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WEBBE DEU

DEU 1World English Bible British Edition (WEBBE)

The Fifth Book of Moses,

Commonly Called

Deuteronomy

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 spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the LORD[fn] had given him in commandment to them, 4after he had struck Sihon the king of the Amorites who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan who lived in Ashtaroth, at Edrei. 5Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to declare this law, saying, 6“The LORD our God[fn] spoke to us in Horeb, saying, ‘You have lived long enough at this mountain. 7Turn, and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all the places near there: in the Arabah, in the hill country, in the lowland, in the South, by the seashore, in the land of the Canaanites, and in Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. 8Behold,[fn] I have set the land before you. Go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to your fathers—to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob—to give to them and to their offspring[fn] after them.’ ”

9I spoke to you at that time, saying, “I am not able to bear you myself alone. 10The LORD your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as the stars of the sky for multitude. 11May the LORD, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, as he has promised you! 12How can I myself alone bear your problems, your burdens, and your strife? 13Take wise men of understanding who are respected amongst 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. 17You shall not show partiality in judgement; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgement is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.” 18I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do. 19We travelled from Horeb and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw, by the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as the LORD 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 the LORD our God gives to us. 21Behold, the LORD your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the LORD the God of your fathers has spoken to you. Don’t be afraid, neither be dismayed.”

22You came near to me, everyone of you, and said, “Let’s send men before 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 to which we shall come.”

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 the LORD our God gives to us.”

26Yet you wouldn’t go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God. 27You murmured in your tents, and said, “Because the LORD hated us, he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. 28Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our heart melt, saying, ‘The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to the sky. Moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there!’ ”

29Then I said to you, “Don’t be terrified. Don’t be afraid of them. 30The LORD your God, who goes before you, he will fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31and in the wilderness where you have seen how that the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went, until you came to this place.”

32Yet in this thing you didn’t believe the LORD your God, 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. 34The LORD heard the voice of your words and was angry, and swore, saying, 35“Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land which I swore to give to your fathers, 36except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it. I will give the land that he has trodden on to him and to his children, because he has wholly followed the LORD.”

37Also the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, saying, “You also shall not go in there. 38Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, shall go in there. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. 39Moreover your little ones, whom you said would be captured or killed, 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. 40But as for you, turn, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.”

41Then you answered and said to me, “We have sinned against the LORD. We will go up and fight, according to all that the LORD our God commanded us.” Every man of you put on his weapons of war, and presumed to go up into the hill country.

42The LORD said to me, “Tell them, ‘Don’t go up and don’t fight; for I am not amongst you, lest you be struck before your enemies.’ ”

43So I spoke to you, and you didn’t listen; but you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD, and were presumptuous, and went up into the hill country. 44The Amorites, who lived in that hill country, came out against you and chased you as bees do, and beat you down in Seir, even to Hormah. 45You returned and wept before the LORD, but the LORD didn’t listen to your voice, nor turn his ear to you. 46So you stayed in Kadesh many days, according to the days that you remained.

2Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea, as the LORD spoke to me; and we encircled Mount Seir many days.

2The LORD spoke to me, saying, 3“You have encircled this mountain long enough. Turn northward. 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. 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. 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.’ ”

7For the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has known your walking through this great wilderness. These forty years, the LORD your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.

8So we passed by from our brothers, the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir, from the way of the Arabah from Elath and from Ezion Geber. We turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab.

9The LORD 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 before, a great and numerous people, and tall as the Anakim. 11These also are considered to be Rephaim, as 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 the LORD 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 the middle of the camp, as the LORD swore to them. 15Moreover the LORD’s hand was against them, to destroy them from the middle of the camp, until they were consumed. 16So, when all the men of war were consumed and dead from amongst the people, 17the LORD spoke to me, saying, 18“You are to pass over Ar, the border of Moab, today. 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 people, many, and tall, as the Anakim; but the LORD destroyed them from before Israel, and they succeeded them, and lived in their place, 22as he did for the children of Esau who dwell in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites from before them; and they succeeded them, and lived in their place 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 shall hear the report of you, and shall 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. 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, 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 the LORD our God gives us.” 30But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him, for the LORD your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into your hand, as it is today.

31The LORD said to me, “Behold, I have begun to deliver up Sihon and his land before you. Begin to possess, that you may inherit his land.” 32Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Jahaz. 33The LORD 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 for 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. The LORD 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 the LORD our God forbade us.

3Then 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. 2The LORD 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.”

3So the LORD our God also delivered into our hand Og, the 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 for 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.) 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. 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[fn] was its length, and four cubits its width, after the cubit of a man.) 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 with its cities, I gave to the Reubenites and to the Gadites; 13and the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh—all the region of Argob, even all Bashan. (The same is called the land of Rephaim. 14Jair the son of Manasseh took all the region of Argob, to the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and called them, even Bashan, after his own name, Havvoth Jair, to this day.) 15I gave Gilead to Machir. 16To the Reubenites and to the Gadites I gave from Gilead 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; 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.

18I commanded you at that time, saying, “The LORD your God has given you this land to possess it. All of you men of valour shall 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 much livestock), shall live in your cities which I have given you, 20until the LORD gives rest to your brothers, as to you, and they also possess the land which the LORD your God gives them beyond the Jordan. Then you shall each return to his own possession, which I have given you.”

21I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, “Your eyes have seen all that the LORD your God has done to these two kings. So shall the LORD do to all the kingdoms where you go over. 22You shall not fear them; for the LORD your God himself fights for you.”

23I begged GOD at that time, saying, 24“Lord[fn] GOD, 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? 25Please let me go over and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, that fine mountain, and Lebanon.”

26But the LORD was angry with me because of you, and didn’t listen to me. The LORD said to me, “That is enough! Speak no more to me of this matter. 27Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift up your eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and see with your eyes; for you shall not go over this Jordan. 28But commission Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him; for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you shall see.” 29So we stayed in the valley near Beth Peor.

4Now, 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 the LORD, the God of your fathers, gives you. 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 the LORD your God which I command you. 3Your eyes have seen what the LORD did because of Baal Peor; for the LORD your God has destroyed all the men who followed Baal Peor from amongst you. 4But you who were faithful to the LORD your God are all alive today. 5Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should do so in the middle of the land where you go in to possess it. 6Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who shall hear all these statutes and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” 7For what great nation is there that has a god so near to them as the LORD 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 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— 10the day that you stood before the LORD your God in Horeb, when the LORD 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 under the mountain. The mountain burnt with fire to the heart of the sky, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness. 12The LORD 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. 13He declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even the ten commandments. He wrote them on two stone tablets. 14The LORD 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 the LORD spoke to you in Horeb out of the middle of the fire, 16lest you 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 under the earth; 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 the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole sky. 20But the LORD 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. 21Furthermore the LORD 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 the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance; 22but I must die in this land. I must not go over the Jordan, but you shall go over and possess that good land. 23Be careful, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the LORD your God has forbidden you. 24For the LORD your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God. 25When you father children and children’s children, and you have been long in the land, and then corrupt yourselves, and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do that which is evil in the LORD 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 go over the Jordan to possess it. You will not prolong your days on it, but will utterly be destroyed. 27The LORD will scatter you amongst the peoples, and you will be left few in number amongst the nations where the LORD will lead you away. 28There you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. 29But from there you shall seek the LORD your God, and you will find him when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30When you are in oppression, and all these things have come on you, in the latter days you shall return to the LORD your God and listen to his voice. 31For the LORD your God is a merciful God. He will not fail you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which he swore to them. 32For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and from the one end of the sky to the other, whether there has been anything as great as this thing is, or has been heard like it? 33Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as you have heard, and live? 34Or has God tried to go and take a nation for himself from amongst 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 the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35It was shown to you so that you might know that the LORD is God. There is no one else besides him. 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. 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 the LORD himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. There is no one else. 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 the LORD your God gives you for all time.

41Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan towards the sunrise, 42that the man slayer might flee there, who kills his neighbour unintentionally and didn’t hate him in time past, and that fleeing to one of these cities he might live: 43Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, for the Reubenites; 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 towards the sunrise; 48from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, even to 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.

5Moses 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.” 2The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3The LORD didn’t make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive today. 4The LORD spoke with you face to face on the mountain out of the middle of the fire, 5(I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to show you the LORD’s word; for you were afraid because of the fire, and didn’t go up onto the mountain) saying,

6“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

7“You shall have no other gods before me.

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. 9You shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, the LORD 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 10and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

11“You shall not misuse the name of the LORD[fn] your God;[fn] for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who misuses his name.

12“Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. 13You shall labour six days, and do all your work; 14but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God, in which you shall not do any work—neither 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. 15You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

16“Honour your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you, that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land which the LORD your God gives you.

17“You shall not murder.

18“You shall not commit adultery.

19“You shall not steal.

20“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour.

21“You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife. Neither shall you desire your neighbour’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbour’s.”

22The LORD 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. 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; 24and you said, “Behold, the LORD 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. 25Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the LORD our God’s voice any more, then we shall die. 26For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as we have, and lived? 27Go near, and hear all that the LORD our God shall say, and tell us all that the LORD our God tells you; and we will hear it, and do it.”

28The LORD heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me; and the LORD said to me, “I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They have well said all that they have spoken. 29Oh that there were such a heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!

30“Go tell them, ‘Return to your tents.’ 31But as for you, stand here by me, and I will tell you all the commandments, 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.”

32You shall observe to do therefore as the LORD your God has commanded you. You shall not turn away to the right hand or to the left. 33You shall walk in all the way which the LORD 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.

6Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land that you go over to possess; 2that you might fear the LORD 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 the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised to you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.

4Hear, Israel: The LORD is our God. The LORD is one. 5You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. 6These words, which I command you today, shall be on your heart; 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. 8You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. 9You shall write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates.

10It shall be, when the LORD 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, 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; 12then beware lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 13You shall fear the LORD your God; and you shall serve him, and shall swear by his name. 14You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who are around you, 15for the LORD your God amongst you is a jealous God, lest the anger of the LORD your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth. 16You shall not tempt the LORD your God, as you tempted him in Massah. 17You shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he has commanded you. 18You shall do that which is right and good in the LORD’s sight, that it may be well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land which the LORD swore to your fathers, 19to thrust out all your enemies from before you, as the LORD has spoken.

20When your son asks you in time to come, saying, “What do the testimonies, the statutes, and the ordinances, which the LORD our God has commanded you mean?” 21then you shall tell your son, “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; 22and the LORD showed great and awesome signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his house, before our eyes; 23and he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he swore to our fathers. 24The LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are today. 25It shall be righteousness to us, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us.”

7When the LORD your God brings you into the land where you go to possess it, and casts out many nations before you—the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite—seven nations greater and mightier than you; 2and when the LORD 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. 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. 4For that would turn away your sons from following me, that they may serve other gods. So the LORD’s anger would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. 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. 6For you are a holy people to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7The LORD didn’t set his love on you nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all peoples; 8but because the LORD loves you, and because he desires to keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, the LORD 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. 9Know therefore that the LORD 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. 11You shall therefore keep the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances which I command you today, to do them. 12It shall happen, because you listen to these ordinances and keep and do them, that the LORD 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 increase of your livestock and the young of your flock, in the land which he swore to your fathers to give you. 14You will be blessed above all peoples. There won’t be male or female barren amongst you, or amongst your livestock. 15The LORD 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. 16You shall consume all the peoples whom the LORD 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. 17If you shall say in your heart, “These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?” 18you shall not be afraid of them. You shall remember well what the LORD 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 the LORD your God brought you out. So shall the LORD your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. 20Moreover the LORD your God will send the hornet amongst them, until those who are left, and hide themselves, perish from before you. 21You shall not be scared of them; for the LORD your God is amongst you, a great and awesome God. 22The LORD 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. 23But the LORD your God will deliver them up before you, and will confuse them with a great confusion, until they are destroyed. 24He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name perish from under the sky. No one will be able to stand before you until you have destroyed them. 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 the LORD your God. 26You shall not bring an abomination into your house and become a devoted thing like it. You shall utterly detest it. You shall utterly abhor it; for it is a devoted thing.

8You 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 the LORD swore to your fathers. 2You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might 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, 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 the LORD’s mouth. 4Your clothing didn’t grow old on you, neither did your foot swell, these forty years. 5You shall consider in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you. 6You shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him. 7For the LORD your God brings 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 in which you shall eat bread without scarcity, you shall not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you may dig copper. 10You shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which he has given you.

11Beware lest you forget the LORD your God, in not keeping his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I command you today; 12lest, 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 the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; 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; 16who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers didn’t know, that he might humble you, and that he might prove you, to do you good at your latter end; 17and lest you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth.” 18But you shall remember the LORD 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.

19It shall be, if you shall forget the LORD your God, and walk after other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today that you shall surely perish. 20As the nations that the LORD makes to perish before you, so you shall perish, because you wouldn’t listen to the LORD your God’s voice.

9Hear, 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, 2a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard say, “Who can stand before the sons of Anak?” 3Know therefore today that the LORD 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 the LORD has spoken to you.

4Don’t say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out from before you, “For my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land;” because the LORD drives them out before you because of the wickedness of these nations. 5Not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart do you go in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God does drive them out from before you, and that he may establish the word which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 6Know therefore that the LORD 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 the LORD 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 the LORD. 8Also in Horeb you provoked the LORD to wrath, and the LORD was angry with you to destroy you. 9When I had gone up onto the mountain to receive the stone tablets, even the tablets of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. 10The LORD delivered to me the two stone tablets written with God’s finger. On them were all the words which the LORD spoke with you on the mountain out of the middle of the fire in the day of the assembly.

11It came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights that the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, even the tablets of the covenant. 12The LORD 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!”

13Furthermore the LORD spoke to me, saying, “I have seen these people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people. 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.”

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 behold, you had sinned against the LORD your God. You had made yourselves a moulded calf. You had quickly turned away from the way which the LORD 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 the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you sinned, in doing that which was evil in the LORD’s sight, to provoke him to anger. 19For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the LORD was angry against you to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me that time also. 20The LORD was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him. I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. 21I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burnt it with fire, and 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. 22At Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth Hattaavah you provoked the LORD to wrath. 23When the LORD sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, “Go up and possess the land which I have given you,” you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God, and you didn’t believe him or listen to his voice. 24You have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you. 25So I fell down before the LORD the forty days and forty nights that I fell down, because the LORD had said he would destroy you. 26I prayed to the LORD, and said, “Lord GOD, don’t destroy your people and your inheritance that you have redeemed through your greatness, that you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 27Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Don’t look at the stubbornness of this people, nor at their wickedness, nor at their sin, 28lest the land you brought us out from say, ‘Because the LORD 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.”

10At that time the LORD 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 shall 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, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the LORD spoke to you on the mountain out of the middle of the fire in the day of the assembly; and the LORD gave them to me. 5I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tablets in the ark which I had made; and there they are as the LORD commanded me.

6(The children of Israel travelled from Beeroth Bene Jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered in the priest’s office in his place. 7From there they travelled to Gudgodah; and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of brooks of water. 8At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the LORD’s covenant, to stand before the LORD to minister to him, and to bless in his name, to this day. 9Therefore Levi has no portion nor inheritance with his brothers; the LORD is his inheritance, according as the LORD your God spoke to him.)

10I stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights; and the LORD listened to me that time also. The LORD would not destroy you. 11The LORD 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.”

