Deuteronomy
1:1 Here are the words Moses spoke to all Israel beyond Jordan in the wilderness, on the plain opposite the Red Sea, between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.
1:2 (It takes eleven days to go from Horeb to Kadeshbarnea by the Mount Seir route.)
1:3 In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses addressed the Israelites, as per all the instructions the LORD had given him for them,
1:4 after defeating Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and Edrei.
1:5 East of the Jordan in the territory of Moab, Moses began to expound this law, saying:
1:6 The LORD our God said to us at Horeb, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain.
1:7 Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites; go to all the neighbouring regions in the Arabah, in the mountains, in the western foothills, in the Negev and along the coast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates.
1:8 See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land the LORD swore he would give to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—and to their descendants after them.’
1:9 At that time I said to you, ‘You are too heavy a burden for me to carry alone.
1:10 The LORD your God has increased your numbers so that today you are as numerous as the stars in the sky.
1:11 May the LORD, the God of your ancestors, increase you a thousand times and bless you as he has promised!
1:12 But how can I bear your problems and your burdens and your disputes all by myself?
1:13 Choose some wise, understanding and respected men from each of your tribes, and I will set them over you.’
1:14 You agreed to what I proposed, so I took the leading men of your tribes, wise and respected men, and appointed them to have authority over you—as commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens and as tribal officials.
1:15 And I charged your judges at that time, ‘Hear the disputes between your people and judge fairly, whether the case is between two Israelites or between an Israelite and a foreigner residing among you.
1:16 Do not show partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike. Do not be afraid of anyone, for judgment belongs to God. Bring me any case too hard for you, and I will hear it.’
1:17 And at that time I told you everything you were to do.
1:18 Then, as the LORD our God commanded us, we set out from Horeb and went toward the hill country of the Amorites through all that vast and dreadful wilderness that you have seen, and so we reached Kadesh Barnea.
1:19 Then I said to you, ‘You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which the LORD our God is giving us.
1:20 See, the LORD your God has given you the land. Go up and take possession of it as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, told you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.’
1:21 Then all of you came to me and said, ‘Let us send men ahead to spy out the land for us and bring back a report about the route we are to take and the towns we will come to.’
1:22 The idea seemed good to me; so I selected twelve of you, one man from each tribe.
1:23 They left and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and explored it.
1:24 Taking with them some of the fruit of the land, they brought it down to us and reported, ‘It is a good land that the LORD our God is giving us.’
1:25 But you were unwilling to go up; you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God.
1:26 You grumbled in your tents and said, ‘The LORD hates us; so he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us.
1:27 Where can we go? Our brothers have made our hearts melt in fear. They say, “The people are stronger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the sky. We even saw the Anakites there.”’
1:28 Then I said to you, ‘Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them.
1:29 The LORD your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes,
1:30 and in the wilderness. There you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.’
1:31 In spite of this, you did not trust in the LORD your God,
1:32 who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go.
1:33 When the LORD heard what you said, he was angry and solemnly swore:
1:34 ‘No one from this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your ancestors,
1:35 except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land he set his feet on, because he followed the LORD wholeheartedly.’
1:36 Because of you the LORD became angry with me also and said, ‘You shall not enter it, either.
1:37 But your assistant, Joshua son of Nun, will enter it. Encourage him, because he will lead Israel to inherit it.
1:38 And the little ones that you said would be taken captive, your children who do not yet know good from bad—they will enter the land. I will give it to them and they will take possession of it.
1:39 But as for you, turn around and set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea.’
1:40 Then you replied, ‘We have sinned against the LORD. We will go up and fight, as the LORD our God commanded us.’ So every one of you put on his weapons, thinking it easy to go up into the hill country.
1:41 But the LORD said to me, ‘Tell them, “Do not go up and fight, because I will not be with you. You will be defeated by your enemies.”’
1:42 So I told you, but you would not listen. You rebelled against the LORD’s command and in your arrogance you marched up into the hill country.
1:43 The Amorites who lived in those hills came out against you; they chased you like a swarm of bees and beat you down from Seir all the way to Hormah.
1:44 You came back and wept before the LORD, but he paid no attention to your weeping and turned a deaf ear to you.
1:45 And so you stayed in Kadesh many days—all the time you spent there.
2:1 Then we turned back and set out toward the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea, as the LORD had directed me. For a long time we made our way around the hill country of Seir.
2:2 Then the LORD said to me,
2:3 ‘You have made your way around this hill country long enough; now turn north.
2:4 Give the people these orders: “You are about to pass through the territory of your relatives the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, but be very careful.
2:5 Do not provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land, not even enough to put your foot on. I have given Esau the hill country of Seir as his own.
2:6 You are to pay them in silver for the food you eat and the water you drink.”’
2:7 The LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything.
2:8 So we went on past our relatives the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. We turned from the Arabah road, which comes up from Elath and Ezion Geber, and travelled along the desert road of Moab.
2:9 Then the LORD said to me, ‘Do not harass the Moabites or provoke them to war, for I will not give you any part of their land. I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as a possession.’
2:10 (The Emites used to live there—a people strong and numerous, and as tall as the Anakites.
2:11 Like the Anakites, they too were considered Rephaites, but the Moabites called them Emites.
2:12 Horites used to live in Seir, but the descendants of Esau drove them out. They destroyed the Horites from before them and settled in their place, just as Israel did in the land the LORD gave them as their possession.)
2:13 “Now,” I directed, “let’s cross over the brook Zered.” So we crossed over the brook Zered.
2:14 The time from our departure from Kadeshbarnea until we crossed the brook Zered was thirty-eight years; until the entire generation of men of war had perished from the camp, as the LORD had sworn to them.
2:15 Indeed, the LORD’s hand was against them, to destroy them from the camp, until they were all gone.
2:16 So it happened that after all the men of war had died from among the people,
2:17 the LORD said to me,
2:18 “Today you are to cross the border of Moab at Ar.
2:19 When you come opposite the children of Ammon, do not harass them or provoke them, for I will not give you any of the land of the children of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to the descendants of Lot as a possession.”
2:20 (This was also regarded as a land of the Rephaim, for Rephaim formerly lived there, and the Ammonites call them Zamzummim,
2:21 a great and numerous people, as tall as the Anakim. But the LORD destroyed them before the Ammonites, who then lived in their place,
2:22 just as He did for the children of Esau, who live in Seir, when He destroyed the Horites before them. They displaced them and have lived in their place to this day.
2:23 And the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and lived in their place.)
2:24 “Get up, take your journey, and cross the Arnon Gorge. See, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to take possession of it and engage him in battle.
2:25 This day I will start to put the dread and fear of you upon the peoples everywhere under the heavens, who, when they hear reports of you, will tremble and be in anguish because of you.”
2:26 From the wilderness of Kedemoth, I sent messengers to Sihon king of Heshbon with a message of peace, saying,
2:27 “Let us pass through your land. We will stay on the main road; we will not turn aside to the right or to the left.
2:28 Sell us food to eat and water to drink for silver; only let us pass through on foot—
2:29 just as the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir, and the Moabites, who live in Ar, did for us—until we cross the Jordan into the land the LORD our God is giving us.”
2:30 But Sihon king of Heshbon refused to let us pass through, for the LORD your God had made his spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate in order to deliver him into your hands, as he has now done.
2:31 The LORD said to me, “See, I have begun to deliver Sihon and his land over to you. Start to take possession of his land.”
2:32 Then Sihon and all his people came out to meet us in battle at Jahaz.
2:33 The LORD our God delivered him over to us, and we defeated him, his sons, and all his people.
2:34 At that time, we captured all his cities and completely destroyed the men, women, and children of every city. We left no survivors.
2:35 Only the livestock we took as plunder for ourselves, along with the spoils of the cities we had captured.
2:36 From Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Gorge, and from the city in the gorge, even as far as Gilead, there was not one city too strong for us. The LORD our God gave us all of them.
2:37 But you did not encroach on the land of the children of Ammon—any part of the river Jabbok, or the cities in the hills, or whatever the LORD our God had forbidden us.
3:1 Then we turned and went up the road to Bashan, and Og king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei.
3:2 But the LORD said to me, “Do not fear him, for I have delivered him and all his people and his land into your hands; you will do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.”
3:3 So the LORD our God also delivered into our hands Og king of Bashan and all his people, and we struck him down until no survivors were left.
3:4 We captured all his cities at that time—there was not a city we did not take from them—sixty cities, the whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
3:5 All these cities were fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, besides a great many rural towns.
3:6 We utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men, women, and children of every city.
3:7 But all the livestock and the spoils of the cities we took as our plunder.
3:8 So at that time, we took the land out of the hands of the two kings of the Amorites who were on this side of the Jordan, from the Arnon Gorge to Mount Hermon;
3:9 (the Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir),
3:10 all the cities of the plateau, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, as far as Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
3:11 Only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. His bed was made of iron and is in Rabbah of the Ammonites. It was nine cubits long and four cubits wide, based on the standard cubit.
3:12 This land, which we possessed at that time, from Aroer by the Arnon Gorge, and half the hill country of Gilead and its cities, I gave to the Reubenites and Gadites.
3:13 The rest of Gilead and all of Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh. The whole region of Argob in Bashan was called the land of Rephaim.
3:14 Jair, a descendant of Manasseh, took the whole region of Argob as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites; it was named after him, so Bashan is called Havvoth Jair to this day.
3:15 And I gave Gilead to Machir.
