Deuteronomy 4:44-24:22

New Catholic Bible

Moses’ Second Address

The Covenant with Israel^[a]

⁴⁴ Introduction. This is the law that Moses set before the Israelites. ⁴⁵ These are the stipulations, the statutes, and the judgments that Moses declared to the Israelites when they came out of Egypt ⁴⁶ and they were dwelling in the valley near Beth-peor on the east of the Jordan, in the land of Sihon, the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and who was defeated by Moses and the Israelites when they came out of Egypt. ⁴⁷ They took possession of his land and also the land of Og, the king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites who reigned on the east side of the Jordan. ⁴⁸ This land extended from Aroer, that is on the bank of the Arnon River, up to Mount Sion (that is Hermon). ⁴⁹ It included all of the plain on the east side of the Jordan up to the Sea in the Arabah, at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah.

Chapter 5

The Ten Commandments.^{[b] 1} Moses then summoned all of the Israelites and said to them, “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the decrees that I proclaim in your hearing today. Learn them and carefully observe them. ² The Lord, our God, made a covenant with us at Horeb. ³ The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with those of us who are still alive and present today. ⁴ The Lord spoke with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the flame.

⁵ “I stood between you and the Lord at that time, declaring the word of the Lord to you, for you were afraid and did not go up the mountain because of the fire. He said, ⁶ ‘I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out from the land of slavery. ⁷ You shall have no god other than me. ⁸ You shall not make any idols in the form of anything that dwells in the heavens above or on the earth below or even in the waters below the land. ⁹ You shall not prostrate yourself to them nor worship them. I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God. I visit the iniquity of the fathers upon their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, ¹⁰ but I will show mercy to the thousandth generation on those who love me and observe my commandments.

¹¹ “ ‘You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain, for the Lord will not consider blameless those who take his name in vain.

¹² “ ‘You shall observe the Sabbath by keeping it holy, as the Lord, your God, has commanded you. ¹³ You are to labor on six days, doing all of your work then. ¹⁴ The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, your God. You shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your ox, nor your ass, nor your cattle, nor even the foreigner living in your town. Thus your manservant and maidservant can rest as well. ¹⁵ Remember that you were once a slave in the land of Egypt. The Lord, your God, brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord, your God, has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.^[c]

¹⁶ “ ‘Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord, your God, has commanded you,^[d] so that you might have a long life and things might go well with you in the land that the Lord, your God, has given you.

¹⁷ “ ‘You shall not murder. ¹⁸ You shall not commit adultery. ¹⁹ You shall not steal. ²⁰ You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. ²¹ You shall not desire your neighbor’s wife. Nor shall you desire your neighbor’s house or land, or his manservant or his maidservant, or his ox or ass or anything that belongs to your neighbor.’ ”

²² Moses at Sinai. These are the things that the Lord proclaimed in a loud voice to your whole assembly on the mountain from the midst of the flame, out of the cloud and the deep darkness, this and nothing more. He then wrote them on two stone tablets and gave them to me. ²³ When you heard the voice coming out of the darkness, while the mountain was blazing with fire,^[e] all of the leaders of your tribes and your elders drew near to me.

²⁴ You said, “The Lord, our God, has shown us his glory and his majesty. We have heard his voice coming forth from out of the fire. Today we have seen that a man can live even if God were to speak to him. ²⁵ But now, why should we die, for this great fire will consume us if we listen anymore to the voice of the Lord, our God? We will surely die. ²⁶ For what mortal has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking out from the midst of the flames, as we have, and continued to live? ²⁷ You approach him and listen to all that the Lord, our God, will say to you. Then you can tell us all that the Lord, our God, said to you. We will listen and obey.”

²⁸ The Lord heard what you said to me, and the Lord said to me, “I have heard what this people has said to you. Everything that they said is acceptable. ²⁹ Oh, that they would have fear of me in their hearts and they would observe all of my commandments always. Then things would go well with them and their children forever. ³⁰ Go tell them, ‘Go back to your tents.’ ³¹ But you, stay here with me, so that I can pass on to you all of the commandments and statutes and decrees that you are to teach them so that they might observe them in the land that I am giving to them to possess. ³² Therefore, be careful to observe what the Lord, your God, has commanded of you. Do not turn away from it to the right nor the left. ³³ Continue in all of the ways that the Lord, your God, has commanded you. Continue in them so that you may live and prosper and that you may long dwell on the land of your inheritance.”

Chapter 6

¹ These are the commands, statutes, and decrees that the Lord, your God, directed me to teach you so that you might observe them in the land to which you are going as your inheritance. ² Thus, you will fear the Lord, your God, and observe the statutes and commandments that I give you—you, and your children, and your children’s children—all the days of your life, so that you might live a long time.

³ Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that you might prosper and multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you.

The Law of Love.^{[f] 4} Hear, O Israel, the Lord, our God, is Lord alone. ⁵ You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. ⁶ You shall keep these things that I command you today in your heart. ⁷ Teach them to your children. You shall talk of them when you are sitting in your home, and when you are walking along the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up. ^8 [g]Bind them as a reminder upon your hand, and wear them as a pendant between your eyes ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and your gates.

Loyalty to the Lord.

^10 [h]When the Lord, your God, will have brought you into the land that he promised to your forefathers, to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, that he would give to you, a land with large and pleasant cities that you did not build ¹¹ with houses filled with all kinds of good things that you did not provide, wells that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant. When you have eaten your fill of them, ¹² be sure not to forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the land of slavery.

¹³ Fear the Lord, your God, and serve him. Swear oaths with his name. ¹⁴ You shall not seek after other gods, the gods of the peoples around you ¹⁵ for the Lord, your God, who lives among you is a jealous God.^[i] Beware lest the anger of the Lord, your God, be kindled and he wipe you off of the face of the earth.

¹⁶ You shall not tempt the Lord,^[j] your God, as you tempted him at Massah. ¹⁷ You shall take heed to observe the commandments of the Lord, your God, and the decrees and statutes that he has given to you. ¹⁸ Do what the Lord regards as right and good so that things will go well with you and that you might enter in and take possession of the good land that the Lord promised to your fathers, ¹⁹ being able to cast out all of your enemies from before you, just as the Lord has promised.

²⁰ Instructing Children. In the future when your son asks you, “What is the meaning of the decrees and statutes and ordinances that the Lord, our God, has commanded of you,” ²¹ you are to tell your son, “We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²² The Lord performed signs and wonders in our sight, great and terrible things, that he imposed upon Egypt and upon Pharaoh and upon all of his household. ²³ He brought us out from there so that he might bring us into and give to us the land that he promised to our fathers.

²⁴ “The Lord commanded us to observe all of these statutes and to fear the Lord, our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, even as we are today. ²⁵ If we are diligent in observing all of these commandments before the Lord, our God, as he commanded of us, then this will be our righteousness.”

Chapter 7

Destroying the Nations.^{[k] 1} When the Lord, your God, has brought you into the land that you are entering to take possession of and he has driven out many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations in all, each larger and stronger than you are ² and when the Lord, your God, will have delivered them over to you and you will have defeated them, you are to wipe them out. You are not to make a covenant with them or show them any mercy. ^3 [l]Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons nor take their daughters for your sons. ⁴ They would turn your sons away from serving me to serve other gods and the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you and destroy you in an instant.

⁵ This is what you are to do to them: you are to destroy their altars, tear down their sacred images, cut down their sacred groves, and burn up their idols in fire. ⁶ You are a people holy to the Lord, your God. The Lord, your God, has chosen you from among all the peoples in the world to be his own, a treasured possession. ⁷ The Lord did not delight in you because you were more numerous than these other peoples, for you are actually the least numerous of all people. ⁸ It was because the Lord loved you and was keeping the promise that he had sworn to your fathers that the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the hand of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, from the land of your slavery.

