Home

For Teaching

Deuteronomy 4: What the Passage Says

182 claims across 49 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Deuteronomy 4 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

Moses urges Israel to keep the rules he is teaching them, so they may live and take the land, and he tells them to add nothing to his words and take nothing away. Because they saw no form when God spoke from the fire at Horeb, he warns them not to make any image; if they do, they will be scattered among the nations, though if they seek God from there with all their heart they will find him. He points to the exodus and the voice from the fire as proof that the LORD is God and there is no other. The chapter ends with Moses setting apart three cities east of the Jordan where an accidental killer could flee, and a note about where he gave this law.

Claim by Claim

  1. 4:1
    • Moses calls Israel to listen to the statutes and the judgments he is teaching them
    • The statutes and judgments are taught so that Israel will do them
    • Israel is to obey so that they may live
    • Israel is to obey so that they may go in and take possession of the land
    • The LORD, the God of their fathers, is giving them the land
  2. 4:2
    • Israel shall not add to the word Moses commands them
    • Israel shall not take anything away from the word Moses commands them
    • The purpose is that they may keep the commandments of the LORD their God
    • Moses is the one commanding them these commandments
  3. 4:3
    • Israel's own eyes have seen what the LORD did concerning Baal-peor
    • Every man who followed Baal-peor was destroyed by the LORD their God
    • The LORD destroyed those men from among Israel
  4. 4:4
    • Those who clung to the LORD their God are all alive this day
  5. 4:5
    • Moses says he has taught Israel statutes and judgments
    • Moses taught them as the LORD his God commanded him
    • The purpose was that Israel should do them in the land
    • Israel is entering that land to possess it
  6. 4:6
    • Israel is to keep and do the statutes and judgments
    • Keeping them is Israel's wisdom and understanding in the sight of the peoples
    • The peoples will hear all these statutes
    • The peoples will say that this great nation is a wise and understanding people
  7. 4:7
    • No other great nation has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is near to us
    • The LORD our God is near whenever we call upon him
  8. 4:8
    • No other great nation has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law
    • Moses sets this law before Israel this day
  9. 4:9
    • Israel is to take heed to himself
    • Israel is to guard his soul diligently
    • The purpose is lest he forget the things his eyes have seen
    • The purpose is lest those things depart from his heart all the days of his life
    • Israel is to make those things known to his sons and his sons' sons
  10. 4:10
    • Israel stood before the LORD his God at Horeb on a certain day
    • The LORD said to Moses to gather the people to him
    • The LORD said he would make the people hear his words
    • The purpose was that they might learn to fear the LORD all the days they live on the earth
    • The purpose was that they might teach their children
  11. 4:11
    • Israel came near and stood at the foot of the mountain
    • The mountain burned with fire to the heart of the heavens
    • There was darkness, cloud, and thick gloom
  12. 4:12
    • The LORD spoke to Israel out of the midst of the fire
    • Israel heard the sound of words
    • Israel saw no form
    • There was only a voice
  13. 4:13
    • The LORD declared his covenant to Israel
    • The LORD commanded Israel to do the covenant
    • The covenant is the ten words
    • The LORD wrote them on two tablets of stone
  14. 4:14
    • The LORD commanded Moses at that time to teach Israel statutes and judgments
    • The purpose was that Israel might do them in the land
    • Israel is crossing over into that land to possess it
  15. 4:15
    • Israel is to guard themselves diligently
    • Israel saw no form on the day the LORD spoke to them at Horeb
    • The LORD spoke to them out of the midst of the fire
  16. 4:16
    • The warning is lest Israel act corruptly
    • The warning is lest Israel make for themselves a carved image
    • The image would be the form of any figure
    • The image would be in the likeness of a male or a female
  17. 4:17
    • The image would be in the likeness of any beast that is on the earth
    • The image would be in the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the heavens
  18. 4:18
    • The image would be in the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground
    • The image would be in the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth
  19. 4:19
    • The warning is lest Israel lift up his eyes to the heavens
    • The warning is lest, seeing the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, he be drawn away
    • The warning is lest he bow down to them
    • The warning is lest he serve them
    • The LORD his God allotted these to all the peoples under the whole heaven
  20. 4:20
    • The LORD took Israel
    • The LORD brought Israel out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt
    • The purpose was that Israel be a people of inheritance for him
    • Israel is such a people this day
  21. 4:21
    • The LORD was angry with Moses on account of Israel
    • The LORD swore that Moses would not cross the Jordan
    • The LORD swore that Moses would not enter the good land
    • The LORD their God is giving that land to Israel as an inheritance
  22. 4:22
    • Moses says he must die in this land
    • Moses says he is not crossing the Jordan
    • Moses says Israel will cross over
    • Moses says Israel will possess that good land
  23. 4:23
    • Israel is to take heed to themselves lest they forget the covenant of the LORD their God
    • The LORD made that covenant with them