3:16 To the Reubenites and Gadites, I gave from Gilead as far as the Arnon Gorge, the middle of the gorge being the border, and as far as the Jabbok River, the border of the Ammonites.
3:17 The Arabah also, with the Jordan as the border, from Chinnereth as far as the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, under the slopes of Pisgah eastward.
3:18 At that time, I commanded you, “The LORD your God has given you this land to possess. All your men of valor shall cross over armed before your brothers, the children of Israel.
3:19 However, your wives, your little ones, and your livestock (I know you have a lot of livestock) shall remain in your cities which I have given you,
3:20 until the LORD gives rest to your brothers as to you, and they also possess the land which the LORD your God is giving them beyond the Jordan. Then each of you may return to his possession which I have given you.”
3:21 And I commanded Joshua at that time, “Your eyes have seen all that the LORD your God has done to these two kings. So the LORD will do to all the kingdoms through which you pass.
3:22 You shall not fear them, for the LORD your God is the one fighting for you.”
3:23 I also pleaded with the LORD at that time, saying,
3:24 “O Lord GOD, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your mighty hand, for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as Yours?
3:25 Please let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan, that good hill country, and Lebanon.”
3:26 But the LORD was angry with me because of you and would not listen to me; and the LORD said to me, “Enough from you; do not speak to Me of this matter again.
3:27 Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift your eyes westward, northward, southward, and eastward, and behold it with your eyes, for you shall not cross over this Jordan.
3:28 But command Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him, for he shall go over at the head of this people, and he shall put them in possession of the land which you shall see.”
3:29 So we stayed in the valley opposite Beth Peor.
4:1 “Now then, listen, Israel, to the decrees and laws I am teaching you to follow, so that you may live, and may enter and take possession of the land the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.
4:2 Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you.
4:3 You saw with your own eyes what the LORD did at Baal Peor. The LORD your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor,
4:4 but all of you who held fast to the LORD your God are still alive today.
4:5 See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the LORD my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it.
4:6 Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’
4:7 What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him?
4:8 And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?
4:9 Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.
4:10 Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when he said to me, ‘Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.’
4:11 You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain while it blazed with fire to the very heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness.
4:12 Then the LORD spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice.
4:13 He declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two stone tablets.
4:14 And the LORD directed me at that time to teach you the decrees and laws you are to follow in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.
4:15 You saw no form of any kind the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully,
4:16 so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman,
4:17 or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air,
4:18 or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below.
4:19 And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.
4:20 But as for you, the LORD took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of his inheritance, as you now are.
4:21 The LORD was angry with me because of you, and he solemnly swore that I would not cross the Jordan and enter the good land the LORD your God is giving you as your inheritance.
4:22 I will die in this land; I will not cross the Jordan; but you are about to cross over and take possession of that good land.
4:23 Be careful not to forget the covenant of the LORD your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the LORD your God has forbidden.
4:24 For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
4:25 After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time—if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the LORD your God and arousing his anger,
4:26 I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed.
4:27 The LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the LORD will drive you.
4:28 There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.
4:29 But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.
4:30 When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the LORD your God and obey him.
4:31 For the LORD your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath.
4:32 Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of?
4:33 Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived?
4:34 Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?
4:35 You were shown these things so that you might know that the LORD is God; besides him there is no other.
4:36 From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the fire.
4:37 Because he loved your ancestors and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength,
4:38 to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today.
4:39 Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other.
4:40 Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the LORD your God gives you for all time.
4:41 Then Moses set aside three cities east of the Jordan,
4:42 to which anyone who had killed a person could flee if they had unintentionally killed a neighbor without malice aforethought. They could flee into one of these cities and save their life.
4:43 The cities were these: Bezer in the wilderness plateau, for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead, for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, for the Manassites.
4:44 This is the law Moses set before the Israelites.
4:45 These are the stipulations, decrees and laws Moses gave them when they came out of Egypt
4:46 and were in the valley near Beth Peor east of the Jordan, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon and was defeated by Moses and the Israelites as they came out of Egypt.
4:47 They took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan.
4:48 This land extended from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Gorge to Mount Sirion (that is, Hermon),
4:49 and included all the Arabah east of the Jordan, as far as the Dead Sea, below the slopes of Pisgah.
5:1 Moses summoned all Israel and said: Hear, Israel, the decrees and laws I declare in your hearing today. Learn them and be sure to follow them.
5:2 The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.
5:3 It was not with our ancestors that the LORD made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today.
5:4 The LORD spoke to you face to face out of the fire on the mountain.
5:5 (At that time I stood between the LORD and you to declare to you the word of the LORD, because you were afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain.) He said:
5:6 ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
5:7 ‘You shall have no other gods before me.
5:8 ‘You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
5:9 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
5:10 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
5:11 “You must not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not consider innocent anyone who misuses His name.”
5:12 “Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you.”
5:13 “Work six days and do all your tasks,
5:14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it, you shall not do any work—neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servants, nor your ox, donkey, or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest as you do.”
5:15 “Remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.”
5:16 “Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the LORD your God is giving you.”
5:17 “You must not murder.”
5:18 “You must not commit adultery.”
5:19 “You must not steal.”
5:20 “You must not give false testimony against your neighbor.”
5:21 “You must not covet your neighbor’s wife, or desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
5:22 “These are the commandments the LORD proclaimed in a loud voice to your whole assembly there on the mountain from out of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness; He added nothing more. He wrote them on two stone tablets and gave them to me.”
5:23 “When you heard the voice from the darkness, while the mountain was ablaze with fire, all the leaders of your tribes and your elders came to me.
5:24 And you said, ‘The LORD our God has shown us His glory and His majesty, and we have heard His voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a person can live even if God speaks with them.'”
5:25 “But now, why should we die? This great fire will consume us, and we will die if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any longer.”
5:26 “For what mortal has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking from fire, as we have, and survived?
5:27 Go near and listen to all that the LORD our God says. Then tell us whatever the LORD our God tells you. We will listen and obey.”
5:28 “The LORD heard you when you spoke to me, and the LORD said to me, ‘I have heard what this people said to you. Everything they said was good.'”
5:29 “Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever!
5:30 Go, tell them to return to their tents.”
5:31 “But you stay here with me so that I can give you all the commands, decrees, and laws you are to teach them to follow in the land I am giving them to possess.”
5:32 “So be careful to do what the LORD your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left.”
5:33 “Walk in obedience to all that the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.”
6:1 These are the commandments, rules, and laws the LORD your God has instructed me to teach you, to be observed in the land you are about to enter and possess.
6:2 Observe them faithfully, so that you and your descendants may revere the LORD your God, obey all His laws and commandments that I am giving you, and enjoy a long life.
6:3 Listen, Israel, and be careful to obey, so that things go well for you, and you may greatly multiply in a land flowing with milk and honey, as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has promised you.
6:4 Hear, Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one.
6:5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.
6:6 Keep these words I am commanding you today in your heart.
6:7 Teach them thoroughly to your children, and talk about them when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up.
6:8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
6:9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
6:10 When the LORD your God brings you into the land He swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build,
6:11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied,
6:12 be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
6:13 Fear the LORD your God, serve Him only and take your oaths in His name.
6:14 Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you;
6:15 for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and His anger will burn against you, and He will destroy you from the face of the earth.
6:16 Do not put the LORD your God to the test as you did at Massah.
6:17 Be sure to keep the commands of the LORD your God and the stipulations and decrees He has given you.
6:18 Do what is right and good in the LORD’s sight, so that it may go well with you and you may go in and take over the good land the LORD promised on oath to your ancestors,
6:19 thrusting out all your enemies before you, as the LORD said.
6:20 In the future, when your son asks you, ‘What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the LORD our God has commanded you?’
6:21 tell him: ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
6:22 Before our eyes the LORD sent signs and wonders—great and terrible—on Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household.
6:23 But He brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land He promised on oath to our ancestors.
6:24 The LORD commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the LORD our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today.
6:25 And if we are careful to obey all this law before the LORD our God, as He has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.’
7:1 When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you—
7:2 and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy.
7:3 Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons,
7:4 for they will turn your children away from following Me to serve other gods, and the LORD’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you.
7:5 This is how you are to deal with them: demolish their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire.
7:6 For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His people, His treasured possession.
7:7 The LORD did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.
7:8 But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath He swore to your ancestors that He brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
7:9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; He is the faithful God, keeping His covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments.
7:10 But those who hate Him He will repay to their face by destruction; He will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate Him.
7:11 Therefore, take care to follow the commands, decrees and laws I give you today.
7:12 If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the LORD your God will keep His covenant of love with you, as He swore to your ancestors.
7:13 He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land—your grain, new wine and olive oil—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land He swore to your ancestors to give you.
7:14 You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor will any of your livestock be without young.
7:15 The LORD will keep you free from every disease. He will not inflict on you the horrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but He will inflict them on all who hate you.
7:16 You must destroy all the peoples the LORD your God gives over to you. Do not look on them with pity and do not serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.
7:17 You may say to yourselves, ‘These nations are stronger than we are. How can we drive them out?’
7:18 But do not be afraid of them; remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt.
7:19 You saw with your own eyes the great trials, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and outstretched arm, with which the LORD your God brought you out. The LORD your God will do the same to all the peoples you now fear.
7:20 Moreover, the LORD your God will send the hornet among them until even the survivors who hide from you have perished.
7:21 Do not be terrified by them, for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God.
7:22 The LORD your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will not be allowed to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals will multiply around you.
