The Bible
Deuteronomy Chapter 1
1These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suf, 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 told all the commandnents to the children of Israel that Yahweh had given to him for them, 4after he had struck Sihon the king of the Amorites who lived in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan who lived in Ashtaroth, at Edrei. 5Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to declare this law, saying, 6"Yahweh our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying, You have lived long enough by this mountain. 7Turn, and make your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all [the places] near there. The Arabah, the hill country, the lowlands, the South, by the seashore, the land of the Canaanites, and in 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 offspring after them."
9I spoke to you at that time, saying, "I cannot bear [responsibility for] you all by myself. 10Yahweh your God has multiplied you, and see, today you are as numerous as the stars of the sky. 11[May] 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 bear your problems, your burdens, and your strife all by myself? 13Take wise men of understanding who are respected among 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 and respected men, and made them heads over you, captains of thousands, captains of hundreds, captains of fifties, 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. 17Don't show partiality in judgment; hear the small and the great alike. Don't be afraid of man, for the judgment is God's. Each case that is too hard for you, bring to me, and I will hear it. 18I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do. 19We traveled from Horeb and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw, by the road 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 is giving to us. 21Look, Yahweh your God has set the land before you. Go up [there], take possession [of it], as Yahweh the God of your fathers has spoken to you. Don't be afraid, nor be dismayed."
22You came near to me, everyone of you, and said, "Let's send men ahead of us, that they may search the land for us, and bring back to us word of the way by which we must go up, and the cities which we'll come to."
23The thing pleased me well. I took twelve of your men, 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 [some] 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 is giving to us."
26Yet you wouldn't go up, but rebelled against Yahweh your God's commandment. 27You murmured in your tents, and said, "Because Yahweh hated us, he has taken us from the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. 28Where are we going to? 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. In addition we have seen the sons of the Anakim there!'"
29Then I said to you, "Don't be terrified. Dont be afraid of them. 30Yahweh your God, who goes before you, he will fight for you, exactly as 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, everywhere you went, until you came to this place."
32Yet in this thing you didn't believe Yahweh your God, 33who went before you on the journey, to seek out a place for you 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, 35"Surely not one of these men of this evil generation will see the good land which I swore to give to your fathers, 36except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He'll see it. I will give the land that he has trodden on to him and to his children, because he has wholly followed Yahweh."
37Also Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, saying, "You also will not enter there. 38Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, will enter there. Encourage him, for he'll cause Israel to inherit it. 39In addition your little ones, whom you said would be captured or killed, your children, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, will enter there. I will give it to them, and they'll possess it. 40But as for you, turn, and make your journey into the wilderness by the road to the Red Sea."
41Then you answered and said to me, "We have sinned against Yahweh. We will go up and fight, exactly as 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 and don't fight; for I am not with you, otherwise you'll be struck before your enemies.'"
43So I spoke to you, and you didn't listen; but you rebelled against Yahweh's commandment and were presumptuous and went up into the hill country. 44The Amorites, who lived in that hill country, came out against you and pursued 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 turn his ear to you. 46So [that's why] you stayed in Kadesh for so many days.
Deuteronomy Chapter 2
1Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the road to the Red Sea, as Yahweh told me; and we went round Mount Seir for many days.
2Yahweh spoke to me, saying, 3"You have gone round this mountain long enough. Turn north. 4Command the people, saying, 'You are to pass through the border of your brothers, the children of Esau, who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. Therefore be careful. 5Don't contend with them; for I will not give you any 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. 6Purchase food from them for money, that you may eat. Also buy water from them for money, that you may drink.'"
7For Yahweh your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has known your walking through this great wilderness. These forty years, Yahweh your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.
8So we passed by from our brothers, the children of Esau, who live 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 any of his land for a possession, because I have given Ar to the children of Lot for a possession."
10(The Emim lived there in the past, a great and numerous people, tall like the Anakim. 11They are also considered to be Rephaim, like the Anakim; but the Moabites call them Emim. 12The Horites also lived in Seir in the past, but the children of Esau succeeded them. 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.)
13"Now 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 among the camp, as Yahweh swore to them. 15Also Yahweh's hand was against them, to destroy them from among the camp, until they were consumed. 16So, when all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people, 17Yahweh spoke to me, saying, 18"Today, you should pass over Ar, the border of Moab. 19When you come near the border of the children of Ammon, don't bother them, nor contend with them; for I will not give you any of the land of the children of Ammon for a possession, because I have given it to the children of Lot for a possession."
20(That also is considered a land of Rephaim. Rephaim lived there in the past, but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim, 21a great and numerous people, tall like the Anakim; but Yahweh destroyed them before them. They dispossessed them, and lived in their place, 22as he did for the children of Esau who live in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites from before them; and they succeeded them, and lived in their place even to this day. 23Then the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza: the Caphtorim, who came out of Caphtor, destroyed them and lived in their place.)
24"Rise 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. 25Today I will 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 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, 27"Let me pass through your land. I will go along by the highway. I will turn neither to the right hand nor to the left. 28Sell me food for money, that I may eat; and give me water for money, that I may drink. Just let me pass through on my feet, 29as the children of Esau who live in Seir, and the Moabites who live in Ar, did to me, until I cross the Jordan into the land which Yahweh our God is giving 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 it is today.
31Yahweh said to me, "See, 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, 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 no one remaining. 35Only the livestock we took as plunder for ourselves, with the plunder 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, even 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 banks of the river Jabbok, and the cities of the hill country, and wherever Yahweh our God forbade us.
Deuteronomy Chapter 3
1Then we turned, and went up the way to Bashan. Og 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, with all his people and his land, into your hand. Do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon."
3So Yahweh our God also delivered into our hand Og king of Bashan, and all his people. We struck him until no one was left to him remaining. 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 cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, in addition to a great many villages without walls. 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 plunder of the cities, we took as plunder for 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.) 10[We took] all the cities of the plain, and 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. Look, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron. Isn't it in Rabbah of the children of Ammon? It was nine cubit long, and four cubits wide, according to the cubit of a man.) 12We took possession of this land at that time: from Aroer, which is by the valley of the Arnon, and half the hill country of Gilead with its cities. I gave [it] 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, even all Bashan (which 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 even to the valley of the Arnon, the middle of the valley, and its border, even to the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon; 17also the Arabah, 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. All of you men of valor will pass over armed before your brothers, the children of Israel. 19But your wives, and your little ones, and your livestock, (I know that you have a lot of livestock), will live in your cities that I've 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'll each return to your own 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. Yahweh will do the same to all the kingdoms into which you are [about] to enter. 22Don't fear them; for Yahweh your God himself fights for you."
23I begged Yahweh at that time, saying, 24"LordOfMine Yahweh, you have begun to show your servant your greatness, and your strong hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth that can do works like yours, and mighty acts like yours? 25Please let me go over and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, that fine mountain, and Lebanon."
26But Yahweh was angry with me because of you, and didn't listen to me. Yahweh said to me, "That's enough. Don't speak to me again about this matter. 27Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift your eyes to the west, north, south, and east, and see [it] with your [own] eyes; but you will not be going over this Jordan. 28Commission Joshua, encourage him, and strengthen him. He will go over before this people, and he'll cause them to inherit the land which you'll see." 29So we stayed in the valley near Beth Peor.
Deuteronomy Chapter 4
1Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and to the ordinances which I teach you, to do them, that you may live and go in and possess the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, is giving you. 2Don't add to the word which I command you, nor take away from it, so that you keep Yahweh your God's commandments which I command you. 3Your eyes have seen what Yahweh did because of Baal Peor; for Yahweh your God has destroyed all the men who followed Baal Peor from among you. 4But all of you who were faithful to Yahweh your God are alive today. 5Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, even as Yahweh my God commanded me, that you should do so in the middle of the land which you are entering to possess. 6So, keep [them] and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will 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 today?
9Only be careful, and diligently keep your soul, otherwise you'll forget the things which your eyes have seen, and they'll depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children- 10that day when you stood before Yahweh your God in Horeb, and Yahweh said to me, "Assemble the people to me, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children." 11You came near and stood at the base of the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire to the heart of the sky, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness. 12Yahweh spoke to you from the middle of the fire. You heard a voice [speak] words, but you saw no form, [there was only] a voice. 13He declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even the ten commandments. He wrote them on two stone tablets. 14Yahweh commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances, that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it. 15Be very careful, for you saw no kind of form on the day that Yahweh spoke to you in Horeb from the middle of the fire, 16otherwise you'll corrupt yourselves, and make yourself a carved 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 below the land; 19and in case you lift up your eyes to the sky, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the army of the sky, you are drawn away and worship them, and serve those which Yahweh your God has given to all the peoples under the whole sky. 20But Yahweh has taken you, and brought you [here] out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be to him a people of inheritance, as it is today. 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 is giving you for an inheritance. 22I will die in this land. I can't go over the Jordan, but you'll go over and possess that good land. 23Be careful, otherwise you'll forget Yahweh your God's covenant, which he made with you, and make yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which Yahweh your God has forbidden you. 24For Yahweh your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God. 25When you father children and children's children, and you have been in the land [for a] long [time], and then corrupt yourselves, and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do what is evil in Yahweh your God's sight to provoke him to anger; 26I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from off the land which you are going over the Jordan to possess; you won't prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where Yahweh will lead you away. 28There you will serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which don't see, or hear, or eat, or smell. 29But from there you will seek Yahweh your God, and you will find [him] if you search [for him] with all your heart and all your soul. 30When you are in oppression, and all these things have come on you, in the latter days you will return to Yahweh your God and listen to his voice. 31For Yahweh your God is a merciful God. He will not fail you or destroy you, or forget the covenant which he swore to your fathers. 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] as great as this, or has [anything] been heard of like it? 33Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of a fire, as you have heard, and [still] live? 34Or has God tried to go and take a nation for himself from among [another] nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, exactly as Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt [right] before your eyes? 35It was shown to you so that you might know that Yahweh is God. There is no one else besides him. 36Out of heaven he made you hear his voice, that he might instruct you. On earth he made you see his great fire; and you heard his words from the middle of the fire. 37Because he loved your fathers, therefore he chose their offspring 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 it is today. 39Know therefore today, and take it to heart, that Yahweh himself is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no one else. 40Keep his statutes and his commandments which I command you today, 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 is giving you for all time.
41Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise, 42so a manslayer might flee there, [someone] who's killed his neighbor unintentionally and didn't hate him before then. [So that by] fleeing to one of these cities he might live: 43Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, for the Reubenites; and 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, and the statutes, and the ordinances which Moses spoke to the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt, 46beyond the Jordan, in the valley opposite 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 out of Egypt. 47They took possession of his land 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, as far as Mount Zion (also called Hermon), 49and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan eastward, even to the sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.
Deuteronomy Chapter 5
1Moses called to all Israel, and said to them, Hear, Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I speak in your ears today, that you may learn them, and keep them, and do them. 2Yahweh our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3Yahweh didn't make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, [yes] us, who [are] all of us alive here today. 4Yahweh spoke with you face to face on the mountain from the middle of the fire, 5(I stood between Yahweh and you at that time, to show you Yahweh's word; for you were afraid because of the fire, and didn't go up onto the mountain) saying, 6"I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
7"Don't have any other gods before me.
8"Don't make a carved image for yourself- any likeness [of] what is in the sky above, or what is on the earth below, or what is in the water below the land. 9Don't bow down to them, or serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the iniquity of the fathers to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me 10and showing loving kindness to thousands [of generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments.
11"Don't carry the name of Yahweh your God emptily, for Yahweh will not clear the one who carries his name emptily.
12"Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as Yahweh your God commanded you. 13Work for six days, and do your job; 14but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God, on which you mustn't do any work- not you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, your ox, your donkey, not 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. 15Remember 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.
16"Honor 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 is giving you.
17"Don't murder.
18"Don't commit adultery.
19"Don't steal.
20"Don't give empty testimony against your neighbor.
21"Don't covet your neighbor's wife. Don't desire your neighbor's house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's."
22Yahweh spoke these words to all your assembly on the mountain from the middle of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice. He added no more. He wrote them on two stone tablets, and gave them to me. 23When you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, even 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 from the middle of the fire. We have seen today that God does speak with man, [and yet] he lives. 25Now what? Why should we die? This great fire will consume us! We'll die if we hear Yahweh our God's voice any more. 26For who is there of all flesh that has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the middle of the fire, as we have, and lived? 27Go near, and hear all that Yahweh our God will say, and tell us all that Yahweh our God tells you; and we will listen to it, and do it."
28Yahweh heard the sound of your words when you spoke to me; and Yahweh said to me, "I have heard the sound of the words of this people which they have said to you. All that they have said is well 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!
30"Go [and] 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 must teach them, that they may do them in the land that I am giving them to possess."
32So observe to do as Yahweh your God has commanded you, don't turn aside to the right hand or to the left. 33Walk in all the way which Yahweh your God has commanded you, so you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you'll possess.
Deuteronomy Chapter 6
1Now 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 that you go over to possess; 2that you might fear Yahweh your God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you- 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, that it may be well with you, and that you may increase mightily, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised to you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
4Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one. 5Love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. 6These words, which I command you today, will be on your heart; 7and you will teach them diligently to your children, and will talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk on the road, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8Bind them for a sign on your hand, and they'll be for symbols between your eyes. 9Write 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 Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you, great and fine cities which you didn't build, 11houses full of all good things which you didn't fill, cisterns dug out which you didn't dig, vineyards and olive trees which you didn't plant, and you'll eat and be full; 12then beware lest you forget Yahweh, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 13Fear Yahweh your God, serve him, and swear by his name. 14Don't go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who are around you, 15for Yahweh your God among you is a jealous God, for fear that Yahweh your God's anger be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth. 16Don't tempt Yahweh your God, as you tempted him in Massah. 17Diligently keep Yahweh your God's commandments, his testimonies, and his statutes, which he has commanded you. 18Do what is right and good in Yahweh's sight, so that it may be well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land which Yahweh swore to [give] your fathers, 19to thrust out all your enemies from before you, as Yahweh has said.
20When your son asks you in time to come, saying, "What do the testimonies, the statutes, and the ordinances mean which Yahweh our God has commanded you?" 21then tell your son, "We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. 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 [very] eyes; 23and he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he swore [to give] 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 we are today. 25It will be righteousness to us, if we observe to do all these commandments before Yahweh our God, as he has commanded us."
Deuteronomy Chapter 7
1When Yahweh your God brings you into the land where you go to possess it, and throws 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 strike them, then you must utterly destroy them. Don't make any covenant with them, or show mercy to them. 3Don't intermarry with them. Don't give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. 4For that would turn away your son from following me, that they may serve other gods. So Yahweh's anger would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. 5But you are to deal with them like this: break down their altars, dash their pillars in pieces, cut down their Asherah 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 [the] peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7Yahweh didn't set his love on you or 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 desires to keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, Yahweh has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9Know therefore that Yahweh your God himself is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness to a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments, 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. 11Therefore, keep the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances which I command you today, to do them. 12Because you listen to these ordinances and keep [them] and do them, that Yahweh your God will keep with you the covenant and the loving kindness which he swore to your fathers. 13He will love you, 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 young 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 won't be male or female barren among you, or among your livestock. 15Yahweh will take all sickness away from you; and he will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt on you, which you know, but will lay them on all those who hate [you]. 16Consume all the peoples whom Yahweh your God delivers to you. Your eye must not pity them. Don't serve their gods; for that would be a snare to you. 17If you say in your heart, "These nations are more than I [am]; how can I dispossess [them]?" 18Don't be afraid of them. Remember well what Yahweh your God did to Pharaoh, and to all Egypt: 19the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which Yahweh your God brought you out. So Yahweh your God will do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. 20Furthermore Yahweh your God will send hornets among them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you, perish. 21Don't be scared of them; for Yahweh your God is among you, a great and awesome God. 22Yahweh your God will throw out those nations before you little by little. You may not consume them [all] at once, otherwise the [wild] animals of the field might grow [too many for 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 will make their name perish from under the sky. No one will be able to stand before you until you have destroyed them. 25Burn the engraved images of their gods with fire. Don't covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourself, lest you be snared in it; for it is an abomination to Yahweh your God. 26Don't bring an abomination into your house and become a devoted thing like it. Utterly detest it. Utterly abhor it; for it is a devoted thing.
Deuteronomy Chapter 8
1Observe to do all the commandments which I command you today, that you may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers. 2Remember the whole journey which Yahweh your God led you these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you, to test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3He humbled you, allowed you to be hungry, fed you with manna, which you didn't know, neither did your fathers know, to make you know that man does not live only by bread, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of Yahweh's mouth. 4For forty years your clothing didn't grow old on you, nor did your foot swell. 5Consider in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so Yahweh your God disciplines you. 6Keep Yahweh your God's commandments. Walk in his ways, and fear him. 7For Yahweh your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of springs, and underground water flowing into valleys and hills; 8a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive trees and honey; 9a land where you'll eat bread without scarcity, you won't lack anything in it; a land where stones are iron, and where you can dig copper out of the hills. 10You'll eat and be full, and you'll bless Yahweh your God for the good land which he has given you.
11Be careful not to forget Yahweh your God, by not keeping his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I command you today; 12otherwise, when you have eaten and are full, and have built fine houses and lived in them; 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 might be lifted up, and you forget Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; 15who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, [with] seraphim serpents and scorpions, and thirsty ground where there was no water; who brought water for you 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 [otherwise you might] say in your heart, "My power and the might of my hand has obtained this wealth for me." 18But you are to 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 it is today.
19If you forget Yahweh your God, and walk after other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today you will surely perish. 20In the way that Yahweh makes the nations perish before you, you would perish, because you wouldn't listen to Yahweh your God's voice.
Deuteronomy Chapter 9
1Listen, Israel! You are crossing over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, great cities fortified up to the sky, 2a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim. [They are] known to you, and you have heard [said about them], "Who can stand before the sons of Anak?" 3Know therefore today that it is Yahweh your God who is going over before you as a devouring fire. He will destroy them and he will bring them down before you. You'll drive them out and make them perish quickly, as Yahweh has told 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. 5You are not going in to possess their land because of your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart. It is because of the wickedness of these nations that Yahweh your God is driving them out from before you. And that he may establish the word which Yahweh 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 for your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people. 7Remember, and don't forget, how you provoked Yahweh your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you left the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against Yahweh. 8Also in Horeb you provoked Yahweh to wrath, and Yahweh was angry with you [even enough] to destroy you. 9When I had gone up onto the mountain to receive the stone tablets, even 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 stone tablets written with God's finger. All the words which Yahweh told you on the mountain from the middle of the fire in the day of the assembly [are written] on them.
11It happened at the end of forty days and forty nights that Yahweh gave me the two stone tablets, 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 away from what I commanded them. They have made a cast-metal image for themselves!"
13Furthermore Yahweh spoke to me, saying, "I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 14Leave me alone, that I may destroy them, and wipe 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. The two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16I looked, and see, you had sinned against Yahweh your God. You had made yourselves a cast-metal calf. You had quickly turned away from what Yahweh had commanded you. 17I took hold of the two tablets, and threw 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 what was evil in Yahweh's sight, to provoke him to anger. 19For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure Yahweh was angry against you, [enough fury] to destroy you. But Yahweh listened to me that time as well. 20Yahweh was angry [enough] with Aaron to destroy him. I also prayed for Aaron at the same time. 21I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire, and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust. I threw its dust into the brook that descended from the mountain. 22At Taberah, 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", you rebelled against Yahweh your God's commandment, and you didn't believe him or listen to his voice. 24You have been rebellious against Yahweh from the day that I knew you. 25So for the forty days and forty nights that I fell down, I fell down before Yahweh, because Yahweh had said he would destroy you. 26I prayed to Yahweh, and said, "LordOfMine 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, or at their wickedness, or at their sin, 28otherwise [those of] the land you brought us out from [might] 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."