12Now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13to keep the LORD’s commandments and statutes, which I command you today for your good? 14Behold, to the LORD your God belongs heaven, the heaven of heavens, and the earth, with all that is therein. 15Only the LORD 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. 16Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked. 17For the LORD 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. 20You shall fear the LORD your God. You shall serve him. You shall cling to him, and you shall swear by his name. 21He is your praise, and he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen. 22Your fathers went down into Egypt with seventy persons; and now the LORD your God has made you as the stars of the sky for multitude.

11Therefore you shall love the LORD your God, and keep his instructions, his statutes, his ordinances, and his commandments, always. 2Know this day—for I don’t speak with your children who have not known, and who have not seen the chastisement of the LORD your God, 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 the LORD 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 the LORD’s great work which he did.

8Therefore you shall keep the entire commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land that you go over to possess; 9and that you may prolong your days in the land which the LORD 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 out of, where you sowed your seed and watered it with your foot, as a garden of herbs; 11but the land that you go over to possess is a land of hills and valleys which drinks water from the rain of the sky, 12a land which the LORD your God cares for. The LORD your God’s eyes are always on it, from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year. 13It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to my commandments which I command you today, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14that I will give the 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 grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full. 16Be careful, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn away to serve other gods and worship them; 17and the LORD’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 the LORD gives you. 18Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine 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. 19You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 20You shall write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates; 21that your days and your children’s days may be multiplied in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens above the earth. 22For if you shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you—to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cling to him— 23then the LORD will drive out all these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves. 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. 25No man will be able to stand before you. The LORD 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 the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today; 28and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn away out of the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known. 29It shall happen, when the LORD your God brings you into the land that you go to possess, that you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim, and the curse on Mount Ebal. 30Aren’t they beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah near Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh? 31For you are to pass over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God gives you, and you shall possess it and dwell in it. 32You shall observe to do all the statutes and the ordinances which I set before you today.

12These are the statutes and the ordinances which you shall observe to do in the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess all the days that you live on the earth. 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. 3You shall break down their altars, 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. 4You shall not do so to the LORD your God. 5But to the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, you shall seek his habitation, and you shall come there. 6You shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, your vows, your free will offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock there. 7There you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, in which the LORD your God has blessed you. 8You shall not do all the things that we do here today, every man whatever is right in his own eyes; 9for you haven’t yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which the LORD your God gives you. 10But when you go over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the LORD your God causes you to inherit, and he gives you rest from all your enemies around you, so that you dwell in safety, 11then it shall happen that to the place which the LORD 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 the LORD. 12You shall rejoice before the LORD your God—you, and your sons, your daughters, your male servants, your female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you. 13Be careful that you don’t offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; 14but in the place which the LORD chooses in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.

15Yet you may kill and eat meat within all your gates, after all the desire of your soul, according to the LORD 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 you shall not eat the blood. You shall pour it out on the earth 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 free will offerings, nor the wave offering of your hand; 18but you shall eat them before the LORD your God in the place which the LORD 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 the LORD 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 the LORD your God enlarges your border, as he has promised you, and you say, “I want to eat meat,” because your soul desires to eat meat, you may eat meat, after all the desire of your soul. 21If the place which the LORD your God shall choose to put his name is too far from you, then you shall kill of your herd and of your flock, which the LORD has given you, as I have commanded you; and you may eat within your gates, after all the desire of your soul. 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. 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. 24You shall not eat it. You shall pour it out on the earth like water. 25You shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, when you do that which is right in the LORD’s eyes. 26Only your holy things which you have, and your vows, you shall take and go to the place which the LORD shall choose. 27You shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the LORD your God’s altar. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the LORD your God’s altar, and you shall eat the meat. 28Observe and hear all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do that which is good and right in the LORD your God’s eyes.

29When the LORD 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, 30be careful that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you, and that you not enquire after their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.” 31You shall not do so to the LORD your God; for every abomination to the LORD, which he hates, they have done to their gods; for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. 32Whatever thing I command you, that you shall observe to do. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it.

13If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises amongst 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,” 3you shall not listen to the words of that prophet, or to that dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4You shall walk after the LORD your God, fear him, keep his commandments, and obey his voice. You shall serve him, and cling to him. 5That prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death, because he has spoken rebellion against the LORD 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 the LORD your God commanded you to walk in. So you shall remove the evil from amongst 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 off from you, from the one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth— 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; 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. 10You shall stone him to death with stones, because he has sought to draw you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 11All Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall not do any more wickedness like this amongst you.

12If you hear about one of your cities, which the LORD your God gives you to dwell there, that 13certain wicked fellows have gone out from amongst you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, “Let’s go and serve other gods,” which you have not known, 14then you shall enquire, investigate, and ask diligently. Behold, if it is true, and the thing certain, that such abomination was done amongst you, 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. 16You shall gather all its plunder into the middle of its street, and shall burn with fire the city, with all of its plunder, to the LORD your God. It shall be a heap forever. It shall not be built again. 17Nothing of the devoted thing shall cling to your hand, that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of his anger and show you mercy, and have compassion on you and multiply you, as he has sworn to your fathers, 18when you listen to the LORD your God’s voice, to keep all his commandments which I command you today, to do that which is right in the LORD your God’s eyes.

14You are the children of the LORD your God. You shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. 2For you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth.

3You shall not 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, amongst the animals, you may eat. 7Nevertheless these you shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of those who have the hoof split: 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. You shall not eat their meat. You shall not touch their carcasses. 9These you may eat of all that are in the waters: you may eat whatever has fins and scales. 10You shall not eat whatever doesn’t have fins and scales. It is unclean to you. 11Of all clean birds you may eat. 12But these are they of which you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the osprey, 13the red kite, the falcon, the kite of any kind, 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 after its kind, the hoopoe, and the bat. 19All winged creeping things are unclean to you. They shall not be eaten. 20Of all clean birds you may eat.

21You shall not eat of anything that dies of itself. You may give it to the foreigner living amongst 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 the LORD your God.

You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

22You shall surely tithe all the increase of your seed, that which comes out of the field year by year. 23You shall eat before the LORD your God, in the place which he chooses to cause his name to dwell, 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 the LORD your God always. 24If the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry it because the place which the LORD your God shall choose to set his name there is too far from you, when the LORD your God blesses you, 25then you shall turn it into money, bind up the money in your hand, and shall go to the place which the LORD your God shall choose. 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. You shall eat there before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household. 27You shall not forsake the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no portion nor inheritance with you. 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. 29The Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, as well as the foreigner living amongst you, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your gates shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.

15At the end of every seven years, you shall cancel debts. 2This is the way it shall be done: every creditor shall release that which he has lent to his neighbour. He shall not require payment from his neighbour and his brother, because the LORD’s release has been proclaimed. 3Of a foreigner you may require it; but whatever of yours is with your brother, your hand shall release. 4However there will be no poor with you (for the LORD will surely bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance to possess) 5if only you diligently listen to the LORD your God’s voice, to observe to do all this commandment which I command you today. 6For the LORD 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. 7If a poor man, one of your brothers, is with you within any of your gates in your land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your poor brother; 8but you shall surely open your hand to him, and shall surely lend him sufficient for his need, which he lacks. 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 the LORD against you, and it be sin to you. 10You shall surely give, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because it is for this thing the LORD 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 to 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 six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. 13When you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty. 14You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your wine press. As the LORD your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. 15You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you. Therefore I command you this thing today. 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, 17then you shall take an awl, and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also to your female servant you shall do likewise. 18It shall not 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 six years. The LORD your God will bless you in all that you do. 19You shall dedicate all the firstborn males that are born of your herd and of your flock to the LORD your God. You shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock. 20You shall eat it before the LORD your God year by year in the place which the LORD shall choose, you and your household. 21If it has any defect—is lame or blind, or has any defect whatever, you shall not sacrifice it to the LORD your God. 22You shall eat it within your gates. The unclean and the clean shall eat it alike, as the gazelle and as the deer. 23Only you shall not eat its blood. You shall pour it out on the ground like water.

16Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to the LORD your God; for in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night. 2You shall sacrifice the Passover to the LORD your God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which the LORD shall choose to cause his name to dwell there. 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. 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. 5You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates which the LORD your God gives you; 6but at the place which the LORD 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. 7You shall roast and eat it in the place which the LORD your God chooses. In the morning you shall return to your tents. 8Six days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD your God. You shall do no work.

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. 10You shall keep the feast of weeks to the LORD your God with a tribute of a free will offering of your hand, which you shall give according to how the LORD your God blesses you. 11You shall rejoice before the LORD 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 amongst you, in the place which the LORD your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there. 12You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt. You shall observe and do these statutes.

13You shall keep the feast of booths seven days, after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and from your wine press. 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. 15You shall keep a feast to the LORD your God seven days in the place which the LORD chooses, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your increase and in all the work of your hands, and you shall be altogether joyful. 16Three times in a year all of your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which he chooses: in the feast of unleavened bread, in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of booths. They shall not appear before the LORD empty. 17Every man shall give as he is able, according to the LORD your God’s blessing which he has given you. 18You shall make judges and officers in all your gates, which the LORD your God gives you, according to your tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgement. 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. 20You shall follow that which is altogether just, that you may live and inherit the land which the LORD your God gives you. 21You shall not plant for yourselves an Asherah of any kind of tree beside the LORD your God’s altar, which you shall make for yourselves. 22Neither shall you set yourself up a sacred stone which the LORD your God hates.

17You shall not sacrifice to the LORD your God an ox or a sheep in which is a defect or anything evil; for that is an abomination to the LORD your God.

2If there is found amongst you, within any of your gates which the LORD your God gives you, a man or woman who does that which is evil in the LORD your God’s sight in transgressing his covenant, 3and has gone and served other gods and worshipped them, or the sun, or the moon, or any of the stars of the sky, which I have not commanded, 4and you are told, and you have heard of it, then you shall enquire diligently. Behold, if it is true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is done in Israel, 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. 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. 7The hands of the witnesses shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall remove the evil from amongst you.

8If there arises a matter too hard for you in judgement, 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 the LORD your God chooses. 9You shall come to the priests who are Levites and to the judge who shall be in those days. You shall enquire, and they shall give you the verdict. 10You shall do according to the decisions of the verdict which they shall give you from that place which the LORD chooses. You shall observe to do according to all that they shall teach you. 11According to the decisions of the law which they shall teach you, and according to the judgement which they shall tell you, you shall do. You shall not turn away from the sentence which they announce to you, to the right hand, nor to the left. 12The man who does presumptuously in not listening to the priest who stands to minister there before the LORD your God, or to the judge, even that man shall die. You shall put away the evil from Israel. 13All the people shall hear and fear, and do no more presumptuously.

14When you have come to the land which the LORD 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,” 15you shall surely set him whom the LORD your God chooses as king over yourselves. You shall set as king over you one from amongst your brothers. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. 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 the LORD has said to you, “You shall not go back that way again.” 17He shall not multiply wives to himself, that his heart not turn away. He shall not greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

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 Levitical priests. 19It shall be with him, and he shall read from it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD 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, in the middle of Israel.

18The priests and the Levites—all the tribe of Levi—shall have no portion nor inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the offerings of the LORD made by fire and his portion. 2They shall have no inheritance amongst their brothers. The LORD is their inheritance, as he has spoken to them. 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. 4You shall give him the first fruits of your grain, of your new wine, and of your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep. 5For the LORD your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand to minister in the LORD’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 the LORD shall choose, 7then he shall minister in the name of the LORD his God, as all his brothers the Levites do, who stand there before the LORD. 8They shall have like portions to eat, in addition to that which comes from the sale of his family possessions.

9When you have come into the land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the abominations of those nations. 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 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 the LORD. Because of these abominations, the LORD your God drives them out from before you. 13You shall be blameless with the LORD your God. 14For these nations that you shall dispossess listen to those who practise sorcery and to diviners; but as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you so to do. 15The LORD your God will raise up to you a prophet from amongst you, of your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him. 16This is according to all that you desired of the LORD your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, “Let me not hear again the LORD my God’s voice, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I not die.”

17The LORD said to me, “They have well said that which they have spoken. 18I will raise them up a prophet from amongst their brothers, like you. I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him. 19It shall happen, that whoever will not listen to my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. 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.”

21You may say in your heart, “How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?” 22When a prophet speaks in the LORD’s name, if the thing doesn’t follow, nor happen, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him.

19When the LORD your God cuts off the nations whose land the LORD your God gives you, and you succeed them and dwell in their cities and in their houses, 2you shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the middle of your land, which the LORD your God gives you to possess. 3You shall prepare the way, and divide the borders of your land which the LORD your God causes you to inherit into three parts, that every man slayer may flee there. 4This is the case of the man slayer who shall flee there and live: Whoever kills his neighbour unintentionally, and didn’t hate him in time past— 5as when a man goes into the forest with his neighbour to chop wood and his hand swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle and hits his neighbour so that he dies—he shall flee to one of these cities and live. 6Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue the man slayer while hot anger is in his heart 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. 7Therefore I command you to set apart three cities for yourselves. 8If the LORD 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 this commandment to do it, which I command you today, to love the LORD your God, and to walk ever in his ways, then you shall add three cities more for yourselves, in addition to these three. 10This is so that innocent blood will not be shed in the middle of your land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance, leaving blood guilt on you. 11But if any man hates his neighbour, 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 shall send and bring him there, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. 13Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall purge the innocent blood from Israel that it may go well with you.

14You shall not remove your neighbour’s landmark, which they of old time have set, in your inheritance which you shall inherit, in the land that the LORD your God gives you to possess.

15One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin that he sins. At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established. 16If an unrighteous witness rises up against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing, 17then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who shall be in those days; 18and the judges shall make diligent inquisition; and behold, if the witness is a false witness, and has testified falsely against his brother, 19then you shall do to him as he had thought to do to his brother. So you shall remove the evil from amongst you. 20Those who remain shall hear, and fear, and will never again commit any such evil amongst you. 21Your eyes shall not pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

20When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses, chariots, and a people more numerous than you, you shall not be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, is with you. 2It shall be, when you draw near to the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people, 3and shall tell them, “Hear, Israel, you draw near today to battle against your enemies. Don’t let your heart faint! Don’t be afraid, nor tremble, neither be scared of them; 4for the LORD your God is he who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.”

5The officers shall speak to the people, saying, “What man is there who has built a new house, and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it. 6What man is there who has planted a vineyard, and has not used its fruit? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man use its fruit. 7What man is there who has pledged to be married to a wife, and has not taken her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her.” 8The officers shall speak further to the people, and they shall say, “What man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest his brother’s heart melt as his heart.” 9It shall be, when the officers have finished speaking to the people, that they shall 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. 11It shall be, if it gives you answer of peace and opens to you, then it shall be that all the people who are found therein shall become forced labourers to you, and shall serve you. 12If it will make no peace with you, but will make war against you, then you shall besiege it. 13When the LORD your God delivers it into your hand, you shall strike every male of it with the edge of the sword; 14but the women, the little ones, the livestock, and all that is in the city, even all its plunder, you shall take for plunder for yourself. You may use the plunder of your enemies, which the LORD your God has given you. 15Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far off from you, which are not of the cities of these nations. 16But of the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes; 17but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, as the LORD your God has commanded you; 18that they not teach you to follow all their abominations, which they have done for their gods; so would you sin against the LORD your God. 19When you shall besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them; for you may eat of them. You shall not cut them down, for is the tree of the field man, that it should be besieged by you? 20Only the trees that you know are not trees for food, you shall destroy and cut them down. You shall build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls.

