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17 “You must not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep that has a defect, anything seriously wrong, for that is abhorrent to the Lord your God.(A)

“If there is found among you, in one of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God and transgresses his covenant(B) by going to serve other gods and worshiping them—whether the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have forbidden— and if it is reported to you or you hear of it, and you make a thorough inquiry, and the charge is proved true that such an abhorrent thing has occurred in Israel,(C) then you shall bring out to your gates that man or that woman who has committed this crime, and you shall stone the man or woman to death. On the evidence of two or three witnesses the death sentence shall be executed; a person must not be put to death on the evidence of only one witness.(D) The hands of the witnesses shall be the first raised against the person to execute the death penalty and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.(E)

Legal Decisions by Priests and Judges

“If a judicial decision is too difficult for you to make between one kind of bloodshed and another, one kind of legal right and another, or one kind of assault and another—any such matters of dispute in your towns—then you shall immediately go up to the place that the Lord your God will choose,(F) where you shall consult with the Levitical priests and the judge who is in office in those days; they shall announce to you the decision in the case.(G) 10 Carry out exactly the decision that they announce to you from the place that the Lord will choose, diligently observing everything they instruct you. 11 You must carry out the law that they interpret for you or the ruling that they announce to you; do not turn aside from the decision that they announce to you, either to the right or to the left.(H) 12 As for anyone who presumes to disobey the priest appointed to minister there to the Lord your God or the judge, that person shall die. So you shall purge the evil from Israel. 13 All the people will hear and be afraid and will not act presumptuously again.(I)

Limitations of Royal Authority

14 “When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, ‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’(J) 15 you may indeed set over you a king whom the Lord your God will choose. One of your own community you may set as king over you; you are not permitted to put a foreigner over you, who is not of your own community.(K) 16 Even so, he must not acquire many horses for himself or return the people to Egypt in order to acquire more horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You must never return that way again.’(L) 17 And he must not acquire many wives for himself or else his heart will turn away; also silver and gold he must not acquire in great quantity for himself.(M) 18 When he has taken the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests.(N) 19 It shall remain with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, diligently observing all the words of this law and these statutes,(O) 20 neither exalting himself above other members of the community nor turning aside from the commandment, either to the right or to the left, so that he and his descendants may reign long over his kingdom in Israel.(P)

Privileges of Priests and Levites

18 “The Levitical priests, the whole tribe of Levi, shall have no allotment or inheritance within Israel. They may eat the offerings by fire[a] that are the Lord’s portion,[b](Q) but they shall have no inheritance among the other members of the community; the Lord is their inheritance, as he promised them.

“This shall be the priests’ due from the people, from those offering a sacrifice, whether an ox or a sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder, the two jowls, and the stomach.(R) The first fruits of your grain, your wine, and your oil, as well as the first of the fleece of your sheep, you shall give him.(S) For the Lord your God has chosen Levi[c] out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons for all time.(T)

“If a Levite leaves any of your towns, from wherever he has been residing in Israel, and comes to the place that the Lord will choose (and he may come whenever he wishes), then he may minister in the name of the Lord his God, like all his fellow-Levites who stand to minister there before the Lord. They shall have equal portions to eat, even though they have income from the sale of family possessions.[d](U)

Child-Sacrifice, Divination, and Magic Prohibited

“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you must not learn to imitate the abhorrent practices of those nations.(V) 10 No one shall be found among you who makes a son or daughter pass through fire, or who practices divination, or is a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer,(W) 11 or one who casts spells, or who consults ghosts or spirits, or who seeks oracles from the dead. 12 For whoever does these things is abhorrent to the Lord; it is because of such abhorrent practices that the Lord your God is driving them out before you.(X) 13 You must remain completely loyal to the Lord your God. 14 Although these nations that you are about to dispossess do give heed to soothsayers and diviners, as for you, the Lord your God does not permit you to do so.

A New Prophet Like Moses

15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet.[e](Y) 16 This is what you requested of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’(Z) 17 Then the Lord replied to me, ‘They are right in what they have said.(AA) 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet,[f] who shall speak to them everything that I command.(AB) 19 Anyone who does not heed the words that the prophet[g] shall speak in my name, I myself will hold accountable.(AC) 20 But any prophet who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded the prophet to speak or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’(AD) 21 You may say to yourself, ‘How can we recognize a word that the Lord has not spoken?’ 22 If a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord but the thing does not take place or prove true, it is a word that the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; do not be frightened by it.(AE)

Laws concerning the Cities of Refuge

19 “When the Lord your God has cut off the nations whose land the Lord your God is giving you and you have dispossessed them and settled in their towns and in their houses,(AF) you shall set apart three cities in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.(AG) You shall calculate the distances[h] and divide into three regions the land that the Lord your God gives you as a possession, so that any homicide can flee to one of them.

“Now this is the case of a homicide who might flee there and live, that is, someone who has killed another person unintentionally when the two had not been at enmity before.(AH) Suppose someone goes into the forest with another to cut wood, and when one of them swings the ax to cut down a tree, the head slips from the handle and strikes the other person, who then dies; the killer may flee to one of these cities and live. But if the distance is too great, the avenger of blood in hot anger might pursue and overtake and put the killer to death, although a death sentence was not deserved, since the two had not been at enmity before.(AI) Therefore I command you: You shall set apart three cities.

“If the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he swore to your ancestors—and he will give you all the land that he promised your ancestors to give you, provided you diligently observe this entire commandment that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God and walking always in his ways—then you shall add three more cities to these three,(AJ) 10 so that the blood of an innocent person may not be shed in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, thereby bringing bloodguilt upon you.(AK)

11 “But if someone at enmity with another lies in wait and attacks and takes the life of that person and flees into one of these cities, 12 then the elders of the killer’s city shall send to have the culprit taken from there and handed over to the avenger of blood to be put to death. 13 Show no pity; you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, so that it may go well with you.(AL)

Property Boundaries

14 “You must not move your neighbor’s boundary marker, set up by former generations, on the property that will be allotted to you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.(AM)

Law concerning Witnesses

15 “A single witness shall not suffice to convict a person of any crime or wrongdoing in connection with any offense that may be committed. Only on the evidence of two or three witnesses shall a charge be sustained.(AN) 16 If a malicious witness comes forward to accuse someone of wrongdoing,(AO) 17 then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days,(AP) 18 and the judges shall make a thorough inquiry. If the witness is a false witness, having testified falsely against another, 19 then you shall do to the false witness just as the false witness had meant to do to the other. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.(AQ) 20 The rest shall hear and be afraid, and a crime such as this shall never again be committed among you. 21 Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.(AR)

Rules of Warfare

20 “When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots, an army larger than your own, do not fear them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.(AS) Before you engage in battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the troops and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel! Today you are drawing near to do battle against your enemies. Do not lose heart or be afraid or panic or be in dread of them,(AT) for it is the Lord your God who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to give you victory.’(AU) Then the officers shall address the troops, saying, ‘Has anyone built a new house but not dedicated it? He should go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another dedicate it. Has anyone planted a vineyard but not yet enjoyed its fruit? He should go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another be first to enjoy its fruit.(AV) Has anyone become engaged to a woman but not yet married her? He should go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another marry her.’(AW) The officers shall continue to address the troops, saying, ‘Is anyone afraid or disheartened? He should go back to his house, or he might cause the heart of his comrades to melt like his own.’(AX) When the officers have finished addressing the troops, then the commanders shall take charge of them.

10 “When you draw near to a town to fight against it, offer it terms of peace.(AY) 11 If it accepts your terms of peace and surrenders to you, then all the people in it shall serve you at forced labor. 12 But if it does not accept your terms of peace and makes war against you, then you shall besiege it, 13 and when the Lord your God gives it into your hand, you shall put all its males to the sword. 14 You may, however, take as your plunder the women, the children, livestock, and everything else in the town, all its spoil. You may enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you.(AZ) 15 Thus you shall treat all the towns that are very far from you, which are not towns of these nations here. 16 But as for the towns of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not let anything that breathes remain alive.(BA) 17 Indeed, you shall annihilate them—the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites—just as the Lord your God has commanded, 18 so that they may not teach you to do all the abhorrent things that they do for their gods and you thus sin against the Lord your God.(BB)

19 “If you besiege a town for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you must not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them. Although you may take food from them, you must not cut them down. Are trees in the field human beings that they should come under siege from you? 20 You may destroy only the trees that you know do not produce food; you may cut them down for use in building siegeworks against the town that makes war with you, until it falls.

Law concerning Murder by Persons Unknown

21 “If, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess, a body is found lying in open country, and it is not known who struck the person down,(BC) then your elders and your judges shall come out to measure the distances to the towns that are near the body. The elders of the town nearest the body shall take a heifer that has never been worked, one that has not pulled in the yoke; the elders of that town shall bring the heifer down to a wadi with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the wadi. Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall 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 by their decision all cases of dispute and assault shall be settled.(BD) All the elders of that town nearest the body shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the wadi, and they shall declare, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor were we witnesses to it. Absolve, O Lord, your people Israel, whom you redeemed; do not let the guilt of innocent blood remain in the midst of your people Israel.’ Then they will be absolved of bloodguilt.(BE) So you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, because you must do what is right in the sight of the Lord.(BF)

Female Captives

10 “When you go out to war against your enemies and the Lord your God hands them over to you and you take them captive, 11 suppose you see among the captives a beautiful woman whom you desire and want to marry, 12 and so you bring her home to your house: she shall shave her head, pare her nails,(BG) 13 discard her captive’s garb, and remain in your house a full month mourning for her father and mother; after that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. 14 But if you are not satisfied with her, you shall let her go free and certainly not sell her for money. You must not treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.