7:23 But the LORD your God will deliver them over to you, throwing them into great confusion until they are destroyed.
7:24 He will give their kings into your hand, and you will wipe out their names from under heaven. No one will be able to stand up against you; you will destroy them.
7:25 The images of their gods you are to burn in the fire. Do not covet the silver or gold on them, and do not take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it, for it is detestable to the LORD your God.
7:26 Do not bring a detestable thing into your house or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. Regard it as vile and utterly detest it, for it is set apart for destruction.
8:1 Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the LORD promised on oath to your ancestors.
8:2 Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commands.
8:3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
8:4 Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.
8:5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.
8:6 Observe the commands of the LORD your God, walking in obedience to Him and revering Him.
8:7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a prosperous land, a land with streams and springs, and deep waters emerging in valleys and hills;
8:8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines, fig trees, and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey;
8:9 a land where you will eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron, and from whose hills you can mine copper.
8:10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land He has given you.
8:11 Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe His commandments, His laws, and His decrees that I am giving you this day.
8:12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down,
8:13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied,
8:14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
8:15 He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock.
8:16 He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you.
8:17 You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’
8:18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms His covenant, which He swore to your ancestors, as it is today.
8:19 If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed.
8:20 Like the nations the LORD destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the LORD your God.
9:1 Hear, O Israel: You are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities that have walls up to the sky.
9:2 The people are strong and tall—Anakites! You know about them and have heard it said: ‘Who can stand up against the Anakites?’
9:3 But be assured today that the LORD your God is the one who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire. He will destroy them; He will subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them quickly, as the LORD has promised you.
9:4 After the LORD your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, ‘The LORD has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.’ No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is going to drive them out before you.
9:5 It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the LORD your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
9:6 Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.
9:7 Remember this and never forget how you aroused the anger of the LORD your God in the wilderness. From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebellious against the LORD.
9:8 At Horeb you aroused the LORD’s wrath so that He was angry enough to destroy you.
9:9 When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD had made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water.
9:10 The LORD gave me two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God. On them were all the commandments the LORD proclaimed to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.
9:11 At the end of the forty days and forty nights, the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant.
9:12 Then the LORD told me, ‘Go down from here at once, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt. They have turned away quickly from what I commanded them and have made an idol for themselves.’
9:13 And the LORD said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and they are a stiff-necked people indeed!
9:14 Let me alone so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.’
9:15 So I turned and went down from the mountain while it was ablaze with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands.
9:16 When I looked, I saw that you had sinned against the LORD your God; you had made for yourselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the LORD had commanded you.
9:17 So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, breaking them to pieces before your eyes.
9:18 Then once again I fell prostrate before the LORD for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the LORD’s sight and so provoking Him to anger.
9:19 I feared the anger and wrath of the LORD, for He was angry enough with you to destroy you. But again the LORD listened to me.
9:20 And the LORD was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I prayed for Aaron too.
9:21 Also I took that sinful thing of yours, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust and threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain.
9:22 You also made the LORD angry at Taberah, at Massah and at Kibroth Hattaavah.
9:23 And when the LORD sent you out from Kadesh Barnea, He said, ‘Go up and take possession of the land I have given you.’ But you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. You did not trust Him or obey Him.
9:24 You have been rebellious against the LORD ever since I have known you.
9:25 I lay prostrate before the LORD those forty days and forty nights because the LORD had said He would destroy you.
9:26 I prayed to the LORD and said, ‘Sovereign LORD, do not destroy your people, your own inheritance that you redeemed by your great power and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
9:27 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness of this people, their wickedness, and their sin.
9:28 Otherwise, the country from which you brought us will say, “Because the LORD was not able to take them into the land He had promised them, and because He hated them, He brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.”
9:29 But they are your people, your inheritance that you brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm.’
10:1 At that time the LORD said to me, ‘Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones and come up to me on the mountain. Also make a wooden ark.
10:2 I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Then you are to put them in the ark.’
10:3 So I made the ark out of acacia wood and chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hands.
10:4 The LORD wrote on these tablets what He had written before, the Ten Commandments He had proclaimed to you on the mountain, out of the fire, on the day of the assembly. And the LORD gave them to me.
10:5 Then I came back down the mountain and put the tablets in the ark I had made, as the LORD commanded me, and they are there now.
10:6 (The Israelites traveled from the wells of Bene Jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died and was buried, and Eleazar his son succeeded him as priest.
10:7 From there they traveled to Gudgodah and on to Jotbathah, a land with streams of water.
10:8 At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister and to pronounce blessings in His name, as they still do today.
10:9 That is why the Levites have no share or inheritance among their fellow Israelites; the LORD is their inheritance, as the LORD your God told them.)
10:10 Now I had stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, as I did the first time, and the LORD listened to me at this time also. It was not His will to destroy you.
10:11 “Then the LORD said to me, ‘Arise and lead the people on their journey, so that they may enter and possess the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.’
10:12 Now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
10:13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD which I am commanding you today for your own good?
10:14 Behold, to the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it.
10:15 Yet the LORD set His affection on your ancestors and loved them, and He chose you, their descendants, above all the nations, as it is today.
10:16 Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer.
10:17 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes.
10:18 He administers justice for the orphan and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.
10:19 And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.
10:20 Fear the LORD your God and serve Him. Hold fast to Him and take your oaths in His name.
10:21 He is your praise; He is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes.
10:22 Your ancestors who went down into Egypt were seventy in all, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.
11:1 Love the LORD your God and keep His requirements, His decrees, His laws and His commands always.
11:2 Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the LORD your God: His majesty, His mighty hand, His outstretched arm;
11:3 the signs He performed and the things He did in the heart of Egypt, both to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his entire country;
11:4 what He did to the Egyptian army, to its horses and chariots, how He overwhelmed them with the waters of the Red Sea as they were pursuing you, and how the LORD brought lasting ruin on them.
11:5 It was not your children who saw what He did for you in the wilderness until you arrived at this place,
11:6 and what He did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth opened its mouth right in the middle of all Israel and swallowed them up with their households, their tents and every living thing that belonged to them.
11:7 But it was your own eyes that saw all these great things the LORD has done.
11:8 Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess,
11:9 and so that you may live long in the land the LORD swore to your ancestors to give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.
11:10 The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden.
11:11 But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven.
11:12 It is a land the LORD your God cares for; the eyes of the LORD your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.
11:13 So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul—
11:14 then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil.
11:15 I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.
11:16 Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them.
11:17 Then the LORD’s anger will burn against you, and He will shut up the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the LORD is giving you.
11:18 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
11:19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
11:20 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates,
11:21 so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the LORD swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.
11:22 If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow—to love the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to Him and to hold fast to Him—
11:23 then the LORD will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you.
11:24 Every place where you set your foot will be yours: Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the river, the Euphrates River, to the Mediterranean Sea.
11:25 No one will be able to stand against you. The LORD your God, as He promised you, will put the terror and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go.
11:26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse—
11:27 the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today;
11:28 the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.
11:29 When the LORD your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings, and on Mount Ebal the curses.
11:30 As you know, these mountains are across the Jordan, westward, toward the setting sun, near the great trees of Moreh, in the territory of those Canaanites living in the Arabah in the vicinity of Gilgal.
11:31 You are about to cross the Jordan to enter and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you. When you have taken it over and are living there,
11:32 be sure that you obey all the statutes and laws I am setting before you today.
12:1 These are the decrees and laws you must be careful to follow in the land that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess—all the days that you live on the earth.
12:2 Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains, on the hills and under every spreading tree, where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods.
12:3 Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places.
12:4 You must not worship the LORD your God in their way.
12:5 But you are to seek the place the LORD your God will choose from among all your tribes to put His Name there for His dwelling. To that place you must go;
12:6 there bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, what you have vowed to give and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks.
12:7 There, in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your families shall eat and shall rejoice in everything you have put your hand to, because the LORD your God has blessed you.
12:8 You are not to do as we do here today, everyone doing as they see fit,
12:9 since you have not yet reached the resting place and the inheritance the LORD your God is giving you.
12:10 But you will cross the Jordan and settle in the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and He will give you rest from all your enemies around you so that you will live in safety.
12:11 Then to the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for His Name—there you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice possessions you have vowed to the LORD.
12:12 And there rejoice before the LORD your God—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites from your towns who have no allotment or inheritance of their own.
12:13 Be careful not to sacrifice your burnt offerings anywhere you please.
12:14 Offer them only at the place the LORD will choose in one of your tribes, and there observe everything I command you.
12:15 Nevertheless, you may slaughter your animals in any of your towns and eat as much of the meat as you want, as if it were gazelle or deer, according to the blessing the LORD your God gives you. Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it.
12:16 Do not consume the blood; instead, spill it on the ground like water.
12:17 Within your gates, you must not consume the tithe of your grain, wine, or oil, nor the firstborn of your herds or flocks, any vow you make, your voluntary offerings, or your hand’s contributions.
12:18 Only in the presence of the LORD your God, at the location He will choose, may you eat these, along with your son, daughter, male and female servants, and the Levite living among you. In all you do, rejoice before the LORD your God.
12:19 Be mindful never to neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.
12:20 When the LORD your God expands your territory as promised, and you crave meat, saying, “I desire to eat meat,” you may eat as much meat as your heart desires.
12:21 If the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, then you may slaughter from your herds and flocks which the LORD has given you, as I have commanded, and eat within your gates as much as your heart desires.
