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1 “And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules[a] that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you.

2 You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.

3 Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal-peor, for the Lord your God destroyed from among you all the men who followed the Baal of Peor.

4 But you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today.

5 See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

6 Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.'

7 For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him?

8 And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?

9 Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children— 10 how on the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, 'Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.'

11 And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom.

12 Then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice.”

13 And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments,[b] and he wrote them on two tablets of stone.

14 And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and rules, that you might do them in the land that you are going over to possess.

15 “Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire,

16 beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female,

17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air,

18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth.

19 And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.

20 But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day.

21 Furthermore, the Lord was angry with me because of you, and he swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and that I should not enter the good land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.

22 For I must die in this land; I must not go over the Jordan. But you shall go over and take possession of that good land.

23 Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you.

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

25 “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,

26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed.

27 And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you.

28 And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.

29 But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.

30 When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice.

31 For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.

32 “For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of.

33 Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live?

34 Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

35 To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him.

36 Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire.

37 And because he loved your fathers and chose his offspring after him and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power,

38 driving out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day,

39 know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.

40 Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”

41 Then Moses set apart three cities in the east beyond the Jordan,

42 that the manslayer might flee there, anyone who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without being at enmity with him in time past; he may flee to one of these cities and save his life:

43 Bezer in the wilderness on the tableland for the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.

44 This is the law that Moses set before the people of Israel.

45 These are the testimonies, the statutes, and the rules, which Moses spoke to the people of Israel when they came out of Egypt,

46 beyond the Jordan in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the people of Israel defeated when they came out of Egypt.

47 And they took possession of his land and the land of Og, the king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who lived to the east beyond the Jordan;

48 from Aroer, which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon, as far as Mount Sion[d] (that is, Hermon), 49 together with all the Arabah on the east side of the Jordan as far as the Sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.

[1a] Deuteronomy 4:1 Or just decrees; also verses 5, 8, 14, 45

[13b] Deuteronomy 4:13 Hebrew the ten words

[37] (Chizkuni) h.ויוציאך בפניו, and Who brought you out from its presence (the Egyptians’) as was spelled out presently, in Exodus 12,41: “יצאו כל צבאות ה' לעיני מצרים, “all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.” This is not the only time in the Bible that Egypt is referred to in the singular mode, i.e. בפניו instead of בפניהם. One example that comes to mind, is Exodus 14,10: והנה מצרים נוסע אחריהם, and behold: Egypt is marching after them, instead of “are marching after them.”

[48d] See 3:9; is “Sirion” in Syriac.

[21] Num 20:12

[37] Exo 12:41

What is the intent of the author (i.e. hashem) in the following verses (emphasis mine)?

“Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I am teaching you to perform, so that you may live and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you.Deuteronomy 4:1

“Understand that I have taught you statutes and judgments just as the Lord my God has commanded me, so that you may do them, in the land which you are entering to possess.Deuteronomy 4:5

So keep them 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.’Deuteronomy 4:6

The Lord commanded me at that time to teach you the statutes and judgments, so that you might do them in the land which you are going over to possess.Deuteronomy 4:14

In this case, due to the emphasis I have placed on the actual wording of the text, it should be clear that the intent of the law is that it should be done, that it should be performed, i.e. by action (works).

Let us now examine the other places in scripture where keeping the law is discussed. Due to the large number of verses (70+) I will split them into three sections. Section one is those appearing in Deuteronomy, which will be discussed here. Section 2 will be in Leviticus 18, and section three will be in Deuteronomy 5.

• Deuteronomy 4:1
  • “Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I am teaching you to perform, so that you may live and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you.

• Deuteronomy 4:5
  • “See, I have taught you statutes and judgments just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do thus in the land where you are entering to possess it.

• Deuteronomy 4:6
  • 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.’

• Deuteronomy 4:14
  • The Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might perform them in the land where you are going over to possess it.

• Deuteronomy 4:40
  • So you shall keep His statutes and His commandments which I am giving you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may live long on the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”

• Deuteronomy 5:1
  • Then Moses summoned all Israel and said to them:“Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I am speaking today in your hearing, that you may learn them and observe them carefully.

