Deuteronomy 3; Deuteronomy 4:1–43

red bookmark icon blue bookmark icon gold bookmark icon
Deuteronomy 3

The Defeat of King Og

Then we turned and went up the way to Bashan. And eOg the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at fEdrei. But the Lord said to me, Do not fear him, for I have given him and all his people and his land into your hand. And you shall do to him as you did to gSihon the king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon. So the Lord our God gave into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people, hand we struck him down until he had no survivor left. And we took all his cities at that timethere was not a city that we did not take from themsixty cities, ithe whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, besides very many unwalled villages. And jwe devoted them to destruction,1 as we did to Sihon the king of Heshbon, devoting to destruction every kcity, men, women, and children. But all the livestock and the spoil of the cities we took as our plunder. So we took the land at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, from the Valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon (the Sidonians call lHermon mSirion, while the Amorites call it nSenir), 10 all the cities of the otableland and all Gilead and all Bashan, as far as pSalecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 11 (For qonly Og the king of Bashan was left of the remnant of rthe Rephaim. Behold, his bed was a bed of iron. Is it not in sRabbah of the Ammonites? Nine cubits2 was its length, and four cubits its breadth, according to the tcommon cubit.3)

12 When we took possession of this land at that time, I gave to the Reubenites and the Gadites the territory beginning uat Aroer, which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon, and half the hill country of Gilead with vits cities. 13 wThe rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, that is, xall the region of Argob, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh. (All that portion of Bashan is called the land of rRephaim. 14 yJair the Manassite took all the region of Argob, that is, Bashan, as far as the border of zthe Geshurites and the Maacathites, and called the villages aafter his own name, Havvoth-jair, as it is to this day.) 15 To Machir bI gave Gilead, 16 and to the Reubenites cand the Gadites I gave the territory from Gilead as far as the Valley of the Arnon, with the middle of the valley as a border, as far over as the river Jabbok, dthe border of the Ammonites; 17 the Arabah also, with the Jordan as the border, from eChinnereth as far as fthe Sea of the Arabah, gthe Salt Sea, under hthe slopes of Pisgah on the east.

18 And I commanded you at that time, saying, The Lord your God has given you this land to possess. iAll your men of valor shall cross over armed before your brothers, the people of Israel. 19 Only your wives, your little ones, and your livestock j(I know that you have much livestock) shall remain in the cities that I have given you, 20 kuntil the Lord gives rest to your brothers, as to you, and they also occupy the land that the Lord your God gives them beyond the Jordan. Then each of you may return to his possession which I have given you. 21 And I commanded lJoshua at that time, Your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings. So will the Lord do to all the kingdoms into which you are crossing. 22 You shall not fear them, for it is mthe Lord your God who fights for you.

Moses Forbidden to Enter the Land

23 And I pleaded with the Lord at that time, saying, 24 O Lord God, you have only begun to show your servant nyour greatness and your mighty hand. For owhat god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as yours? 25 Please let me go over and see pthe good land beyond the Jordan, that good hill country and qLebanon. 26 But rthe Lord was angry with me because of you and would not listen to me. And the Lord said to me, sEnough from you; do not speak to me of this matter again. 27 tGo up to the top of Pisgah and lift up your eyes westward and northward and southward and eastward, and look at it with your eyes, for you shall not go over this Jordan. 28 But ucharge Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, for he shall go over at the head of this people, and he shall put them in possession of the land that you shall see. 29 So we remained in vthe valley opposite Beth-peor.


Deuteronomy 4:1–43

Moses Commands Obedience

And now, O Israel, listen to wthe statutes and the rules1 that I am teaching you, and do them, xthat you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. yYou shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you. Your eyes have seen what the Lord did zat Baal-peor, for the Lord your God destroyed from among you all the men who followed the Baal of Peor. But you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today. See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. aKeep them and do them, for bthat will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For cwhat great nation is there that has da god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so erighteous as all this law that I set before you today?

fOnly take care, and gkeep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. hMake them known to your children and your children’s children 10 how on ithe day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, jGather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, kso that they may learn to fear lme all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so. 11 And myou came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while nthe mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom. 12 Then othe Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, pbut saw no form; qthere was only a voice. 13 rAnd he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, sthe Ten Commandments,2 tand he wrote them on two tablets of stone. 14 And uthe 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.

Idolatry Forbidden

15 vTherefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since wyou saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, 16 beware xlest you act corruptly yby making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, zthe 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 athe sun and the moon and the stars, ball 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 cbrought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, dto be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day. 21 Furthermore, ethe 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; fI must not go over the Jordan. But you shall go over and take possession of gthat good land. 23 hTake care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and imake a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you. 24 For jthe Lord your God is a consuming fire, ka jealous God.

25 When you father children and children’s children, and have grown old in the land, lif you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and mby doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger, 26 I ncall heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27 And the Lord owill scatter you among the peoples, pand you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. 28 And qthere you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, rthat neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. 29 sBut from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you tin the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. 31 For the Lord your God is ua merciful God. vHe will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.

The Lord Alone Is God

32 For wask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. 33 xDid any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? 34 Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, yby signs, by wonders, and zby war, aby a mighty hand and ban outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 To you it was shown, cthat you might know that the Lord is God; dthere is no other besides him. 36 eOut of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and xyou heard his words out of the midst of the fire. 37 And because fhe loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them3 and brought you out of Egypt gwith his own presence, by his great power, 38 hdriving out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day, 39 know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that ithe Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; jthere is no other. 40 kTherefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, lthat it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.

Cities of Refuge

41 Then Moses mset apart three cities in the east beyond the Jordan, 42 that nthe manslayer might flee there, anyone who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without being at enmity with him in time past; he may flee to one of these cities and save his life: 43 oBezer in the wilderness on the ptableland for the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.