Deuteronomy

^1:1These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah over against Suf, between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. ^1:2It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea. ^1:3In the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel, according to all that Yahweh had given him in commandment to them; ^1:4after he had struck Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth, at Edrei. ^1:5Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to declare this law, saying, ^1:6“Yahweh our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying, ‘You have lived long enough at this mountain. ^1:7Turn, and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites, and to all the places near there, in the Arabah, in the hill country, in the lowland, in the South, by the seashore, in the land of the Canaanites, and in Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. ^1:8Behold, 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.’” ^1:9I spoke to you at that time, saying, “I am not able to bear you myself alone. ^1:10Yahweh your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as the stars of the sky for multitude. ^1:11Yahweh, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are, and bless you, as he has promised you! ^1:12How can I myself alone bear your problems, your burdens, and your strife? ^1:13Take wise men of understanding and well known according to your tribes, and I will make them heads over you.” ^1:14You answered me, and said, “The thing which you have spoken is good to do.” ^1:15So I took the heads of your tribes, wise men, and known, and made them heads over you, captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds, and captains of fifties, and captains of tens, and officers, according to your tribes. ^1:16I 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. ^1:17You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.” ^1:18I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do. ^1:19We traveled from Horeb, and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw, by the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as Yahweh our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh Barnea. ^1:20I said to you, “You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which Yahweh our God gives to us. ^1:21Behold, Yahweh your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you. Don’t be afraid, neither be dismayed.” ^1:22You came near to me, everyone of you, and said, “Let us send men before us, that they may search the land for us, and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up, and the cities to which we shall come.” ^1:23The thing pleased me well. I took twelve men of you, one man for every tribe. ^1:24They turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the valley of Eshcol, and spied it out. ^1:25They 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 gives to us.” ^1:26Yet you wouldn’t go up, but rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh your God. ^1:27You murmured in your tents, and said, “Because Yahweh hated us, he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. ^1:28Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our heart melt, saying, ‘The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to the sky. Moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there!’” ^1:29Then I said to you, “Don’t dread, neither be afraid of them. ^1:30Yahweh your God who goes before you, he will fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, ^1:31and in the wilderness, where you have seen how that Yahweh your God bore you, as a man does bear his son, in all the way that you went, until you came to this place.” ^1:32Yet in this thing you didn’t believe Yahweh your God, ^1:33who went before you on the way, 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. ^1:34Yahweh heard the voice of your words, and was angry, and swore, saying, ^1:35“Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land, which I swore to give to your fathers, ^1:36except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it. I will give the land that he has trodden on to him, and to his children, because he has wholly followed Yahweh.” ^1:37Also Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, saying, “You also shall not go in there. ^1:38Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, shall go in there. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. ^1:39Moreover your little ones, whom you said would be captured or killed, and your children, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, shall go in there. I will give it to them, and they shall possess it. ^1:40But as for you, turn, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.” ^1:41Then you answered and said to me, “We have sinned against Yahweh, we will go up and fight, according to all that Yahweh our God commanded us.” Every man of you put on his weapons of war, and presumed to go up into the hill country. ^1:42Yahweh said to me, “Tell them, ‘Don’t go up and don’t fight; for I am not among you; lest you be struck before your enemies.’” ^1:43So I spoke to you, and you didn’t listen; but you rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh, and were presumptuous, and went up into the hill country. ^1:44The Amorites, who lived in that hill country, came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and beat you down in Seir, even to Hormah. ^1:45You returned and wept before Yahweh; but Yahweh didn’t listen to your voice, nor turn his ear to you. ^1:46So you stayed in Kadesh many days, according to the days that you remained.

^2:1Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea, as Yahweh spoke to me; and we encircled Mount Seir many days. ^2:2Yahweh spoke to me, saying, ^2:3“You have encircled this mountain long enough. Turn northward. ^2:4Command the people, saying, ‘You are to pass through the border of your brothers the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. Therefore be careful. ^2:5Don’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. ^2:6You shall purchase food from them for money, that you may eat. You shall also buy water from them for money, that you may drink.’” ^2:7For Yahweh your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand. He has known your walking through this great wilderness. These forty years, Yahweh your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing. ^2:8So we passed by from our brothers the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir, from the way of the Arabah from Elath and from Ezion Geber. We turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab. ^2:9Yahweh 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.” ^2:10(The Emim lived therein before, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakim. ^2:11These also are considered to be Rephaim, as the Anakim; but the Moabites call them Emim. ^2:12The Horites also lived in Seir before, 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.) ^2:13“Now rise up, and cross over the brook Zered.” We went over the brook Zered. ^2:14The days in which we came from Kadesh Barnea, until we had come over the brook Zered, were thirty-eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were consumed from the middle of the camp, as Yahweh swore to them. ^2:15Moreover Yahweh’s hand was against them, to destroy them from the middle of the camp, until they were consumed. ^2:16So, when all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people, ^2:17Yahweh spoke to me, saying, ^2:18“You are to pass over Ar, the border of Moab, today. ^2:19When 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.” ^2:20(That also is considered a land of Rephaim: Rephaim lived there before; but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim, ^2:21a great people, many, and tall, as the Anakim; but Yahweh destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and lived in their place; ^2:22as he did for the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites from before them; and they succeeded them, and lived in their place even to this day: ^2:23and the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorim, who came out of Caphtor, destroyed them, and lived in their place.) ^2:24“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. ^2:25Today I will begin to put the dread of you and the fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole sky, who shall hear the report of you, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of you.” ^2:26I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying, ^2:27“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. ^2:28You shall sell 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, ^2:29as the children of Esau who dwell in Seir, and the Moabites who dwell in Ar, did to me; until I pass over the Jordan into the land which Yahweh our God gives us.” ^2:30But 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. ^2:31Yahweh said to me, “Behold, I have begun to deliver up Sihon and his land before you. Begin to possess, that you may inherit his land.” ^2:32Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Jahaz. ^2:33Yahweh our God delivered him up before us; and we struck him, his sons, and all his people. ^2:34We 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. ^2:35Only the livestock we took for plunder for ourselves, with the plunder of the cities which we had taken. ^2:36From 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. ^2:37Only 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.