12:22 Just as you would eat the gazelle or the deer, so you may eat these animals. Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat them.
12:23 But be certain not to eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat.
12:24 Do not consume it; you must pour it onto the ground like water.
12:25 Do not eat it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, when you do what is right in the eyes of the LORD.
12:26 But take your consecrated things and whatever you have vowed to give, and go to the place the LORD will choose.
12:27 Present your burnt offerings, both the meat and the blood, on the altar of the LORD your God. The blood of your sacrifices must be poured out on the altar of the LORD your God, but you may eat the meat.
12:28 Observe and listen to all these words which I command you, so that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the eyes of the LORD your God.
12:29 When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations you are entering to dispossess, and when you have dispossessed them and live in their land,
12:30 be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, “How did these nations serve their gods? I will do the same.”
12:31 You must not worship the LORD your God in their way, because every detestable act the LORD hates they have done for their gods. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.
12:32 See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it.
13:1 If a prophet or someone who interprets dreams arises among you and offers you a sign or a wonder,
13:2 and the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and they say, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,”
13:3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
13:4 It is the LORD your God you must follow, and Him you must revere. Keep His commands and obey Him; serve Him and hold fast to Him.
13:5 That prophet or dreamer must be put to death for inciting rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. That prophet or dreamer tried to turn you from the way the LORD your God commanded you to follow. You must purge the evil from among you.
13:6 If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known,
13:7 gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other),
13:8 do not yield to them or listen to them. Show them no pity. Do not spare them or shield them.
13:9 You must certainly put them to death. Your hand must be the first in putting them to death, and then the hands of all the people.
13:10 Stone them to death, because they tried to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
13:11 Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and no one among you will do such an evil thing again.
13:12 If you hear it said about one of the towns the LORD your God is giving you to live in
13:13 that troublemakers have arisen among you and have led the people of their town astray, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (gods you have not known),
13:14 then you must inquire, probe and investigate it thoroughly. And if it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done among you,
13:15 you must certainly put to the sword all who live in that town. You must destroy it completely, both its people and its livestock.
13:16 You are to gather all the plunder of the town into the middle of the public square and completely burn the town and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. That town is to remain a ruin forever, never to be rebuilt,
13:17 and none of the condemned things are to be found in your hands. Then the LORD will turn from His fierce anger, will show you mercy, and will have compassion on you. He will increase your numbers, as He promised on oath to your ancestors,
13:18 because you obey the LORD your God by keeping all His commands that I am giving you today and doing what is right in His eyes.
14:1 You are the children of the LORD your God. Do not cut yourselves or shave the front of your heads for the dead,
14:2 for you are a people holy to the LORD your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the LORD has chosen you to be His treasured possession.
14:3 Do not eat any detestable thing.
14:4 These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat,
14:5 the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope and the mountain sheep.
14:6 You may eat any animal that has a divided hoof and that chews the cud.
14:7 However, of those that chew the cud or have a divided hoof, you must not eat the camel, the hare or the hyrax. Although they chew the cud, they do not have a divided hoof; they are ceremonially unclean for you.
14:8 The pig is also unclean; although it has a divided hoof, it does not chew the cud. You are not to eat their meat or touch their carcasses.
14:9 Of all the creatures living in the water, you may eat any that has fins and scales.
14:10 But anything that does not have fins and scales you may not eat; for you it is unclean.
14:11 You may eat any clean bird.
14:12 But these you may not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture,
14:13 the red kite, any kind of black kite,
14:14 any kind of raven,
14:15 the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk,
14:16 the little owl, the great owl, the white owl,
14:17 the desert owl, the osprey, the cormorant,
14:18 the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat.
14:19 All flying insects are unclean to you; do not eat them.
14:20 But any winged creature that is clean you may eat.
14:21 Do not eat anything you find already dead. You may give it to the foreigner residing in any of your towns, and they may eat it, or you may sell it to any other foreigner. But you are a people holy to the LORD your God. Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.
14:22 Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year.
14:23 Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the LORD your God at the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name, so that you may learn to revere the LORD your God always.
14:24 But if that place is too far from you and you have been blessed by the LORD your God and cannot carry your tithe (because the place where the LORD will choose to put His Name is so far away),
14:25 then exchange your tithe for silver, and take the silver with you and go to the place the LORD your God will choose.
14:26 Then you shall spend that money on whatever your heart desires: for oxen, sheep, wine, strong drink, or anything your heart wishes. You shall eat there in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice, you and your household.
14:27 Do not neglect the Levite living in your towns, for he has no share or inheritance with you.
14:28 Every three years, bring all the tithes of your produce from that year and store it within your towns.
14:29 The Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be satisfied, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.
15:1 Every seven years, you shall grant a release.
15:2 And this is the manner of the release: every creditor shall release what he has lent to his neighbour. He shall not exact it of his neighbour or his brother, because the LORD’s release has been proclaimed.
15:3 Of a foreigner, you may exact it, but whatever of yours is with your brother, your hand shall release.
15:4 But there will be no poor among you; for the LORD will bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance,
15:5 if only you carefully listen to the voice of the LORD your God, to observe to do all these commandments that I command you today.
15:6 For the LORD your God will bless you, as he promised you, and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; and you shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you.
15:7 If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother,
15:8 but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be.
15:9 Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of release is near,’ and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the LORD against you, and it be sin in you.
15:10 You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake.
15:11 For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore, I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’
15:12 If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year, you shall let him go free from you.
15:13 And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty-handed.
15:14 You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your winepress. As the LORD your God has blessed you, you shall give to him.
15:15 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you; therefore, I command you this today.
15:16 But if he says to you, ‘I will not go out from you,’ because he loves you and your household, since he is well-off with you,
15:17 then you shall take an awl, and put it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your slave forever. And to your female slave, you shall do the same.
15:18 It shall not seem hard to you when you let him go free from you, for at half the cost of a hired worker, he has served you six years. So the LORD your God will bless you in all that you do.
15:19 All the firstborn males that are born of your herd and flock you shall dedicate to the LORD your God. You shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock.
15:20 You shall eat it, you and your household, before the LORD your God year by year at the place that the LORD will choose.
15:21 But if it has any blemish, if it is lame or blind or has any serious blemish, you shall not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.
15:22 You may eat it within your towns; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as though it were a gazelle or a deer.
15:23 Only you shall not eat its blood; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.
16:1 “Observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the LORD your God, for in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night.
16:2 And you shall offer the Passover sacrifice to the LORD your God, from the flock or the herd, at the place that the LORD will choose, to make his name dwell there.
16:3 You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction—for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste—that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt.
16:4 No leavened bread shall be seen with you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the meat that you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain all night until morning.
16:5 You may not offer the Passover sacrifice within any of your towns that the LORD your God is giving you,
16:6 but at the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell in it, there you shall offer the Passover sacrifice, in the evening at sunset, at the time you came out of Egypt.
16:7 And you shall cook it and eat it at the place that the LORD your God will choose. And in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents.
16:8 For six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD your God. You shall do no work on it.
16:9 “You shall count seven weeks. Begin to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain.
16:10 Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the LORD your God blesses you.
16:11 And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your towns, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, at the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell there.
16:12 You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt; and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.
16:13 “You shall keep the Feast of Booths seven days when you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and your winepress.
16:14 You shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns.
16:15 For seven days you shall keep the feast to the LORD your God at the place that the LORD will choose, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.
16:16 “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God at the place that he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Booths. They shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed.
16:17 Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God that he has given you.
16:18 “You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.
16:19 You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous.
16:20 Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
16:21 “You shall not plant any tree as an Asherah beside the altar of the LORD your God that you shall make.
16:22 And you shall not set up a pillar, which the LORD your God hates.
17:1 “You shall not sacrifice to the LORD your God an ox or a sheep in which is a blemish, any defect whatever, for that is an abomination to the LORD your God.
17:2 “If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, in transgressing his covenant,
17:3 and has gone to serve other gods and worshipped them, whether the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;
17:4 and it is reported to you, and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently, and if it is true and certain that such an abomination has been done in Israel,
17:5 then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this wicked thing, and you shall stone that man or woman to death.
17:6 On the evidence of two or three witnesses, the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness.
17:7 The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
17:8 If any case arises requiring decision between one kind of homicide and another, one kind of legal right and another, or one kind of assault and another, any case within your towns that is too difficult for you, then you shall arise and go up to the place that the LORD your God will choose.
17:9 And you shall come to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall consult them, and they shall declare to you the decision.
17:10 Then you shall do according to what they declare to you from that place that the LORD will choose. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they direct you.
17:11 According to the instruction that they give you, and according to the decision which they pronounce to you, you shall do. You shall not turn aside from the verdict that they declare to you, either to the right hand or to the left.
17:12 The man who acts presumptuously by not obeying the priest who stands to minister there before the LORD your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.
17:13 And all the people shall hear and fear and not act presumptuously again.
17:14 When you come to the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’
17:15 you may indeed set a king over you whom the LORD your God will choose. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you; you may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.
17:16 Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the LORD has said to you, ‘You shall never return that way again.’
17:17 And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.
17:18 And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests.
17:19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them,
17:20 that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.
18:1 The Levitical priests, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the LORD’s offerings by fire and his portion.
18:2 They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the LORD is their inheritance, as he promised them.
18:3 And this shall be the priests’ due from the people, from those offering a sacrifice, whether an ox or a sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach.
18:4 The firstfruits of your grain, of your wine and of your oil, and the first fleece of your sheep, you shall give him.
