 6Obey them and do them, because this is what will brand you as a wise and understanding people to the nations. For when they hear all these rules they will say, Look; They’re a great nation of wise and understanding people! 7‘Why, what other nation is so great that they have a God as close to them as Jehovah our God is [to us], so that we may call to Him about everything? 8And what other nation has rules and decisions that are as righteous as all these laws that I’m setting before you today? 9‘Keep an eye on yourselves and carefully guard your hearts. Don’t forget any of the things that you’ve seen, and keep them in your hearts throughout your lives! You must teach your sons and your grandsons 10the things that happened when you gathered before Jehovah our God at Horeb… when Jehovah said to me, Gather the people to Me and have them listen to My words, so they can learn to fear Me for as long as they live in the land, and then teach this to their sons. 11‘Why, you went and stood at the base of the mountain as it burned with fire all the way to heaven… and there was darkness, blackness, and wind. 12Then Jehovah spoke to you from the midst of the fire with a voice and words that you heard… and although you saw no shape, you heard the voice. 13Then He proclaimed His Sacred Agreement with you, and He commanded you to keep the Ten Commandments that He wrote on the two tablets of stone. 14‘And then Jehovah commanded me to teach you His rules and decisions, so you should obey them in the land that you’re going to inherit. 15Now, keep them in your hearts, for you’ve never seen another day like the one when Jehovah spoke to you on Mount Horeb from the midst of the fire! 16‘So, don’t sin by carving images of any kind – not in the shape of males or females, 17of any animals on the ground, of any winged creatures that fly in the sky, 18of any slithering animals that crawl on the ground, of any creatures that live in the waters under the ground, 19or look up in the sky and see the sun, moon, stars, or any of the other heavenly bodies that Jehovah your God provided to all the nations under heaven – and then go off and worship and serve them. 20For God took you and led you out of the land of Egypt – out of its iron furnace – to be His people and His inheritance today. 21‘Then Jehovah God became angry with me over things that you said, and He swore that I wouldn’t cross the Jordan and enter the land that He’s giving to you as an inheritance. 22So I will die in this land and I won’t [be allowed to] cross the Jordan; but you will cross it and inherit that good land. 23‘Now, pay attention to yourselves and don’t forget the Sacred Agreement that Jehovah our God made with you. Don’t sin and carve images of any of the things that Jehovah your God told you not to do. 24For Jehovah your God is zealous, and He can be a consuming fire. 25‘Then, after you have fathered sons then grown old and had grandchildren; if you sin and carve images of things and start acting wickedly toward Jehovah your God and anger Him; 26I swear before heaven and earth that you will be destroyed from the land that you’re going to inherit across the Jordan… you won’t live to get any older and you’ll be cut off! 27Then Jehovah will scatter you among all the nations and you will become the minority among all the [people] wherever Jehovah sends you. 28And there you will serve other gods that men make with their hands from wood and stones… gods that can’t see, hear, eat, or smell. 29‘But if you search for Jehovah your God there, you’ll find Him. For, whenever you are oppressed and you search for Him with all your hearts and souls, [you will find Him]… 30and that’s what will happen to you in the last days. Then you must turn to Jehovah your God and listen to His voice, 31because Jehovah your God is also a God of pity, so He won’t forget the Sacred Agreement that He promised to your ancestors, and He won’t leave you or destroy you. 32‘Ask from one end of the sky to the other; Since the time when God created man on the earth, has anyone has ever heard of such a great thing happening… 33has any nation has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst fire, as you’ve heard it and experienced it? 34What [other] nation has God elevated and taken as His own with trials, signs, wonders, and war (with His mighty hand and mighty arm)… with all these great things that we saw Jehovah our God do in Egypt? 35So, you should know that Jehovah your God is The God, and that there is none other than Him! 36For, it was His voice that you heard from heaven that was teaching you when He showed you His great fire and when you heard His words from the midst of the fire! 37‘It was only because He loved your ancestors that He chose you (because you’re their seed) and drew you to Him; and with His great strength He brought you out of Egypt. 