Deuteronomy 4:21-40

New American Standard Bible

²¹“^(A)Now the Lord was angry with me on your account, and He swore that I would not cross the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. ²²For ^(B)I am going to die in this land; I am not crossing the Jordan, but you are going to cross, and you will take possession of this ^(C)good land. ²³So be careful ^[a]yourselves, ^(D)that you do not forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, and ^(E)make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything against which the Lord your God has commanded you. ²⁴For the Lord your God is a ^(F)consuming fire, a ^(G)jealous God.

²⁵“When you father children and have ^[b]grandchildren, and you grow old in the land, and you ^(H)act corruptly, and ^(I)make ^[c]an idol in the form of anything, and ^(J)do what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God to provoke Him to anger, ²⁶I ^(K)call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today, that you will ^(L)certainly perish quickly from the land where you are going over the Jordan to take possession of it. You will not ^[d]live long on it, but will be utterly destroyed. ²⁷The Lord will ^(M)scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord drives you. ²⁸^(N)There you will serve gods, the work of human hands, ^(O)wood and stone, ^(P)which neither see nor hear, nor eat nor smell anything. ²⁹^(Q)But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him ^(R)with all your heart and all your soul. ³⁰When you ^(S)are in distress and all these things happen to you, ^(T)in the latter days ^(U)you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice. ³¹For the Lord your God is a ^(V)compassionate God; ^(W)He will not abandon you nor ^(X)destroy you, nor ^(Y)forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.

³²“Indeed, ^(Z)ask now about the earlier days that were ^[e]before your time, since the ^(AA)day that God created ^[f]mankind on the earth, and inquire ^(AB)from one end of the heavens to the other. ^(AC)Has anything been done like this great thing, or has anything been heard like it? ³³^(AD)Has any people heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you have heard it, and survived? ³⁴^(AE)Or has a god ventured to go to take for himself a nation from within another nation ^(AF)by trials, by signs and wonders, by war, ^(AG)by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, ^[g]just as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? ³⁵You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord, He is God; ^(AH)there is no other besides Him. ³⁶^(AI)Out of the heavens He let you hear His voice ^(AJ)to discipline you; and on earth He let you see His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire. ³⁷^(AK)Because He loved your fathers, He chose ^[h]their descendants after them. And He ^[i]^(AL)personally brought you from Egypt by His great power, ³⁸driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in and ^(AM)to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is today. ³⁹Therefore know today, and take it to your heart, that ^(AN)the Lord, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other. ⁴⁰^(AO)So you shall keep His statutes and His commandments which I am ^[j]giving you today, so that ^(AP)it may go well for you and for your children after you, and ^(AQ)that you may ^[k]live long on the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”