◄ Deuteronomy 4:2 ►
You must not add to or subtract from what I command you, so that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I am giving you.
Study Bible
You must not add to or subtract from what I command you
This phrase emphasizes the importance of adhering strictly to God's commandments without alteration. In the ancient Near Eastern context, covenants and legal codes were considered inviolable, and any modification could lead to severe consequences. This directive is echoed in other parts of Scripture, such as Proverbs 30:6 and Revelation 22:18-19, underscoring the consistency of this principle throughout the Bible. The prohibition against altering God's word highlights the sufficiency and perfection of divine revelation, pointing to the unchanging nature of God and His will.

so that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God
The purpose of not altering God's commands is to ensure their faithful observance. The phrase underscores the relationship between obedience and divine favor, a recurring theme in Deuteronomy. The Israelites were called to be a holy nation, set apart by their adherence to God's laws. This obedience was not merely ritualistic but was intended to reflect a heart aligned with God's purposes. The phrase also connects to the broader biblical narrative of covenant faithfulness, where keeping God's commandments is a sign of loyalty and love for Him, as seen in John 14:15.

that I am giving you
This phrase indicates the immediacy and personal nature of God's communication to the Israelites. The use of "I" emphasizes that these commandments are directly from God, not mediated through human tradition or interpretation. It reflects the historical moment when Moses, as God's prophet, delivered the law to the people before entering the Promised Land. This direct giving of the law is foundational to the identity of Israel as God's chosen people and prefigures the New Covenant, where Jesus, the Word made flesh, directly imparts God's will to humanity.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Moses
The leader of the Israelites who is delivering God's commandments to the people. He is the primary speaker in Deuteronomy, conveying God's laws and instructions.

2. Israelites
The chosen people of God, who are receiving the law as they prepare to enter the Promised Land. They are the audience of Moses' message.

3. Mount Horeb
The location where Moses received the commandments from God. It is a significant place of divine revelation and covenant.

4. Promised Land
The land of Canaan, which God promised to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Israelites are on the brink of entering this land.

5. The LORD (Yahweh)
The covenant God of Israel, who is giving the commandments through Moses. He is the ultimate authority behind the law.
Teaching Points
The Integrity of God's Word
God's word is complete and perfect. We are called to respect its integrity by neither adding to nor subtracting from it. This teaches us to approach Scripture with reverence and humility.

Obedience to God's Commandments
The command to not alter God's word is directly linked to obedience. By keeping the commandments as they are, we demonstrate our faithfulness and trust in God's wisdom.

Guarding Against False Teachings
In a world with many interpretations and teachings, we must be vigilant to ensure that what we believe and teach aligns with the unaltered word of God.

The Role of Scripture in Daily Life
Scripture should be our guide in all aspects of life. By adhering to its teachings without modification, we align ourselves with God's will and purpose.

The Consequences of Altering Scripture
Altering God's word can lead to misunderstanding and misapplication, which can have spiritual consequences. We must be diligent in preserving the truth of Scripture.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does Deuteronomy 4:2 emphasize the importance of the integrity of God's word in your personal Bible study?

2. In what ways can you ensure that you are not adding to or taking away from God's commandments in your daily life?

3. How do the warnings in Revelation 22:18-19 and Proverbs 30:5-6 reinforce the message of Deuteronomy 4:2?

4. What practical steps can you take to guard against false teachings that may alter the message of Scripture?

5. How does understanding the original context of Deuteronomy 4:2 enhance your appreciation for the authority and completeness of God's word?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Revelation 22:18-19
This passage warns against adding to or taking away from the words of prophecy, echoing the command in Deuteronomy 4:2, emphasizing the sanctity and completeness of God's word.

Proverbs 30:5-6
These verses affirm that every word of God is flawless and caution against adding to His words, reinforcing the idea of preserving the integrity of Scripture.