⁹ Keep in mind, therefore, that the Lord, your God, is God. He is a faithful God who keeps his covenant of mercy to the thousandth generation toward those who love him and observe his commandments. ¹⁰ But upon those who hate him, he will avenge himself face to face, wiping them out. He will not delay in avenging himself face to face with those who hate him.^{[m] 11} Therefore, be careful to observe the commandments, statutes, and decrees that I give you today.

¹² Blessings of the Covenant. If you obey these decrees and carefully observe them, then the Lord, your God, will preserve his covenant of mercy with you, as he promised to your forefathers. ¹³ He will love you and bless you and multiply you. He will bless the fruit of your womb and the crops on your land, your grain, your wine and your oil, as well as the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks, in the land that he promised to your forefathers to give to you. ¹⁴ You will be more greatly blessed^[n] than any other people. None of your men or women will be childless, none of your cattle will be without young. ¹⁵ The Lord will protect you from all illnesses. He will not inflict upon you any of the terrible diseases that you encountered in Egypt, but rather he will send them upon everyone who hates you. ¹⁶ You must annihilate all of the people whom the Lord, your God, delivers over to you. Do not look with pity upon them; do not serve their gods, for this would be a snare for you. ^17 [o]You should say to yourselves, “These nations were stronger than we were. How did we ever drive them out?” ¹⁸ Do not be afraid of them. Remember what the Lord, your God, did to Pharaoh and to the whole of Egypt. ¹⁹ You saw with your own eyes the tremendous trials, signs, and wonders, how with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm the Lord, your God, brought you out. The Lord, your God, will do the same things to all of those people of whom you are afraid. ²⁰ The Lord, your God, will destroy them by sending hornets into the midst of those who survived and are hiding. ²¹ Do not be afraid of them, for the Lord, your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God. ²² Little by little the Lord, your God, will drive out those nations before you. You will not be able to eliminate them immediately, lest the wild animals around you multiply too much. ²³ The Lord, your God, will hand them over to you, throwing them into a great confusion until they are totally wiped out. ²⁴ He will deliver kings into your hands, and you will wipe out their names from under the heavens. No one will be able to stand up to you. You will destroy them.

²⁵ You are to burn the idols of their gods in the fire. Do not seek after the gold or the silver that covers them, nor take it for yourselves, lest it become a snare for you. It is an abomination to the Lord, your God. ²⁶ Nor should you bring an abomination into your house, or you, like it, will be set aside for destruction. Loathe and detest it, for it is something that is cursed.

Chapter 8

The Lord’s Kindness.^1 [p]Be diligent in observing all of the commandments that I am giving you today, so that you might live and multiply, and so that you might enter and take possession of the land that the Lord promised to your fathers. ² Remember how the Lord, your God, guided your path through the wilderness for these forty years, abasing you and testing you so that he might know what was in your heart, whether or not you would observe his commandments. ³ He brought you low, allowing you to suffer from hunger. He then fed you with manna, something with which your fathers were not familiar, so that you might come to know that man does not live by bread alone,^[q] but man lives by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord.

⁴ Throughout these forty years your clothing did not wear out nor did your feet swell. ⁵ Thus you could understand that the Lord, your God, was disciplining you, just like a father disciplines his son. ⁶ Therefore, observe the commandments of the Lord, your God. Walk in his ways and fear him. ⁷ The Lord, your God, is bringing you into a good land, a land filled with brooks, fountains, and springs that rush forth from the valleys and the hills. ⁸ It is a land of wheat and barley, of vines, fig trees and pomegranates, a land with olive oil and honey. ⁹ It is a land in which you will not lack bread to eat; you will not lack anything at all. It is a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper.

¹⁰ Warning about Prosperity. When you have eaten your fill and are satisfied, then praise the Lord, your God, for the good land that he has given you. ¹¹ Take heed not to forget the Lord, your God, by not observing his commandments, decrees, and statutes that I have given you today. ¹² Otherwise, when you have eaten your fill and you have built fine houses and are living in them ¹³ and your herds and your flocks have grown large, and your silver and your gold have multiplied, in fact all that you own has multiplied, ¹⁴ then your heart might become proud and you will forget the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the land of your slavery. ¹⁵ He led you through a vast and terrible wilderness where there were snakes and fiery scorpions and thirst, where when there was no water he brought water forth from the hard rock for you. ¹⁶ He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something with which your fathers were not familiar, to abase you and to test you, so that later on it might go well with you.

^17 [r]You might think to yourself, “It is through my strength and the might of my own hand that I have acquired this wealth.” ¹⁸ But remember the Lord, your God, for it is he who has given you the ability to acquire this wealth so that he might confirm the covenant that he made with your fathers, which is still in force today. ¹⁹ But if you forget the Lord, your God, and follow after other gods, serving and worshiping them, then I swear to you today that you will surely perish. ²⁰ You will perish just like the nations that the Lord crushed in your sight, for you would not have been attentive to the voice of the Lord, your God.

Chapter 9

Israel’s Good Fortune. ¹ Hear, O Israel, today you are going to pass over the Jordan to dispossess nations more powerful than you are which have large cities whose walls reach up into the heavens. ² The people are strong and tall, descendants of the Anakim. You know all about them, for you have heard it said, “Who can stand up against the Anakim?”

³ Understand, therefore, that the Lord, your God, is crossing over ahead of you like a devouring fire today. He will destroy them and bring them low before you. Therefore, you will be able to drive them out and annihilate them quickly, just as the Lord has promised you. ⁴ After the Lord, your God, has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, “It was because of my righteousness that the Lord brought me in to take possession of this land.” It is because of the wickedness of the nations that the Lord is going to drive them out before you. ⁵ It is not because of your righteousness or the sincerity of your heart that you are going to take possession of their land. Rather, it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord, your God, will drive them out before you, fulfilling the promise that he made to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ⁶ Understand, therefore, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord, your God, is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked^[s] people.

The Golden Calf. ⁷ Remember, and never forget, how you angered the Lord, your God, in the wilderness from the day that you left the land of Egypt until the day that you arrived here. You have always been rebellious. ⁸ At Horeb you made the Lord so angry that the Lord was angry enough to destroy you. ⁹ When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord had made with you, I stayed up upon the mountain for forty days and forty nights, neither eating food nor drinking water. ¹⁰ The Lord gave me two stone tablets on which the finger of God had written all of the things that the Lord had said to you on the mountain from the midst of the flames on the day of the assembly. ¹¹ At the end of forty days and forty nights, the Lord gave me two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. ¹² Then the Lord said to me, “Arise, hurry down, for your people whom you brought forth out of Egypt has become perverse. They have quickly turned aside from the path that I had directed them to follow and they have made a molten image for themselves.”

¹³ Furthermore, the Lord also said to me, “I have observed this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people. ¹⁴ Leave me alone, so I can destroy them and blot out their name from under the heavens. I will make you a greater and more numerous nation than they are.”

¹⁵ So I turned and climbed down the mountain that was blazing with fire, carrying the two tablets of the covenant in my two hands. ¹⁶ I looked out, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord, your God. You had made a molten calf for yourselves. How quickly you had turned away from the path in which the Lord had directed you. ¹⁷ I took the two tablets and with my two hands cast them down and broke them before your eyes. ¹⁸ Then I fell prostrate before the Lord for forty days and for forty nights.^[t] I did not eat food nor did I drink water on account of all the sins you had committed, doing what was so evil in the sight of the Lord that you provoked him to anger. ¹⁹ I feared the anger and the wrath of the Lord, for he was angry enough at you to destroy you. Yet, the Lord once again listened to me.

