Deuteronomy 4:25

Contemporary English Version

Soon you will cross the Jordan River and settle down in the land. Then in the years to come, you will have children, and they will give you grandchildren. After many years, you might lose your sense of right and wrong and make idols, even though the Lord your God hates them. So I am giving you fair warning today, and I call the earth and the sky as witnesses. If you ever make idols, the Lord will be angry, and you won't have long to live, because the Lord will let you be wiped out.

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
When you shall father children, and children's children, and you shall have been long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make an engraved image in the form of anything, and shall do that which is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, to provoke him to anger;

King James Version
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:

Lexham English Bible
"When you have had children and grandchildren and you have grown old in the land and you act corruptly and you make a divine image of the form of anything and you do evil in the eyes of Yahweh your God, thus provoking him to anger,

English Standard Version
"When you father children and children's children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger,

New Century Version
Even after you have lived in the land a long time and have had children and grandchildren, don't do evil things. Don't make any kind of idol, and don't do what the Lord your God says is evil, because that will make him angry.

New English Translation
After you have produced children and grandchildren and have been in the land a long time, if you become corrupt and make an image of any kind and do other evil things before the Lord your God that enrage him,

Amplified Bible
"When you become the father of children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, then if you corrupt yourselves by making a carved or sculpted image in the form of anything [for the purpose of worship], and do evil [things] in the sight of the LORD your God, provoking Him to anger,

New American Standard Bible
"When you father children and have grandchildren, and you grow old in the land, and you act corruptly, and make an idol in the form of anything, and do what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God to provoke Him to anger,

Geneva Bible (1587)
When thou shalt beget children and childrens children, and shalt haue remained long in the land, if ye corrupt your selues, and make any grauen image, or likenes of any thing, and worke euill in the sight of the Lord thy God, to prouoke him to anger,

Legacy Standard Bible
"When you become the father of children and children's children and remain long in the land and act corruptly and make a graven image in the form of anything and do that which is evil in the sight of Yahweh your God so as to provoke Him to anger,

Complete Jewish Bible
"When you have had children and grandchildren, lived a long time in the land, become corrupt and made a carved image, a representation of something, and thus done what is evil in the sight of Adonai your God and provoked him;

Darby Translation
When thou begettest sons, and sons' sons, and ye have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, the form of anything, and do evil in the sight of Jehovah thy God, to provoke him to anger,

Easy-to-Read Version
"You will live in the country a long time. You will have children and grandchildren there. After all that time, be sure that you do not then ruin your lives by making any kind of idol! That is something the Lord your God considers evil, and it would make him very angry!

George Lamsa Translation
When you shall beget children and childrens children, and you shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves and make images or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the LORD your God and provoke him to anger;

Good News Translation
"Even when you have been in the land a long time and have children and grandchildren, do not sin by making for yourselves an idol in any form at all. This is evil in the Lord 's sight, and it will make him angry.

Christian Standard Bible®
“When you have children and grandchildren and have been in the land a long time, and if you act corruptly, make an idol in the form of anything, and do what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, angering him,

Literal Translation
When you father sons and son's sons, and you have been long in the land, and have dealt corruptly, and have made a graven image, a likeness of anything, and have done evil in the sight of Jehovah your God, to provoke Him to anger;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Yf whan ye haue begotten children, and childers children, and haue dwelt in the londe, ye marre youre selues, & make you ymages of eny maner of faßhion, and do euell in the sighte of ye LORDE youre God, to prouoke him:

American Standard Version
When thou shalt beget children, and children's children, and ye shall have been long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image in the form of anything, and shall do that which is evil in the sight of Jehovah thy God, to provoke him to anger;

Bible in Basic English
If, when you have had children and children's children, and have been living a long time in the land, you are turned to evil ways, and make an image of any sort, and do evil in the eyes of the Lord your God, moving him to wrath:

Bishop's Bible (1568)
When thou shalt beget children, and thy children beget children, and shalt haue remayned long in the lande, ye do wickedly, & make any maner of grauen image, and worke euyll in the sight of the Lorde thy God, to prouoke hym to anger:

JPS Old Testament (1917)
When thou shalt beget children, and children's children, and ye shall have been long in the land, and shall deal corruptly, and make a graven image, even the form of any thing, and shall do that which is evil in the sight of the LORD thy God, to provoke Him;

King James Version (1611)
When thou shalt beget children, and childrens children, and shalt haue remained long in the land, and shal corrupt your selues, & make a grauen image, or the likenes of any thing, and shall doe euil in the sight of the Lord thy God, to prouoke him to anger:

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And when thou shalt have begotten sons, and shalt have sons’ sons, and ye shall have dwelt a long time on the land, and shall have transgressed, and made a graven image of any thing, and shall have done wickedly before the Lord your God to provoke him;

English Revised Version
When thou shalt beget children, and children's children, and ye shall have been long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image in the form of any thing, and shall do that which is evil in the sight of the LORD thy God, to provoke him to anger:

Berean Standard Bible
After you have children and grandchildren and you have been in the land a long time, if you then act corruptly and make an idol in the form of anything, doing evil in the sight of the LORD your God and provoking Him to anger,

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
If ye gendren sones, and sones of sones, and ye dwellen in the lond, and ye be disceyued, and make to you ony licnesse, and doen yuel bifor youre Lord God, that ye terren hym to greet wrathe,

Young's Literal Translation
`When thou begettest sons and sons' sons, and ye have become old in the land, and have done corruptly, and have made a graven image, a similitude of anything, and have done the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah, to provoke Him to anger: --

Update Bible Version
When you shall beget sons, and sons of sons, and you shall have been long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image in the form of anything, and shall do that which is evil in the sight of Yahweh your God, to provoke him to anger;

Webster's Bible Translation
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:

World English Bible
When you shall father children, and children's children, and you shall have been long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make an engraved image in the form of anything, and shall do that which is evil in the sight of Yahweh your God, to provoke him to anger;

New King James Version
"When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do evil in the sight of the LORD your God to provoke Him to anger,

New Living Translation
"In the future, when you have children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time, do not corrupt yourselves by making idols of any kind. This is evil in the sight of the Lord your God and will arouse his anger.

New Life Bible
"When you become the father of children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, if you become sinful and make a god that looks like anything, and anger the Lord your God by doing what is bad in His eyes,

New Revised Standard
When you have had children and children's children, and become complacent in the land, if you act corruptly by making an idol in the form of anything, thus doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, and provoking him to anger,

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
When thou shalt beget sons, and sons' sons, and become careless in the land and break faith and make an image the form of any thing, and shalt do the thing that is wicked in the eyes of Yahweh thy God provoking him to anger,

Douay-Rheims Bible
If you shall beget sons and grandsons, and abide in the land, and being deceived, make to yourselves any similitude, committing evil before the Lord your God, to provoke him to wrath:

Revised Standard Version
"When you beget children and children's children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a graven image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, so as to provoke him to anger,

THE MESSAGE
When the time comes that you have children and grandchildren, put on years, and start taking things for granted, if you then become corrupt and make any carved images, no matter what their form, by doing what is sheer evil in God 's eyes and provoking his anger—I can tell you right now, with Heaven and Earth as witnesses, that it will be all over for you. You'll be kicked off the land that you're about to cross over the Jordan to possess. Believe me, you'll have a very short stay there. You'll be ruined, completely ruined. God will scatter you far and wide; a few of you will survive here and there in the nations where God will drive you. There you can worship your homemade gods to your hearts' content, your wonderful gods of wood and stone that can't see or hear or eat or smell.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"When you become the father of children and children's children and have remained long in the land, and act corruptly, and make an idol in the form of anything, and do that which is evil in the sight of the LORD your God so as to provoke Him to anger,