18:5 For the LORD your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the name of the LORD, him and his sons for all time.
18:6 And if a Levite comes from any of your towns out of all Israel, where he lives—and he may come when he desires—to the place that the LORD will choose,
18:7 then he may minister in the name of the LORD his God, like all his fellow Levites who stand to minister there before the LORD.
18:8 They shall have equal portions to eat, besides what comes from the sale of his patrimony.
18:9 When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations.
18:10 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer
18:11 or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead.
18:12 For whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD, and because of these abominations the LORD your God is driving them out before you.
18:13 You shall be blameless before the LORD your God,
18:14 for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this.
18:15 The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—
18:16 just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire anymore, lest I die.’
18:17 And the LORD said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken.
18:18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
18:19 And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.
18:20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’
18:21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’—
18:22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.
19:1 “When the LORD your God cuts off the nations whose land the LORD your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses,
19:2 you shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.
19:3 You shall measure the distances and divide into three parts the area of the land that the LORD your God gives you as a possession, so that any manslayer can flee to them.
19:4 “This is the provision for the manslayer, who by fleeing there may save his life. If anyone kills his neighbor unintentionally without having hated him in the past—
19:5 as when someone goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down a tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live,
19:6 lest the avenger of blood in hot anger pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him fatally, though the man did not deserve to die, since he had not hated his neighbor in the past.
19:7 Therefore I command you, You shall set apart three cities.
19:8 And if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as he has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land that he promised to give to your fathers—
19:9 provided you are careful to keep all this commandment, which I command you today, by loving the LORD your God and by walking ever in his ways—then you shall add three more cities to these three,
19:10 lest innocent blood be shed in your land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance, and so the guilt of bloodshed be upon you.
19:11 “But if anyone hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and attacks him and strikes him fatally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities,
19:12 then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die.
19:13 Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, so that it may be well with you.
19:14 “You shall not move your neighbor’s landmark, which the men of old have set, in your inheritance that you will hold in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.
19:15 A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established.
19:16 If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing,
19:17 then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days.
19:18 The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely,
19:19 then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
19:20 And the rest shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you.
19:21 Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
20:1 When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
20:2 And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people
20:3 and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them,
20:4 for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.’
20:5 Then the officers shall speak to the people, saying, ‘Is there any man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it.
20:6 And is there any man who has planted a vineyard and has not enjoyed its fruit? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man enjoy its fruit.
20:7 And is there any man who has betrothed a wife and has not taken her? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her.’
20:8 And the officers shall speak further to the people, and say, ‘Is there any man who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go back to his house, lest he make the heart of his fellows melt like his own.’
20:9 And when the officers have finished speaking to the people, then commanders shall be appointed at the head of the people.
20:10 When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it.
20:11 And if it responds to you peaceably and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you.
20:12 But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it.
20:13 And when the Lord your God gives it into your hand, you shall put all its males to the sword,
20:14 but the women and the little ones, the livestock, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as plunder for yourselves. And you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you.
20:15 Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not cities of the nations here.
20:16 But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes,
20:17 but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded,
20:18 that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the Lord your God.
20:19 “When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. You may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. Are the trees in the field human, that they should be besieged by you?
20:20 Only the trees that you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, that you may build siege works against the city that makes war with you, until it falls.
21:1 “If in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess someone is found slain, lying in the open country, and it is not known who killed him,
21:2 then your elders and your judges shall come out, and they shall measure the distance to the surrounding cities.
21:3 And the elders of the city that is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer that has never been worked and that has not pulled in a yoke.
21:4 And the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley.
21:5 Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the Lord your God has chosen them to minister to him and to bless in the name of the Lord, and by their word every dispute and every assault shall be settled.
21:6 And all the elders of the city nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley,
21:7 and they shall testify, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it shed.
21:8 Accept atonement, O Lord, for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and do not set the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel, so that their blood guilt be atoned for.’
21:9 So you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.
21:10 “When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God gives them into your hand and you take them captive,
21:11 and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire her and would take her to be your wife,
21:12 then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head and pare her nails.
21:13 And she shall take off the clothes of her captivity and shall remain in your house and lament her father and her mother a full month. After that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.
21:14 But if you no longer delight in her, you shall let her go where she wants. But you shall not sell her for money, nor shall you treat her as a slave, since you have humiliated her.
21:15 “If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him children, and if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved,
21:16 then on the day when he assigns his possessions as an inheritance to his sons, he may not treat the son of the loved as the firstborn in preference to the son of the unloved, who is the firstborn,
21:17 but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the firstfruits of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his.
21:18 “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them,
21:19 then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives,
21:20 and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’
21:21 Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.
21:22 “And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is to be put to death, and you hang him on a tree,
21:23 his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.
22:1 “You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep going astray and ignore them. You shall take them back to your brother.
22:2 And if he does not live near you, or if you do not know who he is, you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall stay with you until your brother seeks it. Then you shall restore it to him.
22:3 And you shall do the same with his donkey or with his garment, or with any lost thing of your brother’s, which he loses and you find; you may not ignore it.
22:4 Should you see your brother’s donkey or ox fallen on the road, do not ignore them; you must surely help him lift them up.
22:5 A woman must not wear a man’s apparel, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment; for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.
22:6 If you chance upon a bird’s nest in front of you, be it on the ground or in a tree, with fledglings or eggs, and the mother sitting on the fledglings or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young.
22:7 You must let the mother go, but you may take the young for yourself, so that it may go well with you, and you may prolong your days.
22:8 When you build a new house, you must make a parapet for your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if someone falls from it.
22:9 Do not plant your vineyard with two kinds of seed, otherwise the entire yield, both the crop you have sown and the fruit of your vineyard, will be defiled.
22:10 Do not plough with an ox and a donkey yoked together.
22:11 Do not wear clothes made of wool and linen woven together.
22:12 Make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.
22:13 If a man marries a woman, goes to her, and then turns against her,
22:14 and brings up charges against her and defames her by saying, “I married this woman; but when I approached her, I did not find evidence of her virginity,”
22:15 the father and mother of the young woman shall take the evidence of her virginity to the elders of the city at the gate.
22:16 The young woman’s father shall say to the elders, “I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he has turned against her;
22:17 and now he has brought up charges, saying, ‘I did not find your daughter a virgin.’ But here is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.” Then they shall spread out the cloth before the elders of the city.
22:18 The elders of that city shall take the man and punish him;
22:19 they shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has defamed a virgin of Israel. She shall remain his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives.
22:20 If, however, the charge is true and no evidence of the young woman’s virginity is found,
22:21 then they shall bring the young woman to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her town shall stone her to death, because she has committed an outrage in Israel by playing the whore in her father’s house; so you shall purge the evil from your midst.
22:22 If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman as well as the woman; so you shall purge the evil from Israel.
22:23 If there is a young woman, a virgin already betrothed to be married, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her,
22:24 then you shall bring both of them to the gate of that city and stone them to death—the young woman because she did not cry for help in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbour’s wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
22:25 But if the man meets the engaged woman in the open country, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die.
22:26 You shall do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no offence punishable by death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders a neighbour;
22:27 since he found her in the open country, the betrothed young woman may have cried for help, but there was no one to rescue her.
22:28 If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are caught in the act,
22:29 the man who lay with her shall give fifty shekels of silver to the young woman’s father, and she shall become his wife. Because he violated her, he shall not be permitted to divorce her as long as he lives.
22:30 No one shall take his father’s wife, nor uncover his father’s bed.
23:1 One who is emasculated by crushing or mutilation shall not enter the assembly of the Lord.
23:2 No one born of a forbidden union may enter the assembly of the Lord; even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord.
23:3 No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the Lord; even to the tenth generation, none of their descendants shall enter the assembly of the Lord forever,
23:4 because they did not meet you with food and water on your journey after you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam son of Beor, from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.
23:5 Yet the Lord your God refused to heed Balaam; instead, the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you.
23:6 You shall never promote their welfare or their prosperity as long as you live.
23:7 You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your kin. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were an alien residing in their land.
23:8 The children born to them in the third generation may enter the assembly of the Lord.
23:9 When you are encamped against your enemies, you shall guard against any wickedness.
23:10 If one of you becomes unclean because of a nocturnal emission, then he shall go outside the camp; he must not come within the camp.
23:11 When evening comes, he shall wash himself with water, and when the sun has set, he may come back into the camp.
23:12 You shall have a designated area outside the camp to which you shall go.
23:13 With your utensils you shall have a trowel; when you relieve yourself outside, you shall dig a hole with it and then cover up your excrement.
23:14 For the Lord your God travels along with your camp, to save you and to hand over your enemies to you. Therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you.
23:15 You must not return an escaped slave to his master when he seeks refuge with you.
23:16 He shall live with you in your midst, in any place he chooses within your towns, wherever he likes. You must not oppress him.
23:17 None of the daughters of Israel shall be a temple prostitute; none of the sons of Israel shall be a temple prostitute.
23:18 You must not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a dog into the house of the Lord your God in payment for any vow, for both of these are abhorrent to the Lord your God.
23:19 You must not lend on interest to your brother, interest on money, interest on provisions, interest on anything that is lent.
23:20 To a foreigner you may lend on interest, but to your brother you must not lend on interest, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all your undertakings in the land that you are about to enter and possess.
23:21 If you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not postpone fulfilling it; for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you would incur guilt.
23:22 But if you refrain from vowing, you will not incur guilt.
