The Holy Bible Old and New Testament

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Chapters in this book:

| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34

Deuteronomy
CHAPTER 1 Apr. 18
God Tells Israel to Leave Horeb
These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah over against Suph, between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. 2It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea. 3In the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that Yahweh had given him in commandment to them, 4after he had struck Sihon the king of the Amorites who lived in Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan who lived in Ashtaroth, at Edrei. 5Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to declare this law saying, 6Yahweh our God spoke to us in Horeb saying, You have lived long enough in this mountain; 7turn, and take your journey and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all the places near there, in the Arabah, in the hill country, in the lowland, in the South and by the seashore, the land of the Canaanites and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. 8Behold, I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, to give to them and to their seed after them.
Leaders Appointed
9I spoke to you at that time saying, I am not able to bear you myself alone; 10Yahweh your God has multiplied you and behold, you are this day as the stars of the sky for multitude. 11May Yahweh the God of your fathers make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, as He has promised you! 12How can I myself alone bear your encumbrance and your burden and your strife? 13Take wise men of understanding and well known according to your tribes and I will make them heads over you. 14You answered me and said, The thing which you have spoken is good to do. 15So I took the heads of your tribes, wise men and known, and made them heads over you, captains of thousands, captains of hundreds, captains of fifties and captains of tens and officers, according to your tribes. 16I commanded your judges at that time, saying, Hear cases between your brothers and judge righteously between a man and his brother and the foreigner who is living with him. 17You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike; you shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me and I will hear it, 18I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do.
Spies Sent to Explore the Land
19We travelled from Horeb and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw, by the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as Yahweh our God commanded us, and we came to Kadesh Barnea. 20I said to you, You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which Yahweh our God gives to us. 21Behold, Yahweh your God has set the land before you; go up, take possession, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you. Don’t be afraid, neither be dismayed. 22You came near to me every one of you and said, Let us send men before us that they may search the land for us and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up and the cities to which we shall come. 23The thing pleased me well and I took twelve men of you, one man for every tribe. 24They turned and went up into the hill country and came to the valley of Eshcol and spied it out. 25They took of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land which Yahweh our God gives to us. 26Yet you wouldn’t go up, but rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh your God, 27and you murmured in your tents and said, Because Yahweh hated us He has brought us forth out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. 28Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our heart melt, saying, ‘The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to the sky, and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there’. 29Then I said to you, Don’t dread, neither be afraid of them. 30Yahweh your God who goes before you, He will fight for you, according to all that He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31and in the wilderness, where you have seen how Yahweh your God carried you as a man carries his son in all the way that you went, until you came to this place.32Yet in this thing you didn’t believe Yahweh your God, 33Who went before you in the way, to seek you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night to show you by what way you should go, and in the cloud by day. 34Yahweh heard the voice of your words and was angry and swore saying, 35Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land, which I swore to give to your fathers, 36except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it and to him I will give the land that he has trodden on, and to his children, because he has wholly followed Yahweh. 37Also Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes saying, You also shall not go in there. 38Joshua the son of Nun who stands before you, he shall go in there; encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. 39Moreover your little ones, whom you said should be a prey, and your children, who this day have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there and to them will I give it, and they shall possess it. 40But as for you, turn, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.41Then you answered and said to me, We have sinned against Yahweh; we will go up and fight, according to all that Yahweh our God commanded us. Every man of you put on his weapons of war and presumed to go up into the hill country. 42Yahweh said to me, Tell them, ‘Don’t go up, neither fight, for I am not among you, lest you be struck before your enemies’. 43So I spoke to you and you didn’t listen, but you rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh and were presumptuous and went up into the hill country. 44The Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you, as bees do, and beat you down in Seir, even to Hormah. 45You returned and wept before Yahweh; but Yahweh didn’t listen to your voice, nor gave ear to you. 46So you stayed in Kadesh many days, according to the days that you remained.
CHAPTER 2 Apr. 19
Instructions to Avoid Edom, Moab and Ammon
Then we turned and took our journey into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea as Yahweh spoke to me, and we circled Mount Seir many days. 2Yahweh spoke to me saying, 3You have circled this mountain long enough; turn to the north. 4Command the people saying, ‘You are to pass through the border of your brothers the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir, and they will be afraid of you. Take good heed to yourselves therefore, 5don’t meddle with them, for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau for a possession. 6You shall purchase food of them for money that you may eat, and you shall also buy water of them for money that you may drink’. 7For Yahweh your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand; He has known your walking through this great wilderness; these forty years Yahweh your God has been with you and you have lacked nothing. 8So we passed by from our brothers the children of Esau who dwell in Seir, from the way of the Arabah from Elath and from Ezion Geber. We turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab. 9Yahweh said to me, Don’t bother Moab, neither contend with them in battle, for I will not give you of his land for a possession, because I have given Ar to the children of Lot for a possession. 10(The Emim lived there before, a people great and many and tall as the Anakim; 11these also are accounted Rephaim, as the Anakim, but the Moabites call them Emim. 12The Horites also lived in Seir before, but the children of Esau succeeded them, and they destroyed them from before them and lived in their place, as Israel did to the land of his possession, which Yahweh gave to them.) 13Now rise up and cross over the brook Zered. We went over the brook Zered. 14The days in which we came from Kadesh Barnea until we had come over the brook Zered were thirty-eight years, until all the generation of the men of war were consumed from the midst of the camp, as Yahweh swore to them. 15Moreover the hand of Yahweh was against them, to destroy them from the midst of the camp until they were consumed. 16So it happened. When all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people, 17Yahweh spoke to me saying, 18You are today to pass over Ar, the border of Moab, 19and when you come near to the children of Ammon, don’t bother them or contend with them, for I will not give you of the land of the children of Ammon for a possession, because I have given it to the children of Lot for a possession. 20That also is accounted a land of Rephaim. Rephaim lived there before, but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim, 21a people great and many and tall, as the Anakim; but Yahweh destroyed them before them and they succeeded them and lived in their place, 22as He did for the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir, when He destroyed the Horites from before them and they succeeded them and lived in their place to this day; 23and the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorim, who came out of Caphtor, destroyed them and lived in their place.
Sihon King of Heshbon Defeated
24Rise up, take your journey and pass over the valley of the Arnon. Behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite king of Heshbon and his land; begin to possess it and contend with him in battle. 25This day will I begin to put the dread of you and the fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole sky, who will hear the report of you and will tremble and be in anguish because of you. 26I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace saying, 27Let me pass through your land; I will go along by the highway; I will turn neither to the right hand nor to the left. 28You shall sell me food for money, that I may eat and give me water for money, that I may drink; only let me pass through on my feet, 29as the children of Esau who dwell in Seir, and the Moabites who dwell in Ar, did to me, until I shall pass over the Jordan into the land which Yahweh our God gives us. 30But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him, for Yahweh your God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that He might deliver him into your hand, as at this day. 31Yahweh said to me, Behold, I have begun to deliver up Sihon and his land before you; begin to possess, that you may inherit his land. 32Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Jahaz. 33Yahweh our God delivered him up before us and we struck him and his sons and all his people. 34We took all his cities at that time and utterly destroyed every inhabited city, with the women and the little ones. We left none remaining. 35Only the livestock we took for a prey to ourselves, with the spoil of the cities which we had taken. 36From Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the city that is in the valley, to Gilead, there was not a city too high for us; Yahweh our God delivered up all before us. 37Only to the land of the children of Ammon you didn’t come near, all the side of the river Jabbok, and the cities of the hill country, and wherever Yahweh our God forbad us.
CHAPTER 3 Apr. 20
Og King of Bashan Defeated
Then we turned and went up the way to Bashan, and Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. 2Yahweh said to me, Don’t fear him, for I have delivered him and all his people and his land into your hand; you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon. 3So Yahweh our God delivered into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan and all his people, and we struck him until none remained. 4We took all his cities at that time. There was not a city which we didn’t take from them; sixty cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 5All these were fortified cities with high walls, gates, and bars, besides the unwalled towns very many. 6We utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying every inhabited city, with the women and the little ones. 7But all the livestock and the spoil of the cities we took for a prey to ourselves. 8We took the land at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, from the valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon. 9(The Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir.) 10We took all the cities of the plain, all Gilead, and all Bashan, to Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 11(For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the Rephaim; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron. Is it not in Rabbah of the children of Ammon? Nine cubits was its length and four cubits its breadth, after the cubit of a man.)
Sharing the Land
12This land we took in possession at that time: from Aroer which is by the valley of the Arnon, and half the hill country of Gilead and its cities I gave to the Reubenites and to the Gadites; 13and the rest of Gilead and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh; all the region of Argob, all of Bashan. (The same is called the land of Rephaim.) 14Jair the son of Manasseh took all the region of Argob to the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and called them, even Bashan, after his own name, Havvoth Jair, to this day. 15I gave Gilead to Machir. 16To the Reubenites and to the Gadites I gave from Gilead to the valley of the Arnon, the middle of the valley and its border, to the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon; 17the Arabah also, and the Jordan and its border, from Chinnereth to the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, under the slopes of Pisgah eastward. 18I commanded you at that time, saying Yahweh your God has given you this land to possess it; you shall pass over armed before your brothers, the children of Israel, all the men of valour. 19But your wives and your little ones and your livestock (I know that you have much livestock) shall live in your cities which I have given you, 20until Yahweh gives rest to your brothers as to you, and they also possess the land which Yahweh your God gives them beyond the Jordan; then you shall return every man to his possession which I have given you. 21I commanded Joshua at that time saying, Your eyes have seen all that Yahweh your God has done to these two kings; so shall Yahweh do to all the kingdoms where you go. 22You shall not fear them, for Yahweh your God, He it is who fights for you.
Moses Forbidden to Cross the Jordan
23I begged Yahweh at that time saying, 24Lord Yahweh, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your strong hand; for what god is there in heaven or in earth that can do according to Your works and according to Your mighty acts? 25Please let me go over and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, that good mountain, and Lebanon. 26But Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes and didn’t listen to me; and Yahweh said to me, Let it suffice you; speak no more to Me of this matter. 27Go up to the top of Pisgah and lift up your eyes westward and northward and southward and eastward, and see with your eyes, for you shall not go over this Jordan. 28But commission Joshua and encourage him and strengthen him, for he shall go over before this people and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you shall see. 29So we stayed in the valley over against Beth Peor.