The Right of the Firstborn

15 “If a man has two wives, one of them loved and the other disliked, and if both the loved and the disliked have borne him sons, the firstborn being the son of the one who is disliked, 16 then on the day when he wills his possessions to his sons, he is not permitted to treat the son of the loved as the firstborn in preference to the son of the disliked, who is the firstborn.(BH) 17 He must acknowledge as firstborn the son of the one who is disliked, giving him a double portion[i] of all that he has; since he is the first issue of his virility, the right of the firstborn is his.(BI)

Rebellious Children

18 “If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father and mother, who does not heed them when they discipline him,(BJ) 19 then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town at the gate of that place. 20 They shall say to the elders of his town, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.’ 21 Then all the men of the town shall stone him to death. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.(BK)

Miscellaneous Laws

22 “When someone is convicted of a crime punishable by death and is executed and you hang him on a tree, 23 his corpse must not remain all night upon the tree; you must bury him that same day, for anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land that the Lord your God is giving you for possession.(BL)

22 “You shall not watch your neighbor’s ox or sheep straying away and ignore them; you shall take them back to their owner.(BM) If the owner does not reside near you or you do not know who the owner is, you shall bring it to your own house, and it shall remain with you until the owner claims it; then you shall return it. You shall do the same with a neighbor’s donkey; you shall do the same with a neighbor’s garment; and you shall do the same with anything else that your neighbor loses and you find. You may not withhold your help.

“You shall not see your neighbor’s donkey or ox fallen on the road and ignore it; you shall help to lift it up.(BN)

“A woman shall not wear a man’s apparel, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment, for whoever does such things is abhorrent to the Lord your God.

“If you come on a bird’s nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs, with the mother sitting on the fledglings or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young.(BO) Let the mother go, taking only the young for yourself, in order that it may go well with you and you may live long.(BP)

“When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof; otherwise you might have bloodguilt on your house, if anyone should fall from it.

“You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, or the whole yield will be forbidden, both the crop that you have sown and the yield of the vineyard itself.(BQ)

10 “You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.

11 “You shall not wear clothes made of wool and linen woven together.(BR)

12 “You shall make tassels on the four corners of the cloak with which you cover yourself.(BS)

Laws concerning Sexual Relations

13 “Suppose a man marries a woman but after going in to her dislikes her(BT) 14 and makes up charges against her, slandering her by saying, ‘I married this woman, but when I lay with her, I did not find evidence of her virginity.’ 15 The father of the young woman and her mother shall then submit the evidence of the young woman’s virginity to the elders of the city at the gate.(BU) 16 The father of the young woman shall say to the elders: ‘I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he dislikes her, 17 and now he has made up charges against her, saying, “I did not find evidence of your daughter’s virginity.” But here is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ Then they shall spread out the cloth before the elders of the town. 18 The elders of that town shall take the man and punish him; 19 they shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver (which they shall give to the young woman’s father) because he has slandered a virgin of Israel. She shall remain his wife; he shall not be permitted to divorce her as long as he lives.

20 “If, however, this charge is true, that evidence of the young woman’s virginity was not found, 21 then they shall bring the young woman out to the entrance of her father’s house, and the men of her town shall stone her to death, because she committed a disgraceful act in Israel by prostituting herself in her father’s house. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.(BV)

22 “If a man is discovered lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman as well as the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.(BW)

23 “If there is a young woman, a virgin already engaged to be married, and a man meets her in the town and lies with her, 24 you shall bring both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death, the young woman because she did not cry for help in the town and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.(BX)

25 “But if the man meets the engaged woman in the open country and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die.(BY) 26 You shall do nothing to the young woman; the young woman has not committed an offense punishable by death, because this case is like that of someone who attacks and murders a neighbor. 27 Since he found her in the open country, the engaged woman may have cried for help, but there was no one to rescue her.

28 “If a man meets a virgin who is not engaged and seizes her and lies with her, and they are discovered,(BZ) 29 the man who lay with her shall give fifty shekels of silver to the young woman’s father, and she shall become his wife. Because he violated her, he shall not be permitted to divorce her as long as he lives.

30 [j]“A man shall not marry his father’s wife, thereby violating his father’s rights.[k](CA)

Those Excluded from the Assembly

23 “No one whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off shall come into the assembly of the Lord.

“Those born of an illicit union shall not come into the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of their descendants shall come into the assembly of the Lord.

“No Ammonite or Moabite shall come into the assembly of the Lord even to the tenth generation. None of their descendants shall come into the assembly of the Lord forever, because they did not meet you with food and water on your journey out of Egypt and because they hired against you Balaam son of Beor, from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. (Yet the Lord your God refused to heed Balaam; the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you.) You shall never promote their welfare or their prosperity as long as you live.

“You shall not abhor any of the Edomites, for they are your kin. You shall not abhor any of the Egyptians, because you were an alien residing in their land. The children of the third generation that are born to them may come into the assembly of the Lord.

Sanitary, Ritual, and Humanitarian Precepts

“When you are encamped against your enemies, you shall guard against every evil thing.

10 “If one of you becomes unclean because of a nocturnal emission, then he shall go outside the camp; he must not come within the camp. 11 When evening comes, he shall wash himself with water, and when the sun has set, he may come back into the camp.

12 “You shall have a designated area outside the camp to which you shall go. 13 With your tools you shall have a trowel; when you relieve yourself outside, you shall dig a hole with it and then cover up your excrement. 14 Because the Lord your God travels along with your camp, to save you and to hand over your enemies to you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you.

15 “You shall not return to their owners slaves who have escaped to you from their owners. 16 They shall reside with you, in your midst, in any place they choose in any one of your towns, wherever they please; you shall not oppress them.

17 “None of the daughters of Israel shall serve in an illicit shrine; none of the sons of Israel shall serve in an illicit shrine.(CB) 18 You shall not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a dog into the house of the Lord your God in payment for any vow, for both of these are abhorrent to the Lord your God.

19 “You shall not charge interest on loans to another Israelite,[l] interest on money, interest on provisions, interest on anything that is lent.(CC) 20 On loans to a foreigner you may charge interest, but on loans to another Israelite[m] you may not charge interest, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all your undertakings in the land that you are about to enter and possess.(CD)

21 “If you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not postpone fulfilling it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you would incur guilt.(CE) 22 But if you refrain from vowing, you will not incur guilt. 23 Whatever your lips utter you must diligently perform, just as you have freely vowed to the Lord your God with your own mouth.

24 “If you go into your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as many as you wish, but you shall not put any in a container.

25 “If you go into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain.(CF)

Laws concerning Marriage and Divorce

24 “Suppose a man enters into marriage with a woman but she does not please him because he finds something objectionable about her, so he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house; she then leaves his house and goes off to become another man’s wife.(CG) Then suppose the second man dislikes her, writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house (or the second man who married her dies): her first husband, who sent her away, is not permitted to take her again to be his wife after she has been defiled, for that would be abhorrent to the Lord, and you shall not bring guilt on the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a possession.(CH)

Miscellaneous Laws

“When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be charged with any related duty. He shall be free at home one year, to be happy with the wife whom he has married.(CI)

“No one shall take a mill or an upper millstone in pledge, for that would be taking a life in pledge.

“If someone is caught kidnaping another Israelite, enslaving or selling the Israelite, then that kidnaper shall die. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.(CJ)

“Guard against an outbreak of a defiling skin disease by being very careful; you shall carefully observe whatever the Levitical priests instruct you, just as I have commanded them.(CK) Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on your journey out of Egypt.(CL)

10 “When you make your neighbor a loan of any kind, you shall not go into the house to take the pledge. 11 You shall wait outside while the person to whom you are making the loan brings the pledge out to you. 12 If the person is poor, you shall not sleep in the garment given you as[n] the pledge. 13 You shall give the pledge back by sunset, so that your neighbor may sleep in the cloak and bless you, and it will be to your credit before the Lord your God.(CM)

14 “You shall not withhold the wages of poor and needy laborers, whether other Israelites or aliens who reside in your land in one of your towns.(CN) 15 You shall pay them their wages daily before sunset, because they are poor and their livelihood depends on them; otherwise they might cry to the Lord against you, and you would incur guilt.(CO)

16 “Parents shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their parents; only for their own crimes may persons be put to death.(CP)

17 “You shall not deprive a resident alien or an orphan of justice; you shall not take a widow’s garment in pledge.(CQ) 18 Remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this.(CR)

19 “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be left for the alien, the orphan, and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all your undertakings.(CS) 20 When you beat your olive trees, do not strip what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow.(CT)

21 “When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, do not glean what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow. 22 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I am commanding you to do this.(CU)

25 “Suppose two persons have a dispute and enter into litigation, and the judges decide between them, declaring one to be in the right and the other to be in the wrong.(CV) If the one in the wrong deserves to be flogged, the judge shall make that person lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of lashes proportionate to the offense. Forty lashes may be given but not more; if more lashes than these are given, your neighbor will be degraded in your sight.(CW)

“You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.(CX)

Levirate Marriage

“When brothers reside together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her, taking her in marriage and performing the duty of a husband’s brother to her,(CY) and the firstborn whom she bears shall succeed to the name of the deceased brother, so that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.(CZ) But if the man has no desire to marry his brother’s widow, then his brother’s widow shall go up to the elders at the gate and say, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to perpetuate his brother’s name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me.’(DA) Then the elders of his town shall summon him and speak to him. If he persists, saying, ‘I have no desire to marry her,’(DB) then his brother’s wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, pull his sandal off his foot, spit in his face, and declare, ‘This is what is done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.’(DC) 10 Throughout Israel his family shall be known as ‘the house of him whose sandal was pulled off.’