Deuteronomy Chapter 10
1At that time Yahweh said to me, "Cut two stone tablets 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 are to put them in the ark." 3So I made an ark of acacia wood, and cut two stone tablets like the first, and went up onto the mountain, having the two tablets in my hand. 4He wrote on the tablets, like the first writing, the ten commandments, which Yahweh spoke to you on the mountain from the middle 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 in the ark which I had made; and [they are] there [just] as Yahweh commanded me.
6(The children of Israel traveled from Beeroth Bene Jaakan to Moserah. Aaron died there, and there he was buried. Eleazar his son ministered in the priest's office in his place. 7From there they traveled to Gudgodah; and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with brooks of water. 8At that time Yahweh set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of Yahweh's covenant, 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, just as Yahweh your God told him.)
10I stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights; and Yahweh listened to me that time as well. Yahweh would not destroy you. 11Yahweh said to me, "Arise, take your journey before the people; and they will go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give to them."
12Now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God require of you, but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, and to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and all your soul, 13to keep Yahweh's commandments and statutes, which I command you today for your good? 14Look, heaven, the heaven of heavens, and the earth with all that is in it, belong to Yahweh your God. 15Only Yahweh had a delight in your fathers to love them, and he chose their offspring after them, [that's] you above all peoples, as it is today. 16Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and don't be stiff-necked any longer. 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 or take bribes. 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. 20Fear Yahweh your God. Serve him. Cling to him, and 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 people; and now Yahweh your God has made you as the stars of the sky for multitude.
Deuteronomy Chapter 11
1[So,] 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 Yahweh your God's chastisement, his greatness, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm, 3his signs, and his works, which he did in the middle 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 to overflow them as they pursued 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, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the middle of all Israel; 7but your eyes have seen all of Yahweh's great work which he did.
8Therefore, keep the entire commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land that you are going over to possess; 9and that you may prolong your days in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10For the land, where you go in to possess isn't like the land of Egypt that you came from, where you sowed your seed and watered [it with your] foot, like a garden of vegetables; 11but the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys [which] drinks water from the rain of the sky, 12a land which Yahweh your God cares for. Yahweh your God's eyes are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. 13If you'll listen diligently to my commandments which I command you today, to love Yahweh your God, and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul, 14I will give rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. 15I will give plants in your fields for your livestock, and you'll eat and be full. 16Be careful, that your heart is not deceived, and you turn away to serve other gods and worship them; 17and Yahweh's anger is kindled against you, and he shut up the sky so that there is no rain, and the land doesn't yield its fruit; and you perish quickly from off the good land which Yahweh is giving you. 18Therefore, store these words of mine in your heart and in your soul. Bind them for a sign on your hand, and they'll be for symbols between your eyes. 19Teach them to your children, talking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk along the road, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. 20Write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates; 21so your days and your children's days may be multiplied in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens above the earth. 22For if you 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 cling to him- 23then Yahweh will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves. 24Every place which the sole of your foot treads on [will be yours]: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as the western sea will 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 tread on, as he has spoken to you. 26Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: 27the blessing, if you listen to Yahweh your God's commandments, which I command you today; 28and the curse, if you won't listen to Yahweh your God's commandments, but turn away from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known. 29When Yahweh your God brings you into the land which you are entering to possess, you'll 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 live in the Arabah near Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh? 31For you are to cross the Jordan to go in to possess the land which Yahweh your God is giving you, and you will possess it and live there. 32Observe to do all the statutes and the ordinances which I set before you today.
Deuteronomy Chapter 12
1These are the statutes and the ordinances which you must 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 utterly destroy all the places in which the nations you'll dispossess served their gods: on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree. 3Bbreak down their altars, dash their pillars in pieces, and burn their Asherah poles with fire. Cut down the engraved images of their gods. Destroy their name from that place. 4Don't do this to Yahweh your God; 5But to the place where Yahweh your God chooses out of all your tribes to put his name, seek his habitation, and you will come there. 6Bring 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 there. 7You and your households eat there before Yahweh your God, and rejoice in all that you put your hand to, in which Yahweh your God has blessed you. 8Don't do all the things that we do here today, every man whatever is right in his own eyes; 9for you haven't yet come into the rest and into the inheritance which Yahweh your God is giving you. 10But when you go over the Jordan and live 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 live in safety, 11then bring all that I command you to the place where Yahweh your God chooses to cause his name to reside: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which you vow to Yahweh. 12Rejoice before Yahweh your God- you, your sons, your daughters, your male servants, and your female servants; and the Levite who is within your gates, because he has no portion or inheritance with you. 13Be careful that you don't offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; 14but in the place which Yahweh chooses in one of your tribes, offer your burnt offerings there, and do all that I command there.
15Yet you may kill and eat flesh within all your gates, after all the desire of your soul, according to Yahweh your God's blessing which he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and the deer. 16Only don't eat the blood. Pour it out on the ground like water. 17You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain, or of your new wine, or of your 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 eat them before Yahweh your God in the place which Yahweh your God chooses: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates. Rejoice before Yahweh your God in all that you put your hand to. 19Be careful that you don't forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.
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, as much as your soul desires. 21If the place which Yahweh your God chooses to put his name is too far from you, then kill from your herd and from 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. 22Eat it like the gazelle and the deer is eaten. The unclean and the clean alike may eat it. 23Only be sure that you don't eat the blood; for the blood is the life. Don't eat the life with the flesh. 24Don't eat it. Pour it out on the earth like water. 25Don't eat it. So that it goes well with you and with your children after you, when you do what is right in Yahweh's eyes. 26Only take your holy things which you have, and your vows, and go to the place which Yahweh chooses: 27Offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on Yahweh your God's altar. Pour out the blood of your sacrifices on Yahweh your God's altar, and 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 what is good and right in Yahweh your God's eyes.
29When Yahweh your God cuts off the nations from before you where you go in to dispossess them, and you dispossess them and live in their land, 30be careful that you don't [become] ensnared [to follow their ways] after they are destroyed from before you, and that you don't inquire after their gods, saying, "How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise." 31Don't do that to Yahweh your God. They have done for their gods all the abominations which Yahweh hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. 32Observe to do whatever I command you. Don't add to it, or take away from it.
Deuteronomy Chapter 13
1If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you, 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's go after other gods" (which you have not known) "and let's serve them," 3don't listen to the words of that prophet, or to that dreamer of dreams; for Yahweh your God is testing you, to know whether you love Yahweh your God with all your heart and all your soul. 4Walk after Yahweh your God, fear him, keep his commandments, and obey his voice. Serve him, and cling 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 slavery, to turn you aside from the way which Yahweh your God commanded you to walk in. Remove the evil from among 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's 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 from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth- 8don't consent to him or listen to him, or let your eye pity him. Do not spare, or conceal him; 9but you must surely kill him. Your hand will be first on him to put him to death, and afterwards the hands of all the people. 10Stone 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 slavery. 11All Israel will hear, and fear, and mustn't do any more wickedness like this among you.
12If you hear about one of your cities, which Yahweh your God is giving you to live in, that 13certain wicked fellows have gone out from among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, "Let's go and serve other gods," which you have not known, 14then inquire, investigate, and ask diligently. Look, if it is true, [and you're] certain that the abomination was done among [you], 15surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword. Destroy it utterly, with all that is in it and its livestock, with the edge of the sword. 16Gather all its plunder into the middle of its street, and burn with fire the city, with all of its plunder, to Yahweh your God. It is to be a heap forever. It won't be built again. 17Don't let anything from the devoted thing remain in your hand, so 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 Yahweh your God's voice, to keep all his commandments which I command you today, to do what is right in Yahweh your God's eyes.
Deuteronomy Chapter 14
1You are Yahweh your God's children. Don't cut yourselves, or 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.
3Don't eat any abominable thing. 4These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, 5the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the chamois. 6Every animal that parts the hoof, and has the hoof split in two [and] chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat. 7Nevertheless these don't eat of them that chew the cud, or of those who have a split hoof: the camel, the hare, and the rabbit. Because they chew the cud but don't part the hoof, they are unclean to you. 8The pig, because it has a split hoof but doesn't chew the cud, is unclean to you. Don't eat their flesh, and don't touch their carcasses. 9These you may eat of all that are in the waters: you may eat whatever has fins and scales. 10Don't eat whatever doesn't have fins and scales. It is unclean to you. 11You may eat any clean birds. 12But these are the ones you mustn't eat: the eagle, the vulture, the osprey, 13the red kite, the falcon, [and various] kinds of kite, 14every raven of any kind, 15the ostrich, the owl, the seagull, the hawk of any kind, 16the little owl, the great owl, the horned owl, 17the pelican, the vulture, the cormorant, 18the stork, the heron of any kind, the hoopoe, and the bat. 19All winged creeping things are unclean to you. They mustn't be eaten. 20You may eat any clean birds.
21Don't eat from anything that dies of itself; you may give it to the foreigner living among you who is within your gates, for him to eat; or you may sell it to a foreigner; for you are a holy people to Yahweh your God. Don't boil a young goat in its mother's milk.
22You must surely tithe all the produce of your seed, what comes out of the field year by year. 23Eat the tithe of your grain, your new wine, and your oil, the firstborn of your herd and of your flock before Yahweh your God. [Eat them] in the place that he chooses to cause his name to reside. So you may learn to always fear Yahweh your God. 24If the road is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry it, because the place which Yahweh your God has chosen, to set his name there, is too far [away] from you, when Yahweh your God blesses [you]; 25then turn it into money, bind up the money in your hand, and go to the place which Yahweh your God chooses. 26Trade the money for whatever your soul desires: for cattle, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatever your soul asks of you. You and your household eat there before Yahweh your God, and rejoice. 27Don't forsake the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no portion or inheritance with you. 28At the end of every three years bring all the tithe of your produce in the same year, and store it within your gates. 29The Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the foreigner living among you, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your gates, are to come, eat and be satisfied. Because Yahweh your God [may then] bless you in all the work of your hand that you do.