Contextual Overview

¹ Moses said: Israel, listen to these laws and teachings! If you obey them, you will live, and you will go in and take the land that the Lord is giving you. He is the God your ancestors worshiped, ² and now he is your God. I am telling you everything he has commanded, so don't add anything or take anything away. ³ You saw how he killed everyone who worshiped the god Baal Peor. ⁴ But all of you that were faithful to the Lord your God are still alive today. ⁵No other nation has laws that are as fair as the ones the Lord my God told me to give you. If you faithfully obey them when you enter the land, you will show other nations how wise you are. In fact, everyone that hears about your laws will say, "That great nation certainly is wise!" And what makes us greater than other nations? We have a God who is close to us and answers our prayers. ⁹ You must be very careful not to forget the things you have seen God do for you. Keep reminding yourselves, and tell your children and grandchildren as well. ¹⁰ Do you remember the day you stood in the Lord 's presence at Mount Sinai? The Lord said, "Moses, bring the people of Israel here. I want to speak to them so they will obey me as long as they live, and so they will teach their children to obey me too." ¹¹ Mount Sinai was surrounded by deep dark clouds, and fire went up to the sky. You came to the foot of the mountain, ¹² and the Lord spoke to you from the fire. You could hear him and understand what he was saying, but you couldn't see him. ¹³ The Lord said he was making an agreement with you, and he told you that your part of the agreement is to obey the Ten Commandments. Then the Lord wrote these Commandments on two flat stones.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

beget: Deuteronomy 31:16-18, Judges 2:8-15

corrupt: Deuteronomy 4:16, Deuteronomy 31:29, Exodus 32:7, Hosea 9:9

do evil: 2 Kings 17:17-19, 2 Kings 21:2, 2 Kings 21:14-16, 2 Chronicles 36:12-16, 1 Corinthians 10:22

Reciprocal: Judges 2:15 - had said 2 Kings 17:6 - carried Ezra 9:7 - for our iniquities Nehemiah 1:8 - If ye transgress Isaiah 44:8 - have declared Jeremiah 5:19 - Like as Jeremiah 27:5 - and have Lamentations 1:5 - for Ezekiel 33:26 - and shall

Cross-References

Genesis 4:1
Adam and Eve had a son. Then Eve said, "I'll name him Cain because I got him with the help of the Lord ."

Genesis 4:3
One day, Cain gave part of his harvest to the Lord ,

Genesis 4:4
and Abel also gave an offering to the Lord . He killed the first-born lamb from one of his sheep and gave the Lord the best parts of it. The Lord was pleased with Abel and his offering,

Genesis 4:8
Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go for a walk." And when they were out in a field, Cain killed him.

Genesis 4:10
Then the Lord said: Why have you done this terrible thing? You killed your own brother, and his blood flowed onto the ground. Now his blood is calling out for me to punish you.

Genesis 4:11
And so, I'll put you under a curse. Because you killed Abel and made his blood run out on the ground, you will never be able to farm the land again.

1 Chronicles 1:1
Adam was the father of Seth, and his descendants were Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah, who had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Luke 3:38
Enosh, and Seth. The family of Jesus went all the way back to Adam and then to God.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

When thou shall beget children, and children's children,.... Children and grandchildren, and several ages and generations have passed:

and shalt have remained long in the land; many years and even ages, or have grown old h in it: now they were in their infancy, and as such they were about to enter into it; during the times of the judges, they were in their childhood, or youth; in the times of David and Solomon, they were in their manhood; after that, in their decline; and in the times of Jeconiah and his brethren in their old age, when for their sins they were carried captive:

and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of anything; :-.

and shall do evil in the sight of the Lord thy God, to provoke him to anger; that sin of idolatry, that God provoking sin, is chiefly intended.

h נושנתם "inveteraveritis", Montanus: "veteres facti fueritis", Junius Tremellius, Piscator "senueritis", Vatablus.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Compare with these verses Leviticus 26:33-40, and Deuteronomy 28:64 ff.