38Then He destroyed nations that were much greater and stronger than you are – right in front of you – to bring you here today and give you their land as your inheritance. 39‘So, recognize all of this and consider it in your hearts. For, Jehovah your God is the God of heaven above and the earth below, and there are no others! 40And if you keep His Commandments and rules – all that I’m giving you today – it will go well for you and your descendants, and you may live on the land that Jehovah your God is giving you for a long time… for ages.’ 41Then Moses set aside three towns on the east side of the Jordan 42as refuge cities where men who have unintentionally killed a neighbor (someone who they never hated) can run to and live. 43[They were] Bosor in the plains of Reuben, RamOth in Gilead (Gad’s land), and GauLon in Bashan (ManasSeh’s land). 44These were the laws that Moses laid out before the children of Israel… 45they are the testimonies, rules, and decisions that Moses told the sons of Israel after they left Egypt, 46while they were on the other side of Jordan in the valley near the house of Phogor in the land of Seon (the king of the Amorites who lived in Hesh-Eboneh), who Moses and the sons of Israel destroyed. 47So they inherited this land… the land of Og (the king of Bashan) and of the two Amorite kings, east of the Jordan 48from AroEr (which borders on the Arnon Brook) to Mount Seon (or Hermon)… 49the entire Araba from the Jordan east, down to [Mount Pisgah].
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 AN EXHORTATION TO OBEDIENCE. (
Deut 4:1-
Deut 4:13)
hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you--By statutes were meant all ordinances respecting religion and the rites of divine worship; and by judgments, all enactments relative to civil matters. The two embraced the whole law of God.
2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you--by the introduction of any heathen superstition or forms of worship different from those which I have appointed (
Deut 12:32;
Num 15:39;
Matt 15:9).
neither shall ye diminish aught from it--by the neglect or omission of any of the observances, however trivial or irksome, which I have prescribed. The character and provisions of the ancient dispensation were adapted with divine wisdom to the instruction of that infant state of the church. But it was only a temporary economy; and although God here authorizes Moses to command that all its institutions should be honored with unfailing observance, this did not prevent Him from commissioning other prophets to alter or abrogate them when the end of that dispensation was attained.
3 Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baal-peor . . . the Lord thy God hath destroyed them from among you--It appears that the pestilence and the sword of justice overtook only the guilty in that affair (
Num 25:1-
Num 25:9) while the rest of the people were spared. The allusion to that recent and appalling judgment was seasonably made as a powerful dissuasive against idolatry, and the fact mentioned was calculated to make a deep impression on people who knew and felt the truth of it.
5 this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes--Moses predicted that the faithful observance of the laws given them would raise their national character for intelligence and wisdom. In point of fact it did do so; for although the heathen world generally ridiculed the Hebrews for what they considered a foolish and absurd exclusiveness, some of the most eminent philosophers expressed the highest admiration of the fundamental principle in the Jewish religion--the unity of God; and their legislators borrowed some laws from the constitution of the Hebrews.
7 what nation is there so great--Here he represents their privileges and their duty in such significant and comprehensive terms, as were peculiarly calculated to arrest their attention and engage their interest. The former, their national advantages, are described (
Deut 4:7-
Deut 4:8), and they were twofold: 1. God's readiness to hear and aid them at all times; and 2. the excellence of that religion in which they were instructed, set forth in the "statutes and judgments so righteous" which the law of Moses contained. Their duty corresponding to these pre-eminent advantages as a people, was also twofold: 1. their own faithful obedience to that law; and 2. their obligation to imbue the minds of the young and rising generation with similar sentiments of reverence and respect for it.
10 the day that thou stoodest before the Lord . . . in Horeb--The delivery of the law from Sinai was an era never to be forgotten in the history of Israel. Some of those whom Moses was addressing had been present, though very young; while the rest were federally represented by their parents, who in their name and for their interest entered into the national covenant.
