Study Desk

the Arabah also, with the Jordan as a border, from Chinnereth even as far as the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah on the east.

"So keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.'

"For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as is the LORD our God whenever we call on Him?

"Then the LORD spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but you saw no form—there was only a voice.

so that you do not act corruptly and make a carved image for yourselves in the form of any figure, a representation of male or female,

a representation of any animal that is on the earth, a representation of any winged bird that flies in the sky,

a representation of anything that crawls on the ground, or a representation of any fish that is in the water below the earth.

"But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be a people of His own possession, as today.

"So be careful yourselves, that you do not forget the covenant of the LORD your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything against which the LORD your God has commanded you.

"For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

"For the LORD your God is a compassionate God; He will not abandon you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.

"Or has a god ventured to go to take for himself a nation from within another nation by trials, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, just as the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

"The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.

'You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.

'You shall not worship them nor serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, inflicting the punishment of the fathers on the children, even on the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the LORD your God; you shall not do any work that day, you or your son or your daughter, or your male slave or your female slave, or your ox, your donkey, or any of your cattle, or your resident who stays with you, so that your male slave and your female slave may rest as well as you.

'And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to celebrate the Sabbath day.

"These words the LORD spoke to your whole assembly at the mountain from the midst of the fire, from the cloud, and from the thick darkness, with a great voice, and He added nothing more. He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

'If only they had such a heart in them, to fear Me and keep all My commandments always, so that it would go well with them and with their sons forever!

"Now Israel, you shall listen and be careful to do them, so that it may go well for you and that you may increase greatly, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.