Various Commands

11 “If men get into a fight with one another and the wife of one intervenes to rescue her husband from the grip of his opponent by reaching out and seizing his genitals, 12 you shall cut off her hand; show no pity.

13 “You shall not have in your bag two kinds of weights, large and small.(DD) 14 You shall not have in your house two kinds of measures, large and small. 15 You shall have only a full and honest weight; you shall have only a full and honest measure, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 16 For all who do such things, all who act dishonestly, are abhorrent to the Lord your God.(DE)

17 “Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey out of Egypt,(DF) 18 how he attacked you on the way, when you were faint and weary, and struck down all who lagged behind you; he did not fear God. 19 Therefore when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies on every hand, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; do not forget.(DG)

First Fruits and Tithes

26 “When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess and you possess it and settle in it, you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name.(DH) You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘Today I declare to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.’ When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the Lord your God, you shall make this response before the Lord your God: ‘A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous.(DI) When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us,(DJ) we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.(DK) The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders;(DL) and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.(DM) 10 So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me.’ You shall set it down before the Lord your God and bow down before the Lord your God. 11 Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.(DN)

12 “When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year (which is the year of the tithe), giving it to the Levites, the aliens, the orphans, and the widows, so that they may eat their fill within your towns,(DO) 13 then you shall say before the Lord your God, ‘I have removed the sacred portion from the house, and I have given it to the Levites, the resident aliens, the orphans, and the widows, in accordance with your entire commandment that you commanded me; I have neither transgressed nor forgotten any of your commandments:(DP) 14 I have not eaten of it while in mourning; I have not removed any of it while I was unclean; and I have not offered any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the Lord my God, doing just as you commanded me.(DQ) 15 Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel and the ground that you have given us, as you swore to our ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey.’

Concluding Exhortation

16 “This very day the Lord your God is commanding you to observe these statutes and ordinances, so observe them diligently with all your heart and with all your soul.(DR) 17 Today you have obtained the Lord’s agreement: to be your God; and for you to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, and his ordinances, and to obey him. 18 Today the Lord has obtained your agreement: to be his treasured people, as he promised you, and to keep all his commandments;(DS) 19 for him to set you high above all nations that he has made, in praise and in fame and in honor; and for you to be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised.”(DT)

The Inscribed Stones and Altar on Mount Ebal

27 Then Moses and the elders of Israel charged all the people as follows: “Keep the entire commandment that I am commanding you today. On the day that you cross over the Jordan into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall set up large stones and cover them with plaster.(DU) You shall write on them all the words of this law when you have crossed over, to enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you.(DV) So when you have crossed over the Jordan, you shall set up these stones about which I am commanding you today on Mount Ebal, and you shall cover them with plaster. And you shall build an altar there to the Lord your God, an altar of stones on which you have not used an iron tool.(DW) You must build the altar of the Lord your God of unhewn[o] stones. Then offer up burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God; make sacrifices of well-being, and eat them there, rejoicing before the Lord your God. You shall write on the stones all the words of this law very clearly.”

Then Moses and the Levitical priests spoke to all Israel, saying, “Keep silence and hear, O Israel! This very day you have become the people of the Lord your God.(DX) 10 Therefore obey the Lord your God, observing his commandments and his statutes that I am commanding you today.”

Twelve Curses

11 The same day Moses charged the people as follows: 12 “When you have crossed over the Jordan, these shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin.(DY) 13 And these shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. 14 Then the Levites shall declare in a loud voice to all the Israelites,

15 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who makes an idol or casts an image, anything abhorrent to the Lord, the work of an artisan, and sets it up in secret.’ All the people shall respond, saying, ‘Amen!’(DZ)

16 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who dishonors father or mother.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen!’(EA)

17 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who moves a neighbor’s boundary marker.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen!’(EB)

18 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who misleads a blind person on the road.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen!’(EC)

19 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who deprives an alien, an orphan, or a widow of justice.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen!’(ED)

20 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who lies with his father’s wife, because he has violated his father’s rights.’[p] All the people shall say, ‘Amen!’(EE)

21 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who lies with any animal.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen!’(EF)

22 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who lies with his sister, whether the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen!’(EG)

23 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who lies with his mother-in-law.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen!’(EH)

24 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who strikes down a neighbor in secret.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen!’(EI)

25 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who takes a bribe to shed innocent blood.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen!’(EJ)

26 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who does not uphold the words of this law by observing them.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen!’(EK)

Blessings for Obedience

28 “If you will only obey the Lord your God, by diligently observing all his commandments that I am commanding you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth;(EL) all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the Lord your God:

“Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field.(EM)

“Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your livestock, both the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock.(EN)

“Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

“Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.

“The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.(EO) The Lord will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you undertake; he will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways.(EP) 10 All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you.(EQ) 11 The Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground in the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give you.(ER) 12 The Lord will open for you his rich storehouse, the heavens, to give the rain of your land in its season and to bless all your undertakings. You will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow.(ES) 13 The Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be only at the top and not at the bottom—if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today by diligently observing them, 14 and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I am commanding you today, either to the right or to the left, following other gods to serve them.(ET)

Warnings against Disobedience

15 “But if you will not obey the Lord your God by diligently observing all his commandments and decrees that I am commanding you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you:(EU)

16 “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.

17 “Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

18 “Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your ground, the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock.

19 “Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.

20 “The Lord will send upon you disaster, panic, and frustration in everything you attempt to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds with which you have forsaken me.(EV) 21 The Lord will make the pestilence cling to you until it has consumed you off the land that you are entering to possess.(EW) 22 The Lord will afflict you with consumption, fever, inflammation, with fiery heat and drought,[q] and with blight and mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish.(EX) 23 The sky over your head shall be bronze and the earth under you iron.(EY) 24 The Lord will change the rain of your land into powder, and only dust shall come down upon you from the sky until you are destroyed.

25 “The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out against them one way and flee before them seven ways. You shall become an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.(EZ) 26 Your corpses shall be food for every bird of the air and animal of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them away.(FA) 27 The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, scurvy, and itch, of which you cannot be healed.(FB) 28 The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness, and confusion of mind; 29 you shall grope about at noon as blind people grope in darkness, but you shall be unable to find your way, and you shall be continually abused and robbed, without anyone to help.(FC) 30 You shall become engaged to a woman, but another man shall lie with her. You shall build a house but not live in it. You shall plant a vineyard but not enjoy its fruit.(FD) 31 Your ox shall be butchered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it. Your donkey shall be stolen in front of you and shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies without anyone to help you. 32 Your sons and daughters shall be given to another people while you look on; you will strain your eyes looking for them all day but be powerless to do anything.(FE) 33 A people whom you do not know shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors; you shall be continually abused and crushed(FF) 34 and driven mad by the sight that your eyes shall see. 35 The Lord will strike you on the knees and on the legs with grievous boils of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.(FG) 36 The Lord will bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your ancestors have known, where you shall serve other gods, of wood and stone.(FH) 37 You shall become an object of horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the Lord will lead you.(FI)

38 “You shall carry much seed into the field but shall gather little in, for the locust shall consume it.(FJ) 39 You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm shall eat them. 40 You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives shall drop off. 41 You shall have sons and daughters, but they shall not remain yours, for they shall go into captivity.(FK) 42 All your trees and the fruit of your ground the cicada shall take over.(FL) 43 Aliens residing among you shall ascend above you higher and higher, while you shall descend lower and lower.(FM) 44 They shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to them; they shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.(FN)

45 “All these curses shall come upon you, pursuing and overtaking you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord your God by observing the commandments and the decrees that he commanded you.(FO) 46 They shall be among you and your descendants as a sign and a portent forever.

47 “Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and with gladness of heart for the abundance of everything,(FP) 48 therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and lack of everything. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.(FQ) 49 The Lord will bring a nation from far away, from the end of the earth, to swoop down on you like an eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand,(FR) 50 a grim-faced nation showing no respect to the old or favor to the young. 51 It shall consume the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground until you are destroyed, leaving you neither grain, wine, and oil nor the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock, until it has made you perish.(FS) 52 It shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout your land; it shall besiege you in all your towns throughout the land that the Lord your God has given you.(FT) 53 In the desperate straits to which the enemy siege reduces you, you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your own sons and daughters whom the Lord your God has given you.(FU) 54 Even the most refined and gentle of men among you will begrudge food to his own brother, to the wife whom he embraces, and to the last of his remaining children, 55 giving to none of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because nothing else remains to him, in the desperate straits to which the enemy siege will reduce you in all your towns. 56 She who is the most refined and gentle among you, so gentle and refined that she does not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, will begrudge food to the husband whom she embraces, to her own son, and to her own daughter,(FV) 57 begrudging even the afterbirth that comes out from between her thighs and the children that she bears, because she is eating them in secret for lack of anything else, in the desperate straits to which the enemy siege will reduce you in your towns.

