There you will worship gods made by human hands – wood and stone that can neither see, hear, eat, nor smell.

I say this ¹  so you will not corrupt yourselves by making an image in the form of any kind of figure. This includes the likeness of a human male or female,

Who is there from the entire human race ¹  who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the middle of the fire as we have, and has lived?

If you besiege a city for a long time while attempting to capture it, ¹  you must not chop down its trees, ²  for you may eat fruit ³  from them and should not cut them down. A tree in the field is not human that you should besiege it! ⁴ 

You said, “The Lord our God has shown us his great glory ¹  and we have heard him speak from the middle of the fire. It is now clear to us ²  that God can speak to human beings and they can keep on living.

They ¹  must not discriminate in judgment, but hear the lowly ²  and the great alike. Nor should they be intimidated by human beings, for judgment belongs to God. If the matter being adjudicated is too difficult for them, they should bring it before me for a hearing.

“I said, ‘I want to cut them in pieces. ¹  I want to make people forget they ever existed.

When the Most High ¹  gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided up humankind, ²  he set the boundaries of the peoples, according to the number of the heavenly assembly. ³ 

Indeed, ask about the distant past, starting from the day God created humankind ¹  on the earth, and ask ²  from one end of heaven to the other, whether there has ever been such a great thing as this, or even a rumor of it.