Deuteronomy Chapter 15
1At the end of every seven years, you are to cancel debts. 2Do it this way: every creditor is to release what he has lent to his neighbor. He mustn't force [payment from] his neighbor and his brother, because Yahweh's release has been proclaimed. 3You may force [payment from] a foreigner; but whatever of yours is with your brother, your hand is to release. 4However there are to be no poor with you (for Yahweh will surely bless you in the land which Yahweh your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess) 5if only you diligently listen to Yahweh your God's voice, to observe to do all these commandments which I command you today. 6For Yahweh your God will bless you, as he promised you. You will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow. You will rule over many nations, but they won't 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 is giving you, don't harden your heart, or close your hand from your poor brother; 8but you must surely open your hand to him, and surely lend him sufficient for his needs, whatever he lacks. 9Beware that there isn't a worthless thought in your heart, saying, "The seventh year (the year of release) is near;" and your eye becomes evil against your poor brother, and you give him nothing. Then he cries out to Yahweh against you, and it be sin to you. 10You must surely give, and your heart must not be grieved when you give to him, because it is for this that 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." 12If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you for six years, then in the seventh year you must let him go free from you. 13When you let him go free from you, don't let him go empty-handed. 14Furnish him liberally from your flock, from your threshing floor, and out of your winepress. [In the same way that] Yahweh your God has blessed you, you are to give. 15Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you. Therefore I command you this thing today. 16If he tells you, "I will not leave you", because he loves you and your house, since he is [doing] well with you, 17then take an awl, and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he'll be your servant forever. Do the same to your female servant as well. 18It mustn't seem hard to you when you let him go free from you, for he has been double the value of a hired hand as he served you for six years. Yahweh your God will bless you in all that you do. 19Dedicate to Yahweh your God all the firstborn males that are born to your herd and your flock. Do no work with the firstborn of your herd. Don't shear the firstborn of your flock. 20You and your household are to eat it before Yahweh your God year by year in the place which Yahweh chooses. 21If it has any blemish, [if it is] lame or blind, or has any blemish whatever, don't sacrifice it to Yahweh your God. 22Eat it within your gates. The unclean and the clean [are to eat it] alike, like the gazelle and the deer. 23Only don't eat its blood. You must pour it out on the ground like water.
Deuteronomy Chapter 16
1Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to Yahweh your God; for in the month of Abib Yahweh your God brought you from Egypt by night. 2Sacrifice the Passover to Yahweh your God, from the flock and the herd, in the place where Yahweh chooses to cause his name to reside. 3Eat no leavened bread with it. Eat unleavened bread with it for seven days, the bread of affliction (for you came here from the land of Egypt in haste). So that you'll remember all the days of your life the day when you came from the land of Egypt. 4Let no yeast be seen with you in all your borders for seven days. Let none of the flesh, which you sacrifice on the first day in the evening, remain all night until the morning. 5You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates which Yahweh your God is giving you; 6but in the place where Yahweh your God chooses to cause his name to reside, sacrifice the Passover in the evening, at the going down of the sun, at the [same] season that you came from Egypt. 7Roast and eat it in the place which Yahweh your God chooses. Return to your tents in the morning. 8For six days eat unleavened bread. The seventh day is to be a solemn assembly to Yahweh your God. Do no work [on it].
9Count seven weeks for yourselves. Begin to count seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. 10Keep the feast of weeks to Yahweh your God with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, which you are to give according to how Yahweh your God blesses you. 11Rejoice before Yahweh your God: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, in the place where Yahweh your God chooses to cause his name to reside. 12Remember that you were a slave in Egypt. Observe and do these statutes.
13You are to keep the feast of temporary-shelters for seven days, after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and from your winepress. 14Rejoice in your feast, you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your gates. 15Keep a feast to Yahweh your God for seven days in the place which Yahweh chooses, because Yahweh your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, and you are to be altogether joyful. 16All of your males must appear before Yahweh your God three times a year in the place which he chooses. In the feast of unleavened bread, in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of temporary-shelters. They must not appear before Yahweh empty-handed. 17Every man is to give as he is able, according to Yahweh your God's blessing which he has given you. 18Make judges and officers in all your gates, which Yahweh your God is giving you, according to your tribes; and they'll judge the people with righteous judgment. 19Don't pervert justice. Don't show partiality. Don't take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous. 20Pursue what is altogether just, that you may live and inherit the land which Yahweh your God is giving you. 21Don't plant for yourselves an Asherah from any kind of tree beside Yahweh your God' altar, which you make for yourselves. 22Don't set yourself up a [sacred] pillar which Yahweh your God hates.
Deuteronomy Chapter 17
1Don't sacrifice to Yahweh your God an ox or a sheep which has a defect [or] anything evil; for that is an abomination to Yahweh your God.
2If there is found among you, within any of your gates which Yahweh your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in Yahweh your God's sight in transgressing his covenant, 3and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun, or the moon, or any of the army of the sky, which I have not commanded, 4and you are told, and you have heard of it, then you are to diligently inquire [into it]. Look, if it is true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is [indeed] done in Israel, 5then bring out that man or woman who has done this evil thing to your gates, that same man or woman; and you are to stone them to death with stones. 6[Only] at the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, is the one who is to die to be put to death. At the mouth of [only] one witness they must not be put to death. 7The witnesses' hands are to be first to put to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you will remove the evil from among you.
8If a matter arises too hard for you to judge. Between blood and blood, between plea and plea, or between stroke and stroke. Matters of controversy within your gates, then arise, and go up to the place which Yahweh your God chooses. 9Come to the priests who are Levites or to the judge [in office] at that time. Inquire, and they will give you the verdict. 10Do all the actions of the verdict which they tell you from that place which Yahweh chooses. Be careful to do everything that they teach you. 11You are to do everything just as the decisions of the law which they teach you, and the judgment which they tell you. Don't turn away from the sentence which they announce to you, neither to the right or to the left. 12The man who acts presumptuously, in not listening to the priest who stands to minister there before Yahweh your God or to the judge, that man is to die. Purge the evil from Israel. 13All the people must hear and fear, and not act presumptuously again.
14When you've come to the land which Yahweh your God is giving you, and possess it and live in it, and say, "I will appoint a king over me, like all the nations that are around me," 15surely set a king over yourselves whom Yahweh your God has chosen. Set one from among your brothers as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. 16Only he mustn't multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, in order to multiply horses; because Yahweh has said to you, "Don't go back that way again." 17He must'nt multiply wives for himself, or else his heart would turn away. He must'nt greatly multiply silver and gold for himself.
18When it comes about that he sits on the throne of his kingdom he is to write a copy of this law in a book, from [what is] before the priests, the Levites. 19It is to be with him, and he will read [from] it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear Yahweh his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them; 20that his heart not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he not turn away from the commandment to the right hand, or to the left, to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, among Israel.
Deuteronomy Chapter 18
1The priests and the Levites, the whole tribe of Levi, are to have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They will eat Yahweh's offerings made by fire and his portion. 2They are to have no inheritance among their brothers. Yahweh is their inheritance, as he has told them. 3This will be the priests' due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it is an ox or a sheep, they are to give the shoulder, the two cheeks, and the stomach to the priest. 4Give him the first fruits of your grain, your new wine, and your oil, and the first of the fleece from your sheep. 5For Yahweh your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand to minister in Yahweh's name, him and his sons forever.
6If a Levite comes from any of your gates out of all Israel where he lives, and comes with all the desire of his soul to the place which Yahweh chooses; 7then he is to minister in the name of Yahweh his God, as all his brothers the Levites do, who stand there before Yahweh. 8They'll have similar portions to eat, in addition to what comes from the sale of his family possessions.
9When you have entered the land which Yahweh your God is giving you, you must not learn to imitate the abominations of those nations. 10No one must be found with you who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or who uses divination, or who tells fortunes, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer, 11or a charmer, or someone who consults with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer. 12For whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh. Because of these abominations, Yahweh your God drives them out from before you. 13You are to be blameless with Yahweh your God. 14For these nations that you dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery and to diviners; but as for you, Yahweh your God has not allowed you to do so. 15Yahweh your God will raise up for you a prophet from among you, from your brothers, [just] like me. Listen to him. 16This is exactly as you desired from Yahweh your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, "Don't let me hear Yahweh my God's voice again, or let me see this great fire any more, so that I don't die."
17Yahweh said to me, "They have well said what they have spoken. 18I will raise up a prophet for them from among their brothers, [just] like you. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will speak to them all that I command him. 19Whoever will not listen to my words which he speaks in my name, I [myself] will call [them to account]. 20But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet must die."
21You may say in your heart, "How can we know the word which Yahweh has not spoken?" 22When a prophet speaks in Yahweh's name, if the thing doesn't follow, or happen, it is something which Yahweh has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. Don't be afraid of him.
Deuteronomy Chapter 19
1When Yahweh your God cuts off the nations whose land Yahweh your God is giving you, and you succeed them and live in their cities and in their houses, 2you are to set apart three cities for yourselves in the middle of your land, which Yahweh your God is giving you to possess. 3Prepare the road and divide the borders of your land, which Yahweh your God causes you to inherit, into three parts so every manslayer may have somewhere to flee. 4This is the case of the manslayer who can flee there to live: Whoever kills his neighbor unintentionally, and didn't hate him previously- 5like when a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to chop wood and his hand swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle and hits his neighbor so that he dies- he can flee to one of these cities and live. 6Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue the manslayer, while hot anger is in his heart and overtake him, because the road is long, and strike him mortally, even though he was not worthy of death because he didn't previously hate him. 7Therefore I command you, saying, "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; 9and if you keep all these commandments, which I command you today, and do them: to love Yahweh your God, and to always walk in his ways, then you'll add three more cities for yourselves, in addition to these [first] three. 10[This is so that] innocent blood won't be shed among your land which Yahweh your God is giving you for an inheritance, leaving blood [guilt] on you. 11But if any man hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises up against him, strikes him mortally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities; 12then the elders of his city are to send and get him [from] there, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, so he may die. 13Your eye mustn't pity him, but you must purge the innocent blood from Israel that it may go well with you.