²⁰ The Lord was angry enough at Aaron to kill him, but I also prayed for Aaron at the same time. ²¹ I took that sinful thing, the calf that you had made, and I burned it in the fire. I crushed it and ground it so fine that it was like a powder, and I threw that powder into the stream that came down from the mountain. ²² You also angered the Lord at Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah. ²³ Then when the Lord sent you forth from Kadesh-barnea, saying to you, “Go up and take possession of the land that I have given to you,” you despised the command of the Lord, your God. You did not trust him nor listen to his voice. ²⁴ You have despised the Lord from the first day that I knew you.

²⁵ I fell down and lay prostrate before the Lord for forty days and forty nights because the Lord said that he was going to destroy you. ²⁶ I prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, God, do not destroy your people, your own inheritance, whom you redeemed by your great power, and whom you brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²⁷ Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not consider the stubbornness of this people nor the wickedness of their sin. ²⁸ Otherwise, the people of the land from which you brought them will say, ‘The Lord brought them out and put them to death in the desert because he was not able to bring them into the land that he had promised them and also because he hated them.’ ²⁹ Yet, they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out with your great power and your outstretched arm.”

Chapter 10

The Stone Tablets. ¹ The Lord then also told me, “Carve out two stone tablets like the first ones, and come up to me on the mountain. You are also to make an Ark out of wood. ² I will engrave the words that had been on the first tablets that you broke on these tablets. Then you are to place them in the Ark.”

³ I made an Ark out of acacia wood and carved out two tablets like the first ones and climbed up the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. ⁴ He wrote on the tablets what he had written on the previous ones, the ten commandments that the Lord had proclaimed to you on the mountain from the midst of the flames on the day of the assembly. The Lord then gave them to me. ⁵ I climbed down the mountain and placed the tablets in the Ark that I had made, as the Lord had commanded, and they are still there today.

⁶ The Israelites traveled from the wells of Bene-jaakan to Moserah.^[u] There Aaron died, and he was buried there. Eleazer, his son, succeeded him as priest. ⁷ From there they traveled to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land filled with streams of water. ⁸ It was at this time that the Lord set aside the tribe of Levi to carry the Ark of the Covenant, to stand before the Lord to minister to him, and to pronounce blessings in his name, as they do until the present. ⁹ That is why the Levites have no share in the inheritance with their brethren; the Lord is their inheritance, as the Lord, your God, promised them.

¹⁰ Once again I stayed on the mountain for forty days and forty nights, like the first time, and the Lord heard me once again, for the Lord decided not to destroy you. ¹¹ The Lord said to me, “Rise up, proceed on your journey ahead of the people so that they might go in and take possession of the land that I promised to their fathers to give them.”

¹² God’s Steadfast Love.^[v]And so now, O Israel, what does the Lord, your God, require of you but to fear the Lord, your God, to walk in all of his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord, your God, with all your heart and all your soul, ¹³ and to observe the commandments and the statutes that I am giving you today for your own good. ¹⁴ Indeed the heavens and the highest heavens^[w] belong to the Lord, your God, as well as the earth and all that is in it, ¹⁵ yet the Lord’s sole delight was in your fathers. He loved them so much that he chose you, their descendants, above every other nation, which is still true today.

¹⁶ Therefore, circumcise the foreskin of your hearts, and stop being stiff-necked,^{[x] 17} for the Lord, your God, is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, a great God, mighty and awesome, who does not show partiality nor take a bribe. ¹⁸ He ensures justice for the orphan and the widow, and demonstrates his love for the foreigner by giving him food and clothing. ¹⁹ So now, show your love to the foreigner, for you were once foreigners in the land of Egypt.

²⁰ You shall fear the Lord, your God, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him, taking your oaths by his name. ²¹ He is your glory, and he is your God. He has performed great and awesome wonders for you, deeds he performed before your very eyes. ²² Seventy of your ancestors went down into Egypt. Now the Lord, your God, has multiplied you so that you are as numerous as the stars in the sky.

Chapter 11

God’s Mighty Deeds. ¹ You shall love the Lord, your God, and observe his ordinances, his statutes, his decrees, and his commandments always. ² Remember this day, for I am now not speaking with your children, who did not experience the discipline of the Lord, your God, his majesty, his mighty hand and outstretched arm, ³ and the signs and deeds he did in Egypt to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to the whole land, ⁴ what he did to the army of Egypt, to its horses and chariots, how he caused the waters of the Red Sea to flow over them as they pursued you, for the Lord brought a lasting destruction upon them, ⁵ and what he did for you in the wilderness until you arrived here, ⁶ and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab the Reubenite, how he opened a hole in the ground right in the midst of the Israelites that swallowed them up, them and their households and their tents and all of their possessions. ⁷ You have seen with your own eyes all of these great deeds that the Lord has done.

⁸ Therefore, keep all of the commandments that I give you today so that you may be strong and go in and take possession of the land that you are going over to possess ⁹ and so that the Lord may prolong your life in the land that the Lord promised to give to your forefathers and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.

¹⁰ The land that you are entering to take possession of is not like the land of Egypt out of which you have come. There you planted your seeds and watered the plants by hand,^[y] like you would in a vegetable garden. ¹¹ The land that you are entering to take possession of is a land of hills and valleys that obtains its water from the rain of the skies. ¹² It is a land that the Lord, your God, cares for, the Lord, your God, continuously keeps his eyes on it, from the beginning of the year until the end of the year.

^13 [z]If you carefully observe the commandments that I give you today, to love the Lord, your God, and to serve him with all your heart and soul, ¹⁴ then he will provide the rain upon the land in its proper season, the fall rains and the spring rains, so that you can harvest your grain, your wine, and your oil. ¹⁵ I will provide grass in your field for your cattle, so that you may eat until you are full.

¹⁶ Only be careful not to let yourself be enticed, turning away and serving other gods, worshiping them. ¹⁷ Then the Lord’s anger would lash out against you. He would shut up the heavens so that there would be no rain, no produce from the land. Beware lest you soon perish in the good land that the Lord is giving you.

¹⁸ Rewards of Faithfulness. Fix these words in your heart and your soul, bind them as a reminder upon your hand, and wear them as a pendant between your eyes. ¹⁹ You are to teach them to your children. You shall talk of them when you are sitting in your home, and when you are walking along the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up. ²⁰ You are to write them on the doorframes of your houses and your gates ²¹ so that your days and the days of your children will be multiplied in the land that the Lord promised to give them, lasting as long as the heavens cover the earth.

²² If you are careful in observing all of these commandments that I give you, loving the Lord, your God, and walking in all of his ways and holding fast to him, ²³ then the Lord will drive out all of these nations from before you. You will dispossess nations that are larger and stronger than you are. ²⁴ Everywhere that your feet touch the ground shall be yours, from the desert and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, up to the western sea, this will all be your land.^{[aa] 25} No one will be able to stand up to you. The Lord, your God, as he promised you, he has put fear and dread of you upon everyone in the land, wherever you go.

²⁶ Blessing and Curse. Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse. ²⁷ There will be a blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord, your God, that I give you today. ²⁸ There will be a curse if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord, your God, and you turn from the way that I command you today and you seek after other gods whom you have previously not known. ²⁹ When the Lord, your God, has brought you into the land that you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim a blessing on Mount Gerizim and a curse on Mount Ebal. ³⁰ (Are they not on the other side of the Jordan, toward the setting of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah near Gilgal, beside the terebinth of Moreh?)^{[ab] 31} You are to cross over the Jordan and enter in it and take possession of the land that the Lord, your God, has given you. When you have taken possession of it and are living in it, ³² then you are to observe all of the statutes and decrees that I have placed before you today.