    • Israel is not to make for themselves a carved image in the form of anything
    • The LORD their God has forbidden this to them
  24. 4:24
    • The LORD your God is a consuming fire
    • The LORD your God is a jealous God
  25. 4:25
    • The condition is that Israel begets children and grandchildren
    • The condition is that they have grown old in the land
    • The condition is that they act corruptly
    • The condition is that they make a carved image in the form of anything
    • The condition is that they do evil in the sight of the LORD their God
    • Doing this provokes the LORD to anger
  26. 4:26
    • Moses calls heaven and earth to witness against Israel this day
    • Israel will quickly and utterly perish from the land
    • Israel is crossing the Jordan to possess that land
    • Israel will not prolong their days upon it
    • Israel will be utterly destroyed
  27. 4:27
    • The LORD will scatter Israel among the peoples
    • Israel will be left few in number among the nations
    • The LORD will drive them to those nations
  28. 4:28
    • There Israel will serve gods that are the work of human hands
    • Those gods are wood and stone
    • Those gods do not see
    • Those gods do not hear
    • Those gods do not eat
    • Those gods do not smell
  29. 4:29
    • If from there Israel seeks the LORD his God, he will find him
    • Finding him depends on seeking him with all the heart and with all the soul
  30. 4:30
    • The setting is when Israel is in distress
    • The setting is when all these things have come upon him
    • The setting is in the latter days
    • Israel will turn back to the LORD his God
    • Israel will listen to his voice
  31. 4:31
    • The LORD your God is a merciful God
    • He will not let you go
    • He will not destroy you
    • He will not forget the covenant of your fathers
    • He swore that covenant to your fathers
  32. 4:32
    • Moses tells Israel to ask about the former days that were before him
    • Those days reach back to the day God created man on the earth
    • Moses tells Israel to ask from one end of heaven to the other
    • The question is whether anything as great as this has happened
    • The question is whether anything like it has been heard
  33. 4:33
    • The question is whether any people ever heard the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire
    • Israel has heard that voice
    • The question is whether such a people lived after hearing it
  34. 4:34
    • The question is whether any god has attempted to go and take for himself a nation from the midst of another nation
    • Such a taking would be by trials
    • Such a taking would be by signs
    • Such a taking would be by wonders
    • Such a taking would be by war
    • Such a taking would be by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm
    • Such a taking would be by great terrors
    • The LORD your God did all this for you in Egypt before your eyes
  35. 4:35
    • Israel was shown these things
    • The purpose was that Israel might know that the LORD is God
    • There is no other besides him
  36. 4:36
    • From heaven the LORD made Israel hear his voice
    • The purpose was to discipline Israel
    • On earth the LORD showed Israel his great fire
    • Israel heard his words out of the midst of the fire
  37. 4:37
    • The LORD loved Israel's fathers
    • Because of that love he chose their seed after them
    • He brought Israel out of Egypt by his presence and his great power
  38. 4:38
    • The purpose was to drive out nations greater and mightier than Israel from before them
    • The purpose was to bring Israel in
    • The purpose was to give Israel their land as an inheritance
    • This is the case this day
  39. 4:39
    • Israel is to know this day that the LORD is God
    • Israel is to take it to heart
    • The LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath
    • There is no other
  40. 4:40
    • Israel is to keep the LORD's statutes and commandments
    • Moses commands these to Israel this day
    • The purpose is that it may go well with Israel and with his children after him
    • The purpose is that Israel may prolong his days upon the land
    • The LORD his God is giving him that land for all time
  41. 4:41
    • Moses then set apart three cities
    • The cities were on the other side of the Jordan, toward the sunrising
  42. 4:42
    • The cities were for a manslayer to flee to
    • The manslayer is one who kills his neighbor without knowledge
    • The manslayer did not hate him beforehand
    • By fleeing to one of these cities he would live
  43. 4:43
    • Bezer in the wilderness, in the land of the plateau, was for the Reubenites
    • Ramoth in Gilead was for the Gadites
    • Golan in Bashan was for the Manassites
  44. 4:44
    • This is the law that Moses set before the children of Israel
  45. 4:45
    • These are the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments
    • Moses spoke them to the children of Israel
    • He spoke them after they came out of Egypt
  46. 4:46
    • The place was on the other side of the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth-peor
    • The place was in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites
    • Sihon dwelt in Heshbon
    • Moses and the children of Israel struck Sihon
    • They struck him after they came out of Egypt
  47. 4:47
    • They took possession of Sihon's land
    • They took possession of the land of Og king of Bashan
    • Sihon and Og were two kings of the Amorites
    • These kings were on the other side of the Jordan toward the sunrising
  48. 4:48
    • The territory extended from Aroer, which is on the bank of the river Arnon
    • The territory extended to Mount Sion
    • Mount Sion is Hermon
  49. 4:49
    • The territory included all the Arabah on the other side of the Jordan, eastward
    • The territory extended to the Sea of the Arabah
    • The territory lay under the slopes of Pisgah