23:23 Whatever your lips utter you must diligently perform, just as you have freely vowed to the Lord your God with your mouth.
23:24 If you go into your neighbour’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as many as you wish, but you shall not put any in a container.
23:25 If you go into your neighbour’s standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbour’s standing grain.
24:1 Suppose a man enters into marriage with a woman, but she does not please him because he finds something objectionable about her, and so he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house; she then leaves his house
24:2 and goes off to become another man’s wife.
24:3 Then suppose the second man dislikes her, writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, or the second man who married her dies.
24:4 Her first husband, who sent her away, is not permitted to take her again to be his wife after she has been defiled; for that would be abhorrent to the Lord, and you must not bring sin upon the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a possession.
24:5 If a man has recently married, he shall not be sent to war or have any duty laid upon him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring joy to the wife he has married.
24:6 Do not take a pair of millstones—not even the upper one—as security for a debt, because that would be taking a person’s livelihood as security.
24:7 If someone is caught kidnapping a fellow Israelite and treating or selling them as a slave, the kidnapper must die. You must purge the evil from among you.
24:8 In cases of leprous diseases, be very careful to do exactly as the Levitical priests instruct you. Follow carefully what I have commanded them.
24:9 Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam along the way after you came out of Egypt.
24:10 When you lend anything to your neighbor, do not go into their house to get what is offered to you as a pledge.
24:11 Stay outside and let the person to whom you are making the loan bring the pledge out to you.
24:12 If the borrower is poor, do not go to sleep with their pledge in your possession.
24:13 Return their cloak by sunset so that they may sleep in it. Then they will thank you, and it will be regarded as a righteous act in the sight of the Lord your God.
24:14 Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether they are a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns.
24:15 Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.
24:16 Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin.
24:17 Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge.
24:18 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this.
24:19 When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
24:20 When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow.
24:21 When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not glean what is left. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow.
24:22 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this.
25:1 When people have a dispute, they are to take it to court and the judges will decide the case, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty.
25:2 If the guilty person deserves to be beaten, the judge shall make them lie down and have them flogged in his presence with the number of lashes the crime deserves,
25:3 but the judge must not impose more than forty lashes. If the guilty party is beaten more than that, your fellow Israelite will be degraded in your eyes.
25:4 Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.
25:5 If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her.
25:6 The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.
25:7 However, if a man does not want to marry his brother’s widow, she shall go to the elders at the town gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to carry on his brother’s name in Israel. He will not fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to me.”
25:8 Then the elders of his town shall summon him and talk to him. If he persists in saying, “I do not want to marry her,”
25:9 In the event of a man refusing to perpetuate his brother’s lineage, his sister-in-law shall approach him in the presence of the elders, remove his shoe, spit in his face, and declare, “This fate befalls the man who declines to uphold his brother’s family.”
25:10 Henceforth in Israel, such a man shall be known as ‘The one bereft of his shoe.’
25:11 If men engage in a conflict, and one’s wife intervenes to save her husband from his assailant by seizing him indecently,
25:12 her hand shall be severed without mercy.
25:13 You must not keep differing weights in your bag, both heavy and light.
25:14 Nor should you have in your home differing measures, large and small.
25:15 Rather, you must maintain accurate and fair weights and measures, so your days may be prolonged in the land your God is giving you.
25:16 For those who act unjustly, partaking in such deceit, are detestable to your God.
25:17 Recall Amalek’s deeds against you during your exodus from Egypt;
25:18 how he ambushed you, targeting the weak and weary, showing no fear of God.
25:19 Therefore, once the Lord grants you safety from your enemies in the promised land, you must obliterate Amalek’s memory from under heaven. Do not forget.
26:1 When you enter the land the Lord has promised as your inheritance and settle in it,
26:2 take the first fruits of your harvest to the place the Lord chooses for His name and present them in a basket.
26:3 Approach the current priest and declare your allegiance to the Lord and your heritage in the promised land.
26:4 The priest will then take the basket and place it before the altar of the Lord.
26:5 You are to acknowledge before God: ‘My ancestor was a wandering Aramean who settled in Egypt, growing into a great, populous nation.
26:6 The Egyptians mistreated us, imposing harsh slavery.
26:7 We cried to the Lord, who saw our affliction and delivered us from Egypt with powerful signs and wonders.
26:8 He brought us to this land, flowing with milk and honey.
26:9 Now, I bring the first fruits of this land, which you, Lord, have given me.’ You shall then worship the Lord.
26:10 Rejoice in all the good things the Lord has provided to you, your family, the Levites, and the strangers among you.
26:11 “You shall delight in all the good things the LORD your God has given you and your household, along with the Levite and the foreigner living among you.”
26:12 “When you have finished setting aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you shall give it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.”
26:13 “Then say to the LORD your God: ‘I have removed from my house the sacred portion and have given it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all you commanded. I have not turned aside from your commands nor have I forgotten any of them.”
26:14 “I have not eaten any of the sacred portion while in mourning, nor have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor have I offered any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the LORD my God; I have done everything you commanded me.”
26:15 “Look down from your holy dwelling, from heaven, and bless your people Israel and the land you have given us as you promised on oath to our ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey.”
26:16 “The LORD your God commands you this day to follow these decrees and laws; carefully observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.”
26:17 “You have declared this day that the LORD is your God and that you will walk in his ways, that you will keep his decrees, commands and laws, and that you will obey him.”
26:18 “And the LORD has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands.”
26:19 “He has declared that he will set you in praise, fame, and honor high above all the nations he has made and that you will be a people holy to the LORD your God, as he promised.”
27:1 “Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people: ‘Keep all the commands I give you today.'”
27:2 “When you have crossed the Jordan into the land the LORD your God is giving you, set up large stones and coat them with plaster.”
27:3 “Write on them all the words of this law when you have crossed over to enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, promised you.”
27:4 “And when you have crossed the Jordan, set up these stones on Mount Ebal, as I command you today, and coat them with plaster.”
27:5 “Build there an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones. Do not use any iron tool on them.”
27:6 “Build the altar of the LORD your God with fieldstones and offer burnt offerings on it to the LORD your God.”
27:7 “Sacrifice fellowship offerings there, eating them and rejoicing in the presence of the LORD your God.”
27:8 “And you shall write very clearly all the words of this law on these stones you have set up.”
27:9 “Then Moses and the Levitical priests said to all Israel, ‘Be silent, Israel, and listen! You have now become the people of the LORD your God.'”
27:10 “Obey the LORD your God and follow his commands and decrees that I give you today.”
27:11 “On the same day Moses commanded the people:”
27:12 “When you have crossed the Jordan, these shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin.”
27:13 “And these shall stand on Mount Ebal to pronounce curses: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.”
27:14 “The Levites shall recite to all the people of Israel in a loud voice:”
27:15 “‘Cursed is anyone who makes an idol—a thing detestable to the LORD, the work of skilled hands—and sets it up in secret.’ Then all the people shall say, ‘Amen!'”
27:16 “‘Cursed is anyone who dishonors their father or mother.’ Then all the people shall say, ‘Amen!'”
27:17 “‘Cursed is anyone who moves their neighbor’s boundary stone.’ Then all the people shall say, ‘Amen!'”
27:18 “‘Cursed is anyone who leads the blind astray on the road.’ Then all the people shall say, ‘Amen!'”
27:19 “‘Cursed is anyone who denies justice to foreigners, orphans, or widows.’ Then all the people shall say, ‘Amen!'”
27:20 “‘Cursed is anyone who sleeps with their father’s wife, for they dishonor their father’s bed.’ Then all the people shall say, ‘Amen!'”
27:21 “‘Cursed is anyone who has sexual relations with any animal.’ Then all the people shall say, ‘Amen!'”
27:22 “‘Cursed is anyone who sleeps with their sister, whether the daughter of their father or the daughter of their mother.’ Then all the people shall say, ‘Amen!'”
27:23 “‘Cursed is anyone who sleeps with their mother-in-law.’ Then all the people shall say, ‘Amen!'”
27:24 “‘Cursed is anyone who kills their neighbor secretly.’ Then all the people shall say, ‘Amen!'”
27:25 “‘Cursed is anyone who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person.’ Then all the people shall say, ‘Amen!'”
27:26 “‘Cursed is anyone who does not uphold the words of this law by carrying them out.’ Then all the people shall say, ‘Amen!'”
28:1 “If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.”
28:2 “All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God:”
28:3 “You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.”
28:4 “The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.”
28:5 “Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.”
28:6 “You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.”
28:7 “The LORD will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.”
28:8 “The LORD will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The LORD your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.”
28:9 “The LORD will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the LORD your God and walk in obedience to him.”
28:10 “Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will fear you.”
28:11 “The LORD will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground—in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.”
28:12 “The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none.”
28:13 “The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.”
28:14 “Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them.”
28:15 “However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you:”
28:16 “You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.”
28:17 “Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.”
28:18 “The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.”
28:19 “You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.”
28:20 “The LORD will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him.”
28:21 “The LORD will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess.”
28:22 “The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish.”
28:23 “The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron.”
28:24 The LORD shall turn thy land’s rain into dust and powder: from the heavens it shall fall upon thee, until thou art utterly ruined.
28:25 The LORD shall cause thee to be defeated by thine enemies: thou shalt march out against them one way, and flee seven ways; and thou shalt become a spectacle in all the kingdoms of the earth.
28:26 Thy dead body shall be food for all birds of the air and beasts of the earth, and no one shall scare them away.