^3:1Then we turned, and went up the way to Bashan. Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. ^3:2Yahweh said to me, “Don’t fear him; for I have delivered him, with all his people, and his land, into your hand. You shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.” ^3:3So Yahweh our God delivered into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people. We struck him until no one was left to him remaining. ^3:4We 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. ^3:5All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars; besides a great many villages without walls. ^3:6We utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying every inhabited city, with the women and the little ones. ^3:7But all the livestock, and the plunder of the cities, we took for plunder for ourselves. ^3:8We 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. ^3:9(The Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir.) ^3:10We 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. ^3:11(For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the Rephaim. Behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron. Isn’t it in Rabbah of the children of Ammon? Nine cubits was its length, and four cubits its width, after the cubit of a man.) ^3:12This land we took in possession at that time: from Aroer, which is by the valley of the Arnon, and half the hill country of Gilead, and its cities, I gave to the Reubenites and to the Gadites: ^3:13and 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. (The same is called the land of Rephaim. ^3:14Jair 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.) ^3:15I gave Gilead to Machir. ^3:16To 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; ^3:17the Arabah also, and the Jordan and its border, from Chinnereth even to the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, under the slopes of Pisgah eastward. ^3:18I commanded you at that time, saying, “Yahweh your God has given you this land to possess it. You shall pass over armed before your brothers the children of Israel, all the men of valor. ^3:19But your wives, and your little ones, and your livestock, (I know that you have much livestock), shall live in your cities which I have given you, ^3:20until Yahweh gives rest to your brothers, as to you, and they also possess the land which Yahweh your God gives them beyond the Jordan. Then you shall each return to his own possession, which I have given you.” ^3:21I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, “Your eyes have seen all that Yahweh your God has done to these two kings. So shall Yahweh do to all the kingdoms where you go over. ^3:22You shall not fear them; for Yahweh your God himself fights for you.” ^3:23I begged Yahweh at that time, saying, ^3:24“Lord Yahweh, you have begun to show your servant your greatness, and your strong hand. For what god is there in heaven or in earth that can do works like yours, and mighty acts like yours? ^3:25Please let me go over and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, that fine mountain, and Lebanon.” ^3:26But Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, and didn’t listen to me. Yahweh said to me, “Let this satisfy you. Speak no more to me of this matter. ^3:27Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift up your eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and see with your eyes; for you shall not go over this Jordan. ^3:28But commission Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him; for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you shall see.” ^3:29So we stayed in the valley near Beth Peor.

^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, gives you. ^4:2You shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall you take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh your God which I command you. ^4:3Your eyes have seen what Yahweh did because of Baal Peor; for all the men who followed Baal Peor, Yahweh your God has destroyed them from among you. ^4:4But you who were faithful to Yahweh your God are all alive today. ^4:5Behold, 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 where you go in to possess it. ^4:6Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who shall hear all these statutes and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” ^4:7For what great nation is there, that has a god so near to them, as Yahweh our God is whenever we call on him? ^4:8What great nation is there, that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law, which I set before you today? ^4:9Only be careful, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes saw, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your children and your children’s children; ^4:10the day that you stood before Yahweh your God in Horeb, when 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.” ^4:11You came near and stood under the mountain. The mountain burned with fire to the heart of the sky, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness. ^4:12Yahweh spoke to you out of the middle of the fire: you heard the voice of words, but you saw no form; you only heard a voice. ^4:13He declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even the ten commandments. He wrote them on two stone tablets. ^4:14Yahweh 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. ^4:15Be very careful, for you saw no kind of form on the day that Yahweh spoke to you in Horeb out of the middle of the fire, ^4:16lest you corrupt yourselves, and make yourself a carved image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, ^4:17the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky, ^4:18the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth; ^4:19and lest 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 them, which Yahweh your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole sky. ^4:20But Yahweh has taken you, and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be to him a people of inheritance, as it is today. ^4:21Furthermore Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I should not go over the Jordan, and that I should not go in to that good land, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance; ^4:22but I must die in this land. I must not go over the Jordan; but you shall go over, and possess that good land. ^4:23Be careful, lest you forget the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he made with you, and make yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which Yahweh your God has forbidden you. ^4:24For Yahweh your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God. ^4:25When you shall father children, and children’s children, and you shall have been long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a carved image in the form of anything, and shall do that which is evil in Yahweh your God’s sight, to provoke him to anger; ^4:26I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from off the land which you go over the Jordan to possess it. You will not prolong your days on it, but will utterly be destroyed. ^4:27Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations, where Yahweh will lead you away. ^4:28There you shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. ^4:29But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God, and you shall find him, when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. ^4:30When you are in oppression, and all these things have come on you, in the latter days you shall return to Yahweh your God, and listen to his voice. ^4:31For Yahweh your God is a merciful God. He will not fail you, neither destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which he swore to them. ^4:32For 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 this great thing is, or has been heard like it? ^4:33Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as you have heard, and live? ^4:34Or 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, according to all that Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? ^4:35It was shown to you so that you might know that Yahweh is God. There is no one else besides him. ^4:36Out of heaven he made you to hear his voice, that he might instruct you. On earth he made you to see his great fire; and you heard his words out of the middle of the fire. ^4:37Because 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; ^4:38to 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. ^4:39Know therefore today, and take it to heart, that Yahweh himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. There is no one else. ^4:40You shall keep 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 gives you, forever. ^4:41Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise; ^4:42that the man slayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unawares, and didn’t hate him in time past; and that fleeing to one of these cities he might live: ^4:43Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, for the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead, for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, for the Manassites. ^4:44This is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel. ^4:45These are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which Moses spoke to the children of Israel, when they came out of Egypt, ^4:46beyond the Jordan, in the valley over against Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel struck, when they came out of Egypt. ^4:47They took his land in possession, and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise; ^4:48from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, even to Mount Sion (also called Hermon), ^4:49and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan eastward, even to the sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.