21If someone is found slain in the land which the LORD your God gives you to possess, lying in the field, and it isn’t known who has struck him, 2then your elders and your judges shall come out, and they shall measure to the cities which are around him who is slain. 3It shall be that the elders of the city which is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer of the herd, which hasn’t been worked with and which has not drawn in the yoke. 4The elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which is neither ploughed nor sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. 5The priests the sons of Levi shall come near, for them the LORD your God has chosen to minister to him, and to bless in the LORD’s name; and according to their word shall every controversy and every assault be decided. 6All the elders of that city which is nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. 7They shall answer and say, “Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. 8Forgive, LORD, your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and don’t allow innocent blood amongst your people Israel.” The blood shall be forgiven them. 9So you shall put away the innocent blood from amongst you, when you shall do that which is right in the LORD’s eyes.

10When you go out to battle against your enemies, and the LORD your God delivers them into your hands and you carry them away captive, 11and see amongst the captives a beautiful woman, and you are attracted to her, and desire to take her as your wife, 12then you shall bring her home to your house. She shall shave her head and trim her nails. 13She shall take off the clothing of her captivity, and shall remain in your house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month. After that you shall go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. 14It shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall let her go where she desires; but you shall not sell her at all for money. You shall not deal with her as a slave, because you have humbled her.

15If a man has two wives, the one beloved and the other hated, and they have borne him children, both the beloved and the hated, and if the firstborn son is hers who was hated, 16then it shall be, in the day that he causes his sons to inherit that which he has, that he may not give the son of the beloved the rights of the firstborn before the son of the hated, who is the firstborn; 17but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the hated, by giving him a double portion of all that he has; for he is the beginning of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his.

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 shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city and to the gate of his place. 20They shall tell the elders of his city, “This our son is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” 21All the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall remove the evil from amongst you. All Israel shall hear, and fear.

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 shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day; for he who is hanged is accursed of God. Don’t defile your land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance.

22You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep go astray and hide yourself from them. You shall surely bring them again to your brother. 2If your brother isn’t near to you, or if you don’t know him, then you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall be with you until your brother comes looking for it, and you shall restore it to him. 3So you shall do with his donkey. So you shall do with his garment. So you shall do with every lost thing of your brother’s, which he has lost and you have found. You may not hide yourself. 4You shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen down by the way, and hide yourself from them. You shall surely help him to lift them up again.

5A woman shall not wear men’s clothing, neither shall a man put on women’s clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD your God.

6If you come across a bird’s nest on the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the hen sitting on the young, or on the eggs, you shall not take the hen with the young. 7You shall 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, then you shall make a railing around your roof, so that you don’t bring blood on your house if anyone falls from there.

9You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest all the fruit be defiled, the seed which you have sown, and the increase of the vineyard. 10You shall not plough with an ox and a donkey together. 11You shall not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.

12You shall make yourselves fringes[fn] on the four corners of your cloak with which you cover yourself.

13If any man takes a wife, and goes in to her, 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 in her the tokens of virginity;” 15then the young lady’s father and mother shall take and bring the tokens of the young lady’s virginity to the elders of the city in the gate. 16The young lady’s father shall tell the elders, “I gave my daughter to this man as his wife, and he hates her. 17Behold, he has accused her of shameful things, saying, ‘I didn’t find in your daughter the tokens of virginity;’ and yet these are the tokens of my daughter’s virginity.” They shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. 18The elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him. 19They shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver,[fn] and give them to the father of the young lady, because he has given a bad name to a virgin of Israel. She shall be his wife. He may not put her away all his days.

20But if this thing is true, that the tokens of virginity were not found in the young lady, 21then they shall bring out the young lady to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done folly in Israel, to play the prostitute in her father’s house. So you shall remove the evil from amongst you.

22If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both die, the man who lay with the woman and the woman. So you shall remove 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 you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones; the lady, because she didn’t cry, being in the city; and the man, because he has humbled his neighbour’s wife. So you shall remove the evil from amongst 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 shall die; 26but to the lady you shall do nothing. There is in the lady no sin worthy of death; for as when a man rises against his neighbour and kills him, even so is this matter; 27for he found her in the field, the pledged to be married lady cried, 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 shall give to the lady’s father fifty shekels[fn] of silver. She shall be his wife, because he has humbled her. He may not put her away all his days. 30A man shall not take his father’s wife, and shall not uncover his father’s skirt.

23He who is emasculated by crushing or cutting shall not enter into the LORD’s assembly. 2A person born of a forbidden union shall not enter into the LORD’s assembly; even to the tenth generation shall no one of his enter into the LORD’s assembly. 3An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the LORD’s assembly; even to the tenth generation shall no one belonging to them enter into the LORD’s assembly forever, 4because they didn’t meet you with bread and with water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. 5Nevertheless the LORD your God wouldn’t listen to Balaam, but the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing to you, because the LORD your God loved you. 6You shall not seek their peace nor their prosperity all your days forever. 7You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you lived as a foreigner in his land. 8The children of the third generation who are born to them may enter into the LORD’s assembly.

9When you go out and camp against your enemies, then you shall keep yourselves from every evil thing. 10If there is amongst you any man who is not clean by reason of that which happens to him by night, then shall he go outside of the camp. He shall not come within the camp; 11but it shall be, when evening comes, he shall bathe himself in water. When the sun is down, he shall come within the camp. 12You shall have a place also outside of the camp where you go relieve yourself. 13You shall have a trowel amongst your weapons. It shall be, when you relieve yourself, you shall dig with it, and shall turn back and cover your excrement; 14for the LORD your God walks in the middle of your camp, to deliver you, and to give up your enemies before you. Therefore your camp shall be holy, that he may not see an unclean thing in you, and turn away from you.

15You shall not deliver to his master a servant who has escaped from his master to you. 16He shall dwell with you, amongst you, in the place which he shall choose within one of your gates, where it pleases him best. You shall not oppress him.

17There shall be no prostitute of the daughters of Israel, neither shall there be a sodomite of the sons of Israel. 18You shall not bring the hire of a prostitute, or the wages of a male prostitute,[fn] into the house of the LORD your God for any vow; for both of these are an abomination to the LORD your God.

19You shall not 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 shall not charge your brother interest, that the LORD your God may bless you in all that you put your hand to, in the land where you go in to possess it.

21When you vow a vow to the LORD your God, you shall not be slack to pay it, for the LORD your God will surely require it of you; and it would be sin in you. 22But if you refrain from making a vow, it shall be no sin in you. 23You shall observe and do that which has gone out of your lips. Whatever you have vowed to the LORD your God as a free will offering, which you have promised with your mouth, you must do. 24When you come into your neighbour’s vineyard, then you may eat your fill of grapes at your own pleasure; but you shall not put any in your container. 25When you come into your neighbour’s standing grain, then you may pluck the ears with your hand; but you shall not use a sickle on your neighbour’s standing grain.

24When a man takes a wife and marries her, then it shall be, if she finds no favour in his eyes because he has found some unseemly thing in her, that he shall write her a certificate of divorce, put it in her hand, and send her out of his house. 2When she has departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife. 3If the latter husband hates her, and writes her a 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 take her again to be his wife after she is defiled; for that would be an abomination to the LORD. You shall not cause the land to sin, which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance. 5When a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out in the army, neither shall he be assigned any business. He shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer his wife whom he has taken.

6No man shall take the mill or the upper millstone as a pledge, for he takes a life in pledge.