14Don't remove your neighbor's landmark, which they set long ago, in your inheritance which you'll inherit, in the land that Yahweh your God is giving you to possess.
15One witness mustn't rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin that he sins. A matter must be established at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses. 16If an unrighteous witness rises up against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing, 17then both the men, between whom there's a controversy, are to stand before Yahweh, before the priests and the judges [who are in office] at that time; 18and the judges are to make diligent inquiry; and look, if the witness is a false witness, and has testified falsely against his brother, 19then you are to do to him as he had thought to do to his brother. In this way you'll remove the evil from among you. 20Those who remain will hear, and fear, and will never again commit any such evil among you. 21Your eyes must not pity. Life for life. Eye for eye. Tooth for tooth. Hand for hand. Foot for foot.
Deuteronomy Chapter 20
1When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses, chariots, and a people more numerous than you, don't be afraid of them; for Yahweh your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you. 2When you draw near to the battle the priest is to approach and speak to the people, 3and tell them, "Hear, Israel, you draw near today to battle against your enemies. Don't let your heart faint! Don't be afraid, or tremble, or be scared of them [at all]; 4for Yahweh your God is the one who is going with you to fight for you against your enemies, to save you."
5The officers are to speak to the people, saying, "Is there a man who has built a new house, [and not] dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle, and another man dedicate it [instead]. 6Is there a man who has planted a vineyard, and has not used its fruit? Let him go and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle, and another man use its fruit. 7Is there a man who has pledged to be married to a wife, and has not taken her? Let him go and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle, and another man take her." 8The officers are to speak further to the people, and say, "Is there a man who is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return to his house, otherwise his brother's heart might melt like his heart." 9When the officers have finished speaking to the people they are to appoint captains of armies at the head of the people.
10When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace to it. 11And, if it answers you [with] peace and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it will become forced-labourers for you, and serve you. 12If it will not make peace with you, but will make war against you, then you are to besiege it. 13When Yahweh your God delivers it into your hands, strike every male with the edge of the sword; 14but the women, the little ones, the livestock, and all that is in the city, all of its plunder, take as plunder for yourself. You may use the plunder of your enemies, which Yahweh your God has given you. 15Do this to all the cities which are very far away from you, which are not the cities of these nations here. 16But the cities of these peoples that Yahweh your God is giving you for an inheritance, leave nothing that breathes alive; 17but utterly destroy them: the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, [just as] Yahweh your God has commanded you; 18so they don't teach you to follow all their abominations, which they have done for their gods; [making you] sin [against] Yahweh your God. 19When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it to take it, don't destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them; for you may eat from them. Don't cut them down. Is the tree of the field human, [that it should] be besieged? 20Only the trees that you know are not trees for food, you may destroy and cut them down. Build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls.
Deuteronomy Chapter 21
1If someone is found dead lying in a field in the land which Yahweh your God is giving you to possess, and it isn't known who struck him, 2then your elders and your judges are to come out, and measure [the distance] to the cities which are around the one who is dead. 3The city which is nearest to the dead man, [that is] the elders of that city, are to take a heifer from the herd, which hasn't been worked and hasn't pulled in a [team with a] yoke. 4The elders of that city should bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which isn't plowed or sown, and break the heifer's neck there in the valley. 5The priests, the sons of Levi, are to come near, for Yahweh your God has chosen them to minister to him, and to bless in the name of Yahweh. Every controversy and every stroke [will be decided] by their word. 6All the elders of the city that is nearest to the dead man must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. 7They are to answer and say, "Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. 8Yahweh forgive your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and don't allow innocent blood among your people Israel." The blood [guilt] will be forgiven them. 9When you do what is right in Yahweh's eyes you'll purge the innocent blood from among you.
10When you go out 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 are attracted to her, and want to have [her as your] wife, 12then take her home to your house, and have her shave her head and trim her nails. 13She is to take off the clothing of her captivity, and remain in your house, and mourn her father and her mother for a full month. After that you may go in to her, and marry her, and she'll be your wife. 14If you have no delight in her, then you must let her go wherever she wants. Don't [even think about] selling her for money, don't deal with her as a slave, because you have humiliated her.
15If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other hated, and they have borne him children, [both the] loved [one and the] hated, and if the firstborn son [belongs to the] hated, 16then in the day that he causes his sons to inherit what he has, he may not give the son of the beloved the rights of the firstborn before the son of the hated, who is [in fact] the firstborn; 17but he is to 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.
18If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and though they chasten him, will not listen to them, 19then his father and his mother are to take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city and to the gate of his place. 20They are to tell the elders of his city, "This [man,] 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 are to stone him to death with stones. In this way you'll purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear [of it] and be afraid.
22If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23his body must not remain all night on the tree, but you must surely bury him the same day; for he who is hanged is accursed of God. Don't defile your land which Yahweh your God is giving you for an inheritance.
Deuteronomy Chapter 22
1Don't see your brother's ox or his sheep go astray and hide yourself from them. You must surely return them to your brother. 2If your brother isn't near to you, or if you don't know him, then bring it home to your house, and keep it with you until your brother comes looking for it, then restore it to him. 3Do this with his donkey. Do this with his garment. Do this with every lost thing of your brother's, which he has lost and you have found. You may not hide yourself. 4Don't hide yourself from your brother's donkey or his ox you see fallen down on the road. You must surely help him to lift them up again.
5A woman mustn't wear men's clothing, nor may a man put on women's clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh your God.
6If you come across a bird's nest on the road, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the hen sitting on the young, or on the eggs, don't take the hen with the young. 7You must surely let the hen go, but the young you may take for yourself, that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days.
8When you build a new house, make a railing around your roof, so that you don't bring blood [guilt] on your house if anyone falls from there.
9Don't sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, otherwise all the fruit will be defiled, the seed which you have sown, and the produce of the vineyard. 10Don't plow with an ox and a donkey together. 11Don't wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.
12Make yourselves fringes on the four corners of your cloak with which you cover yourself.
13If any man gets a wife, and goes in to her, [but then] hates her, 14accuses her of shameful things, gives her a bad name, and says, "I took this woman, and when I came near to her, I didn't find her [to be a] virgin;" 15then the young lady's father and mother are to go and get [the evidence] of the young lady's virginity and bring [it] to the elders of the city in the gate. 16The young lady's father is to tell the elders, "I gave my daughter to this man as his wife, and he hates her. 17Look, he has accused her of shameful things, saying, 'I didn't find your daughter to be a virgin;' and yet this is the evidence of my daughter's virginity." They are to spread the cloth before the elders of the city. 18The elders of that city are to take the man and chastise him. 19They must fine him one hundred [shekels] of silver, and give them to the father of the young lady, because he has given a bad name to a virgin of Israel. She will be his wife. He may not send her away all his days.
20But if this matter is true, that the evidence of virginity was not found with the young lady, 21then they are to bring out the young lady to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city will stone her to death with stones, because she has done folly in Israel, to play the prostitute in her father's house. This is how you are to purge the evil from among you.
22If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they must both die, the man who lay with the woman and the woman. This is how you are to purge the evil from Israel. 23If there is a young lady who is a virgin pledged to be married to a husband, and a man finds her in the city, and lies with her, 24then bring them both out to the gate of that city, and stone them to death with stones; the lady, because she didn't cry [out], being in the city; and the man, because he has humiliated his neighbor's wife. This is how you are to purge the evil from among you. 25But if the man finds the lady who is pledged to be married in the field, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her is to die; 26but do nothing to the lady. There is no sin worthy of death in the lady. This matter is just the same as when a man rises against his neighbor and kills him; 27for he found her in the field, the pledged to be married lady cried [out], and there was no one to save her. 28If a man finds a lady who is a virgin, who is not pledged to be married, grabs her and lies with her, and they are found, 29then the man who lay with her is to give to the lady's father fifty [shekels] of silver. She will be his wife, because he has humiliated her. He may not send her away all his days. 30A man must not have his father's wife, and must not uncover his father's skirt.
Deuteronomy Chapter 23
1He who is emasculated by crushing or cutting may not enter Yahweh's assembly. 2A person born of a forbidden union may not enter into Yahweh's assembly; even to the tenth generation no one of his [family] may enter into Yahweh's assembly. 3No Ammonite or Moabite may enter into Yahweh's assembly; even to the tenth generation no one belonging to them may ever enter into Yahweh's assembly, 4because they didn't meet you with bread and water on the journey when you left Egypt, and because against you they hired 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 for you, because Yahweh your God loved you. 6Don't seek their peace nor their prosperity all your days forever. 7Don't abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. Don't 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 Yahweh's assembly.
9When you go out and camp against your enemies, keep yourselves from every evil thing. 10If there is among you any man who is not clean by reason of what happens to him by night, then he is to go outside of the camp. He may not come within the camp; 11but when evening comes, he is to bathe himself in water. When the sun is down, he may come within the camp. 12Have a place outside of the camp where you go [to relieve yourself] as well. 13Have a trowel among your weapons. When you relieve yourself, dig with it, and turn and cover your excrement; 14for Yahweh your God walks in the middle of your camp, to deliver you, and to give up your enemies before you. Therefore your camp must be holy, so that he won't see any unclean thing [among you], and turn away [from you].
15Don't deliver to his master a servant who has escaped from his master to you. 16He is to live with you, among you, in the place which he chooses within one of your gates, where it pleases him best. Don't oppress him.
