Study Desk

so that you do not act corruptly by making an idol for yourselves, in the form of any figure—the likeness of male or female,

The Lord was angry with me because of you, and he vowed that I should not cross the Jordan and that I should not enter the good land that the Lord your God is giving for your possession.

For I am going to die in this land without crossing over the Jordan, but you are going to cross over to take possession of that good land.

So be careful not to forget the covenant that the Lord your God made with you, and not to make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you.

For the Lord your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.

For ask now about former ages, long before your own, ever since the day that God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of heaven to the other: has anything so great as this ever happened or has its like ever been heard of?

Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by terrifying displays of power, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

driving out before you nations greater and mightier than yourselves, to bring you in, giving you their land for a possession, as it is still today.

Keep his statutes and his commandments, which I am commanding you today for your own well-being and that of your descendants after you, so that you may long remain in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.

(At that time I was standing between the Lord and you to declare to you the words of the Lord ; for you were afraid because of the fire and did not go up the mountain.) And he said:

You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me,

You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

So now why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer, we shall die.

For who is there of all flesh that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have, and remained alive?

Then the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our lasting good, so as to keep us alive, as is now the case.

Do not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons,

for that would turn away your children from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.

For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you—for you were the fewest of all peoples.