申4:16so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman,

申4:17or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air,

申4:18or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below.

申4:19And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars-all the heavenly array-do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.

申4:20But as for you, the Lord took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of his inheritance, as you now are.

申4:21The Lord was angry with me because of you, and he solemnly swore that I would not cross the Jordan and enter the good land the Lord your God is giving you as your inheritance.

申4:22I will die in this land; I will not cross the Jordan; but you are about to cross over and take possession of that good land.

申4:23Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the Lord your God has forbidden.

申4:24For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

申4:25After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time-if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and provoking him to anger,

申4:26I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed.

申4:27The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the Lord will drive you.

申4:28There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.

申4:29But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.

申4:30When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey him.

申4:31For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which he confirmed to them by oath.

申4:32Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created man on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of?

申4:33Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived?

申4:34Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

申4:35You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other.