7If a man is found stealing any of his brothers of the children of Israel, and he deals with him as a slave, or sells him, then that thief shall die. So you shall remove the evil from amongst you.

8Be careful in the plague of leprosy, that you observe diligently and do according to all that the Levitical priests teach you. As I commanded them, so you shall observe to do. 9Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam, by the way as you came out of Egypt.

10When you lend your neighbour any kind of loan, you shall not go into his house to get his pledge. 11You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you lend shall bring the pledge outside to you. 12If he is a poor man, you shall not sleep with his pledge. 13You shall surely restore to him the pledge when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his garment and bless you. It shall be righteousness to you before the LORD your God.

14You shall not 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. 15In his day you shall give him his wages, neither shall the sun go down on it, for he is poor and sets his heart on it, lest he cry against you to the LORD, and it be sin to you.

16The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers. Every man shall be put to death for his own sin.

17You shall not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, nor take a widow’s clothing in pledge; 18but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you there. Therefore I command you to do this thing.

19When you reap your harvest in your field, and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go again to get it. It shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again. It shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

21When you harvest your vineyard, you shall not glean it after yourselves. It shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow. 22You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. Therefore I command you to do this thing.

25If there is a controversy between men, and they come to judgement and the judges judge them, then they shall justify the righteous and condemn the wicked. 2It shall be, if the wicked man is worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down and to be beaten before his face, according to his wickedness, by number. 3He may sentence him to no more than forty stripes. He shall not give more, lest if he should give more and beat him more than that many stripes, then your brother will be degraded in your sight.

4You shall not muzzle the ox when he treads out the grain.

5If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead shall not be married outside to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her, and take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. 6It shall be that the firstborn whom she bears shall succeed in the name of his brother who is dead, that his name not be blotted out of Israel.

7If the man doesn’t want to take his brother’s wife, then his brother’s wife shall go up to the gate to the elders, and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to raise up to his brother a name in Israel. He will not perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me.” 8Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak to him. If he stands and says, “I don’t want to take her,” 9then his brother’s wife shall come to him in the presence of the elders, and loose his sandal from off his foot, and spit in his face. She shall answer and say, “So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.” 10His name shall be called in Israel, “The house of him who had his sandal removed.”

11When men strive against each other, and the wife of one draws near to deliver her husband out of the hand of him who strikes him, and puts out her hand, and grabs him by his private parts, 12then you shall cut off her hand. Your eye shall have no pity.

13You shall not have in your bag diverse weights, one heavy and one light. 14You shall not have in your house diverse measures, one large and one small. 15You shall have a perfect and just weight. You shall have a perfect and just measure, that your days may be long in the land which the LORD your God gives you. 16For all who do such things, all who do unrighteously, are an abomination to the LORD your God.

17Remember what Amalek did to you by the way as you came out of Egypt, 18how he met you by the way, and struck the rearmost of you, all who were feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary; and he didn’t fear God. 19Therefore it shall be, when the LORD your God has given you rest from all your enemies all around, in the land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it, that you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky. You shall not forget.

26It shall be, when you have come in to the land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance, possess it, and dwell in it, 2that you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you shall bring in from your land that the LORD your God gives you. You shall put it in a basket, and shall go to the place which the LORD your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there. 3You shall come to the priest who shall be in those days, and tell him, “I profess today to the LORD your God, that I have come to the land which the LORD swore to our fathers to give us.” 4The priest shall take the basket out of your hand, and set it down before the LORD your God’s altar. 5You shall answer and say before the LORD your God, “My father[fn] was a Syrian ready to perish. He went down into Egypt, and lived there, few in number. There he became a great, mighty, and populous nation. 6The Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, and imposed hard labour on us. 7Then we cried to the LORD, the God of our fathers. The LORD heard our voice, and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8The LORD 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, behold, I have brought the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, the LORD, have given me.” You shall set it down before the LORD your God, and worship before the LORD your God. 11You shall rejoice in all the good which the LORD your God has given to you, and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the foreigner who is amongst you.

12When you have finished tithing all the tithe of your increase in the third year, which is the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the foreigner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, that they may eat within your gates and be filled. 13You shall say before the LORD your God, “I have put away the holy things out of my house, and also have 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 have not transgressed any of your commandments, neither have I forgotten them. 14I have not eaten of it in my mourning, neither have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor given of it for the dead. I have listened to the LORD my God’s voice. I have done according to all that you have commanded me. 15Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel, and the ground which you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.”

16Today the LORD your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You shall therefore keep and do them with all your heart and with all your soul. 17You have declared today that the LORD is your God, and that you would walk in his ways, keep his statutes, his commandments, and his ordinances, and listen to his voice. 18The LORD has declared today 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 honour, and that you may be a holy people to the LORD your God, as he has spoken.

27Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, “Keep all the commandment which I command you today. 2It shall be on the day when you shall pass over the Jordan to the land which the LORD your God gives you, that you shall set yourself up great stones, and coat them with plaster. 3You shall write on them all the words of this law, when you have passed over, that you may go in to the land which the LORD your God gives you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you. 4It shall be, when you have crossed over the Jordan, that you shall set up these stones, which I command you today, on Mount Ebal, and you shall coat them with plaster. 5There you shall build an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones. You shall not use any iron tool on them. 6You shall build the LORD your God’s altar of uncut stones. You shall offer burnt offerings on it to the LORD your God. 7You shall sacrifice peace offerings, and shall eat there. You shall rejoice before the LORD your God. 8You shall write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly.”

9Moses and the Levitical priests spoke to all Israel, saying, “Be silent and listen, Israel! Today you have become the people of the LORD your God. 10You shall therefore obey the LORD your God’s voice, and do his commandments and his statutes, which I command you today.”

11Moses commanded the people the same day, saying, 12“These shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, when you have crossed over the Jordan: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. 13These shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. 14With a loud voice, the Levites shall say to all the men of Israel, 15‘Cursed is the man who makes an engraved or molten image, an abomination to the LORD, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’

All the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’

16‘Cursed is he who dishonours his father or his mother.’

All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

17‘Cursed is he who removes his neighbour’s landmark.’

All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

18‘Cursed is he who leads the blind astray on the road.’

All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

19‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, fatherless, and widow.’

All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

20‘Cursed is he who lies with[fn] his father’s wife, because he dishonours his father’s bed.’

All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

21‘Cursed is he who lies with any kind of animal.’

All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

22‘Cursed is he who lies with his sister, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter.’

All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

23‘Cursed is he who lies with his mother-in-law.’

All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

24‘Cursed is he who secretly kills his neighbour.’

All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

25‘Cursed is he who takes a bribe to kill an innocent person.’

All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

26‘Cursed is he who doesn’t uphold the words of this law by doing them.’