CHAPTER 4 Apr. 21
Moses Commands the People to Obey God
Now Israel, listen to the statutes and to the ordinances which I teach you. Do them so that you may live and go in and possess the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers gives you. 2You must not add to the word which I command you, neither must you take away from it, so that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh your God which I command you. 3Your eyes have seen what Yahweh did because of Baal Peor; for all the men who followed Baal Peor, Yahweh your God has destroyed them from the midst of you. 4But you who were faithful to Yahweh your God are all alive this day. 5Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances as Yahweh my God commanded me, that you should do so in the midst of the land where you go in to possess it. 6Keep therefore and do them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations who shall hear all these statutes and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people! 7For what great nation is there that has a god so near to them as Yahweh our God is whenever we call on Him? 8What great nation is there that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day? 9Only take heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes saw and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; therefore make them known to your children and your children’s children. 10Remember the day that you stood before Yahweh your God in Horeb, when Yahweh said to me Assemble me the people and I will make them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days that they live on the land and that they may teach their children. 11You came near and stood under the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the heart of the sky, with darkness, cloud and thick darkness. 12Yahweh spoke to you out of the midst of the fire; you heard the voice of words, but you saw no form; you only heard a voice. 13He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, the Ten Commandments, and He wrote them on two tablets of stone. 14Yahweh commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances that you might do them in the land you go over to possess.
Idols Forbidden
15Take therefore good heed to yourselves, for you saw no kind of form on the day that Yahweh spoke to you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire. 16 Do not corrupt yourselves and make yourself an engraved image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky, 18the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. 19 Do not lift up your eyes to the sky and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the army of the sky, be drawn away and worship them and serve them, which Yahweh your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole sky. 20But Yahweh has taken you and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be to Him a people of inheritance, right up to this day. 21Furthermore, Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes and swore that I should not go over the Jordan, and that I should not go in to that good land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance; 22but I must die in this land. I must not go over the Jordan; but you shall go over and possess that good land. 23Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of Yahweh your God which He made with you, and make you an engraved image in the form of anything which Yahweh your God has forbidden you. 24For Yahweh your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
Punishments for Idolatry
25When you father children and children’s children and you have been long in the land and corrupt yourselves and make an engraved image in the form of anything, and do that which is evil in the sight of Yahweh your God, to provoke Him to anger, 26I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you shall soon utterly perish from off the land you go over the Jordan to possess; you shall not prolong your days on it, but shall utterly be destroyed. 27Yahweh will scatter you among the nations and you shall be left few in number among the nations where Yahweh shall lead you away. 28There you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. 29But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God and you will find Him, when you search after Him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30When you are oppressed and all these things have come on you, in the latter days you shall return to Yahweh your God and listen to His voice; 31for Yahweh your God is a merciful God; He will not fail you neither destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them. 32For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and from the one end of the sky to the other, whether there has been anything like this great thing, or has been heard like it? 33Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire as you have heard, and live? 34Or has God tried to take a nation for Himself from the midst of another nation by trials, by signs and by wonders, by war and by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm and by great terrors, according to all that Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35It was shown to you so that you might know that Yahweh is God and that there is none else besides Him. 36Out of heaven He made you hear his voice so that He might instruct you, and on earth He made you see His great fire and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire. 37Because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their seed after them and brought you out with His presence, with His great power, out of Egypt, 38to drive out nations from before you greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as at this day. 39Know therefore this day and lay it to your heart, that Yahweh He is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is none else. 40You must keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you this day, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which Yahweh your God gives you forever.
Cities of Refuge
41Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan toward the east 42that the manslayer might flee there, who kills his neighbour unawares, and didn’t hate him in time past, and that fleeing to one of these cities he might live: 43Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites. 44This is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel; 45these are the testimonies, the statutes and the ordinances, which Moses spoke to the children of Israel when they came forth out of Egypt, 46beyond the Jordan, in the valley over against Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel struck, when they came forth out of Egypt. 47They took his land in possession, and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise, 48from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, to Mount Sion (the same is Hermon), 49and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan eastward, even to the sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.
CHAPTER 5 Apr. 22
The Ten Commandments
Moses called to all Israel and said to them, Hear, Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I speak in your ears this day, that you may learn them and observe to do them. 2Yahweh our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3Yahweh didn’t make this covenant with our fathers but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day. 4Yahweh spoke with you face to face on the mountain out of the midst of the fire, 5(I stood between Yahweh and you at that time to show you the word of Yahweh, for you were afraid because of the fire, and didn’t go up onto the mountain) saying, 6I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 7You must have no other gods before Me. 8You must not make an engraved image for yourself, any likeness of what is in heaven above, or what is in the earth beneath, or what is in the water under the earth. 9You must not bow down yourself to them nor serve them, for I Yahweh your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generation of those who hate Me, 10and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love Me and keep My commandments. 11You must not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain, for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain. 12Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy, as Yahweh your God commanded you. 13You shall labour six days and do all your work, 14but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God in which you must not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your livestock, nor the stranger who is within your gates; so that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm, therefore Yahweh your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. 16Honour your father and your mother as Yahweh your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land which Yahweh your God gives you. 17You must not murder. 18Neither must you commit adultery. 19Neither must you steal. 20Neither must you give false testimony against your neighbour. 21Neither must you covet your neighbour’s wife, neither shall you desire your neighbour’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbour’s. 22These words Yahweh spoke to all your assembly on the mountain out of the midst of the fire, the cloud and the thick darkness, with a great voice; and He added no more. He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. 23When you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness as the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders, 24and you said, Behold, Yahweh our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice out of the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God does speak with man and he lives. 25Now therefore why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of Yahweh our God any more, then we shall die. 26For who is there of all humanity that has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire as we have, and has lived? 27Go near and hear all that Yahweh our God shall say, and tell us all that Yahweh our God shall tell you, and we will hear it and do it. 28Yahweh heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me and Yahweh said to me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken to you; they have well said all that they have spoken. 29Oh that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear Me and keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children forever! 30Go, tell them, Return to your tents. 31But as for you, stand here by Me and I will tell you all the commandments, the statutes and the ordinances, which you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess. 32You must observe to do therefore as Yahweh your God has commanded you; you must not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. 33You must walk in all the way which Yahweh your God has commanded you, in order that you may live and that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.
CHAPTER 6 Apr. 23
The Command to Love God
Now these are the commandments, the statutes and the ordinances which Yahweh your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land which you go over to possess, 2in order that you might fear Yahweh your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, yes you, your son and your son’s son, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. 3Hear therefore, Israel, and observe to do it, so that it may be well with you and that you may increase mightily, as Yahweh the God of your fathers has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. 4Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God; Yahweh is one; 5and you shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6These words which I command you this day shall be on your heart; 7and you must teach them diligently to your children and talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. 8You shall bind them for a sign on your hand and they shall be for memorials between your eyes. 9You shall write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates. 10When Yahweh your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers to give you, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, great and good cities which you didn’t build, 11houses full of all good things which you didn’t fill, and wells dug out which you didn’t dig, vineyards and olive trees which you didn’t plant, and you shall eat and be full - 12then beware lest you forget Yahweh, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 13You must fear Yahweh your God and you shall serve Him and shall swear by His name. 14You must not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you, 15for Yahweh your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; otherwise the anger of Yahweh your God shall be kindled against you and He shall destroy you from off the face of the land. 16You must not test Yahweh your God as you tested Him in Massah. 17You must diligently keep the commandments of Yahweh your God and His testimonies and His statutes which He has commanded you. 18You must do that which is right and good in the sight of Yahweh, that it may be well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land which Yahweh swore to your fathers, 19to thrust out all your enemies from before you, as Yahweh has spoken. 20When your son asks you in time to come, What do the testimonies, the statutes and the ordinances which Yahweh our God has commanded you mean? 21then you shall tell your son, We were Pharaoh’s bondservants in Egypt and Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, 22and Yahweh showed great and awesome signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh and on all his house, before our eyes. 23He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the land which He swore to our fathers. 24Yahweh commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear Yahweh our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as at this day. 25It shall be righteousness to us if we observe to do all these commandments before Yahweh our God, as He has commanded us.
CHAPTER 7 Apr. 23
The Nations to Be Driven Out
When Yahweh your God brings you into the land where you go to possess it and casts out many nations before you, the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, seven nations greater and mightier than you, 2and when Yahweh your God delivers them up before you and you defeat them, then you must utterly destroy them. You must make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them, 3neither shall you arrange marriages with them; your daughter you shall not give to his son, nor shall you take his daughter for your son. 4For he will turn away your son from following me to serve other gods; so the anger of Yahweh would be kindled against you and He would destroy you quickly. 5But you must deal with them like this: break down their altars and dash their pillars in pieces and cut down their Asherim poles and burn their engraved images with fire. 6For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God; Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession above all peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7Yahweh didn’t set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any people, for you were the fewest of all peoples; 8but because Yahweh loves you and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, therefore has Yahweh brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondage from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9Know therefore that Yahweh your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with them who love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations, 10and repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them; He will not be slack to him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face. 11You must therefore keep the commandment, the statutes and the ordinances which I command you this day, to do them.
Blessings for Obedience
12If you listen to these ordinances and keep and do them, Yahweh your God will keep with you the covenant and the loving kindness which He swore to your fathers. 13He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your livestock and the young of your flock, in the land which He swore to your fathers to give you. 14You will be blessed above all peoples. There shall not be male or female barren among you or among your livestock. 15Yahweh will take away from you all sickness, and none of the evil diseases of Egypt which you know, will He put on you, but will lay them on all those who hate you. 16You shall consume all the peoples whom Yahweh your God shall deliver up unto you; your eye shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you. 17If you say in your heart, These nations are more than I, how can I dispossess them?, 18you shall not be afraid of them; you shall well remember what Yahweh your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, 19the great trials which your eyes saw and the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand and the stretched out arm by which Yahweh your God brought you out; so shall Yahweh your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. 20Moreover Yahweh your God will send the hornet among them until those who are left and hide themselves perish from before you. 21You shall not be scared of them, for Yahweh your God is in the midst of you, a great and awesome God. 22Yahweh your God will cast out those nations before you by little and little; you may not consume them at once, lest the animals of the field increase on you. 23But Yahweh your God will deliver them up before you and will confuse them with a great confusion until they are destroyed. 24He will deliver their kings into your hand and you shall make their name perish from under the sky; no man shall be able to stand before you, until you have destroyed them. 25You must burn the engraved images of their gods with fire. You must not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourself, lest you be snared by it; for it is an abomination to Yahweh your God. 26You must not bring an abomination into your house and become a devoted thing like it. You shall utterly detest it and you shall utterly abhor it, for it is a devoted thing.
CHAPTER 8 Apr. 24
Do Not Forget
You must observe to do all the commandments which I command you this day, that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers. 2You shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that He might humble you, to prove you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. 3He humbled you and allowed you to suffer hunger, and fed you with manna, which you didn’t know, neither did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man does not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh. 4Your clothing didn’t grow old on you, neither did your foot swell, these forty years. 5You shall consider in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so Yahweh your God chastens you. 6You must keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. 7For Yahweh your God brings you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of springs and underground water gushing into valleys and hills; 8a land of wheat and barley, vines, fig trees and pomegranates; a land of olive trees and honey; 9a land in which you shall eat bread without scarcity. You shall not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you may dig copper. 10When you shall eat and be full, then you shall bless Yahweh your God for the good land which He has given you. 11Beware lest you forget Yahweh your God in not keeping His commandments, His ordinances and His statutes which I command you this day; 12lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and lived therein, 13and when your herds and your flocks multiply and your silver and your gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, 14then your heart be lifted up and you forget Yahweh your God, Who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; 15Who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with fiery serpents, scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water; Who brought you forth water out of the rock of flint; 16Who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers didn’t know, that He might humble you and that He might prove you, to do you good at your latter end; 17and lest you say in your heart, My power and the might of my hand has given me this wealth. 18But you must remember Yahweh your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as at this day. 19If you forget Yahweh your God, and walk after other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. 20As the nations that Yahweh makes to perish before you, so you too shall perish, because you wouldn’t listen to the voice of Yahweh your God.