The Deuteronomic Code^[ac]

Chapter 12

One Place of Worship.^{[ad] 1} These are the statutes and the decrees that you must be careful to observe in the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you as an inheritance for the whole time that you live upon the earth. ² You must totally destroy all the places where the nations that you shall dispossess served their gods, whether they be on the high mountains or upon the hills or under every green tree. ³ You are to overturn their altars and break their sacred pillars. You must burn their wooden idols in fires, you must cut down their carved idols and obliterate their names from that place. ⁴ This is not the way that you are to worship the Lord, your God.

⁵ You are to seek out the place that the Lord, your God, has chosen from among all the tribes to be where you shall place his name and establish his dwelling. This is where you are to go ⁶ to bring your burnt offering, your sacrifices, your tithes, your wave offerings, what you have vowed to give as a freewill offering, and the firstborn from your herds and flocks. ⁷ There you and your families will eat before the Lord, your God, and you shall rejoice at everything you have put your hand to, for the Lord, your God, will have blessed you. ⁸ You are not to do things the way we do them today, that each person does as he sees fit, ⁹ for you have not yet come to your resting place, the inheritance that the Lord, your God, is giving you. ¹⁰ But when you cross the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord, your God, is giving to you as an inheritance, a place where he will give you peace from all the enemies who surround you so that you can live in safety, ¹¹ then you shall bring everything that I command you to the place that the Lord, your God, will have chosen for the dwelling place of his name: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, your wave offerings, and all of your choice vow offerings that you have vowed onto the Lord. ¹² You and your sons and daughters, your menservants and your maidservants, and the Levite who lives in your town (for he has no claim to your inheritance) will rejoice before the Lord, your God.

¹³ Make sure that you do not offer burnt offerings any place you might happen to see, ¹⁴ but you are to offer burnt offerings in the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes. There you are to fulfill all that I command you to do.

¹⁵ Permissible Slaughter. Nevertheless, you can slaughter animals and eat meat within your town gates with the blessing that the Lord, your God, gives you, as much as you desire. The clean and the unclean may eat of it, the gazelle and the roebuck alike. ¹⁶ Only you are not to consume its blood; you are to pour it on the ground as if it were water.^[ae]

¹⁷ You are not to eat the following things within your town gates: the tithe of the grain, wine, and oil, the firstborn of the herds or flocks, any of the vow offerings you have offered with a vow, any freewill offering and any wave offering. ¹⁸ You are to eat these before the Lord, your God, in the place that the Lord, your God, will have chosen, you and your son and your daughter, your manservant and your maidservant, and the Levite who lives in your town. You are to rejoice before the Lord, your God, in all of your undertakings.

¹⁹ Take heed not to forsake the Levite for as long as you live in the land. ²⁰ When the Lord, your God, enlarges your boundaries, as he has promised that he will do, and you say to yourself, “I am going to eat some meat,”^[af] because you feel like eating some meat, you can eat as much meat as you desire.

²¹ If the place that the Lord, your God, will have chosen to put his name is too far from where you are living, you can kill any animal from the herd or the flock that the Lord has given you, just as I have instructed you. You can eat as much as you want of it within your town gates. ²² You can eat them like you would eat the gazelle or the roebuck. Both the unclean and the clean can eat of it. ²³ Only be careful that you do not consume the blood, for the blood is its life. You are not to eat the life with the meat. ²⁴ You are not to consume the blood; you are to pour it on the ground as if it were water. ²⁵ You are not to eat it, so that things may turn out well for you and your children after you, for you will be doing the right thing from the Lord’s point of view.

²⁶ Take your consecrated things and whatever you have vowed to give, and go to the place that the Lord has chosen. ²⁷ Present your burnt offerings, both the meat and the blood, on the altar of the Lord, your God. You are to pour the blood out on the altar of the Lord, your God, but you can eat the meat. ²⁸ Take heed to observe all of the things that I have commanded you, that things may go well with you and your children forever, when you do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, your God. ²⁹ The Lord, your God, will cut down the nations of the place where you are going before you so that you can dispossess them. When you take their place and settle in their land ³⁰ and they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by asking questions about their gods such as, “How did these nations serve their gods? We should do the same thing as they did.” ³¹ You shall not do these things to the Lord, your God. They have worshiped their gods with every kind of abomination that the Lord hates. They have even offered their sons and daughters as burnt sacrifices to their gods.

Chapter 13

Punishing False Prophets. ¹ Do whatever I command you to do. Do not add anything to it, nor ignore anything from it.

² If a prophet or one who foretells the future through dreams arises among you and performs some miraculous sign or wonder ³ and that miraculous sign or wonder occurs, and he says to you, “Let us seek after other gods which we have not previously known and serve them,” ⁴ you are not to listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer of dreams.^[ag] The Lord, your God, is testing you to see whether you love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and your soul. ⁵ It is the Lord, your God, whom you are to follow. You must fear him and observe his commandments and obey what he tells you and serve him and hold fast to him. ⁶ But that prophet or the one who told the future through dreams is to be put to death for he counseled you to turn away from the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. He was driving you away from the way that the Lord, your God, had ordered must be your path. You must purge this evil from your midst.

^7 [ah]Even if your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or your wife, or your closest friend secretly tempts you saying, “Let us go and serve other gods whom neither you nor your forefathers have known,” ⁸ the gods of the people living around us, whether they be near or far, wherever they are upon the whole face of the earth, ⁹ you are not to agree to do this with him or even listen to him. You must show him no pity, you should not spare or conceal him. ¹⁰ You must put him to death. You must be the first to lay hands on him to put him to death, and then all of the people after you. ¹¹ Stone him to death! He sought to turn you away from the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ¹² Then all of Israel will hear of this and be filled with fear, and no one will ever do such an evil thing again in your midst.

¹³ If you hear it said that in one of the cities that the Lord, your God, has given you to live in ¹⁴ there are evil men who have come out from among you and who have misled the inhabitants of the city saying, “Let us go and serve other gods whom we have not previously known,” ¹⁵ then you will inquire, and probe, and investigate it thoroughly. If it is clearly proven that this detestable thing has been done among you, ¹⁶ you are to put the inhabitants of that city to the sword and you are to demolish it. Destroy everything in it, even killing the cattle with the edge of the sword. ¹⁷ Gather all of the plunder from it in the middle of its streets, and burn the city and all the spoil in it to the ground. It is to be like a burnt offering to the Lord, your God. It is to remain a ruin forever, never to be rebuilt. ¹⁸ You are not to hold on to any of those cursed things, so that the Lord may turn from his fierce anger and show you mercy. He will have compassion on you, and make you numerous, as he promised your fathers, ¹⁹ for you will have heeded the voice of the Lord, your God, and observed all of the commandments that I gave you today and done what the Lord, your God, considered to be right.

Chapter 14

¹ You are the children of the Lord, your God. Do not slash yourselves nor shave the front of your heads on account of the dead.^{[ai] 2} You are a people who are holy to the Lord, your God, and the Lord has picked you out from among all the peoples on the earth to be a chosen people.