All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ”

28It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to the LORD your God’s voice, to observe to do all his commandments which I command you today, that the LORD 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 the LORD your God’s voice. 3You shall be blessed in the city, and you shall be blessed in the field. 4You shall be blessed in the fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the fruit of your animals, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock. 5Your basket and your kneading trough shall be blessed. 6You shall be blessed when you come in, and you shall be blessed when you go out. 7The LORD 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. 8The LORD 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 the LORD your God gives you. 9The LORD will establish you for a holy people to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and walk in his ways. 10All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the LORD’s name, and they will be afraid of you. 11The LORD 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 the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. 12The LORD will open to you his good treasure in the sky, to give the rain of your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You will lend to many nations, and you will not borrow. 13The LORD will make you the head, and not the tail. You will be above only, and you will not be beneath, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you today, to observe and to do, 14and shall not 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 it shall come to pass, if you will not listen to the LORD your God’s voice, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come on you and overtake you. 16You will be cursed in the city, and you will be cursed in the field. 17Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. 18The fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock will be cursed. 19You will be cursed when you come in, and you will be cursed when you go out. 20The LORD will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you put your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the evil of your doings, by which you have forsaken me. 21The LORD will make the pestilence cling to you, until he has consumed you from off the land where you go in to possess it. 22The LORD 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. 23Your sky that is over your head will be bronze, and the earth that is under you will be iron. 24The LORD will make the rain of your land powder and dust. It will come down on you from the sky, until you are destroyed. 25The LORD will cause you to be struck before your enemies. You will go out one way against them, and will flee seven ways before them. You will be tossed back and forth amongst 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 will be no one to frighten them away. 27The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with the tumours, with the scurvy, and with the itch, of which you can not be healed. 28The LORD will strike you with madness, with blindness, and with astonishment of heart. 29You will grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways. You will only be oppressed and robbed always, and there will be no one to save you. 30You will betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her. You will build a house, and you won’t dwell in it. You will plant a vineyard, and not use its fruit. 31Your ox will be slain before your eyes, and you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be violently taken away from before your face, and will not be restored to you. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and you will 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 will be no power in your hand. 33A nation which you don’t know will eat the fruit of your ground and all of your work. You will only be oppressed and crushed always, 34so that the sights that you see with your eyes will drive you mad. 35The LORD will strike you in the knees and in the legs with a sore boil, of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head. 36The LORD 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 will become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword amongst all the peoples where the LORD will lead you away. 38You will carry much seed out into the field, and will gather little in, for the locust will consume it. 39You will plant vineyards and dress them, but you will neither drink of the wine, nor harvest, because worms will eat them. 40You will have olive trees throughout all your borders, but you won’t anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives will drop off. 41You will father sons and daughters, but they will not be yours, for they will go into captivity. 42Locusts will consume all of your trees and the fruit of your ground. 43The foreigner who is amongst you will mount up above you higher and higher, and you will come down lower and lower. 44He will lend to you, and you won’t lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail.

45All these curses will come on you, and will pursue you and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you didn’t listen to the LORD your God’s voice, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded you. 46They will be for a sign and for a wonder to you and to your offspring forever. 47Because you didn’t serve the LORD your God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things; 48therefore you will serve your enemies whom the LORD 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. 49The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies: a nation whose language you will not understand, 50a nation of fierce facial expressions, that doesn’t respect the elderly, nor show favour to the young. 51They will eat the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed. They also 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 will besiege you in all your gates until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout all your land. They will besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land which the LORD your God has given you. 53You will eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies will distress you. 54The man who is tender amongst you, and very delicate, his eye will be evil towards his brother, towards the wife whom he loves, and towards the remnant of his children whom he has remaining, 55so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left to him, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you in all your gates. 56The tender and delicate woman amongst you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye will be evil towards the husband that she loves, towards her son, towards her daughter, 57towards her young one who comes out from between her feet, and towards 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, THE LORD[fn] your God, 59then the LORD will make your plagues and the plagues of your offspring fearful, even great plagues, and of long duration, and severe sicknesses, and 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 every sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of this law, the LORD will bring them on you until you are destroyed. 62You will be left few in number, even though you were as the stars of the sky for multitude, because you didn’t listen to the LORD your God’s voice. 63It will happen that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so the LORD will rejoice over you to cause you to perish and to destroy you. You will be plucked from the land that you are going in to possess. 64The LORD will scatter you amongst all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth. There you will serve other gods which you have not known, you nor your fathers, even wood and stone. 65Amongst these nations you will find no ease, and there will be no rest for the sole of your foot; but the LORD will give you there a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and pining of soul. 66Your life will hang in doubt before you. You will be afraid night and day, and will have no assurance of your life. 67In the morning you will say, “I wish it were evening!” and at evening you will say, “I wish it were morning!” for the fear of your heart which you will fear, and for the sights which your eyes will see. 68The LORD will bring you into Egypt again with ships, by the way of which I told you that you would never see it again. There you will offer yourselves to your enemies for male and female slaves, and nobody will buy you.

29These are the words of the covenant which the LORD 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 the LORD 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 the LORD has not given you a heart to know, eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day. 5I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not grown old on you, and your sandals have not grown old on your feet. 6You have not eaten bread, neither have you drunk wine or strong drink, that you may know that I am the LORD your God. 7When you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out against us to battle, and we struck them. 8We took their land, and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of the Manassites. 9Therefore keep the words of this covenant and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do. 10All of you stand today in the presence of the LORD your God: your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Israel, 11your little ones, your wives, and the foreigners who are in the middle of your camps, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water, 12that you may enter into the covenant of the LORD your God, and into his oath, which the LORD your God makes with you today, 13that he may establish you today as his people, and that he may be your God, as he spoke to you and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 14Neither do I make this covenant and this oath with you only, 15but with those who stand here with us today before the LORD 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 amongst them); 18lest there should be amongst you man, woman, family, or tribe whose heart turns away today from the LORD our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there should be amongst you a root that produces bitter poison; 19and it happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, “I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart,” to destroy the moist with the dry. 20The LORD will not pardon him, but then the LORD’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 the LORD will blot out his name from under the sky. 21The LORD will set him apart for evil out of all the tribes of Israel, 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 the LORD has made it sick, 23that all of its land is sulphur, salt, and burning, that it is not sown, doesn’t produce, nor does any grass grow in it, like the overthrow of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath. 24Even all the nations will say, “Why has the LORD done this to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?”

25Then men will say, “Because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt, 26and went and served other gods and worshipped them, gods that they didn’t know and that he had not given to them. 27Therefore the LORD’s anger burnt against this land, to bring on it all the curses that are written in this book. 28The LORD 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 the LORD 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.

30It shall happen, when all these things have come on you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you shall call them to mind amongst all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you, 2and return to the LORD your God and obey his voice according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3that then the LORD your God will release you from captivity, have compassion on you, and will return and gather you from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you. 4If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of the heavens, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will bring you back. 5The LORD 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. 6The LORD your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your offspring, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. 7The LORD your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. 8You shall return and obey the LORD’s voice, and do all his commandments which I command you today. 9The LORD 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 the LORD will again rejoice over you for good, as he rejoiced over your fathers, 10if you will obey the LORD your God’s voice, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, if you turn to the LORD 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. 12It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up for us to heaven, bring it to us, and proclaim it to us, that we may do it?” 13Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will 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, that you may do it. 15Behold, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and evil. 16For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances, that you may live and multiply, and that the LORD your God may bless you in the land where you go in to possess it. 17But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away and worship other gods, and serve them, 18I declare to you today that you will surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you pass over the Jordan to go in to possess it. 19I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your descendants, 20to love the LORD your God, to obey his voice, and to cling to him; for he is your life, and the length of your days, that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

31Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. 2He said to them, “I am one hundred and twenty years old today. I can no more go out and come in. The LORD has said to me, ‘You shall not go over this Jordan.’ 3The LORD your God himself will go over before you. He will destroy these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua will go over before you, as the LORD has spoken. 4The LORD 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. 5The LORD will deliver them up before you, and you shall 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 the LORD your God himself is who goes with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you.”

7Moses called to Joshua, and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land which the LORD has sworn to their fathers to give them; and you shall cause them to inherit it. 8The LORD himself is who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be discouraged.”

9Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of the LORD’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 booths, 11when all Israel has come to appear before the LORD your God in the place which he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. 12Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones, and the foreigners who are within your gates, that they may hear, learn, fear the LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law, 13and that their children, who have not known, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live in the land where you go over the Jordan to possess it.”

14The LORD said to Moses, “Behold, 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.

15The LORD appeared in the Tent in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood over the Tent’s door. 16The LORD said to Moses, “Behold, you shall sleep with your fathers. This people will rise up and play the prostitute after the strange gods of the land where they go to be amongst them, and will forsake me and break my covenant which I have made with them. 17Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall come on them; so that they will say in that day, ‘Haven’t these evils come on us because our God is not amongst us?’ 18I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evil which they have done, in that they have turned to other gods.