CHAPTER 9 Apr. 24
Israel Not Given the Land for Their Righteousness
Hear, Israel: you are to pass over the Jordan this day to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and walled up to the sky, 2a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard say, Who can stand before the sons of Anak? 3Know therefore this day that Yahweh your God is He who goes over before you as a devouring fire. He will destroy them and He will bring them down before you; so you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as Yahweh has spoken to you. 4Don’t say in your heart, after Yahweh your God has thrust them out from before you, For my righteousness Yahweh has brought me in to possess this land; because Yahweh drives them out before you because of the wickedness of these nations. 5Not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart do you go in to possess their land, but for the wickedness of these nations Yahweh your God drives them out from before you, and that He may establish the word which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. 6Know therefore that Yahweh your God doesn’t give you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people. 7Remember, don’t forget, how you provoked Yahweh your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you went forth out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place you have been rebellious against Yahweh.
The Golden Calf
8Also in Horeb you provoked Yahweh to wrath and Yahweh was angry with you to destroy you. 9When I had gone up onto the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which Yahweh made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water. 10Yahweh delivered to me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words which Yahweh spoke with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. 11At the end of forty days and forty nights Yahweh gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. 12Yahweh said to me Arise, get down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought out of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made themselves a molten image. 13Furthermore Yahweh spoke to me saying, I have seen this people and truly it is a stiff-necked people; 14let Me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under the sky, and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they. 15So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16I looked and truly, you had sinned against Yahweh your God; you had made yourselves a molten calf; you had turned aside quickly out of the way which Yahweh had commanded you. 17I took hold of the two tablets and cast them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes. 18I fell down before Yahweh as at the first, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you sinned, in doing that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh to provoke him to anger. 19For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which Yahweh was angry against you to destroy you. But Yahweh listened to me that time also. 20Yahweh was very angry with Aaron to destroy him, and I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. 21I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burnt it with fire and stamped it, grinding it very small until it was as fine as dust, and I cast its dust into the brook that descended out of the mountain. 22(At Taberah and at Massah and at Kibroth Hattaavah you provoked Yahweh to wrath. 23When Yahweh sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying Go up and possess the land which I have given you, then you rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh your God, and you didn’t believe Him, nor listen to His voice. 24You have been rebellious against Yahweh from the day that I knew you).
Moses Begs God Not to Destroy Israel
25So I fell down before Yahweh the forty days and forty nights because Yahweh had said He would destroy you. 26I prayed to Yahweh and said Lord Yahweh, don’t destroy Your people and Your inheritance that You have redeemed through Your greatness, that You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 27Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Don’t look at the stubbornness of this people, nor at their wickedness, nor their sin, 28lest the land You brought us out from say, ‘Because Yahweh was not able to bring them into the land which He promised to them and because He hated them He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness’. 29Yet they are Your people and Your inheritance, which You brought out by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm.
CHAPTER 10 Apr. 25
New Stone Tablets
At that time Yahweh said to me, Cut two tablets of stone like the first and come up to Me onto the mountain and make an ark of wood. 2I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke, and you shall put them within that ark. 3So I made an ark of acacia wood and cut two tablets of stone like the first, and went up onto the mountain, having the two tablets in my hand. 4He wrote on the tablets according to the first writing, the Ten Commandments, which Yahweh spoke to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly, and Yahweh gave them to me. 5I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tablets into the ark which I had made, and there they are as Yahweh commanded me. 6(The children of Israel travelled from Beeroth Bene Jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died and there he was buried, and Eleazar his son ministered in the priest’s office in his place. 7From there they travelled to Gudgodah and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of brooks of water. 8At that time Yahweh set apart the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, to stand before Yahweh to minister to Him and to bless in His name, to this day. 9Therefore Levi has no portion or inheritance with his brothers; Yahweh is his inheritance according as Yahweh your God spoke to him.) 10I stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights and Yahweh listened to me that time also; Yahweh would not destroy you. 11Yahweh said to me Arise, take your journey before the people, and they shall go in and possess the land, which I swore to their fathers to give to them.
Warning to Respect God
12Now Israel, what does Yahweh your God require of you, but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him and to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13to keep the commandments of Yahweh and His statutes, which I command you this day for your good? 14Behold, to Yahweh your God belongs heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth, with all that is in it. 15It’s just that Yahweh had a delight in your fathers to love them, and He chose their seed after them, even you above all peoples, as it is at this day. 16Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked. 17For Yahweh your God, He is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty and the awesome, who doesn’t respect persons nor take reward. 18He executes justice for the fatherless and widow and loves the foreigner, in giving him food and clothing. 19Therefore love the foreigner, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. 20You must fear Yahweh your God; you must serve Him and cling to Him and you shall swear by His name. 21He is your praise and He is your God, Who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen. 22Your fathers went down into Egypt with seventy persons, and now Yahweh your God has made you as the stars of the sky for multitude.
CHAPTER 11 Apr. 25
Command to Love God
Therefore you must love Yahweh your God and keep His instructions, His statutes, His ordinances and His commandments always. 2Know this day - for I don’t speak with your children who have not known, and who have not seen the chastisement of Yahweh your God - His greatness, His mighty hand and His outstretched arm; 3His signs and His works, which He did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land; 4and what He did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots; how He made the water of the Red Sea overflow them as they pursued after you, and how Yahweh has destroyed them to this day; 5and what He did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place; 6and what He did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben, how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, and their households and their tents and every living thing that followed them in the midst of all Israel. 7 Your eyes have seen all the great work of Yahweh which He did. 8Therefore you must keep all the commandment which I command you this day, that you may be strong and go in and possess the land where you go over to possess it, 9and that you may prolong your days in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give to them and to their seed, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10For the land where you go in to possess it isn’t as the land of Egypt that you came out from, where you sowed your seed and watered it with your foot, as a garden of herbs; 11but the land you go over to possess is a land of hills and valleys which drinks water of the rain of the sky, 12a land which Yahweh your God cares for. The eyes of Yahweh your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.
Blessings for Obedience
13If you will listen diligently to my commandments which I command you this day, to love Yahweh your God, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14 I will give the rain of your land in its season, the former rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine and your oil. 15I will give grass in your fields for your livestock and you shall eat and be full. 16Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived and you turn aside, and serve other gods and worship them, 17and the anger of Yahweh be kindled against you and He shut up the sky, so that there shall be no rain, and the land shall not yield its fruit and you perish quickly from off the good land which Yahweh gives you. 18Therefore you must lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them for a sign on your hand and they shall be for memorials between your eyes. 19You must teach them to your children, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. 20Write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates, 21that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens upon the earth. 22For if you will diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love Yahweh your God, to walk in all His ways and to cleave to Him, 23then will Yahweh drive out all these nations from before you and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves. 24Every place on which the sole of your foot shall tread shall be yours, from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river Euphrates, to the hinder sea shall be your border. 25No man will be able to stand before you. Yahweh your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you will tread on, as He has spoken to you. 26Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse: 27the blessing, if you will listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God which I command you this day, 28and the curse if you will not listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods which you have not previously known. 29When Yahweh your God brings you into the land where you go to possess it, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. 30Aren’t they beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah, over against Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh? 31For you are to pass over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which Yahweh your God gives you, and you shall possess it, and dwell therein. 32You shall observe all the statutes and the ordinances which I set before you this day.
CHAPTER 12 Apr. 26
God’s Choice of a Place to Worship
These are the statutes and ordinances which you shall observe to do in the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess all the days that you live on the earth. 2You must surely destroy all the places in which the nations that you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree, 3and you must break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire. You must cut down the engraved images of their gods and destroy their names out of that place. 4You shall not do so to Yahweh your God. 5But to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put His name there, to His dwelling place you shall seek, and there you shall come 6and bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, your vows, your freewill offerings and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. 7There you shall eat before Yahweh your God and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, in which Yahweh your God has blessed you. 8You shall not do all the things that we do here this day, every man whatever is right in his own eyes, 9for you haven’t yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which Yahweh your God gives you. 10But when you go over the Jordan, and dwell in the land which Yahweh your God causes you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies around you, so that you dwell in safety, 11then to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause His name to dwell there, you must bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the wave offering of your hand and all your chosen vows which you vow to Yahweh. 12Rejoice before Yahweh your God, you and your sons, your daughters, your male servants, your female servants and the Levite who is within your gates, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you. 13Be careful not to offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see, 14but in the place which Yahweh shall choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you. 15Notwithstanding, you may kill and eat flesh within all your gates after all the desire of your soul, according to the blessing of Yahweh your God which He has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and the hart. 16Only you must not eat the blood. Pour it out on the earth as water. 17You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or new wine or oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, nor any of your vows which you vow, nor your freewill offerings, nor the wave offering of your hand; 18but you must eat them before Yahweh your God in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, you and your son, your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God in all that you put your hand on. 19Take heed to yourself that you don’t forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.
Blood not to be Eaten
20When Yahweh your God enlarges your border, as He has promised you, and you say I want to eat meat, because your soul desires to eat meat, you may eat meat, after all the desire of your soul. 21If the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to put His name there is too far from you, then you shall kill of your herd and of your flock which Yahweh has given you, as I have commanded you; you may eat within your gates, after all the desire of your soul. 22As the gazelle and the hart is eaten, so you shall eat of it; the unclean and the clean may eat of it alike. 23Only be sure that you don’t eat the blood, for the blood is the life; you shall not eat the life with the flesh. 24You must not eat it; pour it out on the earth as water. 25You must not eat it, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, when you do that which is right in the eyes of Yahweh. 26Only your holy things which you have and your vows, you shall take and go to the place which Yahweh shall choose, 27and you shall offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of Yahweh your God. The blood of your sacrifices must be poured out on the altar of Yahweh your God, and you shall eat the flesh. 28Observe and hear all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do that which is good and right in the eyes of Yahweh your God. 29When Yahweh your God cuts off the nations from before you, where you go in to dispossess them, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, 30take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods saying, How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise. 31You must not do so to Yahweh your God, for every abomination to Yahweh, which He hates, have they done to their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they burn in the fire to their gods. 32Whatever I command you, you must observe to do. You must not add to it, nor take away from it.