17the daughters of Israel must not be cult-prostitutes, nor may the sons of Israel be cult-prostitutes. 18Don't bring the hire of a prostitute, or the wages of [such] a dog into Yahweh your God's house for any vow; for both of these are an abomination to Yahweh your God.
19Don't lend on interest to your brother: interest of money, interest of food, interest of anything that is lent on interest. 20You may charge a foreigner interest; but you must not charge your brother interest, so that Yahweh your God may bless you in all that you put your hand to, in the land which you are going in to possess.
21When you vow a vow to Yahweh your God, don't be slow to pay it, for Yahweh your God will surely require it from you. It would be sin. 22But it wouldn't be sin if you refrain from making a vow. 23You must observe and do what has gone out of your lips. You must do whatever you have promised with your mouth and vowed as a freewill offering to Yahweh your God. 24When you enter your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes until you are full; but don't put any in your container. 25When you enter your neighbor's standing grain, then you may pluck the ears with your hand; but don't use a sickle on your neighbor's standing grain.
Deuteronomy Chapter 24
1When a man gets a wife and marries her, then if she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, he is to write her a certificate of divorce, put it in her hand, and send her out of his house. 2When she has left his house, she may go and be another man's [wife]. 3If the latter husband hates her, and writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house; or if the latter husband dies, who took her to be his wife; 4her former husband, who sent her away, may not have her again to be his wife after she was defiled; for that would be an abomination to Yahweh. Don't cause the land to sin, which Yahweh your God is giving you for an inheritance. 5When a man gets a new wife, he is not to go out with the army, nor should he be assigned any duty. He is to be free at home for one year, and rejoice with the wife he's taken.
6No one may take a mill or upper millstone as a pledge, for that would be taking a life as a pledge.
7If a man is found stealing any of his brothers of the children of Israel, and he treats him as a slave, or sells him, then that thief must die. In this way you'll remove the evil from among you.
8Be careful with the plague of leprosy. Diligently keep and do all that the Levitical priests teach you. You must observe to do just as I commanded them. 9Remember what Yahweh your God did to Miriam, on the journey as you came from Egypt.
10When you lend your neighbor any kind of loan, don't go into his house to get his pledge. 11Stand outside, and the man you are lending to will bring the pledge out to you. 12If he is a poor man, don't 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. It is righteousness before Yahweh your God.
14Don't oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the foreigners who are in your land within your gates. 15Pay him his wages [on the same] day before the sun goes down, for he is poor and sets his heart on it, otherwise he might cry against you to Yahweh, and [it would be] sin [for you].
16Fathers must not be put to death [for their] children, nor children put to death [for their] fathers. Every man is to be put to death for his own sin.
17Don't deprive a foreigner or fatherless of justice, or take a widow's clothing in pledge; 18but remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed [you from] there. Therefore I command you to do this.
19When you reap your harvest in your field, and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, don't go back to get it. [Leave it 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, don't go over the boughs again. It's for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow.
21When you harvest your vineyard, don't glean it afterwards yourselves. It's for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow. 22Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. [That's why] I command you to do this thing.
Deuteronomy Chapter 25
1If there is a controversy between people, and they approach justice and a judgement [is made], then [you must] justify the righteous and condemn the wicked. 2If the wicked man is worthy to be beaten, the judge is to get him to lie down and be beaten before his face, as many [lashes] in proportion to his wickedness. 3[He may sentence him no more than] forty lashes. [If he were to exceed this and beat him] more with many lashes, then your brother would be degraded in your sight.
4Don't muzzle the ox when he treads out [the grain].
5If brothers live together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead one is not [to be married] outside to a stranger. Her husband's brother is to go in to her, and have her [as his] wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. 6The firstborn son that she bears will succeed in the name of his dead brother, so that his name is not blotted out from Israel.
7If the man doesn't want to have his brother's wife, then his brother's wife will go up to the gate to the elders, and say, "My husband's brother refuses to raise up for 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 are to call him, and speak to him. If he stands and says, "I don't want to take her," 9then his brother's wife is to come to him in the presence of the elders, and pull his sandal off his foot, and spit in his face. She'll answer and say, "That's what will be done to the man who does not build up his brother's house." 10[From then on] his name will be called in Israel, 'The house of him who had his sandal removed'.
11When men struggle against each other, and the wife of one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of the one who is striking him, and puts out her hand, and grabs him by his private parts, 12then cut off her hand. Your eye is to have no pity.
13Don't have in your bag [two sets of] weights, one heavy and one light. 14Don't have in your house [two sets of] measures, one large and one small. 15Have a full and just weight, and a full and just measure, so that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God is giving you. 16For all who do such things, all who do unrighteously, are an abomination to Yahweh your God.
17Remember what Amalek did to you on the journey as you came from Egypt, 18how he met you on the journey, and struck the tail of you, all who were feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary; and he didn't fear God. 19So when Yahweh your God has given you rest from all your enemies all around, in the land which Yahweh your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, wipe the memory of Amalek from under the sky. Don't forget [to do it].
Deuteronomy Chapter 26
1When you have entered the land which Yahweh your God is giving you for an inheritance, possess it and live there, 2take [some] of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you bring in from your land that Yahweh your God is giving you. Put it in a basket and go to the place where Yahweh your God chooses to cause his name to reside. 3Come to the priest of that time, and tell him, "I declare today to Yahweh your God, that I have come to the land which Yahweh swore to our fathers to give us." 4The priest is to take the basket from your hand, and put it down in front of Yahweh your God's altar. 5You are to answer and say in Yahweh your God's presence, "My father was a Syrian [about to] perish. He went down into Egypt, and lived there, [only a] few in number. There he became a great, mighty, and populous nation. 6The Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, and imposed hard labor on us. 7Then we cried to Yahweh, the God of our fathers. Yahweh heard our voice, and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs, and with wonders; 9and he has brought us into this place, and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10Now see, I have brought the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, Yahweh, have given me." Set it down in front of Yahweh your God, and worship in Yahweh your God's presence. 11You, the Levite, and the foreigner who is among you, are to rejoice in all the good which Yahweh your God has given [to you, and your] house.
12When you have finished tithing all the tithe of your produce in the third year, which is the year of tithing, then you are to give it to the Levite, to the foreigner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, so that they can eat within your gates and be filled. 13Say in the presence of Yahweh your God, "I have removed the holy things from my house, and have also given them to the Levite, to the foreigner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all your commandment which you have commanded me. I haven't transgressed any of your commandments, nor have I forgotten them. 14I have not eaten [any of it whilst] mourning, nor have I removed [any while I was unclean], nor given [any for] the dead. I have listened to Yahweh my God' voice. I have done exactly as 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."
16Today Yahweh your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. Therefore keep [them] and do them with all your heart and all your soul. 17Today you have declared that Yahweh is your God, and that you would walk in his ways, keep his statutes, his commandments, and his ordinances, and listen to his voice. 18Today Yahweh has declared that you are a people for his own possession, as he has promised you, and that you should keep all his commandments. 19He will make you high above all nations that he has made, in praise, in name, and in honor, and that you may be a holy people to Yahweh your God, as he has said.
Deuteronomy Chapter 27
1Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, "Keep all the commandments which I command you today. 2On the day you cross the Jordan to [enter] the land which Yahweh your God is giving you, set up large stones and coat them with lime. 3Write on them all the words of this law, when you cross over to go in to the land which Yahweh your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised you. 4When you have crossed over the Jordan set these stones up, which I command you today, on Mount Ebal, and coat them with lime. 5Build an altar to Yahweh your God, an altar of stones. Don't use any iron [tool] on them. 6Build Yahweh your God's altar of uncut stones. Offer burnt offerings on it to Yahweh your God. 7Sacrifice peace offerings, and eat there. Rejoice in Yahweh your God's presence. 8Write all the words of this law very plainly on the stones."
9Moses and the Levitical priests spoke to all Israel, saying, "Be silent and listen, Israel! Today you have become Yahweh your God's people . 10So obey Yahweh your God's voice, and do his commandments and his statutes, which I command you today."
11The same day Moses commanded the people, saying, 12"When you have crossed over the Jordan, these will stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin; 13and these will stand on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. 14With a loud voice, the Levites are to shout to all the men of Israel:
15'Cursed is the man who makes an engraved or cast-metal image, an abomination to Yahweh- the work of the hands of a craftsman, and sets it up in secret.'
All the people must answer and say, 'Absolutely.'
16'Cursed is he who dishonors his father or his mother.'
All the people will say, 'Absolutely.'
17'Cursed is he who removes his neighbor's landmark.'
All the people will say, 'Absolutely.'
18'Cursed is he who leads the blind astray on the road.'
All the people will say, 'Absolutely.'
19'Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, fatherless, and widow.'
All the people will say, 'Absolutely.'
20'Cursed is he who lies with his father's wife, because he dishonors his father's bed.'
All the people will say, 'Absolutely.'
21'Cursed is he who lies with any kind of animal.'
All the people will say, 'Absolutely.'
22'Cursed is he who lies with his sister, his father's daughter or his mother's daughter.'
All the people will say, 'Absolutely.'
23'Cursed is he who lies with his mother-in-law.'
All the people will say, 'Absolutely.'
24'Cursed is he who secretly kills his neighbor.'
All the people will say, 'Absolutely.'
25'Cursed is he who takes a bribe to kill an innocent person.'
All the people will say, 'Absolutely.'
26'Cursed is he who doesn't uphold the words of this law by doing them.'
All the people will say, 'Absolutely.'"