Matthew 5:17-19
Jesus speaks about the fulfillment of the law, emphasizing the importance of adhering to God's commandments without alteration.
Sermons
Acceptable ObedienceJ. Orr Deuteronomy 4:1, 2
The Sacredness of the Divine LawD. Davies Deuteronomy 4:1-13
Obedience the Secret of SuccessR.M. Edgar Deuteronomy 4:1-14
The Curse of IdolatryD. Davies Deuteronomy 4:1-28
God's Dealings with His PeopleH. J. Hastings, M. A.Deuteronomy 4:1-40
HearkenJ. Parker, D. D.Deuteronomy 4:1-40
Moses' DiscourseHenry, MatthewDeuteronomy 4:1-40
The Bible the Wisdom of NationS. Hayman, B. A.Deuteronomy 4:1-40
People
Amorites, Baalpeor, Bezer, Gadites, Israelites, Manasseh, Manassites, Moses, Og, Reubenites, Sihon
Places
Arabah, Aroer, Bashan, Beth-baal-peor, Bezer, Egypt, Gilead, Golan, Hermon, Heshbon, Horeb, Jordan River, Mount Sion, Peor, Pisgah, Ramoth, Sea of the Arabah, Valley of the Arnon
Topics
Add, Addition, Aught, Command, Commanding, Commandments, Commands, Diminish, Nothing, Orders, Ought, Subtract
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Deuteronomy 4:2

     1690   word of God
     8470   respect, for God

Deuteronomy 4:1-2

     1615   Scripture, sufficiency
     5036   mind, of God
     7263   theocracy
     8404   commands, in OT

Library
February the Sixteenth Crowding Out God
"Lest thou forget." --DEUTERONOMY iv. 5-13. That is surely the worst affront we can put upon anybody. We may oppose a man and hinder him in his work, or we may directly injure him, or we may ignore him, and treat him as nothing. Or we may forget him! Opposition, injury, contempt, neglect, forgetfulness! Surely this is a descending scale, and the last is the worst. And yet we can forget the Lord God. We can forget all His benefits. We can easily put Him out of mind. We can live as though He were …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

Deuteronomy
(Third Sunday after Easter.) Deut. iv. 39, 40. Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else. Thou shall keep therefore his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, for ever. Learned men have argued much of late as to who wrote …
Charles Kingsley—The Gospel of the Pentateuch

Political and Religious Life of the Jewish Dispersion in the West - their Union in the Great Hope of the Coming Deliverer.
It was not only in the capital of the Empire that the Jews enjoyed the rights of Roman citizenship. Many in Asia Minor could boast of the same privilege. [327] The Seleucidic rulers of Syria had previously bestowed kindred privileges on the Jews in many places. Thus, they possessed in some cities twofold rights: the status of Roman and the privileges of Asiatic, citizenship. Those who enjoyed the former were entitled to a civil government of their own, under archons of their choosing, quite independent …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

Of the Cities of Refuge.
Hebron, the most eminent among them, excites us to remember the rest. "The Rabbins deliver this; Moses separated three cities of refuge beyond Jordan, [Deut 4:41-43;] and, against them, Joshua separated three cities in the land of Canaan, [Josh 20:7,8]. And these were placed by one another, just as two ranks of vines are in a vineyard: Hebron in Judea against Bezer in the wilderness: Shechem in mount Ephraim against Ramoth in Gilead: Kedesh in mount Napthali against Golan in Basan. And these three …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

That the Devout Soul Ought with the Whole Heart to Yearn after Union with Christ in the Sacrament
The Voice of the Disciple Who shall grant unto me, O Lord, that I may find Thee alone, and open all my heart unto Thee, and enjoy Thee as much as my soul desireth; and that no man may henceforth look upon me, nor any creature move me or have respect unto me, but Thou alone speak unto me and I unto Thee, even as beloved is wont to speak unto beloved, and friend to feast with friend? For this do I pray, this do I long for, that I may be wholly united unto Thee, and may withdraw my heart from all created …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

The First Covenant
"Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice, and keep My covenant, ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me."--EX. xix. 5. "He declared unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even ten commandments."--DEUT. iv. 13.i "If ye keep these judgments, the Lord thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant,"--DEUT. vii. 12. "I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, which My covenant they brake."--JER. xxxi. 31, 32. WE have …
Andrew Murray—The Two Covenants