Clean and Unclean Food.^{[aj] 3} You are not to eat any abominable thing. ⁴ These are the animals that you can eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, ⁵ the gazelle, the roebuck, the deer, the wild goat, the antelope, the wild ox, and the mountain sheep. ⁶ Every animal that has a cleft hoof, its hoof is divided in two parts, and that chews its cud is an animal that you can eat. ⁷ However, there are animals that chew their cud, or that have a cleft hoof that you cannot eat: the camel, the hare, and the rock badger, for they chew their cud but do not have a cleft hoof, so they are unclean for you. ⁸ Likewise, pigs have a cleft hoof, but they do not chew their cud, so they are unclean for you. You are not to eat their meat, nor even touch their dead carcasses.

⁹ You can eat any water creature that has fins and scales; those you can eat. ¹⁰ Whatever does not have fins or scales, you are not to eat. It is unclean for you.

¹¹ You can eat any clean bird. ¹² These are the birds you shall not eat: the eagle, the bearded vulture, the osprey, ¹³ the hawk, the kite, any type of vulture, ¹⁴ any kind of raven, ¹⁵ the owl, the night hawk, the gull, any type of falcon, ¹⁶ the little owl, the great owl, the barn owl, ¹⁷ the desert owl, the carrion vulture, the cormorant, ¹⁸ the stork, any type of heron, the hoopoe, and the bat. ¹⁹ Every type of flying insect is unclean for you. You shall not eat it, ²⁰ but you can eat any type of clean bird.

²¹ Do not eat anything that died on its own. You can give it to a foreigner who is living in your town, and he can eat it, or you can sell it to a foreigner. But you are a people who are holy to the Lord, your God. You shall not eat a kid goat boiled in its mother’s milk.^[ak]

²² Tithes.^[al]Each year you are to tithe the yield of your seed that has grown in the field. ²³ This is what you shall eat in the presence of the Lord, your God, in the place that he has established that his name be placed: the tithe of your grain, wine, and oil, the firstborn of your herd and flock. This will be a lesson to fear the Lord, your God, always. ²⁴ If the distance is so great that you cannot carry it to the place that the Lord, your God, has chosen to set his name, and the Lord, your God, has blessed you, ²⁵ then you shall exchange it for money, and carry the money to the place that the Lord, your God, has chosen. ²⁶ You can use that money to buy whatever you wish, oxen, or sheep, or wine, or strong drink, whatever you wish. You and your family will consume it in the presence of the Lord, your God, and you will rejoice.

²⁷ You are not to neglect the Levite who lives in your town, for he has no portion or inheritance among you. ^28 [am]Every third year you are to bring all of your tithes from your produce for that year and you will deposit them in your town. ²⁹ The Levite, who has no portion nor inheritance among you, the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow who live in your town will consume it until they are full. Thus, the Lord, your God, will bless you in every endeavor you pursue.

Chapter 15

Goodwill to the Poor.^{[an] 1} At the end of every seven years you are to cancel debts. ² This is how you are to do it. Everyone who has made a loan to his neighbor will forgive the debt. He will not require payment from his neighbor nor his brother, for the Lord’s pardon of debts has been proclaimed. ³ You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must forgive the debt that your brother owes. ⁴ There should be no poor among you, for the Lord will greatly bless you in the land that the Lord, your God, has given you to possess as an inheritance, ⁵ but only if you carefully heed the voice of the Lord, your God, and observe all of the commandments that I give you today. ⁶ The Lord, your God, will bless you as he promised you. You will lend to many nations, but borrow from none. You shall rule over many nations, but none shall rule over you.

⁷ If there is a poor man among you in the towns of the land that the Lord, your God, has given you, do not harden your heart nor be stingy with your poor brother. ⁸ Be generous with him, lending him what he needs, whatever it is he needs. ⁹ Be careful not to harbor the evil thought in your mind, “The seventh year, the time for canceling debts, is near.” Do not show bad will toward your poor brother and end up giving him nothing. He might appeal to the Lord, and it would be your sin. ¹⁰ You must give to him, and you should not have a grudging heart when you give to him. The Lord, your God, will bless you in all the endeavors that you undertake because of what you have given. ¹¹ There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore, I command you, “Be generous to your poor brother and the needy in your land.”

¹² Freeing Slaves. If a fellow Hebrew man or woman sells himself to you and serves for six years, then in the seventh year you are to set him free.^{[ao] 13} When you release him, you are not to send him away empty-handed. ¹⁴ Provide him generously from your flock, your threshing floor, your winepress. Give to him in the same way that the Lord, your God, has blessed you. ¹⁵ Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt, and the Lord, your God, redeemed you. Therefore, I give you this command today.

¹⁶ But if your slave says to you, “I do not want to leave you,” because he loves you and your family and is well off with you, ¹⁷ then take an awl and push it through his ear lobe into the door. He will then be your slave forever. You are to do the same with your maidservants as well. ¹⁸ Do not consider it to be a hardship to set your slave free. You received twice as much from him in the six years as you would have from a hired hand, and the Lord, your God, will bless you in all of your undertakings.

¹⁹ The Firstborn. Set apart for the Lord, your God, the firstborn male from your herds and your flocks. Do not set the firstborn of your oxen to work, nor shear the firstborn of your sheep. ²⁰ Each year you and your family are to eat them before the Lord, your God, in the place that the Lord has chosen. ²¹ If an animal has any blemish, or is lame, or blind, or has any serious flaw, you are not to sacrifice it to the Lord, your God. ²² You can eat it within your own towns.^[ap] The clean and the unclean can eat it, as if it were a gazelle or a roebuck. ²³ But you must not consume its blood, you are to pour it out on the ground as if it were water.

Chapter 16

Feast of the Passover.^{[aq] 1} Observe the month of Abib,^[ar] and celebrate the Passover of the Lord, your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord, your God, brought you forth from Egypt during the night. ² Make a Passover sacrifice from your flock or your herd to the Lord, your God, in the place where the Lord has chosen to place his name. ³ Do not eat leavened bread, but eat unleavened bread for seven days. This is the bread of affliction, for you had to leave the land of Egypt in haste. Thus, all of your life you will remember the day that you came forth from Egypt. ⁴ There should be no leavened bread in your entire land for seven days. Do not let any of the meat of the sacrifice that was made on the first evening remain until the next morning. ^5 [as]You are not to make the Passover sacrifice in any of the towns that the Lord, your God, has given you. ⁶ Do it only in the place that the Lord, your God, has chosen to place his name. You will make the Passover sacrifice in the evening, when the sun goes down, at the time when you went forth out of Egypt. ⁷ Roast the lamb and eat it in the place that the Lord, your God, will choose. Then, in the morning, return to your homes. ⁸ For six days you are to eat unleavened bread. Then, on the seventh day, you will hold a solemn assembly to the Lord, your God, and you are to do no heavy labor.

Feast of Weeks. ⁹ Count off seven weeks from the time that you put the sickle to the standing grain. You are to count off seven weeks, ¹⁰ and then you will celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the Lord, your God, making a freewill offering in proportion to how much the Lord, your God, has blessed you. ¹¹ You and your son and your daughter, your manservant and your maidservant, the Levite who lives in your town, the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow are all to rejoice in the place that the Lord, your God, has chosen to place his name. ¹² Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and carefully observe these statutes.

¹³ Feast of Booths. Celebrate the Feast of Booths for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. ¹⁴ Be joyful at the feast, you and your son and your daughter, your manservant and your maidservant, as well as the Levite, the orphans, and the widows who live in your town. ¹⁵ For seven days you are to celebrate the feast to the Lord, your God, in the place that the Lord will choose, for the Lord, your God, has blessed you with all your harvest and all of the works of your hands. Therefore, you must surely rejoice.

¹⁶ Three times a year all of your men must appear before the Lord, your God, in the place that he will choose: the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Booths. You are not to appear before the Lord empty-handed. ¹⁷ Each of you is to bring a gift that is proportionate to how much the Lord, your God, has blessed you.

