Deuteronomy 4:15-31

New Catholic Bible

¹⁵ Pitfalls of Idolatry. Therefore, guard yourselves carefully, for you did not see any kind of form when the Lord spoke to you on Horeb from the midst of the fire. ¹⁶ Do not become perverse and make an idol for yourselves of any shape or likeness, whether male or female, ¹⁷ whether it be a land animal or a bird that flies in the skies, ¹⁸ or like something that crawls on the ground or a fish in the waters beneath the earth. ¹⁹ When you look up into the skies and you see the sun and the moon and stars, all the hosts of heaven, do not be enticed to worship and serve the things that the Lord, your God, has assigned to every other nation under the heavens. ²⁰ But as for you, the Lord has chosen you and taken you out from the iron furnace,^[a] out of Egypt, to be a people who are his own possession, as you are today.

²¹ The Lord was angry with me because of you and he swore that I would not cross over the Jordan nor enter the fertile land that the Lord, your God, has given to you as an inheritance. ²² I must die in this land; I will not cross over the Jordan. But you will cross over and take possession of this fertile land. ²³ Therefore, keep guard over yourselves, lest you forget the covenant that the Lord, your God, has made with you and you make an idol in the form of anything that the Lord, your God, has prohibited. ²⁴ The Lord, your God, is a consuming fire and a jealous God.

²⁵ When you have borne children and grandchildren and have dwelt in the land for a long time, if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord, your God, and provoking him to anger, ²⁶ I will call upon the heavens and the earth to give witness against you on that day so that you might be utterly obliterated from the land that you are crossing over the Jordan to possess. You will not remain there long, but you will be totally wiped out.

²⁷ The Lord will scatter you among the nations and only a few of you will survive among the foreign peoples where the Lord has led you. ²⁸ There you will serve gods, the work of human hands, made of wood and stone, which cannot see nor hear nor eat nor smell.

²⁹ But if you seek the Lord, your God, and you strive with all your heart and your soul, you will find him there. ³⁰ When you are in distress and all of these things happen to you in the future, you are to return to the Lord,^[b] your God, and obey his voice, ³¹ and he will not abandon you, nor destroy you nor forget the covenant that he made with your fathers, confirming it to them by oath, for the Lord, your God, is a merciful God.