• Deuteronomy 6:1-2
  • 1 “Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the rules that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you so that you may do them in the land to which you are going over to possess it, 2 that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long.”

• Deuteronomy 5:29
  • Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear Me and keep all My commandments always, that it may be well with them and with their sons forever!

• Deuteronomy 6:24
  • So the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God for our good always and for our survival, as it is today.

• Deuteronomy 6:17
  • You should diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and His testimonies and His statutes which He has commanded you.

• Deuteronomy 7:11
  • Therefore, you shall keep the commandment and the statutes and the judgments which I am commanding you today, to do them.

• Deuteronomy 8:1
  • “All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to give to your forefathers.

• Deuteronomy 8:6
  • Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him.

• Deuteronomy 10:13
  • and to keep the Lord’s commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good?

• Deuteronomy 11:1
  • “You shall therefore love the Lord your God, and always keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments.

• Deuteronomy 11:8
  • “You shall therefore keep every commandment which I am commanding you today, so that you may be strong and go in and possess the land into which you are about to cross to possess it;

• Deuteronomy 11:32
  • and you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the judgments which I am setting before you today.

• Deuteronomy 13:4
  • You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.

• Deuteronomy 13:18
  • if you will listen to the voice of the Lord your God, keeping all His commandments which I am commanding you today, and doing what is right in the sight of the Lord your God.

• Deuteronomy 15:5
  • if only you listen obediently to the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all this commandment which I am commanding you today.

• Deuteronomy 16:12
• You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.

• Deuteronomy 17:19
  • It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes,

• Deuteronomy 26:16
• “This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul.

• Deuteronomy 27:1
  • Then Moses and the elders of Israel charged the people, saying, “Keep all the commandments which I command you today.

• Deuteronomy 27:10
  • You shall therefore obey the Lord your God, and do His commandments and His statutes which I command you today.”

• Deuteronomy 28:9
• The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways.

• Deuteronomy 28:13
• The Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you only will be above, and you will not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I charge you today, to observe them carefully,

• Deuteronomy 28:58
• “If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, to fear this honored and awesome name, the Lord your God,

• Deuteronomy 29:29
  • “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.

• Deuteronomy 30:8

And you shall again obey the Lord, and observe all His commandments which I command you today.

• Deuteronomy 30:10
  • if you obey the Lord your God to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this book of the law, if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and soul.

• Deuteronomy 30:16
  • in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it.

• Deuteronomy 31:12
  • Assemble the people, the men and the women and children and the alien who is in your town, so that they may hear and learn and fear the Lord your God, and be careful to observe all the words of this law.

• Deuteronomy 32:46
  • he said to them, “Take to your heart all the words with which I am warning you today, which you shall command your sons to observe carefully, even all the words of this law.

h.לא תספו YE SHALL NOT ADD — For instance, to place five chapters in the Tephillin, to employ five species of fruit and plants in the fulfilment of the command of Lulab And to place five fringes on one’s garment. Thus, too, must we explain the following words ולא תגרעו, Ye shall not diminish [from it]” (Sifrei Devarim 82:4).

h.ושמרתם AND YE SHALL BE ON THE WATCH [TO DO] — This refers to the study of the laws (Sifrei Devarim 58),

h.ועשיתם — this must be explained according to what it implies: AND YE SHALL DO.

h.כי היא חכמתכם ובינתכם וגו׳ FOR THIS IS YOUR WISDOM AND UNDERSTANDING [IN THE EYES OF THE PEOPLES] — i.e. through this ye will be accounted wise and understanding men in the eyes of the peoples.

h.חקים ומשפטים צדיקים STATUTES AND RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENTS — i.e. proper and acceptable ones.

h.רק השמר לך … פן תשכח את הדברים ONLY TAKE HEED TO THYSELF … LEST THOU FORGET THE THINGS — But only then when you do not forget them but will do them in their correct manner, will you be accounted wise and understanding men, but if you do them in an incorrect manner through forgetfulness, you will be accounted foolish.

h.יום אשר עמדת THE DAY THAT THOU STOODEST — This is to be connected with the preceding verse thus: [The things] which thine eyes saw … on the day that thou stoodest … at Horeb, — where thou didst perceive the thunder and lightning.