¹⁸ Justice.^[at]Appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes in every town that the Lord, your God, gives you. They are to judge the people fairly. ¹⁹ Do not pervert justice nor show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. ²⁰ Seek justice, so that you may live in and inherit the land that the Lord, your God, has given you.

²¹ False Worship. Do not plant any sacred grove beside the altar that you will build to the Lord, your God. ²² Do not set up any sacred pillar, for the Lord, your God, hates these things.

Chapter 17

¹ You shall not sacrifice an ox or a sheep that has any blemish or any defect^[au] whatsoever to the Lord, your God, for that would be an abomination to the Lord, your God. ² If any man or woman is discovered in any of the towns that the Lord, your God, has given you who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord, your God, transgressing his covenant, ³ going over and serving and worshiping other gods, whether it be the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, something that I have forbidden, ⁴ and you are told about it, and you hear of it, then you shall carefully check into it. If it is true, then an abomination has been committed in Israel; ⁵ you are to bring that man or woman who has done this evil thing to the town gates, and you shall stone that man or woman to death.

⁶ A person can be put to death upon the testimony of two or three witnesses; a person is not to be put to death upon the testimony of a single witness. ⁷ The witnesses will be the first to raise their hand against him to put him to death, then all of the people will raise their hands against him, in order to purge this evil from your midst.

Judges. ⁸ If cases come before you that are too difficult to judge, whether concerning bloodshed, or lawsuits, or assault, then take them to the place that the Lord, your God, will choose. ⁹ Go to the priests, the Levites, and the judge whose term it is, and consult with them. They will give you a verdict. ¹⁰ You must proceed according to the verdict that they will have given you at the place that the Lord will choose. Do everything that they tell you to do. ¹¹ Act according to the law that they teach you and the judgment that they render. Do not turn away from the sentence that they pronounce, either to the right or the left. ¹² The man who acts presumptuously by not obeying either the priest who stands before the Lord, your God, to minister there, or the judge, is to die. In this way you will purge the evil from Israel.^{[av] 13} All the people will hear of it and be filled with fear; they will not act presumptuously anymore.

¹⁴ A Suitable King. When you enter the land that the Lord, your God, has given you and you take possession of it and dwell there and you say, “I will set a king over me like all the other nations that surround me,” ¹⁵ you can indeed have a king whom the Lord, your God, will choose. You will make one of your brethren your king, you are not to choose a foreigner as king who is not one of your brethren. ¹⁶ He must not build up a large stable for himself, and he must not send people back to Egypt to procure a large stable, for the Lord has said that you are not to return that way again. ¹⁷ He should also not have many wives, lest his heart be turned astray. He must not accumulate large sums of silver or gold. ¹⁸ When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write a copy of the law that is entrusted to the priests, the Levites for himself on a scroll. ¹⁹ He should read it every day of his life so that he can learn to fear the Lord, his God, and to observe all the words of these laws and statutes, fulfilling them. ²⁰ In this way he will not consider himself to be better than his brethren in his heart, and he will not turn away from the commandments to the right or the left. He and his descendants will thus reign a long time in the kingdom of Israel.

Chapter 18

¹ The priests who are Levites,^[aw] in fact, the whole tribe of Levi, will have no portion nor inheritance with Israel. They can eat from the burnt offerings made to the Lord, that is their inheritance. ² They will have no inheritance among their brethren; the Lord is their inheritance, as he has promised them. ³ This is the portion due to the priest from the people who offer a sacrifice of either an ox or a sheep: the shoulder, the jowl, and the inner organs. ⁴ You will give them the firstfruits of the grain, the wine, and the oil, as well as the first sheering of the sheep ⁵ for the Lord, your God, has chosen him and his sons out of all of the tribes to minister in the Lord’s name forever. ⁶ If any Levite in all of Israel moves from his town where he had been living and he desires to go to the place that the Lord will choose, ⁷ then he may minister in the name of the Lord, his God, like all his fellow Levites who serve there in the presence of the Lord. ⁸ He will be given an equal share in their benefits in addition to the proceeds from the sale of his inheritance.

Forbidden Practices. ⁹ When you enter the land that the Lord, your God, is giving you, you are not to learn to perform the abominations that those nations do. ¹⁰ Let no one among you offer his son or his daughter as a burnt offering, or practice divination, or interpret omens, or practice witchcraft,^{[ax] 11} or cast spells, or act as a medium, or act as a wizard, or seek oracles from the dead. ¹² Whoever does any of these things is an abomination to the Lord. It is because of these abominations that the Lord, your God, is driving them out before you.

¹³ You are to be blameless before the Lord, your God. ¹⁴ These nations that you are dispossessing listened to those who practice witchcraft and the diviners. It is not to be that way among you, for the Lord, your God, does not permit it.

¹⁵ Prophets. The Lord, your God, will raise up from among your countrymen a prophet who will do what I have done for you, and you will listen to him. ¹⁶ This is just as you asked the Lord, your God, at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let me not hear the voice of the Lord, my God, anymore, nor look upon this great fire, lest I die.” ¹⁷ The Lord said to me, “They have spoken well. ¹⁸ I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen who will be like you. I will place my words in his mouth, and he will tell them all that I command him. ¹⁹ I myself will call to account whoever does not heed my words that he will proclaim in my name. ²⁰ But if a prophet presumes to proclaim something in my name that I have not said to him, or he speaks in the names of other gods, that prophet is to be put to death.” ²¹ You might say to yourself, “How can we know that the Lord did not speak the message?” ²² If what the prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord is not true and it does not happen, then the message was not proclaimed by the Lord. The prophet has spoken presumptuously, you should not fear him.^[ay]

Chapter 19

Cities of Refuge. ¹ When the Lord, your God, has destroyed the nations whose land he is giving you, when you have driven them out and you are dwelling in their cities and houses, ^2 [az]then set aside three cities in the land that the Lord, your God, is giving you to possess. ³ Build roads to them, and divide the land that the Lord, your God, is giving you as an inheritance into three parts so that anyone who has killed another can flee to them. ⁴ This is the regulation concerning the one who has killed another and flees there to save his life: one who kills his neighbor unintentionally, who did not previously bear him ill will, ⁵ for example, when a man goes into the woods with his neighbor to cut wood, and as he is swinging the ax to cut down a tree, and the head of the ax flies off and kills the neighbor. That man may flee to one of the cities to save his life. ⁶ Otherwise, the relative who seeks blood vengeance might seek him out while he is still blind with rage, and if the distance be too great he would then be able to catch up with him and kill him even though he did not really deserve to die since he did not bear the man any previous ill will.^{[ba] 7} This is why I command you to set aside three cities for yourselves.

⁸ If the Lord, your God, adds to your territory, as he promised to do to your ancestors, and he gives you all the land that he promised to give to your fathers, ⁹ for you have carefully observed all the commandments that I have given you today, to love the Lord, your God, and always walk in his ways, then you will set aside another three cities beside the first three. ¹⁰ Do this so that innocent blood not be shed in the land that the Lord, your God, is giving you as an inheritance. Thus, you will not be guilty of bloodshed. ¹¹ But if a man bears ill will toward his neighbor and lies in wait for him, and jumps out at him and grievously wounds him so that he dies, and then he flees to one of these cities, ¹² the elders of his town will send after him, bring him back, and hand him over to the relative who seeks blood vengeance so that he might be put to death. ¹³ Show him no pity. You must purge the guilt of shedding innocent blood from your midst so that things may go well with you.

