Atlas Biblica

    Deuteronomy · 49 verses

    Deuteronomy 4

    Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.

    The chapter

    What happens here

    Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.

    Israel heard God speak from fire without seeing any form, and Moses ended the speech by appointing three cities for the man who killed without meaning to.

    A voice, and an alarming menagerievv. 1–20

    Moses begins with statutes, memory, and the very practical hope of entering the land alive. At Horeb, however, the scene becomes wonderfully stark: Israel stands before a mountain blazing into the heavens, hears words from the fire, and sees no shape at all. This absence of a visible form is then followed by a catalogue that seems determined not to leave a single creature unmentioned—man, woman, beast, bird, crawling thing, fish, and finally the whole celestial host. Egypt is called an iron furnace, which is a rather memorable description for a departure.

    The God who speaks, and the man who cannot crossvv. 21–40

    The speech turns personal when Moses says that he will not cross the Jordan. Israel will enter the good land; Moses will die in the land where he is. Then comes the chapter’s severe forecast: corruption will bring scattering, and the scattered will serve gods that cannot see, hear, eat, or smell. Yet the warning does not end there. In later days, distress will turn the people back, and the covenant will still be remembered. The argument closes by asking whether any nation has ever heard a god speak from fire and lived—a question whose answer is plainly standing in the room.

    Three cities, then a mapvv. 41–49

    After all that thunderous speech about covenant, fire, exile, and the uniqueness of God, Moses sets aside three cities east of the Jordan. They are for a manslayer who killed a neighbor unintentionally and without prior malice: Bezer, Ramoth, and Golan. The chapter then settles into geography, placing the Israelites in the valley facing Beth-peor, in the land once belonging to Sihon and Og, and tracing the territory from Aroer to Hermon, through the Arabah, and down towards Pisgah. It is an unexpectedly administrative ending, but the accidental killer has been given somewhere to run.

    The text

    Read it

    Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

    1. Deut 4:1Hear now, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances I am teaching you to follow, so that you may live and may enter and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.

    2. Deut 4:2You must not add to or subtract from what I command you, so that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I am giving you.

    3. Deut 4:3Your eyes have seen what the LORD did at Baal-peor, for the LORD your God destroyed from among you all who followed Baal of Peor.

    4. Deut 4:4But you who held fast to the LORD your God are alive to this day, every one of you.

    5. Deut 4:5See, I have taught you statutes and ordinances just as the LORD my God has commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land that you are about to enter and possess.

    6. Deut 4:6Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the peoples, who will hear of all these statutes and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”

    7. Deut 4:7For what nation is great enough to have a god as near to them as the LORD our God is to us whenever we call on Him?

    8. Deut 4:8And what nation is great enough to have righteous statutes and ordinances like this entire law I set before you today?

    9. Deut 4:9Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen, and so that they do not slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and grandchildren.

    10. Deut 4:10The day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, the LORD said to me, “Gather the people before Me to hear My words, so that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach them to their children.”

    11. Deut 4:11You came near and stood at the base of the mountain, a mountain blazing with fire to the heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness.

    12. Deut 4:12And the LORD spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of the words but saw no form; there was only a voice.

    13. Deut 4:13He declared to you His covenant, which He commanded you to follow—the Ten Commandments that He wrote on two tablets of stone.

    14. Deut 4:14At that time the LORD commanded me to teach you the statutes and ordinances you are to follow in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.

    15. Deut 4:15So since you saw no form of any kind on the day the LORD spoke to you out of the fire at Horeb, be careful

    16. Deut 4:16that you do not act corruptly and make an idol for yourselves of any form or shape, whether in the likeness of a male or female,

    17. Deut 4:17of any beast that is on the earth or bird that flies in the air,

    18. Deut 4:18or of any creature that crawls on the ground or fish that is in the waters below.

    19. Deut 4:19When you look to the heavens and see the sun and moon and stars—all the host of heaven—do not be enticed to bow down and worship what the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.

    20. Deut 4:20Yet the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of His inheritance, as you are today.

    21. Deut 4:21The LORD, however, was angry with me on account of you, and He swore that I would not cross the Jordan to enter the good land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

    22. Deut 4:22For I will not be crossing the Jordan, because I must die in this land. But you shall cross over and take possession of that good land.