h.יִלְמְדוּן — The Targum is יֵלְפוּן, “They shall learn” (more lit., the action reverts to themselves), while —

h.יְלַמֵּדוּן the Targum is יְאַלְפוּן, “They shall teach” (more lit., the action reverts to others).

h.ואתי צוה, ה' ללמד אתכם AND THE LORD COMMANDED ME TO TEACH YOU, the Oral Law.

h.סמל means “form”.

h.ופן תשא עיניך AND LEST THOU LIFT UP THINE EYES to ponder on the matter, and to set your heart to go astray after them.

h.אשר חלק ה׳ WHICH THE LORD ASSIGNED to give light to them (to all peoples) (Megillah 9b). — Another explanation: which God assigned to them as deities; He did not prevent them from going astray after them, but He allowed them to err (to slip) through vain speculations, in order to drive them out from the world. Similarly it states, (Psalms 36:3) “He (God) made him err (slip) through his eyes (i.e. through what his eyes behold) until his iniquity be found and he be hated” (Avodah Zarah 55a).

h.מכור — a כור is a vessel in which one refines gold.

h.התאנף means, HE WAS FILLED WITH WRATH.

h.על דבריכם means, “on your account”, “because of your doings”.

h.כי אנכי מת וגו' אינני עבר BUT I MUST DIE [IN THIS LAND], I MUST NOT PASS OVER [THE JORDAN] — Since he was to die, how could he pass over? But he meant: I must die and even my bones will not pass over (Sifrei Bamidbar 135).

h.תמונת כל means, THE LIKENESS OF ANYTHING.

h.אשר צוך WHICH THE LORD [THY GOD] COMMANDED THEE — i.e. which He commanded you not to make.

h.אל קנא A JEALOUS GOD — jealous to take vengeance, in O. F. emportment; glowing in his anger to exact punishment from those who worship idols (cf. Rashi on Numbers 25:11).

h.ונושנתם AND YE SHALL HAVE BEEN LONG [IN THE LAND] — He gave them a vague intimation that they would be exiled from it at the end of 852 years, according to the numerical value of the word ונושנתם, but He sent them into exile earlier, at the end of 850 years. He did this two years earlier than the numerical value of ונושנתם, in order that the prophecy should not be fulfilled in them “that ye shall utterly perish” (v. 26). This is the meaning of what is said, (Daniel 9:14) “And the Lord hastened in regard to the evil, and He brought it upon us, for the Lord our God is צדיק” — i.e., He acted charitably (צדקה) with us, in that He brought it (the evil) two years before its assigned time (Sanhedrin 38a; Gittin 88a).

h.העידתי בכם I CALL AS WITNESSES AGAINST YOU [THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH] — Behold I summon them to be witnesses that I have warned you.

h.ועבדתם שם אלהים AND THERE YE SHALL SERVE GODS — Understand this as the Targum does: And there ye shall serve peoples who serve idols, for since you serve those who serve them (idols) it will be as though you serve them.

h.לא ירפך means, He will not let loose of thee so as not to hold thee fast by His hands. The expression לא ירפך is an expression signifying: He will not cause something (our Hiphil) — He will not give the any looseness, i.e. He will not separate you from Him. Similar is (Song 3:4) “I hold him fast, and I will not let him loose (אַרְפֶּנוּ )”, which is not vowelled אֶרְפֶּנוּ (which is Kal and an impossible form of the root רפה “to be loose”). Always the expression “letting slack (רפה)” in the Hiphil refers to one who causes looseness to others or to one who causes it to himself. For example (2 Kings 4:2) הרפה לה means, “give her looseness”; (Deuteronomy 9:14) הרף ממני means, “Give looseness to thyself from off me”.

h.לימים ראשנים is the same as על ימים ראשנים [ASK NOW] REGARDING THE FORMER DAYS.

h.ולמקצה השמים AND FROM ONE END OF HEAVEN — i.e. and also ask of all the creatures from one end to the other end of heaven. This is its plain sense, but a Midrashic explanation is: it teaches us regarding Adam's height, that it reached from earth to heaven, and that this is the very same measurement as from one end of heaven to the other (Sanhedrin 38b).