58 “If you do not diligently observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, fearing this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God,(FW) 59 then the Lord will overwhelm both you and your offspring with severe and lasting afflictions and grievous and lasting maladies. 60 He will bring back upon you all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were in dread, and they shall cling to you.(FX) 61 Every other malady and affliction, even though not recorded in the book of this law, the Lord will inflict on you until you are destroyed.(FY) 62 Although once you were as numerous as the stars in heaven, you shall be left few in number because you did not obey the Lord your God.(FZ) 63 And just as the Lord took delight in making you prosperous and numerous, so the Lord will take delight in bringing you to ruin and destruction; you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to possess.(GA) 64 The Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known.(GB) 65 Among those nations you shall find no ease, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a languishing spirit.(GC) 66 Your life shall hang in doubt before you; night and day you shall be in dread, with no assurance of your life. 67 In the morning you shall say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and at evening you shall say, ‘If only it were morning!’—because of the dread that your heart shall feel and the sights that your eyes shall see.(GD) 68 The Lord will bring you back in ships to Egypt, by a route that I promised you would never see again, and there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”

29 [r]These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant that he had made with them at Horeb.(GE)

The Covenant Renewed in Moab

[s]Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land,(GF) the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders. But to this day the Lord has not given you a mind to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.(GG) I have led you forty years in the wilderness. The clothes on your back have not worn out, and the sandals on your feet have not worn out;(GH) you have not eaten bread, and you have not drunk wine or strong drink—so that you may know that I am the Lord your God.(GI) When you came to this place, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan came out against us for battle, but we defeated them.(GJ) We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.(GK) Therefore observe the words of this covenant and perform them, in order that you may succeed[t] in everything that you do.(GL)

10 “You stand assembled today, all of you, before the Lord your God—the leaders of your tribes,[u] your elders, and your officials, all the men of Israel, 11 your children, your women, and the aliens who are in your camp, both those who cut your wood and those who draw your water(GM) 12 to enter into the covenant of the Lord your God, sworn by an oath, which the Lord your God is making with you today, 13 in order that he may establish you today as his people and that he may be your God, as he promised you and as he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.(GN) 14 I am making this covenant, sworn by an oath, not only with you 15 who stand here with us today before the Lord our God but also with those who are not here with us today. 16 You know how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed. 17 You have seen their detestable things, the filthy idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold, that were among them.(GO) 18 It may be that there is among you a man or woman or a family or tribe whose heart is already turning away from the Lord our God to serve the gods of those nations. It may be that there is among you a root sprouting poisonous and bitter growth.(GP) 19 All who hear the words of this oath and bless themselves, thinking in their hearts, ‘We are safe even though we go our own stubborn ways’ (thus sweeping away the moist with the dry)[v] 20 the Lord will be unwilling to pardon them, for then the Lord’s anger and passion will smoke against them. All the curses written in this book will descend on them, and the Lord will blot out their names from under heaven.(GQ) 21 The Lord will single them out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the law.(GR) 22 The next generation, your children who rise up after you, as well as the foreigner who comes from a distant country, will see the devastation of that land and the afflictions with which the Lord has afflicted it(GS) 23 all its soil burned out by sulfur and salt, nothing planted, nothing sprouting, unable to support any vegetation, like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed in his fierce anger(GT) 24 they and indeed all the nations will wonder, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land? What caused this great display of anger?’(GU) 25 They will conclude, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. 26 They turned and served other gods, worshiping them, gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them; 27 so the anger of the Lord was kindled against that land, bringing on it every curse written in this book. 28 The Lord uprooted them from their land in anger, fury, and great wrath and cast them into another land, as is now the case.’(GV) 29 The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and to our children forever, to observe all the words of this law.

God’s Fidelity Assured

30 “When all these things have happened to you, the blessings and the curses that I have set before you, if you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you(GW) and return to the Lord your God, and you and your children obey him with all your heart and with all your soul, just as I am commanding you today,(GX) then the Lord your God will return you from your captivity and have compassion on you, gathering you again from all the peoples among whom the Lord your God has scattered you.(GY) Even if you are exiled to the ends of the world,[w] from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will take you back.(GZ) The Lord your God will bring you into the land that your ancestors possessed, and you will possess it; he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors.

“Moreover, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live.(HA) The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on the adversaries who took advantage of you. Then you shall again obey the Lord, observing all his commandments that I am commanding you today, and the Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all your undertakings, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your soil. For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, just as he delighted in prospering your ancestors,(HB) 10 when you obey the Lord your God by observing his commandments and decrees that are written in this book of the law, because you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Exhortation to Choose Life

11 “Surely, this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it too far away.(HC) 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?’(HD) 13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?’ 14 No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.

15 “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.(HE) 16 If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God[x] that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you do not hear but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today that you shall certainly perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.(HF) 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live,(HG) 20 loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him, for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”(HH)

Joshua Becomes Moses’s Successor

31 When Moses had finished speaking all[y] these words to all Israel, he said to them, “I am now one hundred twenty years old. I am no longer able to get about, and the Lord has told me, ‘You shall not cross over this Jordan.’(HI) The Lord your God himself will cross over before you. He will destroy these nations before you, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua also will cross over before you, as the Lord promised.(HJ) The Lord will do to them as he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when he destroyed them. The Lord will give them over to you, and you shall deal with them in full accord with the command that I have given to you.(HK) Be strong and bold; have no fear or dread of them, because it is the Lord your God who goes with you; he will not fail you or forsake you.”(HL)

Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and bold, for you are the one who will go with this people into the land that the Lord has sworn to their ancestors to give them, and you will put them in possession of it.(HM) It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”(HN)

The Law to Be Read Every Seventh Year

Then Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel.(HO) 10 Moses commanded them, “Every seventh year, in the scheduled year of remission, during the Festival of Booths,[z](HP) 11 when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.(HQ) 12 Assemble the people—men, women, and children, as well as the aliens residing in your towns—so that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God and to observe diligently all the words of this law(HR) 13 and so that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land that you are crossing over the Jordan to possess.”(HS)

Moses and Joshua Receive God’s Charge

14 The Lord said to Moses, “Your time to die is near; call Joshua and present yourselves in the tent of meeting, so that I may commission him.” So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tent of meeting,(HT) 15 and the Lord appeared at the tent in a pillar of cloud; the pillar of cloud stood at the entrance to the tent.(HU)

16 The Lord said to Moses, “Soon you will lie down with your ancestors. Then this people will begin to prostitute themselves to the foreign gods in their midst, the gods of the land into which they are going; they will forsake me, breaking my covenant that I have made with them.(HV) 17 My anger will be kindled against them on that day. I will forsake them and hide my face from them; they will become easy prey, and many terrible troubles will come upon them. On that day they will say, ‘Have not these troubles come upon us because our God is not in our midst?’(HW) 18 On that day I will surely hide my face on account of all the evil they have done by turning to other gods. 19 Now, therefore, write this song, and teach it to the Israelites; put it in their mouths, in order that this song may be a witness for me against the Israelites. 20 For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I promised on oath to their ancestors, and they have eaten their fill and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them, despising me and breaking my covenant.(HX) 21 And when many terrible troubles come upon them, this song will confront them as a witness because it will not be lost from the mouths of their descendants. For I know what they are inclined to do even now, before I have brought them into the land that I promised them on oath.”(HY) 22 That very day Moses wrote this song and taught it to the Israelites.(HZ)

23 Then the Lord[aa] commissioned Joshua son of Nun and said, “Be strong and bold, for you shall bring the Israelites into the land that I promised them; I will be with you.”(IA)

24 When Moses had finished writing down in a book the words of this law to the very end, 25 Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying,(IB) 26 “Take this book of the law and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God; let it remain there as a witness against you.(IC) 27 For I know well how rebellious and stubborn you are. If you already have been so rebellious toward the Lord while I am still alive among you, how much more after my death!(ID) 28 Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officials, so that I may recite these words in their hearing and call heaven and earth to witness against them.(IE) 29 For I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly, turning aside from the way that I have commanded you. In time to come trouble will befall you, because you will do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger through the work of your hands.”(IF)

The Song of Moses

30 Then Moses recited the words of this song, to the very end, in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel:

32 “Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak;
    let the earth hear the words of my mouth.(IG)
May my teaching drop like the rain,
    my speech condense like the dew,
like gentle rain on grass,
    like showers on new growth.(IH)
For I will proclaim the name of the Lord,
    ascribe greatness to our God!(II)