CHAPTER 13 Apr. 27
Warning against Idolatry
If there should arise in the midst of you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, 2and the sign or the wonder comes to pass of which he spoke to you saying, Let us go after other gods (which you have not previously known) and let us serve them, 3you must not listen to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer of dreams, for Yahweh your God proves you, to know whether you love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4You must walk after Yahweh your God and fear Him and keep His commandments and obey His voice, and you must serve Him and cleave to Him. 5That prophet or that dreamer of dreams must be put to death, because he has spoken rebellion against Yahweh your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to draw you aside out of the way which Yahweh your God commanded you to walk in. So you must put away the evil from the midst of you. 6If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom or your friend, who is as your own soul, entices you secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which you have not known, you nor your fathers, 7of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near to you or far off from you, from the one end of the land to the other end of the land, 8you must not consent to him nor listen to him. Neither shall your eye pity him, neither shall you spare, neither shall you conceal him, 9but you must surely kill him. Your hand shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. 10You must stone him to death with stones because he has sought to draw you away from Yahweh your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 11All Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall not do any more such wickedness as this is in the midst of you. 12If you hear concerning one of your cities which Yahweh your God gives you to dwell there saying, 13Certain bad men have gone out from the midst of you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying Let us go and serve other gods, which you have not known, 14then you shall inquire and make search and ask diligently. Behold, if it is true and certain that such abomination is done in the midst of you, 15you must surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly and all that is therein and its livestock, with the edge of the sword. 16You shall gather all its spoil into the midst of its street and shall burn with fire the city and all its spoil, everything, to Yahweh your God, and it shall be a heap forever. It shall not be built again. 17Nothing of the devoted thing must cling to your hand, that Yahweh may turn from the fierceness of His anger and show you mercy and have compassion on you and multiply you, as He has sworn to your fathers, 18when you listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to keep all His commandments which I command you this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of Yahweh your God.
CHAPTER 14 Apr. 27
Clean and Unclean Food
You are the children of Yahweh your God. You must not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. 2For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God, and Yahweh has chosen you to be a people for His own possession above all peoples who are on the face of the earth. 3You must not eat any abominable thing. 4These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, 5the hart and the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the chamois. 6Every animal that has a split hoof and chews the cud among the animals, you may eat. 7Nevertheless these you must not eat of those that chew the cud or of those which have a split hoof: the camel, the hare and the rabbit. Because they chew the cud but don’t have a split hoof, they are unclean to you. 8The pig, because it has a split hoof but doesn’t chew the cud, is unclean to you; of their flesh you shall not eat and their carcasses you shall not touch. 9These you may eat of all that are in the waters: whatever has fins and scales may you eat. 10Whatever doesn’t have fins and scales you must not eat; it is unclean to you. 11Of all clean birds you may eat. 12But these are the ones you must not eat: the eagle, the vulture and the osprey, 13the red kite, the falcon and the kite after its kind, 14every raven after its kind, 15the ostrich, the owl, the seagull and the hawk after its kind, 16the little owl, the great owl and the horned owl, 17the pelican, the vulture and the cormorant, 18the stork and the heron after its kind and the hoopoe and the bat. 19All winged creeping things are unclean to you; they shall not be eaten. 20Of all clean birds you may eat. 21You must not eat of anything that dies of itself; you may give it to the foreigner living among you who is within your gates, that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner, for you are a holy people to Yahweh your God. You must not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.
Tithes
22You must surely tithe all the increase of your seed which comes forth from the field year by year. 23You shall eat before Yahweh your God, in the place which He shall choose to cause His name to dwell there, the tithe of your grain, of your new wine and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock, that you may learn to respect Yahweh your God always. 24If the way is too long for you, so that when Yahweh your God shall bless you, you are not able to carry it because the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to set His name there is too far from you, 25then you must turn it into money and take the money in your hand and go to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, 26and you may spend the money on whatever your soul desires, cattle or sheep, wine or strong drink, or whatever your soul asks of you, and you may eat there before Yahweh your God, and rejoice, you and your household. 27The Levite who is within your gates you must not forsake, for he has no portion or inheritance with you. 28At the end of every three years you must bring forth all the tithe of your increase in the same year and store it within your gates, 29and the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the foreigner living among you and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your gates, shall come and shall eat and be satisfied, that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.
CHAPTER 15 Apr. 28
The Year for Cancelling Debts
At the end of every seven years you must make a release. 2This is the method of the release: every creditor shall release that which he has lent to his neighbour. He must not demand it of his neighbour and his brother because Yahweh’s release has been proclaimed. 3Of a foreigner you may exact it, but whatever of yours is with your brother you must release. 4However there shall be no poor among you, for Yahweh will surely bless you in the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it 5if only you diligently listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to observe to do all this commandment which I command you this day. 6For Yahweh your God will bless you, as He promised you, and you will lend to many nations but you shall not borrow; and you will rule over many nations but they shall not rule over you. 7If a poor man, one of your brothers, is with you within any of your gates in your land which Yahweh your God gives you, you must not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother, 8but you must surely open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, that which he lacks. 9Beware that there is not a wicked thought in your heart saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand, and your eye be evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing and he cries to Yahweh against you, it is sin to you. 10You must surely give to him, and your heart must not be grieved when you give to him, because for this Yahweh your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you put your hand to. 11For the poor will never cease out of the land, therefore I command you, saying, You must surely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and to your poor, in your land.
Freeing Slaves
12If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you must let him go free from you. 13When you let him go free from you, you must not let him go empty. 14You must furnish him generously out of your flock, out of your threshing floor and out of your winepress; as Yahweh your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. 15You must remember that you were a bondservant in the land of Egypt and Yahweh your God redeemed you, therefore I command you this today. 16If he tells you I will not go out from you because he loves you and your house, because he is well with you, 17then you shall take an awl and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also to your female servant you shall do likewise. 18It must not seem hard to you, when you let him go free from you, for he was worth double the hire of a hireling; he has served you six years; and Yahweh your God will bless you in all that you do.
Firstborn Animals Belong to God
19All the firstborn males that are born of your herd and of your flock you must sanctify to Yahweh your God; you must do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock. 20You must eat it before Yahweh your God year by year in the place which Yahweh shall choose, you and your household. 21If it has any blemish, is lame or blind or has any defect whatever, you must not sacrifice it to Yahweh your God. 22You must eat it within your gates. The unclean and the clean shall eat it alike, as the gazelle and as the hart. 23Only you must not eat its blood. You must pour it out on the ground as water.
CHAPTER 16 Apr. 29
The Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread
Observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover to Yahweh your God, for in the month of Abib Yahweh your God brought you forth out of Egypt by night. 2You must sacrifice the Passover to Yahweh your God from the flock and the herd, in the place which Yahweh shall choose to cause His name to dwell there. 3You must eat no leavened bread with it. You must eat unleavened bread with it seven days, the bread of affliction, for you came forth out of the land of Egypt in haste, that you may remember the day when you came forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life. 4No yeast shall be seen with you in all your borders seven days, neither shall any of the flesh, which you sacrifice the first day at evening, remain all night until the morning. 5You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates which Yahweh your God gives you, 6but at the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to cause His name to dwell in, there you must sacrifice the Passover at evening, at the going down of the sun, at the time that you came forth out of Egypt. 7You must roast and eat it in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose; and you shall turn in the morning and go to your tents. 8For six days you must eat unleavened bread. On the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to Yahweh your God; you shall do no work.
The Feast of Weeks
9You must count for yourselves seven weeks: from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain you shall begin to number seven weeks. 10You must keep the feast of weeks to Yahweh your God with a tribute of a freewill offering, which you shall give according as Yahweh your God blesses you. 11You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God, you, your son, your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates and the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, who are among you, in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to cause His name to dwell there. 12You must remember that you were a bondservant in Egypt, and you shall observe and do these statutes.
The Feast of Tents
13You must keep the feast of tents seven days after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and from your winepress, 14and you shall rejoice in your feast, you, your son and your daughter, your male servant, your female servant and the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, who are within your gates. 15You must keep a feast to Yahweh your God seven days in the place which Yahweh shall choose. Because Yahweh your God will bless you in all your increase and in all the work of your hands, you shall be altogether joyful. 16Three times in a year must all your males appear before Yahweh your God in the place which He shall choose: in the feast of unleavened bread, in the feast of weeks and in the feast of tents. They must not appear before Yahweh empty: 17every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of Yahweh your God which He has given you.
Judges
18You shall make judges and officers in all your gates which Yahweh your God gives you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. 19You must not twist justice, you must not respect persons, neither must you take a bribe; for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous. 20You must follow that which is altogether just, that you may live, and inherit the land which Yahweh your God gives you.
Warning against Idolatry
21You must not plant for yourselves an Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of Yahweh your God, which you shall make for yourselves. 22Neither shall you set yourself up a pillar, which Yahweh your God hates.
CHAPTER 17 Apr. 30
You must not sacrifice to Yahweh your God an ox or a sheep in which is a blemish or anything imperfect, for that is an abomination to Yahweh your God. 2If there is found in the midst of you, within any of your gates which Yahweh your God gives you, a man or woman who does that which is evil in the sight of Yahweh your God in transgressing His covenant, 3and has gone and served other gods and worshipped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the army of the sky, which I have not commanded, 4and it is told you and you have heard of it, then you must inquire diligently. Behold, if it is true and certain that such abomination is done in Israel, 5then you must bring forth that man or that woman who has done this evil thing to your gates, even the man or the woman, and you shall stone them to death with stones. 6At the mouth of two or three witnesses shall he who is to die be put to death. At the mouth of one witness he must not be put to death. 7The hand of the witnesses must be first on him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall put away the evil from the midst of you.
Judging
8If there arises a matter too hard for you in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within your gates, then go up to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, 9and come to the priests the Levites and to the judge who shall be in those days and ask. They shall show you the sentence of judgment. 10You must do according to the sentence which they shall show you from that place which Yahweh shall choose, and you must observe to do according to all that they shall teach you; 11according to the law which they shall teach you and according to the judgment which they shall tell you, that you shall do. You must not turn aside from the sentence which they shall show you, to the right hand or to the left. 12The man who does presumptuously in not listening to the priest who stands to minister there before Yahweh your God, or to the judge, that man shall die, and you must put away the evil from Israel. 13All the people shall hear and fear and do no more presumptuously.
Rules for a King
14When you have come to the land which Yahweh your God gives you and shall possess it, and dwell therein and say, I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me, 15you must surely set him king over yourselves whom Yahweh your God shall choose; one from among your brothers you shall set king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. 16Only he must not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, so that he may multiply horses, because Yahweh has said to you, You shall not go back that way again. 17Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, so that his heart will not turn away; neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. 18When he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he must write for himself a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the priests, the Levites. 19It shall be with him and he must read from it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear Yahweh his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them. 20Thus his heart will not be raised up above his brothers, and he will not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, so that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the midst of Israel.