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

4:1
"Rules and decisions" translates a standard Hebrew pair: *chuqqim*, fixed decrees laid down by authority, and *mishpatim*, rulings of the kind a judge gives in a particular case. Together they cover the whole body of law, both the standing statutes and the case-by-case judgments.
4:2
"Do not add or take away" was a set formula in the ancient Near East. It was written into treaties, law collections and monument inscriptions to warn scribes and later officials against tampering with the text. It is a preservation clause, not a comment on the content.
4:3
Baal-peor was a place east of the Jordan; "Baal" means "lord" or "master" and was the title of the local god worshiped there, so "the Baal of Peor" means "the lord-god of the place called Peor." The event referred to is told in Numbers 25: Israelites joined in the worship and feasts of that god, and a plague followed.
4:6
A nation is a big group of people who live together in one land. Israel had many nations living around it.
4:9
In the King James, "soul" usually stands for the whole living self rather than an inner spiritual part, so "keep thy soul diligently" means watch your own life closely, not guard an invisible piece of yourself.
4:10
Horeb is the name Deuteronomy normally uses for the mountain that other books call Sinai. The two names refer to the same place.
4:12
The Hebrew word *qol* means both "sound" and "voice," and the verse plays on it: the people heard the noise of speech, words they could make out, but nothing they could see.
4:13
A covenant was a formal binding agreement, the same kind of document used between a great king and a lesser one, with terms, witnesses and consequences spelled out. What the King James calls "ten commandments" is literally "the ten words" in Hebrew.
4:14
The people were camped on the east side of the Jordan River. Crossing that river was the last step into the promised land.
4:16
A "carved idol" (Hebrew *pesel*) is a figure cut from wood or stone, as opposed to one cast from metal. In the surrounding cultures such an image stood in a temple and was treated as the place where the god was present and could be fed, washed and addressed.
4:19
"The whole array of the sky" is literally "the host of heaven", the sun, moon and stars pictured as an assembled army or royal court. In Egypt, Babylon and Canaan these were worshiped as gods. The second half of the verse is genuinely ambiguous in Hebrew and has been read two ways: that God assigned the heavenly bodies to all peoples for their use and benefit, or that he allotted them to the other nations as objects of their worship.
4:20
An "iron furnace" is a smelting furnace used to refine metal ore, not a household oven. The image is of extreme, sustained heat.
4:21
The incident referred to is in Numbers 20, at the waters of Meribah, where Moses struck the rock and was told he would not lead the people into the land. "Because of you" points to the people's quarreling that led to it.
4:24
The Hebrew word behind "jealous" (*qanna*) describes the refusal to share what belongs exclusively to oneself, the way a husband or wife will not share a spouse. It is not envy of what someone else has.
4:26
Calling heaven and earth as witnesses was the standard closing move of an ancient treaty. Because a treaty between kings could not be enforced in any human court, permanent features of the world (sky, earth, mountains, rivers) were named as the parties who would see and remember whether the terms were kept.
4:27
Where the King James says "heathen" it is simply translating the ordinary Hebrew word for the other nations or peoples, with no sneer attached. Scattering a defeated population by deporting it in pieces across an empire was a standard imperial tactic, designed to break a people's identity permanently.