h.הנהיה כדבר הגדול הזה [ASK] … WHETHER THERE HATH BEEN ANYTHING LIKE THIS GREAT THING — And what is the great thing? What is stated in the two following verses: השמע עם וגו׳ DID EVER A PEOPLE HEAR, etc., and

h.הנסה אלהים which means, HAS ANY GOD DONE MIRACLES (לבוא לקחת לו גוי וגו׳,(נס TO GO AND TAKE HIM A NATION [FROM THE MIDST OF A NATION] etc. — All these letters ה are interrogative prefixes, and therefore they are vowelled with Chataph Patach: הֲנהיה, הֲנשמע, הֲשמע, הֲנסה.

h.במסות BY TRIALS — through trials imposed upon Him He showed them His mighty deeds, as e.g., (Exodus 8:5) “Boast yourself over Me”, whether I am able to do so: here you have a trial (putting God to the proof).

h.באתת i.e. BY SIGNS to confirm that he is the messenger of the Omnipresent, as e.g., (Exodus 4:2) “What is that in your hand?”

h.ובמפתים these are WONDERS: — that He brought upon them (the Egyptians) wondrous plagues.

h.ובמלחמה AND BY WAR, at the Red Sea, as it is said, (Exodus 14:25) “For the Lord fought for them”.

h.הראת — Understand this as the Targum has it: Thou hast been shown. When the Holy One, blessed be He, gave the Torah, He rent open to them the seven heavens, and just as he rent open the higher regions so did He rend open the lower, so that they saw that He was alone (sole God). On this account it is stated, “Thou hast been shown that thou mayest know [that the Lord is God, there is none besides Him]” (Pesikta Rabbati 20 towards the end).

h.ותחת כי אהב AND BECAUSE HE LOVED — i.e., and all this was because He loved thy fathers.

h.ויוצאך בפניו AND HE BROUGHT THEE OUT BEFORE HIM — like a man who leads his son before him, as it is said, (Exodus 14:19) “And the angel of the Lord that went [before them] moved and went behind them” (see Rashi on that verse). — Another explanation of ויוצאך בפניו AND HE BROUGHT THEE FORTH IN HIS PRESENCE: — i.e. in the presence of his fathers, as it is said, (Psalms 78:12; see Rashi on that verse), “In the presence of their fathers He did wonders”. Do not be surprised that it refers to them (the fathers) in the singular number (by בפניו), for you see it has already written about them in the singular number, viz., “And he chose his seed after him“ (instead of “their seed after them”).

h.ממך מפניך — Invert it (the order of the words) and then explain it accordingly: to dispossess from before thee (מפניך) nations greater and mightier than thee (ממך)

h.כיום הזה AS AT THIS DAY — i.e., As you see today.

h.אז יבדיל — The imperfect form יבדיל instead of הבדיל is to be thus explained (cf. Rashi on Exodus 15:1): He set his attention to be zealous for the matter, — to set them apart. And although they were not to serve as cities of refuge until those of Canaan proper (the western side of the Jordan) were set apart for that purpose, Moses said, Any duty that it is possible for me to perform I will perform (Makkot 10a).

h.בעבר הירדן מזרחה שמש ON THE SIDE OF THE JORDAN TOWARDS THE SUN-RISING — i.e. on that side which is on the east of Jordan (not the side of the Jordan that is east of Canaan proper).

h.מזרחה שמש — Because it (the word מזרחה) is in the construct state the ר is vowelled with Chataph (vocal Sheva), the meaning being, “the rising of the sun“, i.e., the place of the sun's rising.

h.וזאת התורה AND THIS IS THE LAW — this which he was about to set forth after this chapter.

h.אלה העדות … אשר דבר THESE ARE THE TESTIMONIES … WHICH [MOSES] SPAKE — Those are the very same testimonies which he spoke when they came forth from Egypt; and he again repeated it (this law) to them in the plains of Moab.

h.אשר בעבר הירדן WHO WERE BEYOND THE JORDAN — On the east side of Jordan, because the other side was on the west. [This means on the side opposite the western side.]