CHAPTER 18 May 1
Offerings for Priests and Levites
The priests the Levites, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel; they will eat the offerings of Yahweh made by fire as their inheritance. 2They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; Yahweh is their inheritance, as He has spoken to them. 3This shall be the priest’s due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether ox or sheep. They shall give to the priest the shoulder, the two cheeks and the stomach. 4The first fruits of your grain, your new wine and your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep you shall give him. 5For Yahweh your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand to minister in the name of Yahweh, him and his sons forever. 6If a Levite comes from any of your gates out of all Israel, where he lives as a foreigner, and comes with all the desire of his soul to the place which Yahweh shall choose, 7then he shall minister in the name of Yahweh his God as all his brothers the Levites do, who stand there before Yahweh. 8They shall have similar portions to eat, besides that which comes from his father’s inheritance.
Warnings against Sorcery
9When you have come into the land which Yahweh your God gives you, you must not learn to do according to the abominations of those nations. 10There must not be found with you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices sorcery or an enchanter, a sorcerer, 11a charmer, a consulter with a familiar spirit, a wizard or a necromancer. 12For whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh, and because of these abominations Yahweh your God drives them out from before you. 13You should be without blame before Yahweh your God. 14For these nations that you shall dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery and to diviners; but as for you, Yahweh your God has not allowed you to do so.
The Prophet to Come
15Yahweh your God will raise up to you a prophet like me, from the midst of you, of your brothers. You are to listen to him. 16This is according to all that you desired of Yahweh your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly saying, Let me not hear again the voice of Yahweh my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, so that I do not die. 17Yahweh said to me, They have well said that which they have spoken. 18I will raise them up a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put My words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him. 19Whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I will require it of him. 20But the prophet who shall speak a word presumptuously in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who shall speak in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die. 21If you say in your heart, How shall we know the word which Yahweh has not spoken? 22When a prophet speaks in the name of Yahweh, if the thing doesn’t follow or happen, that is the thing which Yahweh has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously, you shall not be afraid of him.
CHAPTER 19 May 2
Cities of Refuge
When Yahweh your God shall cut off the nations whose land Yahweh your God gives you, and you succeed them and dwell in their cities and in their houses, 2you must set apart three cities for you in the midst of your land, which Yahweh your God gives you to possess. 3You shall prepare the way, and divide the borders of your land which Yahweh your God causes you to inherit, into three parts, that any manslayer may flee there. 4This is the case of the manslayer that shall flee there and live. Whoever kills his neighbour unawares and didn’t hate him in time past, 5as when a man goes into the forest with his neighbour to chop wood, and his hand fetches a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle and hits his neighbour so that he dies; he shall flee to one of these cities and live, 6lest the avenger of blood pursue the manslayer while his heart is hot and overtake him because the way is long, and strike him mortally, whereas he was not worthy of death because he didn’t hate him in time past. 7Therefore I command you, saying, You must set apart three cities for yourselves. 8If Yahweh your God enlarges your border as He has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land which He promised to give to your fathers, 9if you keep all this commandment to do what I command you this day, to love Yahweh your God and walk always in His ways, then you shall add three cities more for yourselves besides these three, 10so that innocent blood will not be shed in your land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, and so guilt for blood be upon you. 11But if any man hates his neighbour, and lies in wait for him and rises up against him and strikes him mortally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities, 12then the elders of his city must send and bring him from there, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood that he may die. 13Your eye shall not pity him, but you must put away the innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you. 14You must not remove your neighbour’s landmark, which those of old time have set, in your inheritance which you shall inherit, in the land that Yahweh your God gives you to possess it.
Witnesses
15One witness must not rise up against a man for any iniquity or for any sin that he commits. At the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses shall a matter be established. 16If an unrighteous witness rises up against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing, 17then both the men in the controversy shall stand before Yahweh, before the priests and the judges who shall be in those days. 18The judges shall make diligent inquisition, and if the witness is a false witness and has testified falsely against his brother, 19then you must do to him as he had thought to do to his brother; so you shall put away the evil from the midst of you. 20Those who remain shall hear and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil in the midst of you. 21Your eyes must not pity; life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
CHAPTER 20 May 3
Rules for War
When you go forth to battle against your enemies and see horses, chariots and a people more than you, you must not be afraid of them, for Yahweh your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. 2When you draw near to the battle, the priest shall approach and speak to the people 3and tell them, Hear, Israel, you draw near this day to battle against your enemies; don’t let your heart faint; don’t be afraid or tremble, neither be scared of them, 4for Yahweh your God goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to save you. 5The officers must speak to the people saying, Any man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it, let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it. 6Any man who has planted a vineyard and has not eaten its fruit, let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man eat its fruit. 7Any man who has pledged to be married to a wife and has not taken her, let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her. 8The officers shall speak further to the people and say, Any man who is fearful and fainthearted, let him go and return to his house, lest his brother’s heart melt as his heart. 9When the officers have made an end of speaking to the people, they shall appoint captains of armies at the head of the people. 10When you draw near to a city to fight against it, proclaim peace to it. 11If it makes you an answer of peace and opens to you, then all the people who are found therein shall become tributary to you and shall serve you. 12If it will make no peace with you but wishes to make war against you, then you shall besiege it. 13When Yahweh your God delivers it into your hand, you must strike every male of it with the edge of the sword, 14but the women and the little ones, the livestock and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall take for a prey to yourself, and you shall eat the spoil of your enemies, which Yahweh your God has given you. 15Thus you must do to all the cities which are very far off from you, which are not of the cities of nearby nations. 16But of the cities of these peoples that Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, you must save alive nothing that breathes; 17you must utterly destroy them: the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, as Yahweh your God has commanded you, 18so that they do not teach you to do after all their abominations, which they have done to their gods; so would you sin against Yahweh your God. 19When you besiege a city a long time in making war against it to take it, you must not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them, for you may eat of them, and you shall not cut them down. Is the tree of the field a man, that it should be besieged by you? 20Only the trees which you know are not trees for food you shall destroy; cut them down. And you shall build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you until it falls.
CHAPTER 21 May 4
Regulations Concerning Unsolved Murder
If anyone is found slain in the land which Yahweh your God gives you to possess, lying in the field and it isn’t known who has struck him, 2then your elders and your judges must come forth and measure to the cities which are around him who is slain. 3The elders of the city which is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer of the herd, which hasn’t been worked with and which has not drawn the yoke, 4and the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer to a valley with running water, which is neither ploughed nor sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. 5The priests the sons of Levi must come near, for them Yahweh your God has chosen to minister to Him and to bless in the name of Yahweh, and according to their word shall every controversy be decided. 6All the elders of that city who are nearest to the slain man must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, 7and they shall say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. 8Forgive, Yahweh, your people Israel whom You have redeemed, and don’t allow innocent blood to be among Your people Israel. The guilt of blood shall be forgiven them. 9So you shall put away the innocent blood from the midst of you, when you do that which is right in the eyes of Yahweh.
Marrying a Captive
10When you go forth to battle against your enemies and Yahweh your God delivers them into your hands and you carry them away captive 11and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you have a desire to her and would take her to you as a wife, 12then you shall bring her home to your house. She must shave her head and pare her nails 13and put off the clothing of her captivity and remain in your house and bewail her father and her mother a full month. After that you shall go in to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife. 14If you have no delight in her, then you must let her go where she will, but you must not sell her at all for money. Since you have humbled her, you must not deal with her as a slave.
The Right of a Firstborn
15If a man has two wives, the one beloved and the other hated, and they have borne him children, both the beloved and the hated, and if the firstborn son be hers who was hated, 16then in the day that he causes his sons to inherit that which he has, he must not make the son of the beloved the firstborn before the son of the hated, who is the firstborn. 17He shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the hated, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.
A Rebellious Son
18If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father nor the voice of his mother and, though they chasten him, will not listen to them, 19then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him and bring him out to the elders of his city and to the gate of his town. 20They shall tell 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. 21All the men of his city must stone him to death with stones. So you shall put away the evil from the midst of you, and all Israel shall hear and fear. 22If a man has committed a sin worthy of death and is put to death and you hang him on a tree, 23his body must not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day (for cursed of God is he who is hanged on a tree), so that you don’t defile your land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance.
CHAPTER 22 May 5
Various Laws
You must not see your brother’s ox or his sheep go astray and hide yourself from them; you must surely bring them again to your brother. 2If your brother isn’t near to you, or if you don’t know him, then you shall bring it home to your house and it shall be with you until your brother seeks after it, and you shall restore it to him. 3So you must do with his donkey and with his garment and with every lost thing of your brother’s, which he has lost and you have found; you must not keep it to yourself. 4You must not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen down by the way and hide yourself from them; you shall surely help him to lift them up again. 5A woman must not wear men’s clothing neither should a man put on women’s clothing, for whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh your God. 6If a bird’s nest happens to be before you in the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the hen sitting on the young or on the eggs, you must not take the hen with the young. 7You must surely let the hen go, but the young you may take to yourself, that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days. 8When you build a new house you must make a battlement for your roof, so that you don’t bring blood on your house if anyone falls from there. 9You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the whole fruit be forfeited, the seed which you have sown, and the increase of the vineyard. 10You shall not plough with an ox and a donkey together. 11You shall not wear mixed stuff, wool and linen together. 12You shall make yourselves fringes on the four borders of your garment with which you cover yourself.
Marriage Laws
13If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and hates her 14and accuses her of shameful things and brings up an evil name on her and says, I took this woman and when I came near to her I didn’t find in her the tokens of virginity, 15then shall the father of the young woman and her mother take and bring forth the tokens of the young woman’s virginity to the elders of the city in the gate. 16The young woman’s father shall tell the elders, I gave my daughter to this man to wife and he hates her, 17and behold, he has accused her of shameful things saying, ‘I didn’t find in your daughter the tokens of virginity’, and yet these are the tokens of my daughter’s virginity. They shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. 18The elders of that city must take the man and chastise him 19and they shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought up an evil name on a virgin of Israel, and she shall be his wife; he may not divorce her all his days. 20But if this thing is true, that the tokens of virginity were not found in the young woman, 21then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father’s house and the men of her city must stone her to death with stones, because she has done folly in Israel, to play the prostitute in her father’s house. So you shall put away the evil from the midst of you. 22If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they must both of them die, the man who lay with the woman and the woman. So you shall put away the evil from Israel. 23If there is a young woman who is a virgin pledged to be married to a husband, and a man finds her in the city and lies with her, 24then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and you must stone them to death with stones; the woman, because she didn’t cry, being in the city, and the man, because he has humbled his neighbour’s wife. So you shall put away the evil from among you. 25But if the man finds the woman who is pledged to be married in the field, and the man forces her and lies with her, then the man only who lay with her must die, 26but to the woman you shall do nothing; there is in the woman no sin worthy of death. For as when a man rises against his neighbour and kills him, even so is this matter; 27for when he found her in the field, the betrothed woman cried and there was none to save her. 28If a man finds a woman who is a virgin, who is not betrothed, and lays hold on her and lies with her and they are found, 29then the man who lay with her must give to the woman’s father fifty shekels of silver and she shall be his wife, because he has humbled her; he may not put her away all his days. 30A man must not take his father’s wife, and shall not uncover his father’s skirt.