The Rock, his work is perfect,
    and all his ways are just.
A faithful God, without deceit,
    just and upright is he;(IJ)
yet his degenerate children have dealt falsely with him,[ab]
    a perverse and crooked generation.(IK)
Do you thus repay the Lord,
    O foolish and senseless people?
Is not he your father who created you,
    who made you and established you?(IL)
Remember the days of old;
    consider the years long past;
ask your father, and he will inform you,
    your elders, and they will tell you.(IM)
When the Most High[ac] apportioned the nations,
    when he divided humankind,
he fixed the boundaries of the peoples
    according to the number of the gods;[ad](IN)
the Lord’s own portion was his people,
    Jacob his allotted share.(IO)

10 He sustained[ae] him in a desert land,
    in a howling wilderness waste;
he shielded him, cared for him,
    guarded him as the apple of his eye.(IP)
11 As an eagle stirs up its nest
    and hovers over its young,
as it spreads its wings, takes them up,
    and bears them aloft on its pinions,(IQ)
12 the Lord alone guided him;
    no foreign god was with him.(IR)
13 He set him atop the heights of the land
    and fed him with[af] produce of the field;
he nursed him with honey from the crags,
    with oil from flinty rock,(IS)
14 curds from the herd, and milk from the flock,
    with fat of lambs and rams,
Bashan bulls and goats,
    together with the choicest wheat—
    you drank fine wine from the blood of grapes.(IT)
15 Jacob ate his fill;[ag]
    Jeshurun grew fat and kicked.
    You grew fat, bloated, and gorged!
He abandoned God who made him
    and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.(IU)
16 They made him jealous with strange gods;
    with abhorrent things they provoked him.(IV)
17 They sacrificed to demons, not God,
    to deities they had never known,
to new ones recently arrived,
    whom your ancestors had not feared.(IW)
18 You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you;[ah]
    you forgot the God who gave you birth.(IX)

19 The Lord saw it and was jealous;[ai]
    he spurned[aj] his sons and daughters.(IY)
20 He said, ‘I will hide my face from them;
    I will see what their end will be,
for they are a perverse generation,
    children in whom there is no faithfulness.(IZ)
21 They made me jealous with what is no god,
    provoked me with their idols.
So I will make them jealous with what is no people,
    provoke them with a foolish nation.(JA)
22 For a fire is kindled by my anger
    and burns to the depths of Sheol;
it devours the earth and its increase
    and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.(JB)
23 I will heap disasters upon them,
    spend my arrows against them:(JC)
24 wasting hunger,
    burning consumption,
    bitter pestilence.
The teeth of beasts I will send against them,
    with venom of things crawling in the dust.(JD)
25 In the street the sword shall bereave,
    and in the chambers terror
for young man and woman alike,
    nursing child and old gray head.(JE)
26 I said, “I will make an end of them[ak]
    and blot out the memory of them from humankind,”(JF)
27 but I feared provocation by the enemy,
    for their adversaries might misunderstand
and say, “Our hand is triumphant;
    it was not the Lord who did all this.” ’(JG)

28 They are a nation void of sense;
    there is no understanding in them.
29 If they were wise, they would understand this;
    they would discern what their end would be.(JH)
30 How could one have routed a thousand
    and two put a myriad to flight,
unless their Rock had sold them,
    the Lord had given them up?(JI)
31 Indeed, their rock is not like our Rock;
    our enemies are fools.[al](JJ)
32 Their vine comes from the vinestock of Sodom,
    from the vineyards of Gomorrah;
their grapes are grapes of poison;
    their clusters are bitter;
33 their wine is the poison of serpents,
    the cruel venom of asps.(JK)

34 Is not this laid up in store with me,
    sealed up in my treasuries,(JL)
35 for the day of vengeance[am] and recompense,
    for the time when their foot shall slip?
Because the day of their calamity is at hand;
    their doom comes swiftly.(JM)

36 Indeed, the Lord will vindicate his people,
    have compassion on his servants,
when he sees that their power is gone,
    neither bond nor free remaining.(JN)
37 Then he will say, ‘Where are their gods,
    the rock in which they took refuge,(JO)
38 who ate the fat of their sacrifices
    and drank the wine of their libations?
Let them rise up and help you;
    let them be your protection!

39 See now that I, even I, am he;
    there is no god besides me.
I kill, and I make alive;
    I wound, and I heal;
    and no one can deliver from my hand.(JP)
40 For I lift up my hand to heaven
    and swear, As I live forever,
41 when I whet my flashing sword
    and my hand takes hold on judgment,
I will take vengeance on my adversaries
    and will repay those who hate me.(JQ)
42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood,
    and my sword shall devour flesh—
with the blood of the slain and the captives,
    from the long-haired enemy.’(JR)

43 Praise, O heavens,[an] his people;
    worship him, all you gods![ao]
For he will avenge the blood of his children[ap]
    and take vengeance on his adversaries;
he will repay those who hate him[aq]
    and cleanse the land for his people.”[ar](JS)

44 Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and Joshua[as] son of Nun. 45 When Moses had finished reciting all these words to all Israel, 46 he said to them, “Take to heart all the words that I am giving in witness against you today; give them as a command to your children, so that they may diligently observe all the words of this law.(JT) 47 This is no trifling matter for you but rather your very life; through it you may live long in the land that you are crossing over the Jordan to possess.”(JU)

Moses’s Death Foretold

48 On that very day the Lord addressed Moses as follows: 49 “Ascend this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab across from Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites for a possession;(JV) 50 you shall die there on the mountain that you ascend and shall be gathered to your kin, as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his kin, 51 because both of you broke faith with me among the Israelites at the waters of Meribath-kadesh in the wilderness of Zin, by failing to maintain my holiness among the Israelites.(JW) 52 Although you may view the land from a distance, you shall not enter it, the land that I am giving to the Israelites.”(JX)

Moses’s Final Blessing on Israel

33 This is the blessing with which Moses, the man of God, blessed the Israelites before his death.(JY) He said,

“The Lord came from Sinai
    and dawned from Seir upon us;[at]
    he shone forth from Mount Paran.
With him were myriads of holy ones,[au]
    at his right, a host of his own.[av](JZ)
Indeed, O favorite among[aw] peoples,
    all his holy ones were in your charge;
they marched at your heels,
    accepted direction from you.(KA)
Moses charged us with the law
    as a possession for the assembly of Jacob.(KB)
There arose a king in Jeshurun
    when the leaders of the people assembled,
    the united tribes of Israel.

May Reuben live and not die out,
    even though his numbers are few.”

And this he said of Judah,

“O Lord, give heed to Judah,
    and bring him to his people;
strengthen his hands for him,[ax]
    and be a help against his adversaries.”(KC)

And of Levi he said,

“Give to Levi[ay] your Thummim
    and your Urim to your loyal one,
whom you tested at Massah,
    with whom you contended at the waters of Meribah,(KD)
who said of his father and mother,
    ‘I regard them not’;
he ignored his kin
    and did not acknowledge his children.
For they observed your word
    and kept your covenant.(KE)
10 They teach Jacob your ordinances
    and Israel your law;
they place incense before you
    and whole burnt offerings on your altar.(KF)
11 Bless, O Lord, his substance,
    and accept the work of his hands;
crush the loins of his adversaries,
    of those who hate him, so that they do not rise again.”(KG)

12 Of Benjamin he said,

“The beloved of the Lord rests in safety—
the Most High[az] surrounds him all day long—
    and he rests between his shoulders.”

13 And of Joseph he said,

“Blessed by the Lord be his land,
    with the choice gifts of heaven above
    and of the deep that lies beneath,(KH)
14 with the choice fruits of the sun
    and the rich yield of the months,
15 with the finest produce of the ancient mountains
    and the abundance of the everlasting hills,(KI)
16 with the choice gifts of the earth and its fullness
    and the favor of the one who dwells on Sinai.[ba]
Let these come on the head of Joseph,
    on the brow of the prince among his brothers.(KJ)
17 A firstborn[bb] bull—majesty is his!
    His horns are the horns of a wild ox;
with them he gores the peoples
    all together to the ends of the earth;
such are the myriads of Ephraim,
    such the thousands of Manasseh.”(KK)

18 And of Zebulun he said,

“Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out,
    and Issachar, in your tents.(KL)
19 They call peoples to the mountain;
    there they offer the right sacrifices,
for they suck the affluence of the seas
    and the hidden treasures of the sand.”(KM)

20 And of Gad he said,

“Blessed be the enlargement of Gad!
    Like a lion he lives;
    he tears at arm and scalp.(KN)
21 He chose the best for himself,
    for there a commander’s allotment was reserved;
he came at the head of the people;
    he executed the justice of the Lord
    and his ordinances with Israel.”(KO)

22 And of Dan he said,

“Dan is a lion’s whelp
    that leaps forth from Bashan.”(KP)

23 And of Naphtali he said,

“O Naphtali, sated with favor,
    full of the blessing of the Lord,
    possess the west and the south.”(KQ)

24 And of Asher he said,

“Most blessed of sons be Asher;
    may he be the favorite of his brothers,
    and may he dip his foot in oil.(KR)
25 Your bars are iron and bronze,
    and as your days, so is your strength.[bc](KS)

26 There is none like God, O Jeshurun,
    who rides through the heavens to your help,
    majestic through the clouds.(KT)
27 He subdues the ancient gods,[bd]
    shatters[be] the forces of old;[bf]
he drove out the enemy before you
    and said, ‘Destroy!’(KU)
28 So Israel lives in safety,
    untroubled is Jacob’s abode[bg]
in a land of grain and wine,
    where the heavens drop down dew.(KV)
29 Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you,
    a people saved by the Lord,
the shield of your help
    and the sword of your triumph!
Your enemies shall come fawning to you,
    but you shall tread on their backs.”(KW)

Moses Dies and Is Buried in the Land of Moab

34 Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho, and the Lord showed him the whole land: Gilead as far as Dan, all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, the Negeb, and the Plain—that is, the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees—as far as Zoar. The Lord said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.”(KX) Then Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, at the Lord’s command.(KY) He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor, but no one knows his burial place to this day. Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died; his sight was unimpaired, and his vigor had not abated.(KZ) The Israelites wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; then the period of mourning for Moses was ended.

