Deuteronomy 4:44-49·~1 min

Introduction to the Law

The narrator presents the law Moses sets before Israel and situates it across the Jordan, in territory already taken from Sihon and Og. The closing place names mark Israel as a people standing between remembered deliverance and the fuller law still to come.

T⁴⁴his is the law that Moses set before the Israelites. ⁴⁵These are the testimonies, statutes, and ordinances that Moses proclaimed to them after they had come out of Egypt, ⁴⁶while they were in the valley across the Jordan facing Beth-peor in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon and was defeated by Moses and the Israelites after they had come out of Egypt. ⁴⁷They took possession of the land belonging to Sihon and to Og king of Bashan — the two Amorite kings across the Jordan to the east — ⁴⁸extending from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Valley as far as Mount Siyon (that is, Hermon), ⁴⁹including all the Arabah on the east side of the Jordan and as far as the Sea of the Arabah, below the slopes of Pisgah.

Section summaryThe chapter closes by formally naming the law Moses sets before Israel and locating it in the land already taken east of the Jordan. The setting links what follows to exodus, conquest, and the threshold of further instruction.

Role in the chapterThis final section functions as a threshold marker. It gathers place, history, and possession into a formal introduction to the body of law that begins next.