Parallel Bible results for "deuteronomy 4"

Deuteronomy 4

The Bible in Basic English BBE

1 And now give ear, O Israel, to the laws and the decisions which I am teaching you, and do them; so that life may be yours, and you may go in and take for yourselves the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you.

2 Make no addition to the orders which I give you, and take nothing from them, but keep the orders of the Lord your God which I give you.

3 Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baal-peor: for destruction came from the Lord on all those among you who went after Baal-peor.

4 But you who kept faith with the Lord are living, every one of you, today.

5 I have been teaching you laws and decisions, as I was ordered to do by the Lord my God, so that you might keep them in the land to which you are going to take it for your heritage.

6 So keep these laws and do them; for so will your wisdom and good sense be clear in the eyes of the peoples, who hearing all these laws will say, Truly, this great nation is a wise and far-seeing people.

7 For what great nation has a god so near to them as the Lord our God is, whenever we are turned to him in prayer?

8 And what great nation has laws and decisions so right as all this law which I put before you today?

9 Only take care, and keep watch on your soul, for fear that the things which your eyes have seen go from your memory and from your heart all the days of your life; but let the knowledge of them be given to your children and to your children's children;

10 That day when you were waiting before the Lord your God in Horeb, and the Lord said to me, Make all the people come together, so that hearing my words they may go in fear of me all the days of their life on earth and give this teaching to their children.

11 And you came near, waiting at the foot of the mountain; and flames of fire went up from the mountain to the heart of heaven, with dark clouds, and all was black as night.

12 And the voice of the Lord came to you out of the fire: the sound of his words came to your ears but you saw no form; there was nothing but a voice.

13 And he gave you his agreement with you, the ten rules which you were to keep, which he put in writing on the two stones of the law.

14 And the Lord gave me orders at that time to make clear to you these laws and decisions, so that you might do them in the land to which you are going, and which is to be your heritage.

15 So keep watch on yourselves with care; for you saw no form of any sort on the day when the voice of the Lord came to you in Horeb out of the heart of the fire:

16 So that you may not be turned to evil ways and make for yourselves an image in the form of any living thing, male or female,

17 Or any beast of the earth, or winged bird of the air,

18 Or of anything which goes flat on the earth, or any fish in the water under the earth.

19 And when your eyes are lifted up to heaven, and you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the army of heaven, do not let yourselves be moved to give them worship, or become the servants of what the Lord has given equally to all peoples under heaven.

20 But the Lord has taken you out of the flaming fire, out of Egypt, to be to him the people of his heritage, as you are today.

21 And the Lord was angry with me because of you, and made an oath that I was not to go over Jordan into the good land which the Lord is giving you for your heritage:

22 But death is to come to me in this land, I may not go over Jordan: but you will go over and take that good land for your heritage.

23 Take care that you do not let the agreement of the Lord your God, which he has made with you, go out of your mind, or make for yourselves images of any sort, against the orders which the Lord your God has given you.

24 For the Lord your God is an all-burning fire, and he will not let the honour which is his be given to any other.

25 If, when you have had children and children's children, and have been living a long time in the land, you are turned to evil ways, and make an image of any sort, and do evil in the eyes of the Lord your God, moving him to wrath:

26 May heaven and earth be my witnesses against you today, that destruction will quickly overtake you, cutting you off from that land which you are going over Jordan to take; your days will not be long in that land, but you will come to a complete end.

27 And the Lord will send you wandering among the peoples; only a small band of you will be kept from death among the nations where the Lord will send you.

28 There you will be the servants of gods, made by men's hands, of wood and stone, having no power of seeing or hearing or taking food or smelling.

29 But if in those lands you are turned again to the Lord your God, searching for him with all your heart and soul, he will not keep himself from you.

30 When you are in trouble and all these things have come on you, if, in the future, you are turned again to the Lord your God, and give ear to his voice:

31 Because the Lord your God is a God of mercy, he will not take away his help from you or let destruction overtake you, or be false to the agreement which he made by an oath with your fathers.

32 Give thought now to the days which are past, before your time, from the day when God first gave life to man on the earth, and searching from one end of heaven to the other, see if such a great thing as this has ever been, or if anything like it has been talked of in story.

33 Has any people ever gone on living after hearing the voice of God out of the heart of the fire as you did?

34 Has God ever before taken a nation for himself from out of another nation, by punishments and signs and wonders, by war and by a strong hand and a stretched-out arm and great acts of wonder and fear, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes?

35 All this he let you see, so that you might be certain that the Lord is God and there is no other.

36 Out of heaven itself his voice came to you, teaching you; and on earth he let you see his great fire; and his words came to your ears out of the heart of the fire.

37 And because of his love for your fathers, he took their seed and made it his, and he himself, present among you, took you out of Egypt by his great power;

38 Driving out before you nations greater and stronger than you, to take you into their land and give it to you for your heritage, as at this day.

39 So today be certain, and keep the knowledge deep in your hearts, that the Lord is God, in heaven on high and here on earth; there is no other God.

40 Then keep his laws and his orders which I give you today, so that it may be well for you and for your children after you, and that your lives may be long in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for ever.

41 Then Moses had three towns marked out on the far side of Jordan looking to the east;

42 To which anyone causing the death of his neighbour in error and not through hate, might go in flight; so that in one of these towns he might be kept from death:

43 The names of the towns were Bezer in the waste land, in the table-land, for the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for Manasseh.