Joshua son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him, and the Israelites obeyed him, doing as the Lord had commanded Moses.(LA)

10 Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.(LB) 11 He was unequaled for all the signs and wonders that the Lord sent him to perform in the land of Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants and his entire land,(LC) 12 and for all the mighty deeds and all the terrifying displays of power that Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.

Footnotes

  1. 18.1 Or the gifts
  2. 18.1 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  3. 18.5 Heb him
  4. 18.8 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  5. 18.15 Heb him
  6. 18.18 Heb in his mouth
  7. 18.19 Heb he
  8. 19.3 Or prepare roads to them
  9. 21.17 Heb two-thirds
  10. 22.30 23.1 in Heb
  11. 22.30 Heb uncovering his father’s skirt
  12. 23.19 Heb to your brother
  13. 23.20 Heb to your brother
  14. 24.12 Heb lacks the garment given you as
  15. 27.6 Heb whole
  16. 27.20 Heb uncovered his father’s skirt
  17. 28.22 Gk Syr Tg: MT the sword
  18. 29.1 28.69 in Heb
  19. 29.2 29.1 in Heb
  20. 29.9 Or deal wisely
  21. 29.10 Gk Syr: Heb your leaders, your tribes
  22. 29.19 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  23. 30.4 Heb of heaven
  24. 30.16 Gk: Heb lacks If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God
  25. 31.1 Q ms Gk: MT Moses went and spoke
  26. 31.10 Or Tabernacles
  27. 31.23 Heb he
  28. 32.5 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  29. 32.8 Traditional rendering of Heb Elyon
  30. 32.8 Q ms Compare Gk Tg: MT the Israelites
  31. 32.10 Sam Gk Compare Tg: MT found
  32. 32.13 Sam Gk Syr Tg: MT he ate
  33. 32.15 Q mss Sam Gk: MT lacks Jacob ate his fill
  34. 32.18 Or that fathered you
  35. 32.19 Q mss Gk: MT lacks was jealous
  36. 32.19 Cn: Heb he spurned because of provocation
  37. 32.26 Gk: Meaning of Heb uncertain
  38. 32.31 Gk: Heb judges
  39. 32.35 Sam Gk: MT vengeance is mine
  40. 32.43 Q ms Gk: MT nations
  41. 32.43 Q ms Gk: MT lacks this line
  42. 32.43 Q ms Gk: MT his servants
  43. 32.43 Q ms Gk: MT lacks this line
  44. 32.43 Q ms Sam Gk Vg: MT his land his people
  45. 32.44 Sam Gk Syr Vg: MT Hoshea
  46. 33.2 Gk Syr Vg Compare Tg: Heb upon them
  47. 33.2 Cn Compare Gk Sam Syr Vg: MT He came from Ribeboth-kodesh,
  48. 33.2 Cn Compare Gk: Meaning of Heb uncertain
  49. 33.3 Or O lover of the
  50. 33.7 Cn: Meaning of Heb uncertain
  51. 33.8 Q ms Gk: MT lacks Give to Levi
  52. 33.12 Cn: Heb above him
  53. 33.16 Cn: Heb in the bush
  54. 33.17 Q ms Gk Syr Vg: MT His firstborn
  55. 33.25 Gk: Meaning of Heb uncertain
  56. 33.27 Cn: Heb The eternal God is a dwelling place
  57. 33.27 Cn: Heb from underneath
  58. 33.27 Or the everlasting arms
  59. 33.28 Or fountain

17 Do not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep that has any defect(A) or flaw in it, for that would be detestable(B) to him.(C)

If a man or woman living among you in one of the towns the Lord gives you is found doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God in violation of his covenant,(D) and contrary to my command(E) has worshiped other gods,(F) bowing down to them or to the sun(G) or the moon or the stars in the sky,(H) and this has been brought to your attention, then you must investigate it thoroughly. If it is true(I) and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done in Israel,(J) take the man or woman who has done this evil deed to your city gate and stone that person to death.(K) On the testimony of two or three witnesses a person is to be put to death, but no one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness.(L) The hands of the witnesses must be the first in putting that person to death,(M) and then the hands of all the people.(N) You must purge the evil(O) from among you.

Law Courts

If cases come before your courts that are too difficult for you to judge(P)—whether bloodshed, lawsuits or assaults(Q)—take them to the place the Lord your God will choose.(R) Go to the Levitical(S) priests and to the judge(T) who is in office at that time. Inquire of them and they will give you the verdict.(U) 10 You must act according to the decisions they give you at the place the Lord will choose. Be careful to do everything they instruct you to do. 11 Act according to whatever they teach you and the decisions they give you. Do not turn aside from what they tell you, to the right or to the left.(V) 12 Anyone who shows contempt(W) for the judge or for the priest who stands ministering(X) there to the Lord your God is to be put to death.(Y) You must purge the evil from Israel.(Z) 13 All the people will hear and be afraid, and will not be contemptuous again.(AA)

The King

14 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession(AB) of it and settled in it,(AC) and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,”(AD) 15 be sure to appoint(AE) over you a king the Lord your God chooses. He must be from among your fellow Israelites.(AF) Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not an Israelite. 16 The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses(AG) for himself(AH) or make the people return to Egypt(AI) to get more of them,(AJ) for the Lord has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.”(AK) 17 He must not take many wives,(AL) or his heart will be led astray.(AM) He must not accumulate(AN) large amounts of silver and gold.(AO)

18 When he takes the throne(AP) of his kingdom, he is to write(AQ) for himself on a scroll a copy(AR) of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. 19 It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life(AS) so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees(AT) 20 and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law(AU) to the right or to the left.(AV) Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.(AW)

Offerings for Priests and Levites

18 The Levitical(AX) priests—indeed, the whole tribe of Levi—are to have no allotment or inheritance with Israel. They shall live on the food offerings(AY) presented to the Lord, for that is their inheritance.(AZ) They shall have no inheritance among their fellow Israelites; the Lord is their inheritance,(BA) as he promised them.(BB)

This is the share due the priests(BC) from the people who sacrifice a bull(BD) or a sheep: the shoulder, the internal organs and the meat from the head.(BE) You are to give them the firstfruits of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the first wool from the shearing of your sheep,(BF) for the Lord your God has chosen them(BG) and their descendants out of all your tribes to stand and minister(BH) in the Lord’s name always.(BI)

If a Levite moves from one of your towns anywhere in Israel where he is living, and comes in all earnestness to the place the Lord will choose,(BJ) he may minister in the name(BK) of the Lord his God like all his fellow Levites who serve there in the presence of the Lord. He is to share equally in their benefits, even though he has received money from the sale of family possessions.(BL)

Occult Practices

When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate(BM) the detestable ways(BN) of the nations there. 10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire,(BO) who practices divination(BP) or sorcery,(BQ) interprets omens, engages in witchcraft,(BR) 11 or casts spells,(BS) or who is a medium or spiritist(BT) or who consults the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you.(BU) 13 You must be blameless(BV) before the Lord your God.(BW)

The Prophet

14 The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination.(BX) But as for you, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do so. 15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites.(BY) You must listen to him. 16 For this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.”(BZ)

17 The Lord said to me: “What they say is good. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet(CA) like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words(CB) in his mouth.(CC) He will tell them everything I command him.(CD) 19 I myself will call to account(CE) anyone who does not listen(CF) to my words that the prophet speaks in my name.(CG) 20 But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods,(CH) is to be put to death.”(CI)

21 You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?” 22 If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true,(CJ) that is a message the Lord has not spoken.(CK) That prophet has spoken presumptuously,(CL) so do not be alarmed.

Cities of Refuge(CM)

19 When the Lord your God has destroyed the nations whose land he is giving you, and when you have driven them out and settled in their towns and houses,(CN) then set aside for yourselves three cities in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess. Determine the distances involved and divide into three parts the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, so that a person who kills someone may flee for refuge to one of these cities.

This is the rule concerning anyone who kills a person and flees there for safety—anyone who kills a neighbor unintentionally, without malice aforethought. For instance, a man may go into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and as he swings his ax to fell a tree, the head may fly off and hit his neighbor and kill him. That man may flee to one of these cities and save his life. Otherwise, the avenger of blood(CO) might pursue him in a rage, overtake him if the distance is too great, and kill him even though he is not deserving of death, since he did it to his neighbor without malice aforethought. This is why I command you to set aside for yourselves three cities.