^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 observe to do them.” ^5:2Yahweh our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. ^5:3Yahweh didn’t make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive today. ^5:4Yahweh spoke with you face to face on the mountain out of the middle of the fire, ^5:5(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, ^5:6“I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. ^5:7“You shall have no other gods before me. ^5:8“You shall not make a carved image for yourself, any likeness of what is in heaven above, or what is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. ^5:9You shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them; for I, Yahweh, your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me; ^5:10and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. ^5:11“You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain: for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. ^5:12“Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as Yahweh your God commanded you. ^5:13You shall labor six days, and do all your work; ^5:14but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God, in which you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates; that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. ^5:15You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm. Therefore Yahweh your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. ^5:16“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 gives you. ^5:17“You shall not murder. ^5:18“You shall not commit adultery. ^5:19“You shall not steal. ^5:20“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. ^5:21“You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. Neither shall you desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” ^5:22Yahweh spoke these words to all your assembly on the mountain out of 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. ^5:23When you heard the voice out of the middle 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; ^5:24and you said, “Behold, Yahweh our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the middle of the fire. We have seen today that God does speak with man, and he lives. ^5:25Now therefore why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear Yahweh our God’s voice any more, then we shall die. ^5:26For who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as we have, and lived? ^5:27Go near, and hear all that Yahweh our God shall say, and tell us all that Yahweh our God tells you; and we will hear it, and do it.” ^5:28Yahweh heard the voice of your words, when you spoke to me; and Yahweh said to me, “I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken to you. They have well said all that they have spoken. ^5:29Oh 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! ^5:30“Go tell them, ‘Return to your tents.’ ^5:31But as for you, stand here by me, and I will tell you all the commandment, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess it.” ^5:32You shall observe to do therefore as Yahweh your God has commanded you. You shall not turn away to the right hand or to the left. ^5:33You shall walk in all the way which Yahweh your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.

^6:1Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it; ^6:2that you might fear Yahweh your God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you; you, and your son, and your son’s son, all the days of your life; and that your days may be prolonged. ^6:3Hear 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. ^6:4Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one. ^6:5You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. ^6:6These words, which I command you today, shall be on your heart; ^6:7and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. ^6:8You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. ^6:9You shall write them on the door posts of your house, and on your gates. ^6:10It shall be, when 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 goodly cities, which you didn’t build, ^6:11and houses full of all good things, which you didn’t fill, and cisterns dug out, which you didn’t dig, vineyards and olive trees, which you didn’t plant, and you shall eat and be full; ^6:12then beware lest you forget Yahweh, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. ^6:13You shall fear Yahweh your God; and you shall serve him, and shall swear by his name. ^6:14You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who are around you; ^6:15for Yahweh your God among you is a jealous God; lest the anger of Yahweh your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth. ^6:16You shall not tempt Yahweh your God, as you tempted him in Massah. ^6:17You shall diligently keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he has commanded you. ^6:18You shall do that which is right and good in Yahweh’s sight; that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land which Yahweh swore to your fathers, ^6:19to thrust out all your enemies from before you, as Yahweh has spoken. ^6:20When your son asks you in time to come, saying, “What do the testimonies, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh our God has commanded you mean?” ^6:21then you shall tell your son, “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; ^6:22and Yahweh showed great and awesome signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his house, before our eyes; ^6:23and he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he swore to our fathers. ^6:24Yahweh 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. ^6:25It shall be righteousness to us, if we observe to do all this commandment before Yahweh our God, as he has commanded us.”