44 This is the law which Moses put before the children of Israel:

45 These are the rules and the laws and the decisions which Moses gave to the children of Israel after they came out of Egypt;

46 On the far side of Jordan, in the valley facing Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who was ruling in Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel overcame after they had come out of Egypt:

47 And they took his land for a heritage, and the land of Og, king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, whose lands were on the other side of Jordan to the east;

48 From Aroer on the edge of the valley of the Arnon as far as Mount Sion, which is Hermon,

49 And all the Arabah on the far side of Jordan to the east, as far as the sea of the Arabah under the slopes of Pisgah.

Good News Translation GNT

1 Then Moses said to the people, "Obey all the laws that I am teaching you, and you will live and occupy the land which the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.

2 Do not add anything to what I command you, and do not take anything away. Obey the commands of the Lord your God that I have given you.

3 You yourselves saw what the Lord did at Mount Peor. He destroyed everyone who worshiped Baal there,

4 but those of you who were faithful to the Lord your God are still alive today.

5 "I have taught you all the laws, as the Lord my God told me to do. Obey them in the land that you are about to invade and occupy.

6 Obey them faithfully, and this will show the people of other nations how wise you are. When they hear of all these laws, they will say, "What wisdom and understanding this great nation has!'

7 "No other nation, no matter how great, has a god who is so near when they need him as the Lord our God is to us. He answers us whenever we call for help.

8 No other nation, no matter how great, has laws so just as those that I have taught you today.

9 Be on your guard! Make certain that you do not forget, as long as you live, what you have seen with your own eyes. Tell your children and your grandchildren

10 about the day you stood in the presence of the Lord your God at Mount Sinai, when he said to me, "Assemble the people. I want them to hear what I have to say, so that they will learn to obey me as long as they live and so that they will teach their children to do the same.'

11 "Tell your children how you went and stood at the foot of the mountain which was covered with thick clouds of dark smoke and fire blazing up to the sky.

12 Tell them how the Lord spoke to you from the fire, how you heard him speaking but did not see him in any form at all.

13 He told you what you must do to keep the covenant he made with you - you must obey the Ten Commandments, which he wrote on two stone tablets.

14 The Lord told me to teach you all the laws that you are to obey in the land that you are about to invade and occupy.

15 "When the Lord spoke to you from the fire on Mount Sinai, you did not see any form. For your own good, then, make certain

16 that you do not sin by making for yourselves an idol in any form at all - whether man or woman,

17 animal or bird,

18 reptile or fish.

19 Do not be tempted to worship and serve what you see in the sky - the sun, the moon, and the stars. The Lord your God has given these to all other peoples for them to worship.

20 But you are the people he rescued from Egypt, that blazing furnace. He brought you out to make you his own people, as you are today.

21 Because of you the Lord your God was angry with me and solemnly declared that I would not cross the Jordan River to enter the fertile land which he is giving you.

22 I will die in this land and never cross the river, but you are about to go across and occupy that fertile land.

23 Be certain that you do not forget the covenant that the Lord your God made with you. Obey his command not to make yourselves any kind of idol,

24 because the Lord your God is like a flaming fire; he tolerates no rivals.

25 "Even when you have been in the land a long time and have children and grandchildren, do not sin by making for yourselves an idol in any form at all. This is evil in the Lord's sight, and it will make him angry.

26 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that, if you disobey me, you will soon disappear from the land. You will not live very long in the land across the Jordan that you are about to occupy. You will be completely destroyed.

27 The Lord will scatter you among other nations, where only a few of you will survive.

28 There you will serve gods made by human hands, gods of wood and stone, gods that cannot see or hear, eat or smell.

29 There you will look for the Lord your God, and if you search for him with all your heart, you will find him.

30 When you are in trouble and all those things happen to you, then you will finally turn to the Lord and obey him.

31 He is a merciful God. He will not abandon you or destroy you, and he will not forget the covenant that he himself made with your ancestors.

32 "Search the past, the time before you were born, all the way back to the time when God created human beings on the earth. Search the entire earth. Has anything as great as this ever happened before? Has anyone ever heard of anything like this?

33 Have any people ever lived after hearing a god speak to them from a fire, as you have?

34 Has any god ever dared to go and take a people from another nation and make them his own, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt? Before your very eyes he used his great power and strength; he brought plagues and war, worked miracles and wonders, and caused terrifying things to happen.

35 The Lord has shown you this, to prove to you that he alone is God and that there is no other.

36 He let you hear his voice from heaven so that he could instruct you; and here on earth he let you see his holy fire, and he spoke to you from it.

37 Because he loved your ancestors, he chose you, and by his great power he himself brought you out of Egypt.

38 As you advanced, he drove out nations greater and more powerful than you, so that he might bring you in and give you their land, the land which still belongs to you.

39 So remember today and never forget: the Lord is God in heaven and on earth. There is no other god.

40 Obey all his laws that I have given you today, and all will go well with you and your descendants. You will continue to live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to be yours forever."

41 Then Moses set aside three cities east of the Jordan River

42 to which a man could escape and be safe if he had accidentally killed someone who had not been his enemy. He could escape to one of these cities and not be put to death.

43 For the tribe of Reuben there was the city of Bezer, on the desert plateau; for the tribe of Gad there was Ramoth, in the territory of Gilead; and for the tribe of Manasseh there was Golan, in the territory of Bashan.

44 Moses gave God's laws and teachings to the people of Israel.

45 It was after they had come out of Egypt and were in the valley east of the Jordan River, opposite the town of Bethpeor, that he gave them these laws. This was in the territory that had belonged to King Sihon of the Amorites, who had ruled in the town of Heshbon. Moses and the people of Israel defeated him when they came out of Egypt.

47 They occupied his land and the land of King Og of Bashan, the other Amorite king who lived east of the Jordan.

48 This land extended from the town of Aroer, on the edge of the Arnon River, all the way north to Mount Sirion, that is, Mount Hermon.

49 It also included all the region east of the Jordan River as far south as the Dead Sea and east to the foot of Mount Pisgah.