If the Lord your God enlarges your territory,(CP) as he promised(CQ) on oath to your ancestors, and gives you the whole land he promised them, because you carefully follow all these laws I command you today—to love the Lord your God and to walk always in obedience to him(CR)—then you are to set aside three more cities. 10 Do this so that innocent blood(CS) will not be shed in your land, which the Lord your God is giving you as your inheritance, and so that you will not be guilty of bloodshed.(CT)

11 But if out of hate someone lies in wait, assaults and kills a neighbor,(CU) and then flees to one of these cities, 12 the killer shall be sent for by the town elders, be brought back from the city, and be handed over to the avenger of blood to die. 13 Show no pity.(CV) You must purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood,(CW) so that it may go well with you.

14 Do not move your neighbor’s boundary stone set up by your predecessors in the inheritance you receive in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess.(CX)

Witnesses

15 One witness is not enough to convict anyone accused of any crime or offense they may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.(CY)

16 If a malicious witness(CZ) takes the stand to accuse someone of a crime, 17 the two people involved in the dispute must stand in the presence of the Lord before the priests and the judges(DA) who are in office at the time. 18 The judges must make a thorough investigation,(DB) and if the witness proves to be a liar, giving false testimony against a fellow Israelite, 19 then do to the false witness as that witness intended to do to the other party.(DC) You must purge the evil from among you. 20 The rest of the people will hear of this and be afraid,(DD) and never again will such an evil thing be done among you. 21 Show no pity:(DE) life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.(DF)

Going to War

20 When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours,(DG) do not be afraid(DH) of them,(DI) because the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with(DJ) you. When you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army. He shall say: “Hear, Israel: Today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted(DK) or afraid; do not panic or be terrified by them. For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you(DL) to fight(DM) for you against your enemies to give you victory.(DN)

The officers shall say to the army: “Has anyone built a new house and not yet begun to live in(DO) it? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else may begin to live in it. Has anyone planted(DP) a vineyard and not begun to enjoy it?(DQ) Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else enjoy it. Has anyone become pledged to a woman and not married her? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else marry her.(DR) Then the officers shall add, “Is anyone afraid or fainthearted? Let him go home so that his fellow soldiers will not become disheartened too.”(DS) When the officers have finished speaking to the army, they shall appoint commanders over it.

10 When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace.(DT) 11 If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject(DU) to forced labor(DV) and shall work for you. 12 If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in battle, lay siege to that city. 13 When the Lord your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it.(DW) 14 As for the women, the children, the livestock(DX) and everything else in the city,(DY) you may take these as plunder(DZ) for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the Lord your God gives you from your enemies. 15 This is how you are to treat all the cities that are at a distance(EA) from you and do not belong to the nations nearby.

16 However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes.(EB) 17 Completely destroy[a] them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the Lord your God has commanded you. 18 Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods,(EC) and you will sin(ED) against the Lord your God.

19 When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are the trees people, that you should besiege them?[b] 20 However, you may cut down trees that you know are not fruit trees(EE) and use them to build siege works until the city at war with you falls.

Atonement for an Unsolved Murder

21 If someone is found slain, lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who the killer was,(EF) your elders and judges shall go out and measure the distance from the body to the neighboring towns. Then the elders of the town nearest the body shall take a heifer that has never been worked and has never worn a yoke(EG) and lead it down to a valley that has not been plowed or planted and where there is a flowing stream. There in the valley they are to break the heifer’s neck. The Levitical priests shall step forward, for the Lord your God has chosen them to minister and to pronounce blessings(EH) in the name of the Lord and to decide all cases of dispute and assault.(EI) Then all the elders of the town nearest the body shall wash their hands(EJ) over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, and they shall declare: “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done. Accept this atonement for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, Lord, and do not hold your people guilty of the blood of an innocent person.” Then the bloodshed will be atoned for,(EK) and you will have purged(EL) from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

Marrying a Captive Woman

10 When you go to war against your enemies and the Lord your God delivers them into your hands(EM) and you take captives,(EN) 11 if you notice among the captives a beautiful(EO) woman and are attracted to her,(EP) you may take her as your wife. 12 Bring her into your home and have her shave her head,(EQ) trim her nails 13 and put aside the clothes she was wearing when captured. After she has lived in your house and mourned her father and mother for a full month,(ER) then you may go to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife. 14 If you are not pleased with her, let her go wherever she wishes. You must not sell her or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.(ES)

The Right of the Firstborn

15 If a man has two wives,(ET) and he loves one but not the other, and both bear him sons but the firstborn is the son of the wife he does not love,(EU) 16 when he wills his property to his sons, he must not give the rights of the firstborn to the son of the wife he loves in preference to his actual firstborn, the son of the wife he does not love.(EV) 17 He must acknowledge the son of his unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double(EW) share of all he has. That son is the first sign of his father’s strength.(EX) The right of the firstborn belongs to him.(EY)

A Rebellious Son

18 If someone has a stubborn and rebellious(EZ) son(FA) who does not obey his father and mother(FB) and will not listen to them when they discipline him, 19 his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. 20 They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” 21 Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death.(FC) You must purge the evil(FD) from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.(FE)

Various Laws

22 If someone guilty of a capital offense(FF) is put to death and their body is exposed on a pole, 23 you must not leave the body hanging on the pole overnight.(FG) Be sure to bury(FH) it that same day, because anyone who is hung on a pole is under God’s curse.(FI) You must not desecrate(FJ) the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

22 If you see your fellow Israelite’s ox or sheep straying, do not ignore it but be sure to take it back to its owner.(FK) If they do not live near you or if you do not know who owns it, take it home with you and keep it until they come looking for it. Then give it back. Do the same if you find their donkey or cloak or anything else they have lost. Do not ignore it.

If you see your fellow Israelite’s donkey(FL) or ox fallen on the road, do not ignore it. Help the owner get it to its feet.(FM)

A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.

If you come across a bird’s nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young.(FN) You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go,(FO) so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life.(FP)

When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof so that you may not bring the guilt of bloodshed on your house if someone falls from the roof.(FQ)

Do not plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard;(FR) if you do, not only the crops you plant but also the fruit of the vineyard will be defiled.[c]

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

11 Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.(FT)

12 Make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.(FU)

Marriage Violations

13 If a man takes a wife and, after sleeping with her(FV), dislikes her 14 and slanders her and gives her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman, but when I approached her, I did not find proof of her virginity,” 15 then the young woman’s father and mother shall bring to the town elders at the gate(FW) proof that she was a virgin. 16 Her father will say to the elders, “I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he dislikes her. 17 Now he has slandered her and said, ‘I did not find your daughter to be a virgin.’ But here is the proof of my daughter’s virginity.” Then her parents shall display the cloth before the elders of the town, 18 and the elders(FX) shall take the man and punish him. 19 They shall fine him a hundred shekels[d] of silver and give them to the young woman’s father, because this man has given an Israelite virgin a bad name. She shall continue to be his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives.

20 If, however, the charge is true(FY) and no proof of the young woman’s virginity can be found, 21 she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done an outrageous thing(FZ) in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from among you.

22 If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept(GA) with her and the woman must die.(GB) You must purge the evil from Israel.

23 If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, 24 you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the young woman because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you.(GC)

25 But if out in the country a man happens to meet a young woman pledged to be married and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die. 26 Do nothing to the woman; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders a neighbor, 27 for the man found the young woman out in the country, and though the betrothed woman screamed,(GD) there was no one to rescue her.

28 If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered,(GE) 29 he shall pay her father fifty shekels[e] of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.

30 A man is not to marry his father’s wife; he must not dishonor his father’s bed.[f](GF)

Exclusion From the Assembly

23 [g]No one who has been emasculated(GG) by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord.

No one born of a forbidden marriage[h] nor any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, not even in the tenth generation.

No Ammonite(GH) or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, not even in the tenth generation.(GI) For they did not come to meet you with bread and water(GJ) on your way when you came out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam(GK) son of Beor from Pethor in Aram Naharaim[i](GL) to pronounce a curse on you.(GM) However, the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam but turned the curse(GN) into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves(GO) you. Do not seek a treaty(GP) of friendship with them as long as you live.(GQ)

Do not despise an Edomite,(GR) for the Edomites are related to you.(GS) Do not despise an Egyptian, because you resided as foreigners in their country.(GT) The third generation of children born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord.

Uncleanness in the Camp

When you are encamped against your enemies, keep away from everything impure.(GU) 10 If one of your men is unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he is to go outside the camp and stay there.(GV) 11 But as evening approaches he is to wash himself, and at sunset(GW) he may return to the camp.(GX)

12 Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. 13 As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement. 14 For the Lord your God moves(GY) about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy,(GZ) so that he will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you.

Miscellaneous Laws

15 If a slave has taken refuge(HA) with you, do not hand them over to their master.(HB) 16 Let them live among you wherever they like and in whatever town they choose. Do not oppress(HC) them.

17 No Israelite man(HD) or woman is to become a shrine prostitute.(HE) 18 You must not bring the earnings of a female prostitute or of a male prostitute[j] into the house of the Lord your God to pay any vow, because the Lord your God detests them both.(HF)

19 Do not charge a fellow Israelite interest, whether on money or food or anything else that may earn interest.(HG) 20 You may charge a foreigner(HH) interest, but not a fellow Israelite, so that the Lord your God may bless(HI) you in everything you put your hand to in the land you are entering to possess.