CHAPTER 23 May 6
People Excluded from the Assembly
He who is wounded in the testicles, or has his privy member cut off, must not enter into the assembly of Yahweh. 2An illegitimate person must not enter into the assembly of Yahweh; even to the tenth generation shall none of his enter into the assembly of Yahweh. 3An Ammonite or a Moabite must not enter into the assembly of Yahweh; even to the tenth generation shall none belonging to them enter into the assembly of Yahweh forever. This is 4because they didn’t meet you with bread and water in the way, when you came forth out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. 5Nevertheless Yahweh your God wouldn’t listen to Balaam, but Yahweh your God turned the curse into a blessing to you, because Yahweh your God loved you. 6You shall not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days forever. 7You must not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. You must not abhor an Egyptian, because you lived as a foreigner in his land. 8The children of the third generation who are born to them may enter into the assembly of Yahweh.
Keeping the Camp Clean
9When you go forth to camp against your enemies, you must keep yourselves from every evil thing. 10If there is among you any man who is not clean by reason of that which happens to him by night, he must go outside the camp. He shall not come within the camp, 11but when evening comes on he must bathe in water, and when the sun is down he shall come within the camp. 12You must have a place also outside the camp where you shall go to relieve yourself, 13and you must have a trowel among your weapons, and when you relieve yourself you must dig with it and turn back and cover that which comes from you; 14for Yahweh your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to give up your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy so that He may not see an unclean thing in you and turn away from you.
Various Laws
15You must not deliver to his master a servant who has escaped from his master to you. 16He shall dwell with you, in the midst of you in the place which he shall choose within one of your gates, where it pleases him best. You must not oppress him. 17There must be no prostitute of the daughters of Israel. Neither should there be a sodomite of the sons of Israel. 18You must not bring the hire of a prostitute or of a male prostitute into the house of Yahweh your God for any vow, for both of these are an abomination to Yahweh your God. 19You must not lend on interest to your brother, interest of money, of food or of anything that is lent. 20To a foreigner you may lend on interest, but to your brother you shall not lend on interest, so that Yahweh your God may bless you in all that you put your hand to in the land where you go in to possess it. 21When you make a vow to Yahweh your God you must not be slack to pay it, for Yahweh your God will surely require it of you and it would be sin upon you. 22But if you forbear to vow, that will be no sin upon you. 23That which has gone out of your lips you must observe and do, according as you have vowed to Yahweh your God, as a freewill offering which you have promised with your mouth. 24When you come into your neighbour’s vineyard you may eat your fill of grapes at your own pleasure, but you must not put any in your vessel. 25When you come into your neighbour’s standing grain you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not move a sickle to your neighbour’s standing grain.
CHAPTER 24 May 7
Law for Divorce
When a man takes a wife and marries her, if she finds no favour in his eyes because he has found some unseemly thing in her, he shall write her a bill of divorce and give it into her hand and send her out of his house. 2When she has departed out of his house she may go and be another man’s wife. 3If the latter husband hates her and writes her a bill of divorce and gives it to her and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband who took her to be his wife dies, 4her former husband who sent her away may not take her again to be his wife after she is defiled, for that is abomination before Yahweh. You shall not cause the land to sin, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance.
Various Laws
5When a man takes a new wife he shall not go into the army, neither must he be assigned any business. He shall be free at home for one year and shall please his wife whom he has taken. 6No man may take the mill or the upper millstone as pledge, for he takes a life in pledge. 7If a man is found stealing any of his brothers of the children of Israel, and he deals with him as a slave or sells him, then that thief must die. So you shall put away the evil from among you. 8Take heed that in the plague of leprosy you observe diligently to do according to all that the priests the Levites shall teach you. As I commanded them, so you shall observe to do. 9Remember what Yahweh your God did to Miriam by the way as you came forth out of Egypt. 10When you lend your neighbour any kind of loan, you must not go into his house to get his pledge. 11You shall stand outside and the man to whom you lent shall bring the pledge outside to you. 12If he is a poor man you must not sleep with his pledge; 13you must surely restore to him the pledge when the sun goes down so that he may sleep in his garment and bless you, and it shall be righteousness to you before Yahweh your God. 14You must not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is of your brothers or of the foreigners who are in your land within your gates. 15Each day you must give him his hire. The sun must not go down on it for he is poor and sets his heart on it, lest he cry against you to Yahweh and it be sin to you. 16The fathers must not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers. Every man shall be put to death for his own sin. 17You must not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, nor take a widow’s clothing in pledge, 18but you must remember that you were a bondservant in Egypt and Yahweh your God redeemed you from there, therefore I command you to do this.
Kindness to the Needy
19When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, do not go back to get it. It shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless and for the widow, so that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20When you beat your olive tree do not go over the boughs again. It shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless and for the widow. 21When you harvest your vineyard do not glean it afterwards yourselves. It shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless and for the widow. 22You shall remember that you were a bondservant in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this thing.
CHAPTER 25 May 8
More Laws
If there is a controversy between men, and they come to judgment and the judges judge them, then they must justify the righteous and condemn the wicked. 2If the wicked man is worthy to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence according to his wickedness, by number. 3Forty stripes he may give him. He must not exceed this number. If he should beat him with many more than forty stripes, then your brother may seem vile to you. 4You shall not muzzle the ox when he treads out the grain. 5If brothers dwell together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead should not be married outside to a stranger. Her husband’s brother should go in to her and take her to him as wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. 6The firstborn whom she bears shall succeed in the name of his brother who is dead, so that his name is not blotted out of Israel. 7If the man doesn’t want to take his brother’s wife, then she shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, My husband’s brother refuses to raise up to his brother a name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me. 8Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him, and if he stands and says, I don’t want to take her; 9then his brother’s wife shall come to him in the presence of the elders and loose his shoe from off his foot, spit in his face, and say, So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house. 10His name shall be called in Israel’, The house of him who had his shoe untied’. 11When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draws near to deliver her husband out of the hand of him who strikes him, and puts forth her hand and takes him by the private parts, 12then you shall cut off her hand, your eye shall have no pity. 13You must not have in your bag different weights, a great and a small. 14You must not have in your house different measures, a great and a small. 15You shall have a perfect and just weight. You shall have a perfect and just measure, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you. 16For all who do such things, all who do unrighteously, are an abomination to Yahweh your God. 17Remember what Amalek did to you by the way as you came forth out of Egypt, 18how he met you by the way and struck the hindmost of you, all who were feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary, and he didn’t fear God. 19Therefore when Yahweh your God has given you rest from all your enemies all around in the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it, you must blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky. Do not forget.
CHAPTER 26 May 9
Giving the Firstfruits to God
When you come into the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, and possess it and dwell in it, 2take of the first of all the fruit of the ground which you bring in from your land that Yahweh your God gives you, and put it in a basket and go to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to cause His name to dwell there. 3You shall come to the priest who will be in those days and tell him, I declare this day to Yahweh your God that I have come to the land which Yahweh swore to our fathers to give us. 4The priest shall take the basket out of your hand and set it down before the altar of Yahweh your God. 5You shall answer and say before Yahweh your God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father and he went down into Egypt and lived there, few in number, and he became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous. 6The Egyptians behaved badly with us, afflicted us and laid on us hard bondage, 7and we cried to Yahweh, the God of our fathers and Yahweh heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil and our oppression, 8and Yahweh brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm and with great terror, with signs and wonders; 9and He has brought us into this place and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10Now, behold, I have brought the first of the fruit of the ground which You, Yahweh, have given me. You shall set it down before Yahweh your God, and worship before Yahweh your God. 11You shall rejoice in all the good which Yahweh your God has given to you and to your house; you and the Levite and the foreigner who is in the midst of you.
Tithes
12When you have made an end of tithing all your increase in the third year, which is the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the foreigner, to the fatherless and to the widow, so that they may eat within your gates and be filled. 13You shall say before Yahweh your God, I have put away the holy things out of my house and have given them to the Levite and to the foreigner, to the fatherless and to the widow, according to all Your commandment which You have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of Your commandments, neither have I forgotten them. 14I have not eaten of it in mourning, neither have I put away any of it while unclean, nor given any of it for the dead. I have listened to the voice of Yahweh my God. I have done according to all that You have commanded me. 15Look down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the ground which You have given us, as You swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.
Keep the Commands
16This day Yahweh your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You shall therefore keep and do them with all your heart and with all your soul. 17You have undertaken to Yahweh this day to be your God and that you will walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments and His ordinances and listen to His voice. 18And Yahweh has undertaken to you this day that you shall be a people for His own possession, as He has promised you, in order that you should keep all His commandments, 19so as to make you high above all nations that He has made, in praise, in name and in honour, and that you might be a holy people to Yahweh your God, as He has spoken.
CHAPTER 27 May 10
The Altar on Mount Ebal
Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people saying, Keep all the commandments which I command you this day. 2On the day when you pass over the Jordan to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, you must set up great stones and plaster them with plaster 3and write on them all the words of this law, when you have passed over, that you may go in to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers has promised you. 4When you have passed over the Jordan, I command you this day that you shall set up these stones, in Mount Ebal, and you shall plaster them with plaster. 5There you shall build an altar to Yahweh your God, an altar of stones. You shall lift up no iron on them. 6You shall build the altar of Yahweh your God of uncut stones and you shall offer burnt offerings thereon to Yahweh your God. 7You shall sacrifice peace offerings and shall eat there and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God. 8You must write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly. 9Moses and the priests and Levites spoke to all Israel, saying, Keep silence and listen, Israel: this day you have become the people of Yahweh your God. 10You must therefore obey the voice of Yahweh your God and do His commandments and His statutes which I command you this day.
Curses from Mount Ebal
11Moses commanded the people the same day saying, 12These shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people when you have passed over the Jordan: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin. 13These shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali. 14The Levites shall answer and tell all the men of Israel with a loud voice, 15‘Cursed is the man who makes an engraved or molten image, an abomination to Yahweh, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and secretly sets it up’. All the people shall answer and say ‘Amen’. 16‘Cursed is he who dishonours his father or his mother’. All the people shall say ‘Amen’. 17‘Cursed is he who removes his neighbour’s landmark’. All the people shall say ‘Amen’. 18‘Cursed is he who makes the blind wander out of the way’. All the people shall say ‘Amen’. 19‘Cursed is he who deprives the foreigner, fatherless and widow of justice’. All the people shall say ‘Amen’. 20‘Cursed is he who lies with his father’s wife, because he has uncovered his father’s skirt’. All the people shall say ‘Amen’. 21‘Cursed is he who lies with any kind of animal’. All the people shall say ‘Amen’. 22‘Cursed is he who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother’. All the people shall say ‘Amen’. 23‘Cursed is he who lies with his mother-in-law’. All the people shall say ‘Amen’. 24‘Cursed is he who strikes his neighbour in secret’. All the people shall say ‘Amen’. 25‘Cursed is he who takes a bribe to kill an innocent person’. All the people shall say ‘Amen’. 26‘Cursed is he who doesn’t confirm the words of this law to do them’. All the people shall say ‘Amen’.