12 ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude--Although articulate sounds were heard emanating from the mount, no form or representation of the Divine Being who spoke was seen to indicate His nature or properties according to the notions of the heathen.
15 A PARTICULAR DISSUASIVE AGAINST IDOLATRY. (Deu. 4:14-40)
Take . . . good heed . . . for ye saw no manner of similitude--The extreme proneness of the Israelites to idolatry, from their position in the midst of surrounding nations already abandoned to its seductions, accounts for their attention being repeatedly drawn to the fact that God did not appear on Sinai in any visible form; and an earnest caution, founded on that remarkable circumstance, is given to beware, not only of making representations of false gods, but also any fancied representation of the true God.
16 Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image--The things are here specified of which God prohibited any image or representation to be made for the purposes of worship; and, from the variety of details entered into, an idea may be formed of the extensive prevalence of idolatry in that age. In whatever way idolatry originated, whether from an intention to worship the true God through those things which seemed to afford the strongest evidences of His power, or whether a divine principle was supposed to reside in the things themselves, there was scarcely an element or object of nature but was deified. This was particularly the case with the Canaanites and Egyptians, against whose superstitious practices the caution, no doubt, was chiefly directed. The former worshipped Baal and Astarte, the latter Osiris and Isis, under the figure of a male and a female. It was in Egypt that animal-worship most prevailed, for the natives of that country deified among beasts the ox, the heifer, the sheep, and the goat, the dog, the cat, and the ape; among birds, the ibis, the hawk, and the crane; among reptiles, the crocodile, the frog, and the beetle; among fishes, all the fish of the Nile; some of these, as Osiris and Isis, were worshipped over all Egypt, the others only in particular provinces. In addition they embraced the Zabian superstition, the adoration of the Egyptians, in common with that of many other people, extending to the whole starry host. The very circumstantial details here given of the Canaanitish and Egyptian idolatry were owing to the past and prospective familiarity of the Israelites with it in all these forms.
20 But the Lord hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace--that is, furnace for smelting iron. A furnace of this kind is round, sometimes thirty feet deep, and requiring the highest intensity of heat. Such is the tremendous image chosen to represent the bondage and affliction of the Israelites [ROSENMULLER].
to be unto him a people of inheritance--His peculiar possession from age to age; and therefore for you to abandon His worship for that of idols, especially the gross and debasing system of idolatry that prevails among the Egyptians, would be the greatest folly--the blackest ingratitude.
26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you--This solemn form of adjuration has been common in special circumstances among all people. It is used here figuratively, or as in other parts of Scripture where inanimate objects are called up as witnesses (
Deut 32:1;
Isa 1:2).
28 there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands--The compulsory measures of their tyrannical conquerors would force them into idolatry, so that their choice would become their punishment.
30 in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God--either towards the destined close of their captivities, when they evinced a returning spirit of repentance and faith, or in the age of Messiah, which is commonly called "the latter days," and when the scattered tribes of Israel shall be converted to the Gospel of Christ. The occurrence of this auspicious event will be the most illustrious proof of the truth of the promise made in
Deut 4:31.
41 Then Moses severed three cities on this side Jordan--(See on
Josh 20:7).
44 this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel--This is a preface to the rehearsal of the law, which, with the addition of various explanatory circumstances, the following chapters contain.
46 Beth-peor--that is, "house" or "temple of Peor." It is probable that a temple of this Moabite idol stood in full view of the Hebrew camp, while Moses was urging the exclusive claims of God to their worship, and this allusion would be very significant if it were the temple where so many of the Israelites had grievously offended.
49 The springs of Pisgah--more frequently, Ashdoth-pisgah (
Deut 3:17;
Josh 12:3;
Josh 13:20), the roots or foot of the mountains east of the Jordan.