28:27 The LORD will strike thee with the boils of Egypt, with tumours, with the scab, and with the itch, from which thou canst not be cured.
28:28 The LORD shall smite thee with madness, blindness, and bewilderment of heart:
28:29 And thou shalt grope at midday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: thou shalt be only oppressed and plundered continually, and no one shall save thee.
28:30 Thou shalt be engaged to a wife, but another man shall lie with her; thou shalt build a house, but shalt not live in it; thou shalt plant a vineyard, but shalt not enjoy its fruit.
28:31 Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, but thou shalt not eat thereof; thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thee, and shall not be returned to thee; thy sheep shall be given to thine enemies, and thou shalt have no rescuer.
28:32 Thy sons and daughters shall be given to another people, while thine eyes shall look on and languish in longing for them all day long; and there shall be no strength in thy hand.
28:33 The produce of thy land and all thy labours shall be consumed by a nation unknown to thee; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed continually:
28:34 So that thou shalt be driven mad by the sight of what thou seest.
28:35 The LORD shall strike thee in the knees and in the legs with a grievous boil that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot to the top of thy head.
28:36 The LORD shall bring thee and the king whom thou shalt set over thee, to a nation neither thou nor thy fathers have known; there shalt thou serve other gods, of wood and stone.
28:37 And thou shalt become an object of horror, a proverb, and a byword, among all peoples where the LORD shall lead thee.
28:38 Thou shalt carry much seed into the field, but shalt gather little in; for the locust shall consume it.
28:39 Thou shalt plant vineyards and till them, but shalt not drink the wine nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them.
28:40 Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy territory, but shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; for thine olives shall drop off.
28:41 Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity.
28:42 All thy trees and the fruit of thy land the locust shall possess.
28:43 The stranger within thee shall rise higher and higher above thee; and thou shalt come down lower and lower.
28:44 He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him; he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail.
28:45 All these curses shall come upon thee, and pursue thee, and overtake thee, until thou art destroyed; because thou obeyedst not the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee:
28:46 And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever.
28:47 Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things;
28:48 Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.
28:49 The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;
28:50 A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the old, nor show favour to the young:
28:51 And he shall eat the offspring of thy cattle, and the produce of thy land, until thou art destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either grain, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee.
28:52 And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fortified walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.
28:53 And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the LORD thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the distress with which thine enemies shall distress thee:
28:54 The man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave:
28:55 So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat: because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the distress with which thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates.
28:56 The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not venture to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter,
28:57 And toward her newborn that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and distress with which thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.
28:58 If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD;
28:59 Then the LORD will make thy plagues extraordinary, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and grievous sicknesses, and of long continuance.
28:60 Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cling unto thee.
28:61 Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the LORD bring upon thee, until thou art destroyed.
28:62 And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude; because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the LORD thy God.
28:63 And it shall come to pass, that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.
28:64 And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.
28:65 And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:
28:66 And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have no assurance of thy life:
28:67 In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were evening! and at evening thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.
28:68 And the LORD shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.
29:1 These are the words of the covenant, which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.
29:2 And Moses called unto all Israel, and said unto them, Ye have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his land;
29:3 The great trials which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles:
29:4 Yet the LORD hath not given you a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.
29:5 And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not worn out upon you, and thy shoe is not worn out upon thy foot.
29:6 You have not consumed bread, nor have you drunk wine or strong drink, so you may recognise that I am the LORD your God.
29:7 When you reached this place, Sihon, king of Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan, confronted us in battle, and we defeated them:
29:8 We claimed their land and bestowed it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
29:9 Therefore, adhere to the terms of this covenant and fulfil them, that you may prosper in all your endeavours.
29:10 Today, you all stand before the LORD your God: your leaders, your elders, and your officials, along with all the men of Israel,
29:11 your children, your wives, and the foreigners in your camp, from the woodcutter to the water carrier:
29:12 You are entering into a covenant with the LORD your God, and into His oath, which the LORD your God is making with you today:
29:13 To establish you today as His people, and to be your God, as He promised you, and as He swore to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
29:14 I am not making this covenant and this oath only with you,
29:15 but with everyone standing here with us today before the LORD our God, as well as with those not present here today:
29:16 (You know how we lived in Egypt and how we passed through the nations you travelled through;
29:17 You saw their detestable idols and images made of wood and stone, silver and gold, among them.)
29:18 Beware lest there be among you a man, woman, family, or tribe whose heart turns away from the LORD our God today, to serve the gods of those nations; beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit;
29:19 When such a person hears the words of this curse, they may bless themselves in their heart, saying, ‘I shall have peace, even though I follow my own stubborn heart.’ This would lead to the destruction of the watered land along with the dry.
29:20 The LORD will not forgive such a person. Rather, the LORD’s anger and jealousy will smolder against them, and every curse written in this book will lie upon them, and the LORD will blot out their name from under heaven.
29:21 The LORD will single them out for calamity from all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.
29:22 Future generations of your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a distant land, will say, when they see the plagues of that land and the diseases the LORD has inflicted on it,
29:23 ‘The whole land is brimstone, salt, and burning waste, unsown and unproductive, with no grass growing in it, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His anger and wrath.’
29:24 All the nations will ask, ‘Why has the LORD done this to this land? What caused the heat of this great anger?’
29:25 People will answer, ‘Because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their ancestors, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt.
29:26 They went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods they did not know and that He had not allotted to them.
29:27 So the LORD’s anger was kindled against this land, bringing on it all the curses written in this book.
29:28 In fierce anger and wrath and great indignation, the LORD uprooted them from their land and cast them into another land, as it is today.’
29:29 The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.
30:1 When all these things have happened to you, the blessing and the curse that I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you,
30:2 and you return to the LORD your God, obeying His voice according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul,
30:3 then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you, gathering you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you.
30:4 If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the LORD your God will gather you, from there He will fetch you.
30:5 The Lord your God shall lead you to the land once held by your forebears, for you to reclaim it. He will bless and increase your numbers beyond those of your ancestors.
30:6 Your God shall purify your heart and that of your descendants, fostering a love for Him with all your heart and soul, so that you may truly live.
30:7 God will turn those curses against your foes and those who bear you ill will, who have persecuted you.
30:8 You will turn back to obey the Lord’s voice and follow all His commandments that I set before you today.
30:9 The Lord your God will prosper all your endeavors – the fruits of your body, your livestock, and your land, for the better. The Lord will delight in your well-being, as He did with your ancestors.
30:10 This will happen if you heed the voice of the Lord your God, keeping His commandments and statutes written in this book of the law, turning to the Lord your God with all your heart and soul.
30:11 The commandment I give you today is not obscure or beyond your reach.
30:12 It’s not in the heavens, prompting you to wonder who will ascend to bring it down to us that we might hear and obey it.
30:13 Nor is it beyond the sea, causing you to question who will cross the sea to bring it to us so that we may hear and obey it.
30:14 But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, so you may observe it.
30:15 See, I present before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.
30:16 For I command you today to love the Lord your God, walk in His ways, and keep His commandments, decrees, and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
30:17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, if you are drawn to bow down to other gods and worship them,
30:18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
30:19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your descendants may live,
30:20 and love the Lord your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him. For the Lord is your life, and He will give you many years in the land He swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
31:1 And Moses proceeded to address these words to all Israel:
31:2 “Today, I am a hundred and twenty years old; I am no longer able to lead you. The LORD has also informed me, ‘You shall not cross this Jordan River.’
31:3 It is the LORD your God who will cross over ahead of you. He will annihilate these nations before you, and you will take possession of their land. Joshua is the one who will cross over ahead of you, just as the LORD has decreed.”
31:4 The LORD will deal with them as He did Sihon and Og, the Amorite kings, and their lands, which He destroyed.
31:5 The LORD will deliver them to you, and you must do to them exactly as I have commanded you.
31:6 Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.”
31:7 Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you must lead these people into the land the LORD swore to their ancestors to give them, and you must divide it among them as their inheritance.
31:8 The LORD Himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”
31:9 So Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the Levitical priests, who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel.
31:10 Then Moses commanded them: “At the end of every seven years, in the year for cancelling debts, during the Festival of Tabernacles,
31:11 when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God at the place He will choose, you shall read this law before them in their hearing.
31:12 Assemble the people—men, women, children, and the foreigners residing in your towns—so they can listen and learn to fear the LORD your God and follow carefully all the words of this law.
31:13 Their children, who do not know this law, must hear it and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”
31:14 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Now the day of your death is near. Call Joshua and present yourselves at the Tent of Meeting, where I will commission him.” So Moses and Joshua came and presented themselves at the Tent of Meeting.
31:15 Then the LORD appeared at the Tent in a pillar of cloud, and the cloud stood over the entrance to the Tent.
31:16 And the LORD said to Moses: “You are going to rest with your ancestors, and these people will soon prostitute themselves to the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake me and break the covenant I made with them.
31:17 And in that day I will become angry with them and forsake them; I will hide my face from them, and they will be destroyed. Many disasters and difficulties will come upon them, and on that day they will ask, ‘Have not these disasters come upon us because our God is not with us?’
31:18 And I will certainly hide my face on that day because of all their wickedness in turning to other gods.
31:19 “Now write down this song and teach it to the Israelites and have them sing it, so that it may be a witness for me against them.
31:20 When I bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey, the land I promised on oath to their ancestors, and they eat their fill and thrive, they will turn to other gods and worship them, rejecting me and breaking my covenant.