CHAPTER 28 May 11
Blessings for Obedience
If you will listen diligently to the voice of Yahweh your God, to observe all His commandments which I command you this day, Yahweh your God will set you on high above all the nations of the earth. 2All these blessings shall come on you and be with you, if you will listen to the voice of Yahweh your God. 3You shall be blessed in the city and you shall be blessed in the field. 4You shall be blessed in the fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the fruit of your animals, the increase of your livestock and the young of your flock. 5Your basket and your kneading trough shall be blessed. 6You shall be blessed when you come in and you shall be blessed when you go out. 7Yahweh will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be struck before you. They will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways. 8Yahweh will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you put your hand to; He will bless you in the land which Yahweh your God gives you. 9Yahweh will establish you for a holy people to Himself as He has sworn to you, if you will keep the commandments of Yahweh your God and walk in His ways. 10All the peoples of the land will see that you are called by the name of Yahweh and they will be afraid of you. 11Yahweh will make you prosperous in the fruit of your body and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give you. 12Yahweh will open to you His good treasure in the sky, to give the rain of your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations and you shall not borrow. 13Yahweh will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only be above and you shall not be beneath, if you will listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God which I command you this day, to observe and to do, 14and do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
Curses for Disobedience
15But if you will not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes which I command you this day, all these curses shall come on you and consume you. 16You shall be cursed in the city and you shall be cursed in the field. 17Your basket and your kneading trough shall be cursed. 18The fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the increase of your livestock and the young of your flock shall be cursed. 19You shall be cursed when you come in and you shall be cursed when you go out. 20Yahweh will send on you cursing, confusion and rebuke in all that you put your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the evil of your doings by which you have forsaken Him. 21Yahweh will make the pestilence cleave to you until He has consumed you from off the land into which you now go in to possess it. 22Yahweh will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation and with fiery heat; with the sword, with blight and with mildew, and they shall pursue you until you perish. 23Your sky that is over your head shall be brass and the earth that is under you shall be iron. 24Yahweh will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from the sky shall it come down on you until you are destroyed. 25Yahweh will cause you to be struck before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them but shall flee seven ways before them, and you shall be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth. 26Your dead body shall be food to all birds of the sky and to the animals of the earth, and there shall be none to frighten them away. 27Yahweh will strike you with the boil of Egypt and with the tumours, the scurvy and the itch, from which you cannot be healed. 28Yahweh will strike you with madness, blindness and astonishment of heart. 29You shall grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways. You shall be only oppressed and robbed always and there shall be none to save you. 30You will betroth a wife and another man shall lie with her. You will build a house and not dwell therein. You will plant a vineyard and not use its fruit. 31Your ox will be slain before your eyes and you shall not eat of it. Your donkey will be violently taken away from before your face and shall not be restored to you. Your sheep will be given to your enemies and you will have none to save you. 32Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people and your eyes will look and fail with longing for them all day long; and there shall be no power in your hand. 33The fruit of your ground and all your labours shall a nation which you don’t know eat up, and you will be only oppressed and crushed always, 34so that you will be mad because of the sight your eyes shall see. 35Yahweh will strike you in the knees and in the legs with a sore boil of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head. 36Yahweh will bring you and your king whom you will set over you to a nation that you have not known, you nor your fathers, and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone. 37You will become an astonishment, a proverb and a byword among all the peoples where Yahweh shall lead you away. 38You will carry much seed out into the field and gather little in, for the locust shall consume it. 39You will plant vineyards and dress them but you shall neither drink of the wine nor harvest them, for the worm shall eat them. 40You will have olive trees throughout all your borders but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives shall drop off. 41You will father sons and daughters but they shall not be yours, for they will go into captivity. 42All your trees and the fruit of your ground shall the locust possess. 43The foreigner who is in the midst of you shall mount up above you higher and higher and you shall come down lower and lower. 44He will lend to you and you shall not lend to him; he will be the head and you shall be the tail. 45All these curses will come on you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you didn’t listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you, 46and they shall be to you and your seed a sign and a wonder forever. 47Because you didn’t serve Yahweh your God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart because of the abundance of all things, 48therefore you shall serve your enemies whom Yahweh shall send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness and in want of all things and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you. 49Yahweh will bring a nation against you from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies; a nation whose language you will not understand; 50a nation of fierce face who will not respect the person of the old nor show favour to the young. 51It will eat the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground until you are destroyed. It will not leave you grain, new wine or oil, the increase of your livestock or the young of your flock, until it has caused you to perish. 52It will besiege you in all your gates until your high and fortified walls come down in which you trusted, throughout all your land. It will besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land which Yahweh your God has given you. 53You shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, whom Yahweh your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you. 54The man who is tender among you and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother and toward the wife of his heart and toward the remnant of his children whom he has remaining, 55so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat, because he has nothing left in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your gates. 56The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye will be evil toward the husband of her heart and toward her son and her daughter, 57and toward her young one who comes out from between her feet and her children whom she shall bear; for she will eat them secretly, for want of all things in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your gates.
Further Warnings
58If you will not observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and fearful name, YAHWEH YOUR GOD, 59then Yahweh will make your plagues terrible and the plagues of your seed, great plagues and of long continuance, and severe sicknesses and of long continuance. 60He will bring on you again all the diseases of Egypt which you feared, and they shall cling to you. 61Also Yahweh will bring on you every sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of this law, until you are destroyed. 62You will be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of the sky for multitude, because you didn’t listen to the voice of Yahweh your God. 63As Yahweh rejoiced over you to do you good and to multiply you, so Yahweh will rejoice over you to cause you to perish and to destroy you. You will be plucked from off the land where you go in to possess it. 64Yahweh will scatter you among all peoples, from the one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, and there you shall serve other gods which you have not known - you nor your fathers - gods of wood and stone. 65Among these nations you shall find no ease and there shall be no rest for the sole of your foot. Yahweh will give you there a trembling heart and failing of eyes and pining of soul, 66and your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear night and day and shall have no assurance of your life. 67In the morning you will say, I wish it were evening! and at evening you will say, I wish it were morning! for the fear of your heart which you shall fear and for the sight of your eyes which you shall see. 68Yahweh will bring you into Egypt again with ships by the way of which I said to you, You shall see it no more again, and there you shall sell yourselves to your enemies for bondservants and for bondmaids, and no man will buy you.
CHAPTER 29 May 12
The Covenant
These are the words of the covenant which Yahweh commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which He made with them in Horeb. 2Moses called all Israel and said to them, You have seen all that Yahweh did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land; 3the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and those great wonders. 4But Yahweh has not given you a heart to know and eyes to see and ears to hear, to this day. 5I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not grown old on you and your shoes have not grown old on your feet. 6You have not eaten bread neither have you drunk wine or strong drink, that you may know that I am Yahweh your God. 7When we came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out against us to battle and we struck them, 8and we took their land and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of the Manassites. 9Keep therefore the words of this covenant and do them, so that you may prosper in all that you do. 10You stand this day, all of you, before Yahweh your God: your heads, your tribes, your elders and your officers, all the men of Israel, 11your little ones, your wives and the foreigner who is in the midst of your camps, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water. 12You wish to enter into covenant with Yahweh your God and into His oath, which Yahweh your God makes with you this day, 13that He may establish you this day to Himself for a people and that He may be to you a God, as He spoke to you and as He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 14Not only with you do I make this covenant and this oath, 15but with him who stands here with us this day before Yahweh our God and also with him who is not here with us this day. 16For you know how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed, 17and you have seen their abominations and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them. 18This covenant is made lest there should be among you man or woman, family or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from Yahweh our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood, 19who, when he hears the words of this curse blesses himself in his heart saying I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart, to destroy the moist with the dry. 20Yahweh will not pardon him, but then the anger of Yahweh and His jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this book shall lie on him, and Yahweh will blot out his name from under the sky. 21Yahweh will separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that is written in this book of the law.
Result of Breaking the Covenant
22The generation to come, your children who shall rise up after you and the foreigner who will come from a distant land, shall see the plagues of the land and the sicknesses with which Yahweh has made it sick. 23The whole land is sulphur, salt and burning, that it is not sown nor giving produce and no grass grows therein, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which Yahweh overthrew in His anger and in his wrath. 24 They and all the nations shall say, Why has Yahweh done thus to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean? 25Then men shall say, Because they forsook the covenant of Yahweh the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, 26and went and served other gods and worshipped them, gods that they didn’t know and that He had not given to them. 27Therefore the anger of Yahweh was kindled against this land, to bring on it all the curse that is written in this book; 28and Yahweh rooted them out of their land in anger in wrath and in great indignation and cast them into another land, as at this day. 29The secret things belong to Yahweh our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
CHAPTER 30 May 13
Blessings after Repentance
When all these things have come on you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where Yahweh your God has driven you, 2and return to Yahweh your God and obey His voice according to all that I command you this day, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul; 3then Yahweh your God will turn your captivity and have compassion on you. He will return and gather you from all the peoples where Yahweh your God has scattered you. 4If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of the heavens, from there will Yahweh your God gather you, and from there He will bring you back. 5Yahweh your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed and you shall possess it, and He will do you good and multiply you above your fathers. 6Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed, to love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live. 7Yahweh your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you and persecuted you. 8You shall return and obey the voice of Yahweh and do all His commandments which I command you this day. 9Yahweh your God will make you plenteous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, for good. Yahweh will again rejoice over you for good, as He rejoiced over your fathers, 10if you will obey the voice of Yahweh your God to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if you turn to Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
The Choice of Life or Death
11For this commandment which I command you this day is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. 12It is not in heaven, that you should say, Who shall go up for us to heaven and bring it back down to us and make us hear it, that we may do it? 13Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, Who shall go down into the deeps for us and bring it up to us and make us hear it, that we may do it? 14But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it. 15Behold, I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil. 16I command you this day to love Yahweh your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments, His statutes and His ordinances, that you may live and multiply, and that Yahweh your God may bless you in the land where you go in to possess it. 17But if your heart turns away and you will not hear, but shall be drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, 18I declare to you this day, that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land, where you pass over the Jordan to go in to possess it. 19I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your seed. 20Love Yahweh your God, to obey His voice and to cling to Him; for He is your life and the length of your days, that you may dwell in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, to give them.
CHAPTER 31 May 14
The Appointment of Joshua
Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. 2 I am one hundred and twenty years old this day. I can no more go out and come in, and Yahweh has said to me, ‘You shall not go over this Jordan’. 3Yahweh your God, He will go over before you. He will destroy these nations from before you and you shall dispossess them. Joshua shall go over before you, as Yahweh has spoken. 4Yahweh will do to them as He did to Sihon and to Og, the kings of the Amorites and to their land, whom He destroyed. 5Yahweh will deliver them up before you and you shall do to them according to all the commandments which I have commanded you. 6Be strong and courageous, don’t be afraid nor be scared of them, for Yahweh your God, He it is who goes with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you. 7Moses called to Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land which Yahweh has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall cause them to inherit it. 8It is Yahweh who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not fail you neither forsake you. Don’t be afraid neither be dismayed.