^7:1When Yahweh your God brings you into the land where you go to possess it, and casts out many nations before you, the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, seven nations greater and mightier than you; ^7:2and when Yahweh your God delivers them up before you, and you strike them; then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them. ^7:3You shall not make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to his son, nor shall you take his daughter for your son. ^7:4For he will 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. ^7:5But you shall deal with them like this. You shall break down their altars, dash their pillars in pieces, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their engraved images with fire. ^7:6For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God. Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth. ^7:7Yahweh didn’t set his love on you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all peoples: ^7:8but 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 bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ^7:9Know therefore that Yahweh your God himself is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with them who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations, ^7:10and 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. ^7:11You shall therefore keep the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances, which I command you today, to do them. ^7:12It shall happen, because you listen to these ordinances, and keep and do them, that Yahweh your God will keep with you the covenant and the loving kindness which he swore to your fathers. ^7:13He 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 increase of your livestock and the young of your flock, in the land which he swore to your fathers to give you. ^7:14You will be blessed above all peoples. There won’t be male or female barren among you, or among your livestock. ^7:15Yahweh will take away from you all sickness; and he will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you know, on you, but will lay them on all those who hate you. ^7:16You shall consume all the peoples whom Yahweh your God shall deliver to you. Your eye shall not pity them. You shall not serve their gods; for that would be a snare to you. ^7:17If you shall say in your heart, “These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?” ^7:18you shall not be afraid of them. You shall remember well what Yahweh your God did to Pharaoh, and to all Egypt: ^7:19the 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 shall Yahweh your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. ^7:20Moreover Yahweh your God will send the hornet among them, until those who are left, and hide themselves, perish from before you. ^7:21You shall not be scared of them; for Yahweh your God is among you, a great and awesome God. ^7:22Yahweh your God will cast out those nations before you little by little. You may not consume them at once, lest the animals of the field increase on you. ^7:23But Yahweh your God will deliver them up before you, and will confuse them with a great confusion, until they are destroyed. ^7:24He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name perish from under the sky. No one will be able to stand before you, until you have destroyed them. ^7:25You shall burn the engraved images of their gods with fire. You shall not 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. ^7:26You shall not bring an abomination into your house, and become a devoted thing like it. You shall utterly detest it, and you shall utterly abhor it; for it is a devoted thing.

^8:1You shall observe 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. ^8:2You shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, to prove you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments, or not. ^8:3He humbled you, and allowed you to be hungry, and fed you with manna, which you didn’t know, neither did your fathers know; that he might teach you that man does not live by bread only, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of Yahweh’s mouth. ^8:4Your clothing didn’t grow old on you, neither did your foot swell, these forty years. ^8:5You shall consider in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so Yahweh your God disciplines you. ^8:6You shall keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him. ^8:7For Yahweh your God brings you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of springs, and underground water flowing into valleys and hills; ^8:8a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig trees and pomegranates; a land of olive trees and honey; ^8:9a land in which you shall eat bread without scarceness, you shall not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you may dig copper. ^8:10You shall eat and be full, and you shall bless Yahweh your God for the good land which he has given you. ^8:11Beware lest you forget Yahweh your God, in not keeping his commandments, and his ordinances, and his statutes, which I command you today; ^8:12lest, when you have eaten and are full, and have built fine houses, and lived in them; ^8:13and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; ^8:14then 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 bondage; ^8:15who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with venomous snakes and scorpions, and thirsty ground where there was no water; who poured water for you out of the rock of flint; ^8:16who 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: ^8:17and lest you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth.” ^8:18But you shall 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. ^8:19It shall be, if you shall forget Yahweh your God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you today that you shall surely perish. ^8:20As the nations that Yahweh makes to perish before you, so you shall perish; because you wouldn’t listen to Yahweh your God’s voice.

^9:1Hear, Israel! You are to pass over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to the sky, ^9:2a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard say, “Who can stand before the sons of Anak?” ^9:3Know therefore today, that Yahweh your God is he who goes over before you as a devouring fire. He will destroy them, and he will bring them down before you. So you shall drive them out, and make them perish quickly, as Yahweh has spoken to you. ^9:4Don’t say in your heart, after Yahweh your God has thrust them out from before you, saying, “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. ^9:5Not for your righteousness, or for the uprightness of your heart, do you go in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations Yahweh your God does drive 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. ^9:6Know therefore, that Yahweh your God doesn’t give you this good land to possess for your righteousness; for you are a stiff-necked people. ^9:7Remember, 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. ^9:8Also in Horeb you provoked Yahweh to wrath, and Yahweh was angry with you to destroy you. ^9:9When 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. ^9:10Yahweh delivered to me the two stone tablets written with God’s finger. On them were all the words which Yahweh spoke with you on the mountain out of the middle of the fire in the day of the assembly. ^9:11It came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that Yahweh gave me the two stone tablets, even the tablets of the covenant. ^9:12Yahweh 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 the way which I commanded them. They have made a molten image for themselves!” ^9:13Furthermore Yahweh spoke to me, saying, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. ^9:14Leave me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under the sky; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.” ^9:15So 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. ^9:16I looked, and behold, you had sinned against Yahweh your God. You had made yourselves a molten calf. You had quickly turned away from the way which Yahweh had commanded you. ^9:17I took hold of the two tablets, and threw them out of my two hands, and broke them before your eyes. ^9:18I fell down before Yahweh, as at the first, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you sinned, in doing that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, to provoke him to anger. ^9:19For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which Yahweh was angry against you to destroy you. But Yahweh listened to me that time also. ^9:20Yahweh was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him. I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. ^9:21I 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 out of the mountain. ^9:22At Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibroth Hattaavah, you provoked Yahweh to wrath. ^9:23When Yahweh sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, “Go up and possess the land which I have given you,” you rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh your God, and you didn’t believe him, nor listen to his voice. ^9:24You have been rebellious against Yahweh from the day that I knew you. ^9:25So I fell down before Yahweh the forty days and forty nights that I fell down, because Yahweh had said he would destroy you. ^9:26I prayed to Yahweh, and said, “Lord Yahweh, don’t destroy your people and your inheritance, that you have redeemed through your greatness, that you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ^9:27Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Don’t look at the stubbornness of this people, nor at their wickedness, nor at their sin, ^9:28lest the land you brought us out from say, ‘Because Yahweh was not able to bring them into the land which he promised to them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.’ ^9:29Yet they are your people and your inheritance, which you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.”