4:29
In Hebrew the heart is where a person thinks, weighs things and decides, not only where they feel, and "soul" means the whole living self, breath and appetite included. Put together, the phrase means with everything you are.
4:30
"In the days to come" is literally "in the end of the days," a Hebrew phrase meaning simply a later time, further along in the future. It does not by itself mean the end of the world.
4:33
In those days people believed that getting that close to God would kill a person. Israel heard his voice and lived.
4:34
"A strong hand and an outstretched arm" was ordinary Egyptian and Hebrew wording for military might; Egyptian kings were described the same way. "Trials" translates a word meaning tests or ordeals. The Hebrew in the first line, *elohim*, can mean either "God" or "a god," so the question can be read as "has any god ever tried this" or "has God ever tried this", translations differ.
4:36
The Hebrew word behind "instruct" covers the whole training a parent gives a child, correction included, not just passing on information.
4:37
"He himself brought you out" renders a Hebrew phrase that literally reads "by his face" or "with his presence." Ancient copies differ slightly here, and it has also been read as "by his own power" or "with his presence going before you."
4:41
These are what the law elsewhere calls cities of refuge. In this society a killing was avenged by the dead person's nearest male relative, who was expected to hunt down the killer; there was no police force or public prosecution. A designated city gave someone who had killed by accident a safe place to reach before the avenger caught him, so that the case could be judged rather than settled by immediate revenge.
4:42
"Unawares" means without intending it. Notice how the test for an accident is framed: whether the killer had shown hatred toward the man beforehand. With no police force and no way to examine physical evidence, a known history of ill will was the practical way of establishing motive.
4:43
All three are east of the Jordan, in the territory Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh had just taken and asked to settle in. Three more such cities were to be set apart later on the western side.
4:44
Verses 44 to 49 work like a title page, introducing the long collection of laws that begins in chapter 5 and giving the exact place where they were delivered. "Testimonies, statutes and judgments" are three overlapping legal words: the solemn terms of the agreement, standing rules, and case rulings.
4:45
"Reminders" translates a word (*edot*) used for the stipulations of a covenant, the terms formally testified to and kept on record, like the clauses of a treaty.
4:46
Sihon and the Amorites: a kingdom east of the Jordan, with its capital at Heshbon, defeated on the way north (Numbers 21). Beth-peor is "the house/shrine of Peor," the same place named in verse 3.
4:47
Og of Bashan ruled the territory further north, east of the Sea of Galilee; his defeat is told alongside Sihon's in Numbers 21.
4:48
Aroer sat on the rim of the Arnon, a deep river gorge running into the Dead Sea that formed the southern boundary of this territory. "Mount Sion" here is another name for Mount Hermon in the far north, and has nothing to do with Zion in Jerusalem, which is a different word in Hebrew despite the similar English spelling.
4:49
"The flat land" is the Arabah, the long rift valley running the length of the Jordan; the "Sea of the Plain" is the Dead Sea at its lower end. Pisgah is the ridge overlooking the valley from the east, from which Moses later views the land.

Read Deuteronomy 4