The Unity of God
Q-5: ARE THERE MORE GODS THAN ONE? A: There is but one only, the living and true God. That there is a God has been proved; and those that will not believe the verity of his essence, shall feel the severity of his wrath. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.' Deut 6:6. He is the only God.' Deut 4:49. Know therefore this day, and consider it in thy heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath, there is none else.' A just God and a Saviour; there is none beside …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

The Northern Coasts of Galilee. Amanah. The Mountain of Snow.
This coast is described by Moses, Numbers 34:7: "From the Great Sea to mount Hor: from mount Hor to the entrance of Hamath," &c. Mount Hor, in the Jewish writers, is Amanah; mention of which occurs, Canticles 4:8, where R. Solomon thus: "Amanah is a mount in the northern coast of the land of Israel, which in the Talmudical language is called, The mountainous plain of Amanon; the same with mount Hor." In the Jerusalem Targum, for mount 'Hor' is the mount Manus: but the Targum of Jonathan renders it …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

Ninth Sunday after Trinity Carnal Security and Its vices.
Text: 1 Corinthians 10, 6-13. 6 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. 7 Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. 8 Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. 9 Neither let us make trial of the Lord, as some of them made trial, and perished by the serpents. 10 Neither murmur ye, as …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. III

Epistle cxxvii. From S. Columbanus to Pope Gregory .
From S. Columbanus to Pope Gregory [89] . To the holy lord, and father in Christ, the Roman [pope], most fair ornament of the Church, a certain most august flower, as it were, of the whole of withering Europe, distinguished speculator, as enjoying a divine contemplation of purity (?) [90] . I, Bargoma [91] , poor dove in Christ, send greeting. Grace to thee and peace from God the Father [and] our [Lord] Jesus Christ. I am pleased to think, O holy pope, that it will seem to thee nothing extravagant …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

The Second Commandment
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am o jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of then that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.' Exod 20: 4-6. I. Thou shalt not …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

"They have Corrupted Themselves; their Spot is not the Spot of his Children; they are a Perverse and Crooked Generation. "
Deut. xxxii. 5.--"They have corrupted themselves; their spot is not the spot of his children; they are a perverse and crooked generation." We doubt this people would take well with such a description of themselves as Moses gives. It might seem strange to us, that God should have chosen such a people out of all the nations of the earth, and they to be so rebellious and perverse, if our own experience did not teach us how free his choice is, and how long-suffering he is, and constant in his choice. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

A Reformer's Schooling
'The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace, 2. That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. 3. And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Second visit to Nazareth - the Mission of the Twelve.
It almost seems, as if the departure of Jesus from Capernaum marked a crisis in the history of that town. From henceforth it ceases to be the center of His activity, and is only occasionally, and in passing, visited. Indeed, the concentration and growing power of Pharisaic opposition, and the proximity of Herod's residence at Tiberias [3013] would have rendered a permanent stay there impossible at this stage in our Lord's history. Henceforth, His Life is, indeed, not purely missionary, but He has …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

Covenant Duties.
It is here proposed to show, that every incumbent duty ought, in suitable circumstances, to be engaged to in the exercise of Covenanting. The law and covenant of God are co-extensive; and what is enjoined in the one is confirmed in the other. The proposals of that Covenant include its promises and its duties. The former are made and fulfilled by its glorious Originator; the latter are enjoined and obligatory on man. The duties of that Covenant are God's law; and the demands of the law are all made …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

Subjects of Study. Home Education in Israel; Female Education. Elementary Schools, Schoolmasters, and School Arrangements.
If a faithful picture of society in ancient Greece or Rome were to be presented to view, it is not easy to believe that even they who now most oppose the Bible could wish their aims success. For this, at any rate, may be asserted, without fear of gainsaying, that no other religion than that of the Bible has proved competent to control an advanced, or even an advancing, state of civilisation. Every other bound has been successively passed and submerged by the rising tide; how deep only the student …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life

Wisdom and Revelation.
"Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness …
W. H. Griffith Thomas—The Prayers of St. Paul

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