^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. ^10:2I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke, and you shall put them in the ark.” ^10:3So 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. ^10:4He wrote on the tablets, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which Yahweh spoke to you on the mountain out of the middle of the fire in the day of the assembly: and Yahweh gave them to me. ^10:5I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tablets in the ark which I had made; and there they are as Yahweh commanded me. ^10:6(The children of Israel traveled from Beeroth Bene Jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered in the priest’s office in his place. ^10:7From there they traveled to Gudgodah; and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of brooks of water. ^10:8At that time Yahweh set apart the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of Yahweh’s covenant, to stand before Yahweh to minister to him, and to bless in his name, to this day. ^10:9Therefore Levi has no portion nor inheritance with his brothers; Yahweh is his inheritance, according as Yahweh your God spoke to him.) ^10:10I stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights: and Yahweh listened to me that time also; Yahweh would not destroy you. ^10:11Yahweh said to me, “Arise, take your journey before the people; and they shall go in and possess the land, which I swore to their fathers to give to them.” ^10:12Now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God require of you, but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ^10:13to keep Yahweh’s commandments and statutes, which I command you today for your good? ^10:14Behold, to Yahweh your God belongs heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth, with all that is therein. ^10:15Only Yahweh had a delight in your fathers to love them, and he chose their offspring after them, even you above all peoples, as it is today. ^10:16Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked. ^10:17For Yahweh your God, he is God of gods, and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, and the awesome, who doesn’t respect persons, nor takes reward. ^10:18He does execute justice for the fatherless and widow, and loves the foreigner, in giving him food and clothing. ^10:19Therefore love the foreigner; for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. ^10:20You shall fear Yahweh your God; you shall serve him; and you shall cling to him, and you shall swear by his name. ^10:21He is your praise, and he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things, which your eyes have seen. ^10:22Your fathers went down into Egypt with seventy persons; and now Yahweh your God has made you as the stars of the sky for multitude.

^11:1Therefore you shall love Yahweh your God, and keep his instructions, his statutes, his ordinances, and his commandments, always. ^11:2Know this day—for I don’t speak with your children who have not known, and who have not seen the chastisement of Yahweh your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm, ^11:3his signs, and his works, which he did in the middle of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and to all his land; ^11:4and 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; ^11:5and what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place; ^11:6and 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; ^11:7but your eyes have seen all of Yahweh’s great work which he did. ^11:8Therefore you shall keep all the commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land, where you go over to possess it; ^11:9and 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. ^11:10For the land, where you go in to possess, isn’t like the land of Egypt, that you came out of, where you sowed your seed, and watered it with your foot, as a garden of herbs; ^11:11but the land, where you go over to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys which drinks water from the rain of the sky, ^11:12a land which Yahweh your God cares for. Yahweh your God’s eyes are always on it, from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year. ^11:13It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to my commandments which I command you today, to love Yahweh your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, ^11:14that I will give the rain of your land in its season, the former rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. ^11:15I will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full. ^11:16Be careful, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn away, and serve other gods, and worship them; ^11:17and Yahweh’s anger be 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 gives you. ^11:18Therefore you shall lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul. You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. ^11:19You shall teach them to your children, talking of them, when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. ^11:20You shall write them on the door posts of your house, and on your gates; ^11:21that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens above the earth. ^11:22For if you shall 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; ^11:23then Yahweh will drive out all these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves. ^11:24Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness, and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even to the western sea shall be your border. ^11:25No 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. ^11:26Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: ^11:27the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I command you today; ^11:28and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, but turn away out of the way which I command you today, to go after other gods, which you have not known. ^11:29It shall happen, when Yahweh your God brings you into the land where you go to possess it, that you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim, and the curse on Mount Ebal. ^11:30Aren’t they beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah, near Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh? ^11:31For you are to pass over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which Yahweh your God gives you, and you shall possess it, and dwell therein. ^11:32You shall observe to do all the statutes and the ordinances which I set before you today.