Command to Read the Law Every Seven Years
9Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests the sons of Levi, who bore the Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh, and to all the elders of Israel. 10Moses commanded them saying, At the end of every seven years, in the set time of the year of release, in the feast of tents, 11when all Israel has come to appear before Yahweh your God in the place which He shall choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. 12Assemble the people, men, women and the little ones and your foreigner who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear Yahweh your God and observe to do all the words of this law; 13and that their children, who have not known, may hear and learn to fear Yahweh your God as long as you live in the land where you go over the Jordan to possess it.
God Predicts the People’s Failure
14Yahweh said to Moses, Behold, your life will end shortly. Call Joshua and present yourselves in the Tent of Meeting, so that I may commission him. Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the Tent of Meeting. 15Yahweh appeared in the Tent in a pillar of cloud. The pillar of cloud stood over the door of the Tent. 16Yahweh said to Moses, Behold, you shall lay down to sleep with your fathers, and this people shall rise up and play the prostitute after the strange gods of the land where they go to be among them, and will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them. 17Then My anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and I will hide My face from them and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall come on them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Haven’t these evils come on us because our God is not among us?’ 18I will surely hide My face in that day for all the evil which they have done, in that they have turned to other gods. 19Now therefore write this song for yourselves and teach it to the children of Israel. Put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for Me against the children of Israel. 20For when I have brought them into the land which I swore to their fathers, flowing with milk and honey, and they have eaten and filled themselves and grown fat, then they will turn to other gods and serve them, and despise Me and break My covenant. 21When many evils and troubles have come on them, this song shall testify before them as a witness, for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed; for I know their imagination which they plan this day, before I have brought them into the land which I swore. 22So Moses wrote this song the same day and taught it to the children of Israel. 23He commissioned Joshua the son of Nun and said, Be strong and courageous, for you shall bring the children of Israel into the land which I swore to them, and I will be with you. 24When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book, 25he commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of Yahweh saying, 26Take this book of the law and put it in the side of the Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh your God, that it may be there for a witness against you. 27For I know your rebellion and your stiff neck; even while I am alive with you this day you have been rebellious against Yahweh, and how much more after my death? 28Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears and call heaven and earth to witness against them. 29For I know that after my death you will utterly corrupt yourselves and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you, and evil will happen to you in the latter days, because you will do that which is evil in the sight of Yahweh, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands.
The Song of Moses
30Moses spoke in the ears of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song, until they were finished.
CHAPTER 32 May 15
Give ear, you heavens, and I will speak. Let the earth hear the words of my mouth. 2My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall condense as the dew, as the small rain on the tender grass, as the showers on the herb. 3For I will proclaim the name of Yahweh. Ascribe greatness to our God 4the Rock; His work is perfect, for all His ways are justice; a God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is He. 5They have dealt corruptly with Him; they are not His children any more because of their blemish. They are a perverse and crooked generation. 6Do you thus repay Yahweh, foolish people and unwise? Isn’t He your father who has bought you? He has created you and established you. 7Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations. Ask your father and he will show you, your elders and they will tell you. 8When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the children of men, He set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel. 9For Yahweh’s portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance. 10He found him in a desert land, in the waste howling wilderness. He embraced him, He cared for him, He kept him as the apple of His eye. 11As an eagle that stirs up her nest and flutters over her young, He spread abroad his wings. He took them, He carried them on His feathers. 12Yahweh alone led him, there was no foreign god with Him. 13He made him ride in victory on the high places of the earth and fed him with the increase of the field. He caused him to suck honey out of the rock, oil out of the flinty rock, 14butter of the herd and milk of the flock with fat of lambs, rams of the breed of Bashan and goats, with the finest of the wheat. Of the blood of the grape you drank wine. 15But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked. You have grown fat. You have grown fat. You have become covered with flesh. Then he forsook God who made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. 16They moved Him to jealousy with strange gods, they provoked Him to anger with abominations. 17They sacrificed to demons, not God, to gods that they didn’t know, to new gods that came up recently, which your fathers didn’t fear. 18Of the Rock who became your father you are unmindful, and have forgotten God who gave you birth. 19Yahweh saw and abhorred, because of the provocation of His sons and His daughters. 20He said, I will hide My face from them. I will see what their end shall be, for they are a very perverse generation, children in whom is no loyalty. 21They have moved Me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked Me to anger with their vanities. I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people, I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. 22For a fire is kindled in My anger, which burns to the lowest Sheol. It devours the earth with its increase, and sets the foundations of the mountains on fire. 23I will heap evils on them. I will spend my arrows on them. 24They shall be wasted with hunger and devoured with burning heat and bitter destruction. I will send the teeth of animals on them and the poison of crawling things of the dust. 25Outside, the sword shall bereave and inside, terror shall be on both young man and virgin, the nursing infant with the grey-haired man. 26I said I would scatter them afar, I would make their memory to cease from among men, 27but I feared the provocation of the enemy, lest their adversaries should judge wrongly, lest they should say, ‘Our hand is exalted, Yahweh has not done all this’. 28For they are a nation without wisdom; there is no understanding in them. 29Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! 30How one could have chased a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight, had not their Rock sold them and Yahweh delivered them up! 31For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. 32For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, of the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. 33Their wine is the poison of serpents, the deadly venom of asps. 34Isn’t this laid up in store with Me, sealed up among My treasures? 35Vengeance is Mine and punishment, at the time when their foot slides; for the day of their calamity is at hand. The things that are to come on them shall make haste. 36For Yahweh will judge His people and have compassion on His servants when He sees that their power is gone, that there is none remaining, shut up or left at large. 37He will say, Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge, 38which ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise up and help you! Let them be your protection. 39See now that I, even I, am He. There is no god with Me. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. There is no one who can deliver out of My hand. 40For I lift up My hand to heaven and say, as surely as I live forever, 41if I whet My glittering sword and My hand takes hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to My adversaries and will punish those who hate Me. 42I will make My arrows drunk with blood. My sword shall devour flesh with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the head of the leaders of the enemy.43Rejoice, you nations, with His people, for He will avenge the blood of His servants. He will take vengeance on His adversaries and will make expiation for His land, for His people. 44Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun. 45When Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel 46he said to them, Set your heart to all the words which I testify to you this day, which you must command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law. 47For it is no vain thing for you, because it is your life and through this you shall prolong your days in the land, where you go over the Jordan to possess it.
Moses to Die
48Yahweh spoke to Moses that same day saying, 49Go up into this mountain of Abarim, to Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab that is opposite Jericho, and see the land of Canaan which I give to the children of Israel for a possession. 50Die on the mountain and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people, 51because you trespassed against Me in the midst of the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah of Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you didn’t sanctify Me in the midst of the children of Israel. 52For you shall see the land before you, but you shall not go there into the land which I give the children of Israel.
CHAPTER 33 May 16
The Blessing of Moses
This is the blessing with which Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death. 2He said, Yahweh came from Sinai and rose from Seir to them. He shone forth from Mount Paran. He came with ten thousands of holy ones. At His right hand was a fiery law for them. 3Yes, He loved the people. All His saints are in Your hand. They sat down at Your feet; each receives Your words. 4Moses commanded us a law, an inheritance for the assembly of Jacob. 5He was king in Jeshurun when the heads of the people were gathered, all the tribes of Israel together. 6Let Reuben live, and not die, nor let his men be few. 7This is for Judah. He said Hear, Yahweh, the voice of Judah. Bring him in to his people; with his hands he contended for himself. You shall be a help against his adversaries. 8Of Levi he said, Your Thummim and your Urim are with your holy one whom You proved at Massah, with whom You strove at the waters of Meribah; 9who said of his father and of his mother, ‘I have not seen him’. Neither did he acknowledge his brothers, nor did he know his own children; for they have observed Your word and keep Your covenant. 10They shall teach Jacob Your ordinances, and Israel Your law. They shall put incense before You and whole burnt offering on Your altar. 11Yahweh, bless his substance. Accept the work of his hands. Strike through the hips of those who rise up against him, of those who hate him, so that they will not rise again. 12Of Benjamin he said, The beloved of Yahweh shall dwell in safety by Him. He covers him all the day long. He dwells between His shoulders. 13Of Joseph he said, His land is blessed by Yahweh for the precious things of the heavens, for the dew, for the deep that couches beneath, 14for the precious things of the fruits of the sun, for the precious things of the growth of the moons, 15for the chief things of the ancient mountains, for the precious things of the everlasting hills, 16for the precious things of the earth and its fullness, the good will of Him who was manifested in the bush. Let this come on the head of Joseph, on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers. 17The firstborn of his herd, majesty is his. His horns are the horns of the wild ox; with them he shall push all the peoples to the ends of the land. They are the ten thousands of Ephraim; they are the thousands of Manasseh. 18Of Zebulun he said, Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out, and Issachar, in your tents. 19They shall call the peoples to the mountain. There they will offer sacrifices of righteousness, for they shall draw out the abundance of the seas, the hidden treasures of the sand. 20Of Gad he said, He who enlarges Gad is blessed. He dwells as a lioness and tears the arm, yes the crown of the head. 21He provided the first part for himself, for there was the lawgiver’s portion reserved. He came with the heads of the people. He executed the righteousness of Yahweh, His ordinances with Israel. 22Of Dan he said, Dan is a lion’s cub that leaps out of Bashan. 23Of Naphtali he said, Naphtali, satisfied with favour, full of the blessing of Yahweh, possess the west and the south. 24Of Asher he said, May Asher be blessed with children. Let him be acceptable to his brothers; let him dip his foot in oil. 25Your bars shall be iron and brass. As your days, so your strength will be. 26There is none like God, Jeshurun, who rides on the heavens for your help, in His excellence on the skies. 27The eternal God is your dwelling place. Underneath are the everlasting arms. He thrusts out the enemy from before you and said ‘Destroy!’ 28Israel shall dwell in safety alone, the fountain of Jacob in a land of grain and new wine. Yes, His heavens drop down dew. 29You are happy, Israel. Who is like you, a people saved by Yahweh, the shield of your help, the sword of your excellence! Your enemies shall submit themselves to you; you shall tread on their high places.
CHAPTER 34 May 16
The Death of Moses
Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, opposite from Jericho. Yahweh showed him all the land of Gilead to Dan, 2and all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah to the hinder sea, 3and the South and the Plain of the valley of Jericho the city of palm trees to Zoar. 4Yahweh said to him, This is the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, saying ‘I will give it to your seed’. I have caused you to see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there. 5So Moses the servant of Yahweh died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of Yahweh. 6He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth Peor, but no man knows of his tomb to this day. 7Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died; his eye was not dim, nor his youth abated. 8The children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; so the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended. 9Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him, and the children of Israel listened to him and did as Yahweh commanded Moses. 10There has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom Yahweh knew face to face, 11in all the signs and the wonders which Yahweh sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land 12and in all the mighty hand and in all the great terror, which Moses worked in the sight of all Israel.