    23. Deut 4:23Be careful that you do not forget the covenant of the LORD your God that He made with you; do not make an idol for yourselves in the form of anything He has forbidden you.

    24. Deut 4:24For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

    25. Deut 4:25After you have children and grandchildren and you have been in the land a long time, if you then act corruptly and make an idol of any form—doing evil in the sight of the LORD your God and provoking Him to anger—

    26. Deut 4:26I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live long upon it, but will be utterly destroyed.

    27. Deut 4:27Then the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the LORD will drive you.

    28. Deut 4:28And there you will serve man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.

    29. Deut 4:29But if from there you will seek the LORD your God, you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

    30. Deut 4:30When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the LORD your God and listen to His voice.

    31. Deut 4:31For the LORD your God is a merciful God; He will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers, which He swore to them by oath.

    32. Deut 4:32Indeed, ask now from one end of the heavens to the other about the days that long preceded you, from the day that God created man on earth: Has anything as great as this ever happened or been reported?

    33. Deut 4:33Has a people ever heard the voice of God speaking out of the fire, as you have, and lived?

    34. Deut 4:34Or has any god tried to take as his own a nation out of another nation—by trials, signs, wonders, and war, by a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors—as the LORD your God did for you in Egypt, before your eyes?

    35. Deut 4:35You were shown these things so that you would know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides Him.

    36. Deut 4:36He let you hear His voice from heaven to discipline you, and on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the fire.

    37. Deut 4:37Because He loved your fathers, He chose their descendants after them and brought you out of Egypt by His presence and great power,

    38. Deut 4:38to drive out before you nations greater and mightier than you, and to bring you into their land and give it to you for your inheritance, as it is this day.

    39. Deut 4:39Know therefore this day and take to heart that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other.

    40. Deut 4:40Keep His statutes and commandments, which I am giving you today, so that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may live long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for all time.

    41. Deut 4:41Then Moses set aside three cities across the Jordan to the east

    42. Deut 4:42to which a manslayer could flee after killing his neighbor unintentionally without prior malice. To save one’s own life, he could flee to one of these cities:

    43. Deut 4:43Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau belonging to the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead belonging to the Gadites, or Golan in Bashan belonging to the Manassites.

    44. Deut 4:44This is the law that Moses set before the Israelites.

    45. Deut 4:45These are the testimonies, statutes, and ordinances that Moses proclaimed to them after they had come out of Egypt,

    46. Deut 4:46while they were in the valley across the Jordan facing Beth-peor in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon and was defeated by Moses and the Israelites after they had come out of Egypt.

    47. Deut 4:47They took possession of the land belonging to Sihon and to Og king of Bashan—the two Amorite kings across the Jordan to the east—

    48. Deut 4:48extending from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Valley as far as Mount Siyon (that is, Hermon),

    49. Deut 4:49including all the Arabah on the east side of the Jordan and as far as the Sea of the Arabah, below the slopes of Pisgah.

    01 — Also here

    Who else the chapter reaches

    Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

    Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.

    Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

    02 — Read alongside

    Where this is echoed

    Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 586 passages were voted onto 48 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

    • 9Deuteronomy 6:7And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
    • 9Deuteronomy 11:19Teach them to your children, speaking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
    • 9Psalms 78:3–8that we have heard and known and our fathers have relayed to us.
    • 9Genesis 18:19For I have chosen him, so that he will command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, in order that the LORD may bring upon Abraham what He has promised.”
    • 9Ephesians 6:4Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath; instead, bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
    • 9Exodus 13:8–9And on that day you are to explain to your son, ‘This is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.’
    • 9Proverbs 4:20–23My son, pay attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.
    • 9Proverbs 4:1–13Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction; pay attention and gain understanding.
    • 9Revelation 3:3Remember, then, what you have received and heard. Keep it and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know the hour when I will come upon you.
    • 9Hebrews 2:1We must pay closer attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.
    • 9Joshua 4:6–7to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’
    • 2Proverbs 30:6Do not add to His words, lest He rebuke you and prove you a liar.
    • 2Deuteronomy 12:32See that you do everything I command you; do not add to it or subtract from it.
    • 29Psalms 119:2Blessed are those who keep His testimonies and seek Him with all their heart.
    • 29Jeremiah 29:12–14Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
    • 292 Chronicles 15:4But in their distress they turned to the LORD, the God of Israel, and sought Him, and He was found by them.

    Onward

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