Deuteronomy Chapter 28
1If you listen diligently to Yahweh your God's voice, observing to do all his commandments which I command you today, Yahweh your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2All these blessings will come upon you, and overtake you, if you listen to Yahweh your God's voice. 3You'll be blessed in the city, and you'll be blessed in the country. 4You'll be blessed in the fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the fruit of your animals, the offspring of your livestock, and the young of your flock. 5Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed. 6You'll be blessed when you come in, and you'll 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 is giving you. 9If you keep Yahweh your God's commandments, and walk in his ways, Yahweh will establish you as a holy people, [just] as he has sworn to you. 10All the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by Yahweh's name, and they'll be afraid of you. 11Yahweh will grant you abundant prosperity in the fruit of your body, 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 his good treasure in the sky to you, to give the rain for your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You'll lend to many nations, and won't borrow. 13Yahweh will make you the head, and not the tail. You will only be above, and you won't be below, if you listen to Yahweh your God's commandments which I command you today, to observe and to do [them], 14and don't turn away from any of the words which I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
15But if you will not listen to Yahweh your God's voice, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you. 16You'll be cursed in the city, and you'll be cursed in the country. 17Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. 18The fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the offspring of your livestock, and the young of your flock will be cursed. 19You'll be cursed when you come in, and you'll be cursed when you go out. 20Yahweh will send cursing, confusion, and rebuke on you in all that you put your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the evil of your actions, by which you have forsaken me. 21Yahweh will make the pestilence cling to you, until he has consumed you from the land which you are entering to possess. 22Yahweh will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with fiery heat, with the sword, with blight, and with mildew. They will pursue you until you perish. 23The sky that is over your head will be [like] bronze, and the earth that is under you will be [like] iron. 24Yahweh will make the rain of your land powder and dust. It will come down on you from the sky, until you are destroyed. 25Yahweh will cause you to be struck before your enemies. You'll go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them. You'll be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth. 26Your dead bodies will be food to all birds of the sky, and to the animals of the earth; and there'll be no one to frighten them away. 27Yahweh will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, with scurvy, and with the itch, from which you can't be healed. 28Yahweh will strike you with madness, blindness, and astonishment of heart. 29You'll grope [about] at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you won't prosper in your ways. You will only ever be oppressed and robbed, and there'll be no one to save you. 30You'll be betrothed to a wife, but another man will lie with her. You'll build a house, but won't live in it. You'll plant a vineyard, but won't use its fruit. 31Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, and you won't eat any of it. Your donkey will be violently taken away from in front of your face, and won't be restored to you. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and you'll have no one to save you. 32Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people. Your eyes will look and fail with longing for them all day [long]. There'll be no power in your hand. 33A nation which you don't know will eat the fruit of your ground and all your work. You will only ever be oppressed and crushed, 34so that the sights that you see with your eyes will drive you mad. 35Yahweh will strike you in the knees and in the legs with dreadful boils, which 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 yourselves, to a nation that you have not known, you nor your fathers. There you will serve other gods of wood and stone. 37You'll become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where Yahweh will lead you away. 38You'll carry a lot of seed out into the field, but gather [only a] little in, for the locust will consume it. 39You'll plant vineyards and dress them, but you won't drink of the wine, or gather [grapes], because worms will eat them. 40You'll have olive trees throughout all your borders, but you won't anoint yourself with the oil, for your olive trees will drop [their fruit]. 41You'll father sons and daughters, but they won't be [there], for they will go into captivity. 42Locusts will consume all your trees and the produce of your land. 43The foreigner who is among you will mount up above you higher and higher, but you'll come down lower and lower. 44He'll lend to you, and you won't lend to him. He'll be the head, and you'll be the tail.
45All these curses will come upon you, and will pursue you and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you didn't listen to Yahweh your God's voice, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded you. 46They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your offspring forever. 47Because you didn't serve Yahweh your God with joy and gladness of heart, because of the abundance [of all your] things; 48therefore you will serve your enemies whom Yahweh sends against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in lack of all things. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you. 49Yahweh will bring a nation against you from far [away], from the end of the earth, flying like an eagle: a nation whose language you won't understand, 50a fierce faced nation, that doesn't respect the elderly, nor show favor to the young. 51They'll eat the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed. They won't leave you grain, new wine, oil, the increase of your livestock, or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish. 52They'll besiege you in all your gates until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout all your land. They'll besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land which Yahweh your God has given you. 53In the siege and distress with which your enemies will distress you, you'll eat the fruit of your own body- the flesh of your sons and your daughters, whom Yahweh your God has given you. 54[Even] the man who is tender among you and very delicate, will have an evil eye toward his brother, the wife he loves, and the remainder of his children who are left, 55so that he will not give to any of them any of the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing else left, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you in all your gates. 56[Even] the woman who is tender and delicate among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and tenderness, will have an evil eye toward the husband that she loves, and toward her son and daughter, 57toward her young one who comes out from between her feet, and toward her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of all things in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you in your gates. 58If you will not observe to do 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 send] plagues [to make you] wonder and the plagues of your offspring [will be] fearful, great plagues, of long duration, and [he will bring] severe sicknesses, [that will also be] of long duration. 60He will bring on you again all the diseases of Egypt, which you were afraid of; and they will cling to you. 61Also, Yahweh will bring on you every sickness and every plague which is not written in this book of the law, until you have been destroyed. 62You'll be left few in number, even though you were as the stars of the sky for multitude, because you didn't listen to Yahweh your God's voice. 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'll be plucked from the land that you are going in to possess. 64Yahweh will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth. There you'll serve other gods which you have not known, [neither] you nor your fathers, [made of] wood and stone. 65You'll find no ease among those nations, and there'll be no rest for the sole of your foot. Yahweh will give you there a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a pining soul. 66Your life will hang in doubt before you. You'll be afraid night and day, and have no assurance of your life. 67In the morning you'll say, "I wish it were evening!" and in the evening you'll say, "I wish it were morning!" for the fear of your heart which you'll fear, and for the sights which your eyes will see. 68Yahweh will take you back to Egypt again by ship, a journey I told you that you would never make again. There you will offer yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but nobody will buy you.
Deuteronomy Chapter 29
1These are the words of the covenant which Yahweh commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant which he made with them in Horeb. 2Moses called to all Israel, and said to them:
"Your eyes have seen all that Yahweh did 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, eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day. 5I have led you for forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not grown old on you, and your sandals have not grown old on your feet. 6You have not eaten bread, nor drunk wine or strong drink, so that you may know that I am Yahweh your God. 7When you came to this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out against us to battle, and we struck them. 8We took their land, and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of the Manassites. 9Therefore keep the words of this covenant and do them, so that you may prosper in all that you do."
10All of you stand today in Yahweh your God's presence: your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, all the men of Israel, 11your little ones, your wives, and the foreigners who are within your camps, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water, 12so that you may enter into Yahweh your God's covenant, and into his oath, which Yahweh your God is making with you today, 13so that he may establish you today as his people, and that he may be your God, as he told you and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 14Nor do I make this covenant and this oath only with you, 15but [also] with those who stand here with us today before Yahweh our God, and [also] with those who are not here with us today 16(for you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the middle of the nations through which you passed; 17and you have seen their abominations and their idols [of] wood, stone, silver, and gold, which were among them); 18otherwise there might be among you man, woman, family, or tribe whose heart turns away today from Yahweh our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; otherwise there might be among you a root that produces bitter poison; 19and when he hears the words of this curse he blesses himself in his heart, saying, "I'll have peace, [even] though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart, destroying the moist [along] with the dry." 20Yahweh will not pardon him, but then Yahweh's anger and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this book will fall on him, and Yahweh will wipe [out] his name from under the sky. 21Yahweh will set him apart out of all the tribes of Israel for evil, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the law.
22The generation to come- your children who will rise up after you, and the foreigner who will come from a far land- will say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses with which Yahweh has made it sick, 23"All of its land is burning sulfur and salt. It isn't sown, doesn't produce, and no plants grow in it. [Just like] the overthrow of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which Yahweh overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath." 24All the nations will say, "Why has Yahweh done this to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?"
25Then men will say, "Because they abandoned Yahweh the God of their fathers' covenant, which he made with them when he brought them from the land of Egypt, 26and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they didn't know and that he had not given to them. 27Therefore Yahweh's anger burned against this land, to bring on it all the curses that are written in this book. 28Yahweh rooted them out of their land in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation, and thrust them into another land, as it is today."
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.
Deuteronomy Chapter 30
1When all these things have come upon you, the blessing or the curse, which I have set before you, and you take them to heart among all the nations where Yahweh your God has driven you, 2and return to Yahweh your God and obey his voice exactly as I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3then Yahweh your God will release you from captivity, have compassion on you, gather you and return you from all the peoples where Yahweh your God has scattered you. 4[Even] if [you're] banished to the farthest place [under] the sky, Yahweh your God will gather you from there and bring you back from there. 5Yahweh your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you will possess it. He will do you good, and increase your numbers more than your fathers. 6Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your offspring, to love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. 7Yahweh your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who pursued you. 8You'll return and obey Yahweh's voice, and do all his commandments which I command you today. 9Yahweh your God will make you prosperous 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; for Yahweh will again rejoice over you for good, as he rejoiced over your fathers, 10if you obey Yahweh your God's voice, keeping his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, if you turn to Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
11For this commandment which I command you today is not too hard for you or too distant. 12[It is not] in heaven, [that you might] say, "Who'll go up to heaven for us, bring it to us, and proclaim it to us, that we may do it?" 13Nor is it beyond the sea, [that you might] say, "Who'll go over the sea for us, bring it to us, and proclaim it to us, that we may do it?" 14But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it. 15See today, I have set before you life and good, or death and evil. 16For I command you today to love Yahweh your God, to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances, so that you may live and multiply, and that Yahweh your God may bless you in the land which you are going in to possess. 17But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away and worship other gods, and serve them, 18I declare to you today that you'll surely perish. You won't prolong your days in the land which you're crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, 20loving Yahweh your God, obeying his voice, and clinging to him; for he is your life, and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which Yahweh swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
Deuteronomy Chapter 31
1Moses continued and spoke these words to all Israel: 2He said to them, "I am one hundred twenty years old today. I can't come and go any more. Yahweh has told me, 'You won't go over this Jordan.' 3Yahweh your God will cross over before you. He will destroy these nations from before you, and you'll dispossess them. Joshua will cross over and lead you, [just] as Yahweh has said. 4Yahweh will do to them as he did to Sihon and to Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when he destroyed them. 5Yahweh will deliver them to you, and you'll do to them according to all the commandment which I have commanded you. 6Be strong and courageous. Don't be afraid or scared of them, for Yahweh your God is the one who is going with you. He will neither 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 are to go with this people into the land which Yahweh has sworn to their fathers to give them; and you'll cause them to inherit it. 8It is Yahweh himself that is going before you. He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Don't be afraid. Don't be dismayed."
9Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi who carried the ark of Yahweh's covenant, 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 temporary-shelters, 11when all Israel has come to appear before Yahweh your God in the place which he chooses, you are to read this law before all Israel in their hearing. 12Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones, and the foreigners within your gates, that they may hear, and learn to fear Yahweh your God, and observe to do all the words of this law, 13and that their children, who have not known it, may hear, and learn to fear Yahweh your God, as long as you live in the land which you are crossing the Jordan to possess."
14Yahweh said to Moses, "See, your days approach that you must die. Call Joshua, and present yourselves in the Tent of Meeting, 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, and the pillar of cloud stood over the Tent's door. 16Yahweh said to Moses, "See, you will sleep with your fathers. This people will rise up and play the prostitute after the strange gods of the land where they are going to be among them, and will forsake me and break my covenant which I have made with them. 17Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they'll be devoured, and many evils and troubles will come upon them; so that in that day they will say, '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've done, because they've turned to other gods.
19"Now 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'll 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 will testify before them as a witness; for it will not be forgotten out of the mouths of their offspring; for I know their ways and what they are doing today, before I have brought them into the land which I promised."
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'll bring the children of Israel into the land which I swore [to give them]. I will be with you."
24When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book, until they were [completely] finished, 25Moses commanded the Levites, who carried the ark of Yahweh's covenant, saying, 26"Take this book of the law, and put it beside the ark of Yahweh your God's covenant, that it may be there as a witness against you. 27For I know your rebellion and your stiff neck. Look, while I am still alive with you today, you have been rebellious against Yahweh. 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 away from the path which I have commanded you; and evil will happen to you in the latter days, because you will do what is evil in Yahweh's sight, provoking him to anger through the work of your hands."
30Moses spoke the words of this song in the ears of all the assembly of Israel, until they were finished.
Deuteronomy Chapter 32
1Give ear, you heavens, and I will speak.
Let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
2My doctrine will drop as the rain.
My speech will condense as the dew,
as the misty rain on the tender grass,
as showers on the plants.
3For I will proclaim Yahweh's name.
Ascribe greatness to our God!
4The Rock: his work is perfect,
for all his ways are just.
A God of faithfulness who does no wrong,
he is righteous and upright.
5[They have dealt] corruptly [with him].
[They are] no longer [his] children,
[because of] their defect.
[They are] a perverse and crooked generation.
6Is this how you repay Yahweh,
foolish and unwise people?
Isn't he your father who has bought you?
He has made 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 surrounded him.
He cared for him.
He kept him as the apple of his eye.
11As an eagle that stirs up her nest,
that flutters over her young,
he spread out his wings,
he took them,
he bore them on his feathers.
12Yahweh alone led him.
There was no foreign God with him.
13He made him ride on the high places of the earth.
He ate the increase of the field.
He caused him to suck honey out of the rock,
oil out of the flinty rock;
14butter from the herd, and milk from the flock,
with fat of lambs,
rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats,
with the finest of the wheat.
From the blood of the grape, you drank wine.
15But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked.
You have grown fat.
You have grown thick.
You have become sleek.
Then he abandoned God who made him,
and rejected 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 dread.
18You've forgotten The Rock who bore you,
[yes, you have] forgotten God who gave you birth.
19Yahweh saw [it], and abhorred [them],
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 will be;
for they are a very perverse generation,
children in whom is no faithfulness.
21They have moved me to jealousy with what 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,
that burns to the depths of Sheol,
devours the earth with its produce,
and sets the foundations of the mountains on fire.
23"I will heap evils on them.
I will spend my arrows on them.
24[They'll be] wasted with hunger,
and devoured with burning heat and bitter destruction.
I will send the teeth of animals on them,
with the poison [of things that] crawl [in the] dust.
25Outside the sword will bereave,
and in the rooms,
terror on both young man and virgin,
the nursing infant with the gray-haired man.
26I said I would scatter them afar.
I would make their memory cease from mankind;
27were it not that 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 void of counsel. There is no understanding in them.
29Oh that they were wise, that they understood this,
that they would consider their latter end!
30How could one pursue a thousand,
and two put myriads to flight,
unless their Rock had sold them,
and Yahweh had delivered them up?
31For their rock is not as our Rock,
[even in] our enemies judgement.
32For their vine is of the vine of Sodom,
of the fields of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are poison grapes.
Their clusters are bitter.
33Their wine is the poison of serpents,
the cruel venom of asps.
34"Isn't this laid up in store with me,
sealed up among my treasures?
35Vengeance is mine, and recompense, at the time when their foot slides,
for the day of their calamity is at hand.
Their doom rushes at them."
36For Yahweh will judge his people,
and have compassion on his servants,
when he sees that [their] power is gone,
that there is no one [left], restrained or free.
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.
39"See now that I myself 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 the sky and declare,
'as I live forever,
41if I sharpen my glittering sword,
my hand grasps it in judgment;
I will take vengeance on my enemies,
and will repay those who hate me.
42I will make my arrows drunk with blood. My sword will devour flesh with the blood of the slaughtered 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 enemies,
and will make atonement for his land and for his people.
44Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, with Hoshea the son of Nun. 45Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel. 46He said to them, "Set your heart on all the words which I testify to you today, which you are to 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 thing you will prolong your days in the land, which you are going over the Jordan to possess."
48Yahweh spoke to Moses that same day, saying, 49"Go up this mountain [of the] Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is opposite Jericho; and see the land of Canaan that I am giving for a possession to the children of Israel; 50[You will] die on the mountain you are ascending, 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 among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah of Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you didn't uphold my holiness among the children of Israel. 52But you'll see the land from a distance and won't enter the land that I am giving to the children of Israel."
Deuteronomy Chapter 33
1[Now] this is the blessing Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel with before his death. 2He said,
"Yahweh came from Sinai,
and rose from Seir on them.
He shone from Mount Paran.
He came from the myriads of holy ones.
At his right hand was a fiery law for them.
3Yes, he loves 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.
6"Let Reuben live, and not die;
Nor let his men be few."
7This he said [for] Judah.
"Hear, Yahweh, the voice of Judah.
Bring him in to his people.
With his hands he contended for himself.
You'll be a help against his adversaries."
8About Levi he said,
"Your Thummim and your Urim are with your godly one,
whom you proved at Massah,
whom you contended with at the waters of Meribah.
9He said of his father, and of his mother, 'I have not seen him.'
He didn't acknowledge his brothers, nor did he know his own children; for they have observed your word, and keep your covenant. 10They'll teach Jacob your ordinances, and Israel your law. They'll put incense before you, and whole burnt offering on your altar. 11Yahweh, bless his ability.
Accept the work of his hands.
Strike through the hips of those who rise up against him,
of those who hate him, so they don't rise again."
12About Benjamin he said,
"The beloved of Yahweh lives in safety.
He covers him all the day long.
He lives between his shoulders."
13About 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 that the [passing of the] moon can yield,
15for the best 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 lived in the bush.
Let [these blessings] come on the head of Joseph,
on the crown of the head of him who was set aside from his brothers.
17Majesty belongs to the firstborn of his herd.
His horns are the horns of the wild ox.
With them he'll push all the peoples to the ends of the earth.
They are the myriads of Ephraim.
They are the thousands of Manasseh."
18About Zebulun he said,
"Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out;
and Issachar, in your tents.
19They will call the peoples to the mountain.
There they will offer sacrifices of righteousness,
for they will draw out the abundance of the seas,
the hidden treasures of the sand."
20About Gad he said,
"He who enlarges Gad is blessed.
He lives as a lioness,
and tears the arm and the scalp.
21He provided the first part for himself,
for the lawgiver's portion was reserved for him.
He came [with] the heads of the people.
He executed the righteousness of Yahweh,
His ordinances with Israel."
22About Dan he said,
"Dan is a lion's cub
that leaps out of Bashan."
23About Naphtali he said,
"Naphtali, satisfied with favor,
full of Yahweh's blessing,
Possess the west and the south."
24About Asher he said,
"Asher is blessed with children.
Let him be acceptable to his brothers.
Let him dip his foot in oil.
25Your bars will be iron and bronze.
As your days, so your strength will be.
26"There is no one like God, Jeshurun,
who rides [across] the sky for your help,
in his excellency on the clouds.
27The eternal God is [your] dwelling place.
Underneath are the everlasting arms.
He thrust out the enemy from before you,
and said, 'Destroy!'
28Israel lives in safety,
the fountain of Jacob alone,
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 excellency?
Your enemies will submit themselves to you.
You will tread on their high places."
Deuteronomy Chapter 34
1Moses left the plains of Moab and went to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is opposite Jericho. Yahweh showed him all the land of Gilead to Dan, 2and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, to the Western 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 offspring.' I have caused you to see it with your eyes, but you won't go over there."
5So Moses the servant of Yahweh died there in the land of Moab, according to Yahweh's word. 6He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth Peor, but no man knows [exactly] where his tomb is to this day. 7Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died. [But] his eye was not dim, nor his strength gone. 8The children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab for thirty days. Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were finished. 9Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. The children of Israel listened to him, and did as Yahweh commanded Moses. 10Since then, there has not arisen a prophet 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 [deeds of] terror, which Moses did in the sight of all Israel.
The Bible text is an adaptation of the WEB
to include nuanced meanings of particular ancient words for placenames, God and others of special interest.
In general square brackets:[] are used to indicate words not found in the original text.
They also indicate the 5 books of the Psalms, and the letters in Psalm 119;
and a few passages considered by some to be of questionable authenticity, marked with an asterisk(*).