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 will turn to other gods, and serve them, and despise me, and break my covenant. 21It will happen, when many evils and troubles have come on them, that this song will testify before them as a witness; for it will not be forgotten out of the mouths of their descendants; for I know their ways and what they are doing today, before I have brought them into the land which I promised them.”

22So Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the children of Israel.

23He commissioned Joshua the son of Nun, and said, “Be strong and courageous; for you shall bring the children of Israel into the land which I swore to them. I will be with you.”

24When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, 25Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the LORD’s covenant, saying, 26“Take this book of the law, and put it by the side of the ark of the LORD your God’s covenant, that it may be there for a witness against you. 27For I know your rebellion and your stiff neck. Behold, while I am yet alive with you today, you have been rebellious against the LORD. 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 way which I have commanded you; and evil will happen to you in the latter days, because you will do that which is evil in the LORD’s sight, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands.”

30Moses spoke in the ears of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song, until they were finished.

32Give 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 the showers on the herb.

3For I will proclaim the LORD’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,

just and right is he.

5They have dealt corruptly with him.

They are not his children, because of their defect.

They are a perverse and crooked generation.

6Is this the way you repay the LORD,

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 the LORD’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 abroad his wings,

he took them,

he bore them on his feathers.

12The LORD 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.

18Of the Rock who became your father, you are unmindful,

and have forgotten God who gave you birth.

19The LORD saw and abhorred,

because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.

20He said, “I will hide my face from them.

I will see what their end will be;

for they are a very perverse generation,

children in whom is no faithfulness.

21They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God.

They have provoked me to anger with their vanities.

I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people.

I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.

22For a fire is kindled in my anger,

that burns to the lowest Sheol,[fn]

devours the earth with its increase,

and sets the foundations of the mountains on fire.


23“I will heap evils on them.

I will spend my arrows on them.

24They shall be wasted with hunger,

and devoured with burning heat

and bitter destruction.

I will send the teeth of animals on them,

with the venom of vipers that glide in the dust.

25Outside the sword will bereave,

and in the rooms,

terror on both young man and virgin,

the nursing infant with the grey-haired man.

26I said that I would scatter them afar.

I would make their memory to cease from amongst men;

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;

the LORD 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 chase a thousand,

and two put ten thousand to flight,

unless their Rock had sold them,

and the LORD had delivered them up?

31For their rock is not as our Rock,

even our enemies themselves concede.

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 amongst 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 the LORD will judge his people,

and have compassion on his servants,

when he sees that their power is gone,

that there is no one remaining, shut up or left at large.

37He will say, “Where are their gods,

the rock in which they took refuge,

38which ate the fat of their sacrifices,

and drank the wine of their drink offering?

Let them rise up and help you!

Let them be your protection.


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 heaven and declare,

as I live forever,

41if I sharpen my glittering sword,

my hand grasps it in judgement;

I will take vengeance on my adversaries,

and will repay those who hate me.

42I will make my arrows drunk with blood.

My sword shall devour flesh with the blood of the slain and the captives,

from the head of the leaders of the enemy.”


43Rejoice, you nations, with his people,

for he will avenge the blood of his servants.

He will take vengeance on his adversaries,

and will make atonement for his land and for his people.[fn]

44Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun. 45Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel. 46He said to them, “Set your heart to all the words which I testify to you today, which you shall 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 shall prolong your days in the land, where you go over the Jordan to possess it.”

48The LORD spoke to Moses that same day, saying, 49“Go up into this mountain of Abarim, to Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is across from Jericho; and see the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel for a possession. 50Die on the mountain where you go up, 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 amongst the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah of Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you didn’t uphold my holiness amongst the children of Israel. 52For you shall see the land from a distance; but you shall not go there into the land which I give the children of Israel.”

33This is the blessing with which Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death. 2He said,

“The LORD came from Sinai,

and rose from Seir to them.

He shone from Mount Paran.

He came from the ten thousands of holy ones.

At his right hand was a fiery law for them.[fn]

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 is for Judah. He said,

“Hear, LORD, the voice of Judah.

Bring him in to his people.

With his hands he contended for himself.

You shall be a help against his adversaries.”

8About Levi he said,

“Your Thummim and your Urim are with your godly one,

whom you proved at Massah,

with whom you contended 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 shall teach Jacob your ordinances,

and Israel your law.

They shall put incense before you,

and whole burnt offering on your altar.

11LORD, bless his skills.

Accept the work of his hands.

Strike through the hips of those who rise up against him,

of those who hate him, that they not rise again.”

12About Benjamin he said,

“The beloved of the LORD will dwell in safety by him.

He covers him all day long.

He dwells between his shoulders.”

13About Joseph he said,

“His land is blessed by the LORD,

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 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.[fn]

Let this come on the head of Joseph,

on the crown of the head of him who was separated from his brothers.

17Majesty belongs to the firstborn of his herd.

His horns are the horns of the wild ox.

With them he will push all the peoples to the ends of the earth.

They are the ten thousands 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 dwells as a lioness,

and tears the arm and the crown of the head.

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 the LORD,

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 favour,

full of the LORD’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 on the heavens for your help,

in his excellency on the skies.

27The eternal God is your dwelling place.

Underneath are the everlasting arms.

He thrust out the enemy from before you,

and said, ‘Destroy!’

28Israel dwells 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 the LORD,

the shield of your help,

the sword of your excellency?

Your enemies will submit themselves to you.

You will tread on their high places.”

34Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is opposite Jericho. The LORD 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,[fn] and the Plain of the valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, to Zoar. 4The LORD 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 shall not go over there.”

5So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the LORD’s word. 6He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth Peor, but no man knows where his tomb is to this day. 7Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died. His eye was not dim, nor his strength gone. 8The children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the days of weeping in the mourning for Moses were ended. 9Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. The children of Israel listened to him, and did as the LORD commanded Moses. 10Since then, there has not arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, 11in all the signs and the wonders which the LORD 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 awesome deeds, which Moses did in the sight of all Israel.


1:3 When rendered in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, “LORD” or “GOD” is the translation of God’s Proper Name (Hebrew “יהוה”, usually pronounced Yahweh).

1:6 The Hebrew word rendered “God” is “אֱלֹהִ֑ים” (Elohim).

1:8 “Behold”, from “הִנֵּה”, means look at, take notice, observe, see, or gaze at. It is often used as an interjection.

1:8 or, seed

3:11 A cubit is the length from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow on a man’s arm, or about 18 inches or 46 centimetres.

3:24 The word translated “Lord” is “Adonai.”

5:11 LORD or GOD in all caps is from the Hebrew יהוה Yahweh except when otherwise noted as being from the short form יה Yah.

5:11 or, You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain;

22:12 or, tassels

22:19 A shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.35 ounces, so 100 shekels is about a kilogram or 2.2 pounds.

22:29 A shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.35 ounces.

23:18 literally, dog

26:5 or, forefather

27:20 i.e., has sexual relations with

28:58 LORD or GOD in all caps is from the Hebrew יהוה Yahweh except when otherwise noted as being from the short form יה Yah.

32:22 Sheol is the place of the dead.

32:43 For this verse, LXX reads: Rejoice, you heavens, with him, and let all the angels of God worship him; rejoice you Gentiles, with his people, and let all the sons of God strengthen themselves in him; for he will avenge the blood of his sons, and he will render vengeance, and recompense justice to his enemies, and will reward them that hate him; and the Lord shall purge the land of his people.

33:2 another manuscript reads “He came with myriads of holy ones from the south, from his mountain slopes.”

33:16 i.e., the burning bush of Exodus 3:3-4.

34:3 or, Negev