What I command thee, that only do thou to the Lord: neither add any thing, nor diminish.

Everything that I command you, ye shall take heed to do it; thou shalt not add thereto, nor take from it.

The whole thing which I am commanding you, it ye observe to do; thou dost not add unto it, nor diminish from it.

You are to keep with care all the words I give you, making no addition to them and taking nothing from them.

All this word which I command you, that shall ye observe to do; thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.

What I command to you, this only shall you do, for the Lord. You may neither add nor subtract anything."

Omne igitur verbum quod ego praecipio vobis, observabitis ad faciendum: non adjicies super illud, neque minues quicquam ex eo.

What thing soever I command. In this brief clause he teaches that no other service of God is lawful, except that of which He has testified His approval in His word, and that obedience is as it were the mother of piety; as if he had said that all modes of devotion are absurd and infected with superstition, which are not directed by this rule. Hence we gather, that in order to the keeping of the First Commandment, a knowledge of the true God is required, derived from His word, and mixed with faith. By forbidding the addition, or diminishing of anything, he plainly condemns as illegitimate whatever men invent of their own imagination; whence it follows that they, who in worshipping God are guided by any rule save that which He Himself has prescribed, make to themselves false gods; and, therefore, horrible vengeance is denounced by Him against those who are guilty of this temerity, through Isaiah, "Forasmuch as this people draw near me, etc., by the precept of men; therefore, behold I will proceed to do a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish," etc. (Isaiah 29:13, 14.) Now, since all the ceremonies of the Papal worship are a mass of superstitions, no wonder that all her chief rulers and ministers should be blinded with that stupidity wherewith God has threatened them.

What thing soever I command you, observe to do it,.... In the manner it is commanded and directed to; the laws of God, both as to matter and manner, were to be obeyed just as they were delivered: thou shall not add thereto, nor diminish from it; neither add any customs and rites of the Heathens to them, nor neglect anything enjoined on them, see Proverbs 30:6.

The admonition to observe the whole law, without adding to it or taking from it (cf. Deuteronomy 4:2), is regarded by many commentators as the conclusion of the previous chapter. But it is more correct to understand it as an intermediate link, closing what goes before, and introductory to what follows. Strictly speaking, the warning against inclining to the idolatry of the Canaanites (Deuteronomy 12:29-31) forms a transition from the enforcement of the true mode of worshipping Jehovah to the laws relating to tempters to idolatry and worshippers of idols (ch. 13). The Israelites were to cut off not only the tempters to idolatry, but those who had been led astray to idolatry also. Three different cases are mentioned.