^12:1These are the statutes and the ordinances which you shall observe to do in the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess it, all the days that you live on the earth. ^12:2You shall surely destroy all the places in which the nations that you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree. ^12:3You shall break down their altars, and dash their pillars in pieces, and burn their Asherah poles with fire. You shall cut down the engraved images of their gods. You shall destroy their name out of that place. ^12:4You shall not do so to Yahweh your God. ^12:5But to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, you shall seek his habitation, and there you shall come. ^12:6There you shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, your vows, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. ^12:7There you shall eat before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, in which Yahweh your God has blessed you. ^12:8You shall not do all the things that we do here today, every man whatever is right in his own eyes; ^12:9for you haven’t yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which Yahweh your God gives you. ^12:10But when you go over the Jordan, and dwell in the land which Yahweh your God causes you to inherit, and he gives you rest from all your enemies around you, so that you dwell in safety; ^12:11then it shall happen that to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which you vow to Yahweh. ^12:12You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God: you, and your sons, your daughters, your male servants, your female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you. ^12:13Be careful that you don’t offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; ^12:14but in the place which Yahweh chooses in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you. ^12:15Notwithstanding, you may kill and eat meat 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 as of the deer. ^12:16Only you shall not eat the blood. You shall pour it out on the earth like water. ^12:17You 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; ^12:18but you shall eat them before Yahweh your God in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates. You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God in all that you put your hand to. ^12:19Be careful that you don’t forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land. ^12:20When Yahweh your God enlarges your border, as he has promised you, and you say, “I want to eat meat,” because your soul desires to eat meat; you may eat meat, after all the desire of your soul. ^12:21If the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to put his name there, is too far from you, then you shall kill of your herd and of your flock, which Yahweh has given you, as I have commanded you; and you may eat within your gates, after all the desire of your soul. ^12:22Even as the gazelle and as the deer is eaten, so you shall eat of it. The unclean and the clean may eat of it alike. ^12:23Only be sure that you don’t eat the blood; for the blood is the life. You shall not eat the life with the meat. ^12:24You shall not eat it. You shall pour it out on the earth like water. ^12:25You shall not eat it; that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, when you shall do that which is right in Yahweh’s eyes. ^12:26Only your holy things which you have, and your vows, you shall take, and go to the place which Yahweh shall choose. ^12:27You shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on Yahweh your God’s altar; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on Yahweh your God’s altar; and you shall eat the meat. ^12:28Observe and hear all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you forever, when you do that which is good and right in Yahweh your God’s eyes. ^12:29When Yahweh your God cuts off the nations from before you, where you go in to dispossess them, and you dispossess them, and dwell in their land; ^12:30be careful that you are not ensnared to follow them, after that they are destroyed from before you; and that you not inquire after their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.” ^12:31You shall not do so to Yahweh your God; for every abomination to Yahweh, which he hates, they have done to their gods; for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. ^12:32Whatever thing I command you, that you shall observe to do. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it.

^13:1If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, ^13:2and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, “Let us go after other gods” (which you have not known) “and let us serve them”; ^13:3you shall not 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 with all your soul. ^13:4You shall walk after Yahweh your God, fear him, keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and you shall serve him, and cling to him. ^13:5That prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death, because he has spoken rebellion against Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to draw you aside out of the way which Yahweh your God commanded you to walk in. So you shall remove the evil from among you. ^13:6If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend, who is as your own soul, entices you secretly, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods,” which you have not known, you, nor your fathers; ^13:7of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near to you, or far off from you, from the one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth; ^13:8you shall not consent to him, nor listen to him; neither shall your eye pity him, neither shall you spare, neither shall you conceal him; ^13:9but you shall surely kill him. Your hand shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterwards the hands of all the people. ^13:10You shall stone him to death with stones, because he has sought to draw you away from Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. ^13:11All Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall not do any more wickedness like this among you. ^13:12If you shall hear about one of your cities, which Yahweh your God gives you to dwell there, that ^13:13certain wicked fellows have gone out from among you, and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods,” which you have not known; ^13:14then you shall inquire, and make search, and ask diligently. Behold, if it is true, and the thing certain, that such abomination was done among you, ^13:15you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, with all that is therein and its livestock, with the edge of the sword. ^13:16You shall gather all its plunder into the middle of its street, and shall burn with fire the city, and all of its plunder, to Yahweh your God. It shall be a heap forever. It shall not be built again. ^13:17Nothing of the devoted thing shall cling to your hand, that Yahweh may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and show you mercy, and have compassion on you, and multiply you, as he has sworn to your fathers; ^13:18when you listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, to keep all his commandments which I command you today, to do that which is right in Yahweh your God’s eyes.

^14:1You are the children of Yahweh your God. You shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. ^14:2For 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. ^14:3You shall not eat any abominable thing. ^14:4These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, ^14:5the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the chamois. ^14:6Every animal that parts the hoof, and has the hoof cloven in two and chews the cud, among the animals, that may you eat. ^14:7Nevertheless these you shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of those who have the hoof cloven: the camel, the hare, and the rabbit. Because they chew the cud but don’t part the hoof, they are unclean to you. ^14:8The pig, because it has a split hoof but doesn’t chew the cud, is unclean to you. You shall not eat their meat, and you shall not touch their carcasses. ^14:9These you may eat of all that are in the waters: whatever has fins and scales may you eat. ^14:10You shall not eat whatever doesn’t have fins and scales. It is unclean to you. ^14:11Of all clean birds you may eat. ^14:12But these are they of which you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the osprey, ^14:13the red kite, the falcon, the kite after its kind, ^14:14every raven after its kind, ^14:15the ostrich, the owl, the seagull, the hawk after its kind, ^14:16the little owl, the great owl, the horned owl, ^14:17the pelican, the vulture, the cormorant, ^14:18the stork, the heron after its kind, the hoopoe, and the bat. ^14:19All winged creeping things are unclean to you. They shall not be eaten. ^14:20Of all clean birds you may eat. ^14:21You shall not eat of anything that dies of itself. You may give it to the foreigner living among you who is within your gates, that he may eat it; or you may sell it to a foreigner; for you are a holy people to Yahweh your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk. ^14:22You shall surely tithe all the increase of your seed, that which comes out of the field year by year. ^14:23You shall eat before Yahweh your God, in the place which he chooses, to cause his name to dwell there, the tithe of your grain, of your new wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock; that you may learn to fear Yahweh your God always. ^14:24If the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry it, because the place is too far from you, which Yahweh your God shall choose, to set his name there, when Yahweh your God shall bless you; ^14:25then you shall turn it into money, and bind up the money in your hand, and shall go to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose. ^14:26You shall trade 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; and you shall eat there before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household. ^14:27You shall not forsake the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no portion nor inheritance with you. ^14:28At the end of every three years you shall bring all the tithe of your increase in the same year, and shall store it within your gates. ^14:29The Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the foreigner living among you, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.