¹⁴ Removing Landmarks. Do not move your neighbor’s boundary stone that was set up long ago to mark your inheritance in the land that the Lord, your God, has given you to possess.

¹⁵ Witnesses. One witness is not enough to convict someone of any crime or any offense that he might have committed. The matter is to be decided by the testimony of two or three witnesses. ¹⁶ If a false witness arises to accuse another of a crime, ¹⁷ the two men involved in the dispute must stand in the presence of the Lord before the priests and judges who are fulfilling their term. ¹⁸ The judges must make a thorough investigation. If a witness proves to be a liar, having falsely testified against another, ¹⁹ then whatever would have been done to the other is to be done to him. You must purge this evil from your midst. ²⁰ The rest of the people will hear of this and be filled with fear and no one will ever do such an evil thing in your midst again. ²¹ Show no pity: a life for a life,^[bb] an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and a foot for a foot.

Chapter 20

Rules of Battle. ¹ When you go out to fight your enemies and you see horses and chariots and more troops than you have, do not be afraid of them on account of the Lord, your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. ² When you are about to go into battle, have the priest approach and speak to the people. ³ He is to say to them, “Hear, O Israel, you are about to go into battle today against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid. Do not tremble or panic before them. ⁴ The Lord, your God, goes forth with you to fight against your enemies to deliver you.” ⁵ The officers will then say to the people: “If anyone has built a house and not yet dedicated it, he is to go home lest he die in battle and another dedicate it. ⁶ And if anyone has planted a vineyard and has not yet enjoyed its fruit, let him go home lest he die in battle and another eat its fruit. ⁷ And if anyone has become betrothed to a woman and has not yet married her, let him go home lest he die in battle and another marry her.”^{[bc] 8} Even then the officers will say to the people, “If anyone is fearful or fainthearted, let him go home lest his brethren become fainthearted as well.”

⁹ When the officers have finished speaking to the people, they are to appoint commanders to lead the people. ¹⁰ When you approach a city to do battle with it, offer it terms of peace. ¹¹ If they accept your terms of peace and open their gates to you, then all the people who live there shall be subject to forced labor done on your behalf. ¹² If they refuse your terms of peace, then you will do battle with them, besieging that city. ¹³ When the Lord, your God, delivers it into your hands, you shall put every man in it to death. ¹⁴ The women, the children, the cattle, and everything else in the city will be plunder to you. You may take as your own the spoil of your enemies that the Lord, your God, has delivered over to you.

¹⁵ This is how you are to deal with all the distant cities, the cities that do not belong to these nations. ¹⁶ But in these cities that the Lord, your God, is giving you as an inheritance, you are not to leave anything alive. ¹⁷ Wipe them out, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, just as the Lord, your God, has commanded you. ¹⁸ Otherwise they will teach you to perform the abominations that they practice when they worship their gods, and you would be sinning against the Lord, your God.

¹⁹ Preserving Trees. When you besiege a city and it lasts a long time, and you do battle with it and capture it, do not cut down its trees with an ax, for you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down! Are trees in the field like people that you would lay siege to them? ²⁰ However, you can cut down those trees that are not fruit trees to use on the siege-works until the city you are fighting falls.

Chapter 21

Sacrifice for Untraceable Killing.^{[bd] 1} If the body of a dead man is found lying on the ground of the land that the Lord, your God, has given you to possess, and it is not known who killed him, ² have your elders and judges go out and measure the distance from the body to the neighboring towns. ³ The elders of the town that is nearest to the body are to take a heifer that has never worked nor worn a yoke. ⁴ The elders of that town will then lead it down to a valley with a flowing stream that has not been plowed nor planted. In that valley they are to slit the heifer’s throat. ⁵ The priests, the sons of Levi, will then come forward, for the Lord, your God, has chosen them to minister to him and to pronounce blessings in the name of the Lord and to decide all disputes and cases of assault. ⁶ The elders of the town that is nearest to the body will wash their hands^[be] over the heifer whose throat had been slit in the valley, ⁷ and they will proclaim, “Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it shed. ⁸ Accept this atonement for your people Israel, O Lord, whom you have redeemed, and do not hold your people responsible for the shedding of innocent blood.” This shall atone for the bloodshed. ⁹ In this way you will have purged yourself of the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you will have done what is right in the sight of the Lord.

¹⁰ Marrying a Female Captive. When you go to war against your enemies and the Lord, your God, delivers them into your hands and you take them captive, ¹¹ if you see a beautiful woman among them and you desire her, you can take her as your wife. ¹² Bring her into your house, and have her shave her head and trim her nails ¹³ and have her throw out the clothes she was wearing when she was taken captive. She is to live in your house for a full month and mourn her father and her mother. Then you may go to her and be her husband and she will be your wife. ¹⁴ If you are not pleased with her, you are to let her go wherever she wishes. You are not to sell her or treat her like a slave, for you have already humbled her.

¹⁵ Law of the Firstborn.^[bf] If a man has two wives, and he loves one and dislikes the other, and they both bear him children, both the one who is loved and the one who is disliked, and the son of the one who is disliked is the firstborn, ¹⁶ then when he gives his inheritance to his sons, he is not to give the rights of the firstborn to the son of the woman he loves in preference to the true firstborn, the son of the woman he dislikes. ¹⁷ He must acknowledge the son of the woman whom he disliked as the firstborn, giving him a double portion of everything that he owned. That son is the first sign of his strength, and the right of firstborn belongs to him.

¹⁸ Punishing a Rebellious Son. If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not listen to his father or his mother, and will not heed them even when he is disciplined, ¹⁹ then his father and mother are to take hold of him and bring him out to the elders at the town gate. ²⁰ They are to say to the town elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not listen to us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” ²¹ Then all the men of that town will stone him to death. You must purge the evil from your midst. All of Israel will hear of it and be filled with fear.

²² Burying a Criminal.^[bg] If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hanging from a tree, ²³ you are not to leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that day, for anyone who is hung from a tree is under God’s curse. You must not desecrate the land that the Lord, your God, is giving you as an inheritance.

Chapter 22

Helping Your Neighbor. ¹ If you see your neighbor’s ox or sheep straying away, do not ignore it, but take it back to your neighbor. ² If your neighbor does not live nearby or you do not know whose animal it is, take it to your own home and keep it there until your neighbor comes looking for it. Then give it back to him. ³ You are to do the same if you find his donkey or his cloak or anything that your neighbor loses. You are not to ignore it. ⁴ If you see your neighbor’s donkey or ox fall on the road, do not ignore it. Help him to get it up again.

Incidental Rules. ⁵ A woman is not to wear a man’s clothing, nor is a man to wear a woman’s clothing. The Lord, your God, detests all who do such things.^[bh]

⁶ If you come across a bird’s nest with young ones or eggs along the way, either in a tree or lying on the ground, and the mother bird is sitting upon the young ones or the eggs, do not take the mother with the young. ⁷ You can take the young ones, but let the mother go, so that things may go well with you and you may live a long life.

⁸ When you build a new house, place a parapet around your roof so that you do not bring blood guilt upon your house if anyone should fall from it.

⁹ You should not plant two different types of seed in your vineyard. If you do, the fruit of the seed you planted and the fruit in your vineyard will both be defiled.

¹⁰ Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.

¹¹ Do not wear clothing made of wool and linen woven together.

