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BOOK 5 OF 66 · LAW · KING JAMES BIBLE

Deuteronomy 4

Deuteronomy book home•Chapter 4 of 34•49 verses
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REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Deuteronomy 4 Overview

Moses now moves from reviewing history to urging Israel to obey the LORD in the land. He commands the people not to add to or diminish God’s word, reminds them of the danger of idolatry, warns that covenant rebellion can lead to scattering, and emphasizes that the LORD alone is God. The chapter closes by naming three cities of refuge east of Jordan and formally introducing the law Moses will expound.

DeuteronomyBook
4Chapter
49Verses
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Before you read Deuteronomy 4

Coming from

Chapters 1–3 reviewed the journey, the wilderness judgment, the victories east of Jordan, and Moses’ preparation of Joshua.

In this chapter

Moses draws lessons from that history: Israel must hear, remember, teach, reject images and idols, and live under the revealed covenant God has given.

Leads into

Chapter 5 restates the Ten Commandments and recalls Israel’s fear when God spoke at Horeb.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Chapter 4 functions as a bridge from narrative review to covenant instruction. Israel had seen no form when God spoke at Horeb, so making a visible image to represent him would corrupt worship. The warning of scattering anticipates later covenant judgment, while the promise of mercy shows that exile would not cancel God’s covenant purposes. The cities of refuge connect the sermon to the civil arrangements already given in Numbers.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

God’s revealed word is not to be expanded or reduced by human authority.

Truth 2

Remembering God’s acts is necessary because forgetting quickly opens the door to idolatry and covenant unfaithfulness.

Truth 3

The LORD’s uniqueness is central: Israel is to know that there is none else beside him.

Truth 4

Judgment and mercy both appear in the covenant relationship: scattering is warned, yet God’s compassion is not erased.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

Deuteronomy 12:32 repeats the warning not to add to or diminish God’s command.

Connection 2

Joshua 20 later implements the cities of refuge on both sides of Jordan.

Connection 3

1 Kings 8 and later prophets repeatedly develop the pattern of covenant rebellion, scattering, repentance, and mercy anticipated here.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

The command against images is about idolatrous representation and worship, not a ban on every form of visual art; the tabernacle itself contained God-commanded artistic work.

Keep this clear 2

The chapter addresses Israel under the Mosaic covenant. Its blessings and threatened exile are not conditions for receiving eternal life.

Keep this clear 3

Do not turn 'seek the LORD' in the exile warning into a new formula for justification; the immediate subject is covenant restoration of Israel.

Read Deuteronomy 4 watching for…

The command not to add to or take away from God’s words.

Why Moses emphasizes that Israel saw no similitude at Horeb.

The progression from idolatry to scattering and from seeking to mercy.

The repeated claim that the LORD alone is God.

The placement of the eastern cities of refuge before the law exposition begins.

TWBC REVIEW STANDARD

Plain language. Scripture first. Fact distinguished from inference. No filler. No fake certainty. Designed to help you read the Bible itself.

Chapter outline6 sections
1-8Moses calls Israel to obey God’s statutes and judgments9-14Israel must remember Horeb and teach God’s words to their children15-24Israel is warned against making images and turning to idolatry25-31Moses warns of scattering but promises mercy when Israel seeks the LORD32-40Israel is to remember that the LORD alone is God and keep his commandments41-49Three cities of refuge are set apart east of Jordan and Moses’ second address is introduced
1

Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers giveth you.

2

Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.

3

Your eyes have seen what the LORD did because of Baalpeor: for all the men that followed Baalpeor, the LORD thy God hath destroyed them from among you.

4

But ye that did cleave unto the LORD your God are alive every one of you this day.

5

Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it.

6

Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.

7

For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for?

8

And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?

9

Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons;

10

Specially the day that thou stoodest before the LORD thy God in Horeb, when the LORD said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.

11

And ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness.

12

And the LORD spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice.

13

And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.

14

And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it.

15

Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire:

16

Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,

17

The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air,

18

The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth:

19

And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.

20

But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day.

21

Furthermore the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, and sware that I should not go over Jordan, and that I should not go in unto that good land, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance:

22

But I must die in this land, I must not go over Jordan: but ye shall go over, and possess that good land.

23

Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the LORD thy God hath forbidden thee.

24

For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.

25

When thou shalt beget children, and children's children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the LORD thy God, to provoke him to anger:

26

I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed.

27

And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you.

28

And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.

29

But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

30

When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice;

31

(For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.

32

For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it?

33

Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live?

34

Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

35

Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the LORD he is God; there is none else beside him.

36

Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he might instruct thee: and upon earth he shewed thee his great fire; and thou heardest his words out of the midst of the fire.

37

And because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt;

38

To drive out nations from before thee greater and mightier than thou art, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance, as it is this day.

39

Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the LORD he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.

40

Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the LORD thy God giveth thee, for ever.

41

Then Moses severed three cities on this side Jordan toward the sunrising;

42

That the slayer might flee thither, which should kill his neighbour unawares, and hated him not in times past; and that fleeing unto one of these cities he might live:

43

Namely, Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, of the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead, of the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, of the Manassites.

44

And this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel:

45

These are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which Moses spake unto the children of Israel, after they came forth out of Egypt,

46

On this side Jordan, in the valley over against Bethpeor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel smote, after they were come forth out of Egypt:

47

And they possessed his land, and the land of Og king of Bashan, two kings of the Amorites, which were on this side Jordan toward the sunrising;

48

From Aroer, which is by the bank of the river Arnon, even unto mount Sion, which is Hermon,

49

And all the plain on this side Jordan eastward, even unto the sea of the plain, under the springs of Pisgah.

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Deuteronomy 4:37

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