^15:1At the end of every seven years, you shall cancel debts. ^15:2This is the way it shall be done: every creditor shall release that which he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not require payment from his neighbor and his brother; because Yahweh’s release has been proclaimed. ^15:3Of a foreigner you may require it; but whatever of yours is with your brother, your hand shall release. ^15:4However there shall be no poor with you (for Yahweh will surely bless you in the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it) ^15:5if only you diligently listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, to observe to do all this commandment which I command you today. ^15:6For 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 will not rule over you. ^15:7If a poor man, one of your brothers, is with you within any of your gates in your land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your poor brother; ^15:8but you shall surely open your hand to him, and shall surely lend him sufficient for his need, which he lacks. ^15:9Beware that there not be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, “The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand”; and your eye be evil against your poor brother, and you give him nothing; and he cry to Yahweh against you, and it be sin to you. ^15:10You shall surely give, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him; because that for this thing Yahweh your God will bless you in all your work, and in all that you put your hand to. ^15:11For the poor will never cease out of the land. Therefore I command you to surely open your hand to your brother, to your needy, and to your poor, in your land. ^15:12If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, and serves you six years; then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. ^15:13When you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty. ^15:14You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your wine press. As Yahweh your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. ^15:15You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you. Therefore I command you this thing today. ^15:16It shall be, if he tells you, “I will not go out from you,” because he loves you and your house, because he is well with you; ^15:17then you shall take an awl, and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also to your female servant you shall do likewise. ^15:18It shall not seem hard to you, when you let him go free from you; for he has been double value of a hired hand as he served you six years. Yahweh your God will bless you in all that you do. ^15:19You shall dedicate all the firstborn males that are born of your herd and of your flock to Yahweh your God. You shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock. ^15:20You shall eat it before Yahweh your God year by year in the place which Yahweh shall choose, you and your household. ^15:21If it has any defect, is lame or blind, or has any defect whatever, you shall not sacrifice it to Yahweh your God. ^15:22You shall eat it within your gates. The unclean and the clean shall eat it alike, as the gazelle, and as the deer. ^15:23Only you shall not eat its blood. You shall pour it out on the ground like water.

^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 out of Egypt by night. ^16:2You shall sacrifice the Passover to Yahweh your God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which Yahweh shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there. ^16:3You shall eat no leavened bread with it. You shall eat unleavened bread with it seven days, even the bread of affliction; for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste; that you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life. ^16:4No yeast shall be seen with you in all your borders seven days; neither shall any of the meat, which you sacrifice the first day at evening, remain all night until the morning. ^16:5You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates, which Yahweh your God gives you; ^16:6but at the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell in, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at evening, at the going down of the sun, at the season that you came out of Egypt. ^16:7You shall roast and eat it in the place which Yahweh your God chooses. In the morning you shall return to your tents. ^16:8Six days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to Yahweh your God. You shall do no work. ^16:9You shall count for yourselves seven weeks. From the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain you shall begin to count seven weeks. ^16:10You shall keep the feast of weeks to Yahweh your God with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, which you shall give, according as Yahweh your God blesses you. ^16:11You shall rejoice 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 which Yahweh your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there. ^16:12You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt. You shall observe and do these statutes. ^16:13You shall keep the feast of tents seven days, after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and from your wine press. ^16:14You shall rejoice 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. ^16:15You shall keep a feast to Yahweh your God seven days in the place which Yahweh chooses; because Yahweh your God will bless you in all your increase, and in all the work of your hands, and you shall be altogether joyful. ^16:16Three times in a year all of your males shall appear before Yahweh your God in the place which he chooses: in the feast of unleavened bread, in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tents. They shall not appear before Yahweh empty. ^16:17Every man shall give as he is able, according to Yahweh your God’s blessing which he has given you. ^16:18You shall make judges and officers in all your gates, which Yahweh your God gives you, according to your tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. ^16:19You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality. You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise, and perverts the words of the righteous. ^16:20You shall follow that which is altogether just, that you may live, and inherit the land which Yahweh your God gives you. ^16:21You shall not plant for yourselves an Asherah of any kind of tree beside Yahweh your God’s altar, which you shall make for yourselves. ^16:22Neither shall you set yourself up a sacred stone which Yahweh your God hates.