¹² You are to make fringes on the four corners of the garment with which you cover yourself.^[bi]

¹³ Rules for Sexual Relationships. If a man takes a woman and has sex with her, but then he grows to hate her ¹⁴ and he charges her with shameful deeds and publicly defames her name saying, “I married this woman, but when I approached her I discovered that she was not a virgin,” ¹⁵ have the father and mother of the young woman give proof of the young woman’s virginity to the elders at the town gate.^{[bj] 16} The young woman’s father will say to the elders, “I gave my daughter to this man to be his wife, and he has grown to hate her. ¹⁷ Now he has slandered her saying, ‘I discovered that your daughter was not a virgin.’ Here is proof of my daughter’s virginity.” They will then spread the cloth out before the elders. ¹⁸ The elders will take the man and punish him. ¹⁹ They will fine him one hundred shekels of silver and give them to the father of the young woman because this man defamed the name of one of the virgins of Israel. She will continue to be his wife, and he cannot divorce her as long as he lives. ²⁰ If, however, the charge is true and there is no proof of the young woman’s virginity, ²¹ she is to be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of the town will stone her to death. She did a disgraceful thing in Israel, committing fornication in her father’s house. You must purge this evil from your midst.^[bk]

²² If a man is discovered sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with the woman and the woman must be put to death. You must purge the evil from Israel.

²³ If a man encounters a young woman who is betrothed to another man and he sleeps with her, ²⁴ you shall take both of them to the city gate and stone them to death, the young woman because she was inside of the city and did not cry out, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you.

²⁵ But if a man encounters a young woman betrothed to another man in the countryside and he overcomes her and has sex with her, then only the man who has done this is to die. ²⁶ Do nothing to the young woman, for she has not committed a sin deserving death. This matter is just like when a man attacks and murders his neighbor, ²⁷ for the man found the young woman in the countryside, and though the betrothed might have screamed out, there was no one there to rescue her.

²⁸ If a man encounters a young woman who is a virgin but she is not betrothed, and he overcomes her and has sex with her and they are discovered, ²⁹ he must pay the young woman’s father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her, and he can never divorce her for as long as he lives.

Chapter 23

¹ A man shall not marry his father’s wife; he is not to dishonor his father’s bed.^[bl]

Membership Exclusions. ² No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting can enter the assembly of the Lord.^{[bm] 3} No one who is illegitimate^[bn] can enter the assembly of the Lord, nor can his descendants to the tenth generation enter the assembly of the Lord. ⁴ No Ammonite or Moabite can enter the assembly of the Lord, even their descendants to the tenth generation cannot enter the assembly of the Lord ⁵ for they did not greet you with bread and water as you were on your way when you came forth out of Egypt. They hired Balaam, the son of Beor who came from Pethor in Mesopotamia to curse you. ⁶ However, the Lord, your God, would not listen to Balaam. The Lord, your God, turned a curse upon you into a blessing, for the Lord, your God, loved you. ⁷ Do not establish a treaty of friendship with them as long as you live.

⁸ Do not detest an Edomite, for he is your brother. Do not detest an Egyptian, for you lived as a foreigner in his land. ⁹ The third generation of children born to them can enter the assembly of the Lord.

¹⁰ Camp Sanitation. When you are encamped against your enemies, stay away from everything that is impure. ¹¹ If one of your men among you is unclean because of a nocturnal emission, let him move outside of the camp. He is not to enter the camp. ¹² When evening arrives, he is to wash himself with water, and he can come back inside of the camp.

¹³ Designate a place outside of the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. ¹⁴ You shall have an implement with your equipment so that when you relieve yourself, you can dig a hole and cover over your excrement.

¹⁵ The Lord, your God, walks among you in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies up to you, so your camp must be holy, lest he see something unclean among you and turn away from you.

¹⁶ Incidental Rules. If a slave has taken refuge from his master with you, you are not to hand him over to his master. ¹⁷ Let him live with you wherever he chooses, in whatever town he chooses. You are not to oppress him.

¹⁸ No Israelite woman is to become a sacred prostitute, nor is an Israelite man to be a sacred prostitute. ¹⁹ You are not to bring the wages of a female prostitute or a male prostitute^[bo] into the shrine of the Lord, your God, to pay for any vow. Both of these are abominations to the Lord, your God.

^20 [bp]Do not charge your brother interest, whether it be on money or food or anything else that could earn interest. ²¹ You can charge a foreigner interest, but you cannot charge a brother interest. For this you will be blessed by the Lord, your God, in everything that you undertake in the land that you are entering to possess.

²² If you make a vow to the Lord, your God, do not be lax in paying it off, for the Lord, your God, will certainly require it of you, and you would be guilty of a sin. ²³ But if you fail to make a vow, there is no sin. ²⁴ Whatever your lips utter, you must do, for you have vowed a freewill offering to the Lord, your God, with your own mouth.

²⁵ If you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you can eat as many grapes as you want, but you are not to put any in a basket. ²⁶ If you enter your neighbor’s grain fields, you can pluck the kernels with your hands, but you are not to take a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain.

Chapter 24

Marriage Laws.^{[bq] 1} If a man marries a woman, and after they are married she becomes displeasing to him because he has discovered something indecent about her, and he writes a bill of divorce and puts it in her hand, and he sends her forth from his house, ² then after she has left his house, she can become the wife of another man. ³ If this second husband is displeased with her and writes her a bill of divorce and he puts it in her hand and he sends her forth from his house, or if the second man who took her to be his wife should die, ⁴ then her first husband who had sent her away cannot take her back to be his wife again, for she has been defiled. This would be an abomination to the Lord. You shall not cause the sin to come upon the land that the Lord, your God, is giving to you as an inheritance.

⁵ If a man has recently been married, he is not to go off to battle nor have any other duty laid on him. He will be free to stay at home for one year so that he can bring happiness to the wife whom he has married.

Additional Laws. ⁶ Do not take a lower or upper millstone as a pledge against a debt, for that would mean that you were taking the man’s livelihood as a pledge.^[br]

⁷ If anyone kidnaps one of his fellow Israelites, mistreating him and selling him, then that kidnapper is to be put to death, and you shall purge the evil from your midst.

⁸ During an outbreak of leprosy, take heed to observe and carefully fulfill all that the priests, the Levites, tell you to do. Observe what they command of you and do it. ⁹ Remember what the Lord, your God, did to Miriam on the way after you came up out of Egypt.

¹⁰ Be willing to lend your brother anything, and do not go to his house to obtain his pledge against the loan. ¹¹ Stand outside his house, and the man to whom you made the loan will bring the pledge out to you. ¹² If a man is poor, you are not to keep his pledge overnight. ¹³ You are to return his pledge to him when the sun goes down so that he can sleep in his own garment and bless you. This is righteous to the Lord, your God.

¹⁴ You shall not oppress a hired hand who is poor and needy, whether he be one of your brethren or a foreigner who lives on the land within your town gates. ¹⁵ You are to give him his wages on the same day before the sun goes down, for he is poor and he has his heart set on it. Otherwise he might cry out against you to the Lord and it would be your sin.

¹⁶ Fathers are not to be put to death in the place of their sons, nor are sons to be put to death in place of their fathers. Each man is to be put to death for his own sin.

¹⁷ You are not to pervert justice toward a foreigner or an orphan, nor are you to take a widow’s garment as a pledge against a loan. ¹⁸ Remember that you were once a slave in Egypt and the Lord, your God, redeemed you from there. This is why I command you to do this.

¹⁹ When you reap a harvest in the field and you miss a sheaf of grain, do not turn around to take it. Leave it for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow. Then you will be blessed by the Lord, your God, in all of your undertakings. ²⁰ When you beat your olive trees, do not go back over the branches a second time. Leave it for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow. ²¹ When you harvest grapes in your vineyard, do not go back over it a second time. Leave it for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow. ²² Remember that you were once a slave in the land of Egypt. This is why I command you to do this.