31:21 And when many troubles and disasters have come upon them, this song will testify against them, because it will not be forgotten by their descendants. I know what they are inclined to do, even before I bring them into the land I promised them on oath.”
31:22 So Moses wrote down this song that same day and taught it to the Israelites.
31:23 The LORD gave this command to Joshua son of Nun: “Be strong and courageous, for you will bring the Israelites into the land I promised them on oath, and I myself will be with you.”
31:24 After Moses finished writing in a book the words of this law from beginning to end,
31:25 he gave this command to the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD:
31:26 “Take this Book of the Law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God. There it will remain as a witness against you.
31:27 For I know how rebellious and stiff-necked you are. If you have been rebellious against the LORD while I am still alive and with you, how much more will you rebel after I die!
31:28 Assemble before me all the elders of your tribes and your officials, so I can speak these words in their hearing and call the heavens and the earth to testify against them.
31:29 For I know that after my death you are sure to become utterly corrupt and to turn from the way I have commanded you. In days to come, disaster will fall on you because you will do evil in the sight of the LORD and arouse his anger by what your hands have made.”
31:30 And Moses recited the words of this song from beginning to end in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel:
32:1 “Listen, heavens, and I will speak; hear, earth, the words of my mouth.
32:2 My teaching will fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.
32:3 For I will proclaim the name of the LORD. Oh, praise the greatness of our God!
32:4 He is the Rock, His works are perfect, and all His ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is He.
32:5 But they have acted corruptly toward Him; to their shame they are no longer His children, but a warped and crooked generation.
32:6 Is this the way you repay the LORD, you foolish and unwise people? Is He not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you?
32:7 Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past. Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you.
32:8 When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He divided all mankind, He set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel.
32:9 For the LORD’s portion is His people, Jacob His allotted inheritance.
32:10 In a desert land He found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; He guarded him as the apple of His eye,
32:11 like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft.
32:12 The LORD alone led him; no foreign god was with him.
32:13 He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him with the produce of the fields. He nourished him with honey from the rock, and with oil from the flinty crag,
32:14 with curds and milk from herd and flock and with fattened lambs and goats, with choice rams of Bashan and the finest kernels of wheat. You drank the foaming blood of the grape.
32:15 Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; filled with food, he became heavy and sleek. He abandoned the God who made him and rejected the Rock his Savior.
32:16 They made Him jealous with their foreign gods and angered Him with their detestable idols.
32:17 They sacrificed to false gods, which are not God—gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your ancestors did not fear.
32:18 You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.
32:19 The LORD saw this and rejected them because He was angered by His sons and daughters.
32:20 “I will hide my face from them,” He said, “and see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children who are unfaithful.
32:21 They made me jealous by what is no god and angered me with their worthless idols. I will make them envious by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation that has no understanding.
32:22 For a fire has been kindled by my wrath, one that burns to the realm of death below. It will devour the earth and its harvests and set afire the foundations of the mountains.
32:23 I will heap calamities on them and spend my arrows against them.
32:24 I will send wasting famine against them, consuming pestilence and deadly plague; I will send against them the fangs of wild beasts, the venom of vipers that glide in the dust.
32:25 In the street the sword will make them childless; in their homes terror will reign. The young men and young women will perish, the infants and those with gray hair.
32:26 I said I would scatter them and erase their name from human memory,
32:27 but I dreaded the taunt of the enemy, lest the adversary misunderstand and say, ‘Our hand has triumphed; the LORD has not done all this.’
32:28 For they are a nation lacking in wisdom, devoid of insight.
32:29 Oh, if only they were enlightened, grasping the significance of their destiny! How can one chase a thousand, and two rout ten thousand, unless their Protector has yielded them, and the LORD has confined them?
32:30 Indeed, their defender is not like our Defender, acknowledged even by our adversaries.
32:31 Their vine comes from the vineyards of Sodom, from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are bitter; their clusters bring despair.
32:32 Their wine is like the venom of serpents, the cruel poison of vipers.
32:33 Is this not stored with me, sealed in my treasuries?
32:34 Vengeance is mine; recompense will come in time. Their downfall is imminent, and their doom approaches rapidly.
32:35 For the LORD will judge His people, and have compassion on His servants when He sees their strength is gone, and no one is left, slave or free.
32:36 He will ask, ‘Where are their gods, the rock they took refuge in,
32:37 who ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their offerings? Let them rise and help you; let them give you shelter!’
32:38 Now see that I alone am He; there is no other god beside me. I bring death and give life; I wound and I heal. None can deliver from my hand.
32:39 For I raise my hand to heaven and declare: As surely as I live forever,
32:40 when I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand grasps it in judgment, I will take vengeance on my adversaries and repay those who hate me.
32:41 I will make my arrows drunk with blood, while my sword devours flesh: the blood of the slain and the captives, the heads of the enemy leaders.”
32:42 Rejoice, you nations, with His people, for He will avenge the blood of His servants. He will take vengeance on His enemies and make atonement for His land and people.
32:43 Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people—he and Hoshea son of Nun.
32:44 When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel,
32:45 he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law.
32:46 They are not just idle words for you—they are your life. By them, you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”
32:47 That same day the LORD said to Moses,
32:48 “Go up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo in Moab, across from Jericho, and view Canaan, the land I am giving the Israelites as their own possession.
32:49 There on the mountain that you have climbed, you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people.
32:50 This is because both of you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites.
32:51 Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.”
33:1 This is the blessing that Moses the man of God pronounced on the Israelites before his death. 33:2 He said: “The LORD came from Sinai and dawned over them from Seir; he shone forth from Mount Paran. He came with myriads of holy ones from the south, from his mountain slopes.
33:3 Surely, it is you who love the people; all the holy ones are in your hand. At your feet they all bow down, and from you receive instruction,
33:4 Moses imparted to us a law, a heritage for the assembly of Jacob.
33:5 He became sovereign in Jeshurun when the leaders of the people united, along with the tribes of Israel.
33:6 May Reuben live and not perish, and may his numbers not be few.
33:7 Here is Judah’s blessing: “Hear, O LORD, the voice of Judah, and bring him to his people. May his hands have ample strength, and be Your aid against his foes.”
33:8 About Levi, he declared, “Let your Thummim and Urim be with Your faithful one, whom You tested at Massah, and with whom You contended at the waters of Meribah;
33:9 who said of his father and mother, ‘I have not seen them.’ He did not recognize his brothers or acknowledge his own children, for they observed Your word and kept Your covenant.
33:10 They shall instruct Jacob in Your judgments, and Israel in Your law. They shall place incense before You and offer whole burnt sacrifices on Your altar.
33:11 Bless, O LORD, his wealth, and accept the work of his hands. Strike down his foes so that they not rise again.”
33:12 Of Benjamin, he said, “The beloved of the LORD shall rest secure in Him; He shields him all day long, and he rests between His shoulders.”
33:13 About Joseph, he said, “Blessed by the LORD is his land, with the choicest gifts of heaven above and the deep that lies below;
33:14 with the choicest fruits of the sun and the rich yield of the months,
33:15 with the best products of ancient mountains and the abundance of everlasting hills,
33:16 with the best gifts of the earth and its fullness, and the favor of Him who dwelt in the burning bush. May these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers.
33:17 His majesty is like a firstborn bull, and his horns are like the horns of a wild ox. With them, he will gore the nations, even those at the ends of the earth. Such are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and such are the thousands of Manasseh.”
33:18 And of Zebulun, he said, “Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out, and Issachar, in your tents.
33:19 They shall summon peoples to the mountain; there they offer right sacrifices; for they draw from the abundance of the seas and the hidden treasures of the sand.”
33:20 And of Gad, he said, “Blessed is he who enlarges Gad’s domain; he dwells like a lion and tears the arm, even the crown of the head.
33:21 He chose the best land for himself; for there a commander’s portion was reserved, and he came with the leaders of the people; he carried out the LORD’s righteousness and his judgments for Israel.”
33:22 And of Dan, he said, “Dan is a lion’s cub that leaps from Bashan.”
33:23 And of Naphtali, he said, “O Naphtali, sated with favor, and full of the blessing of the LORD, possess the west and the south.”
33:24 And of Asher, he said, “Most blessed of sons is Asher; let him be favored by his brothers, and let him bathe his feet in oil.
33:25 Your bars shall be iron and bronze, and as your days, so shall your strength be.”
33:26 “There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides the heavens to your help, and in His majesty through the skies.
33:27 The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He will drive out your enemy before you, saying, ‘Destroy!’
33:28 So Israel will live in safety, Jacob’s spring secure in a land of grain and new wine, where the heavens drop dew.
33:29 Blessed are you, Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD? He is your shield and helper and your glorious sword. Your enemies will cower before you, and you will tread on their heights.”
34:1 Then Moses climbed from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the summit of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There, the LORD showed him the whole land—from Gilead to Dan,
34:2 all of Naphtali, the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea,
34:3 the Negev, and the whole region from the Valley of Jericho, the City of Palms, as far as Zoar.
34:4 The LORD said to him, “This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.”
34:5 And Moses the servant of the LORD died there in Moab, as the LORD had said.
34:6 He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is.
34:7 Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone.
34:8 The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning was over.
34:9 Now Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him. So the Israelites listened to him and did as the LORD had commanded Moses.
34:10 Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face,
34:11 who did all those signs and wonders the LORD sent him to do in Egypt—to Pharaoh, to all his officials, and to his whole land,
34:12 and who displayed mighty power and awesome deeds in the sight of all Israel.
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