^17:1You shall not sacrifice to Yahweh your God an ox, or a sheep, in which is a defect, or anything evil; for that is an abomination to Yahweh your God. ^17:2If there is found among you, within any of your gates which Yahweh your God gives you, a man or woman who does that which is evil in Yahweh your God’s sight, in transgressing his covenant, ^17:3and has gone and served other gods, and worshiped them, or the sun, or the moon, or any of the stars of the sky, which I have not commanded; ^17:4and you are told, and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire diligently. Behold, if it is true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is done in Israel, ^17:5then you shall bring out that man or that woman, who has done this evil thing, to your gates, even that same man or woman; and you shall stone them to death with stones. ^17:6At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death. At the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death. ^17:7The hand of the witnesses shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall remove the evil from among you. ^17:8If there arises a matter too hard for you in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within your gates; then you shall arise, and go up to the place which Yahweh your God chooses. ^17:9You shall come to the priests who are Levites, and to the judge who shall be in those days. You shall inquire, and they shall give you the verdict. ^17:10You shall do according to the decisions of the verdict which they shall give you from that place which Yahweh chooses. You shall observe to do according to all that they shall teach you: ^17:11according to the decisions of the law which they shall teach you, and according to the judgment which they shall tell you, you shall do. You shall not turn away from the sentence which they shall show you, to the right hand, nor to the left. ^17:12The man who does presumptuously, in not listening to the priest who stands to minister there before Yahweh your God, or to the judge, even that man shall die. You shall put away the evil from Israel. ^17:13All the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously. ^17:14When you have come to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, and possess it, and dwell in it, and say, “I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me”; ^17:15you shall surely set him king over yourselves, whom Yahweh your God chooses. You shall set as king over you one from among your brothers. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. ^17:16Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he may multiply horses; because Yahweh has said to you, “You shall not go back that way again.” ^17:17He shall not multiply wives to himself, that his heart not turn away. He shall not greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. ^17:18It shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write himself a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the priests the Levites. ^17:19It shall be with him, and he shall 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; ^17:20that 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, in the middle of Israel.

^18:1The priests the Levites, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion nor inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the offerings of Yahweh made by fire and his portion. ^18:2They shall have no inheritance among their brothers. Yahweh is their inheritance, as he has spoken to them. ^18:3This shall be the priests’ due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep, that they shall give to the priest the shoulder, the two cheeks, and the inner parts. ^18:4The first fruits of your grain, of your new wine, and of your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. ^18:5For Yahweh your God has chosen him out of all your tribes, to stand to minister in Yahweh’s name, him and his sons for ever. ^18:6If a Levite comes from any of your gates out of all Israel, where he lives as a foreigner, and comes with all the desire of his soul to the place which Yahweh shall choose; ^18:7then he shall minister in the name of Yahweh his God, as all his brothers the Levites do, who stand there before Yahweh. ^18:8They shall have like portions to eat, in addition to that which comes from the sale of his family possessions. ^18:9When you have come into the land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the abominations of those nations. ^18:10There shall not be found with you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices sorcery, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer, ^18:11or a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer. ^18:12For whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh. Because of these abominations, Yahweh your God drives them out from before you. ^18:13You shall be perfect with Yahweh your God. ^18:14For these nations that you shall dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery and to diviners; but as for you, Yahweh your God has not allowed you so to do. ^18:15Yahweh your God will raise up to you a prophet from among you, of your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him. ^18:16This is according to all that you desired of Yahweh your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, “Let me not hear again Yahweh my God’s voice, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I not die.” ^18:17Yahweh said to me, “They have well said that which they have spoken. ^18:18I will raise them up a prophet from among their brothers, like you. I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him. ^18:19It shall happen, that whoever will not listen to my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. ^18:20But 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 shall die.” ^18:21You may say in your heart, “How shall we know the word which Yahweh has not spoken?” ^18:22When a prophet speaks in Yahweh’s name, if the thing doesn’t follow, nor happen, that is the thing which Yahweh has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him.

^19:1When Yahweh your God cuts off the nations whose land Yahweh your God gives you, and you succeed them and dwell in their cities and in their houses; ^19:2you shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the middle of your land, which Yahweh your God gives you to possess it. ^19:3You shall prepare the way, and divide the borders of your land which Yahweh your God causes you to inherit into three parts, that every man slayer may flee there. ^19:4This is the case of the man slayer who shall flee there and live. Whoever kills his neighbor unawares, and didn’t hate him in time past; ^19:5as when a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to chop wood and his hand swings the ax to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle and hits his neighbor so that he dies, he shall flee to one of these cities and live. ^19:6Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue the man slayer while his heart is hot and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him mortally; even though he was not worthy of death, because he didn’t hate him in time past. ^19:7Therefore I command you to set apart three cities for yourselves. ^19:8If 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; ^19:9if you keep all this commandment to do it, which I command you today, to love Yahweh your God, and to walk ever in his ways; then you shall add three cities more for yourselves, besides these three. ^19:10This is so that innocent blood will not be shed in the middle of your land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, leaving blood guilt on you. ^19:11But 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; ^19:12then the elders of his city shall send and bring him there, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. ^19:13Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall purge the innocent blood from Israel that it may go well with you. ^19:14You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark, which they of old time have set, in your inheritance which you shall inherit, in the land that Yahweh your God gives you to possess. ^19:15One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sins. At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established. ^19:16If an unrighteous witness rises up against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing, ^19:17then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before Yahweh, before the priests and the judges who shall be in those days; ^19:18and the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and behold, if the witness is a false witness, and has testified falsely against his brother; ^19:19then you shall do to him as he had thought to do to his brother. So you shall remove the evil from among you. ^19:20Those who remain shall hear, and fear, and will never again commit any such evil among you. ^19:21Your eyes shall not pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.