21 If you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not be slow to pay it,(HJ) for the Lord your God will certainly demand it of you and you will be guilty of sin.(HK) 22 But if you refrain from making a vow, you will not be guilty.(HL) 23 Whatever your lips utter you must be sure to do, because you made your vow freely to the Lord your God with your own mouth.

24 If you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat all the grapes you want, but do not put any in your basket. 25 If you enter your neighbor’s grainfield, you may pick kernels with your hands, but you must not put a sickle to their standing grain.(HM)

24 If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him(HN) because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce,(HO) gives it to her and sends her from his house, and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the Lord. Do not bring sin upon the land the Lord(HP) your God is giving you as an inheritance.

If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married.(HQ)

Do not take a pair of millstones—not even the upper one—as security for a debt, because that would be taking a person’s livelihood as security.(HR)

If someone is caught kidnapping a fellow Israelite and treating or selling them as a slave, the kidnapper must die.(HS) You must purge the evil from among you.(HT)

In cases of defiling skin diseases,[k] be very careful to do exactly as the Levitical(HU) priests instruct you. You must follow carefully what I have commanded them.(HV) Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam along the way after you came out of Egypt.(HW)

10 When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, do not go into their house to get what is offered to you as a pledge.(HX) 11 Stay outside and let the neighbor to whom you are making the loan bring the pledge out to you. 12 If the neighbor is poor, do not go to sleep with their pledge(HY) in your possession. 13 Return their cloak by sunset(HZ) so that your neighbor may sleep in it.(IA) Then they will thank you, and it will be regarded as a righteous act in the sight of the Lord your God.(IB)

14 Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns.(IC) 15 Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor(ID) and are counting on it.(IE) Otherwise they may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.(IF)

16 Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin.(IG)

17 Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless(IH) of justice,(II) or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge. 18 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt(IJ) and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this.

19 When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it.(IK) Leave it for the foreigner,(IL) the fatherless and the widow,(IM) so that the Lord your God may bless(IN) you in all the work of your hands. 20 When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time.(IO) Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. 21 When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. 22 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this.(IP)

25 When people have a dispute, they are to take it to court and the judges(IQ) will decide the case,(IR) acquitting(IS) the innocent and condemning the guilty.(IT) If the guilty person deserves to be beaten,(IU) the judge shall make them lie down and have them flogged in his presence with the number of lashes the crime deserves, but the judge must not impose more than forty lashes.(IV) If the guilty party is flogged more than that, your fellow Israelite will be degraded in your eyes.(IW)

Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.(IX)

If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her.(IY) The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.(IZ)

However, if a man does not want to marry his brother’s wife,(JA) she shall go to the elders at the town gate(JB) and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to carry on his brother’s name in Israel. He will not fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to me.”(JC) Then the elders of his town shall summon him and talk to him. If he persists in saying, “I do not want to marry her,” his brother’s widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, take off one of his sandals,(JD) spit in his face(JE) and say, “This is what is done to the man who will not build up his brother’s family line.” 10 That man’s line shall be known in Israel as The Family of the Unsandaled.

11 If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, 12 you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity.(JF)

13 Do not have two differing weights in your bag—one heavy, one light.(JG) 14 Do not have two differing measures in your house—one large, one small. 15 You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long(JH) in the land the Lord your God is giving you. 16 For the Lord your God detests anyone who does these things, anyone who deals dishonestly.(JI)

17 Remember what the Amalekites(JJ) did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. 18 When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and attacked all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God.(JK) 19 When the Lord your God gives you rest(JL) from all the enemies(JM) around you in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the name of Amalek(JN) from under heaven. Do not forget!

Firstfruits and Tithes

26 When you have entered the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance and have taken possession of it and settled in it, take some of the firstfruits(JO) of all that you produce from the soil of the land the Lord your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name(JP) and say to the priest in office at the time, “I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the land the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.” The priest shall take the basket from your hands and set it down in front of the altar of the Lord your God. Then you shall declare before the Lord your God: “My father was a wandering(JQ) Aramean,(JR) and he went down into Egypt with a few people(JS) and lived there and became a great nation,(JT) powerful and numerous. But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer,(JU) subjecting us to harsh labor.(JV) Then we cried out to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, and the Lord heard our voice(JW) and saw(JX) our misery,(JY) toil and oppression.(JZ) So the Lord brought us out of Egypt(KA) with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm,(KB) with great terror and with signs and wonders.(KC) He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey;(KD) 10 and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, Lord, have given me.(KE)” Place the basket before the Lord your God and bow down before him. 11 Then you and the Levites(KF) and the foreigners residing among you shall rejoice(KG) in all the good things the Lord your God has given to you and your household.

12 When you have finished setting aside a tenth(KH) of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe,(KI) you shall give it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied. 13 Then say to the Lord your God: “I have removed from my house the sacred portion and have given it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, according to all you commanded. I have not turned aside from your commands nor have I forgotten any of them.(KJ) 14 I have not eaten any of the sacred portion while I was in mourning, nor have I removed any of it while I was unclean,(KK) nor have I offered any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the Lord my God; I have done everything you commanded me. 15 Look down from heaven,(KL) your holy dwelling place, and bless(KM) your people Israel and the land you have given us as you promised on oath to our ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey.”

Follow the Lord’s Commands

16 The Lord your God commands you this day to follow these decrees and laws; carefully observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.(KN) 17 You have declared this day that the Lord is your God and that you will walk in obedience to him, that you will keep his decrees, commands and laws—that you will listen to him.(KO) 18 And the Lord has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession(KP) as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands. 19 He has declared that he will set you in praise,(KQ) fame and honor high above all the nations(KR) he has made and that you will be a people holy(KS) to the Lord your God, as he promised.

The Altar on Mount Ebal

27 Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people: “Keep all these commands(KT) that I give you today. When you have crossed the Jordan(KU) into the land the Lord your God is giving you, set up some large stones(KV) and coat them with plaster.(KW) Write on them all the words of this law when you have crossed over to enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey,(KX) just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you. And when you have crossed the Jordan, set up these stones on Mount Ebal,(KY) as I command you today, and coat them with plaster. Build there an altar(KZ) to the Lord your God, an altar of stones. Do not use any iron tool(LA) on them. Build the altar of the Lord your God with fieldstones and offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God. Sacrifice fellowship offerings(LB) there, eating them and rejoicing(LC) in the presence of the Lord your God.(LD) And you shall write very clearly all the words of this law on these stones(LE) you have set up.”(LF)

Curses From Mount Ebal

Then Moses and the Levitical(LG) priests said to all Israel, “Be silent, Israel, and listen! You have now become the people of the Lord your God.(LH) 10 Obey the Lord your God and follow his commands and decrees that I give you today.”

11 On the same day Moses commanded the people:

12 When you have crossed the Jordan, these tribes shall stand on Mount Gerizim(LI) to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar,(LJ) Joseph and Benjamin.(LK) 13 And these tribes shall stand on Mount Ebal(LL) to pronounce curses: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali.

14 The Levites shall recite to all the people of Israel in a loud voice:

15 “Cursed is anyone who makes an idol(LM)—a thing detestable(LN) to the Lord, the work of skilled hands—and sets it up in secret.”

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”(LO)

16 “Cursed is anyone who dishonors their father or mother.”(LP)

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

17 “Cursed is anyone who moves their neighbor’s boundary stone.”(LQ)

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

18 “Cursed is anyone who leads the blind astray on the road.”(LR)

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

19 “Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner,(LS) the fatherless or the widow.”(LT)

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

20 “Cursed is anyone who sleeps with his father’s wife, for he dishonors his father’s bed.”(LU)

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

21 “Cursed is anyone who has sexual relations with any animal.”(LV)

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

22 “Cursed is anyone who sleeps with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.”(LW)

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

23 “Cursed is anyone who sleeps with his mother-in-law.”(LX)

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

24 “Cursed is anyone who kills(LY) their neighbor secretly.”(LZ)

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

25 “Cursed is anyone who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person.”(MA)

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

26 “Cursed is anyone who does not uphold the words of this law by carrying them out.”(MB)

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”(MC)

Blessings for Obedience

28 If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow(MD) all his commands(ME) I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.(MF) All these blessings will come on you(MG) and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:

You will be blessed(MH) in the city and blessed in the country.(MI)

Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 20:17 The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying them.
  2. Deuteronomy 20:19 Or down to use in the siege, for the fruit trees are for the benefit of people.
  3. Deuteronomy 22:9 Or be forfeited to the sanctuary
  4. Deuteronomy 22:19 That is, about 2 1/2 pounds or about 1.2 kilograms
  5. Deuteronomy 22:29 That is, about 1 1/4 pounds or about 575 grams
  6. Deuteronomy 22:30 In Hebrew texts this verse (22:30) is numbered 23:1.
  7. Deuteronomy 23:1 In Hebrew texts 23:1-25 is numbered 23:2-26.
  8. Deuteronomy 23:2 Or one of illegitimate birth
  9. Deuteronomy 23:4 That is, Northwest Mesopotamia
  10. Deuteronomy 23:18 Hebrew of a dog
  11. Deuteronomy 24:8 The Hebrew word for defiling skin diseases, traditionally translated “leprosy,” was used for various diseases affecting the skin.