Deuteronomy — Legacy Standard Bible

Israel from Seir to Kadesh-barnea

1These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel ^aacross the Jordan in the wilderness, in the ^bArabah opposite ¹Suph, between Paran and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab. ²It is eleven days’ journey from ^aHoreb by the way of Mount ^bSeir to ^cKadesh-barnea. ³Now it happened, in the ^afortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel, ^baccording to all that ¹Yahweh had commanded him to give to them, ⁴after he had ^astruck down Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and ^bOg the king of Bashan, who lived in ^cAshtaroth ¹and Edrei. ⁵Across the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to expound this law, saying,

⁶“Yahweh our God ^aspoke to us at Horeb, saying, ‘You have ¹stayed long enough at this mountain. ⁷‘Turn and set out, and go to ^athe hill country of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the ¹Shephelah and in ^bthe ²Negev and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. ⁸‘See, I have given over the land before you; go in and possess the land which Yahweh ^aswore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to them and to their seed after them.’

⁹“And I spoke to you at that time, saying, ‘^aI am not able to bear the burden of you alone. ¹⁰‘Yahweh your God has ^amultiplied you, and behold, you are this day like the stars of heaven in number. ¹¹‘May Yahweh, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand-fold more than you are and bless you, ^ajust as He has ¹promised you! ¹²‘How can I alone bear the load and burden of you and your strife? ¹³‘¹^,^aChoose wise and understanding and experienced men from your tribes, and I will appoint them as your heads.’ ¹⁴“Then you answered me and said, ‘The thing which you have said to do is good.’ ¹⁵“So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and gave them as heads over you, leaders of thousands and ¹of hundreds, ²of fifties and ³of tens, and officers for your tribes.

¹⁶“Then I commanded your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hear the cases between your brothers, and ^ajudge righteously between a man and his brother or the sojourner who is with him. ¹⁷‘^aYou shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall ^bnot fear ¹man, for the judgment is God’s. ^cThe case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.’ ¹⁸“^aAnd I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do.

¹⁹“Then we set out from ^aHoreb and went through all that ^bgreat and fearsome wilderness which you saw on the way to the ^chill country of the Amorites, just as Yahweh our God had commanded us; and we came to ^dKadesh-barnea. ²⁰“And I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites which Yahweh our God is about to give us. ²¹‘See, Yahweh your God has given over the land before you; go up, take possession, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you. ^aDo not fear or be dismayed.’

²²“^aThen all of you came near to me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, that they may search out the land for us and bring back to us word of the way by which we should go up and the cities which we shall enter.’ ²³“And the thing was good in my sight, and I took twelve of your men, one man for each tribe. ²⁴“^aThen they turned and went up into the hill country and came to the valley of Eshcol and spied it out. ²⁵“Then they took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought word back to us and said, ‘It is a good land which Yahweh our God is about to give us.’

²⁶“^aYet you were not willing to go up, but ^brebelled against the ¹command of Yahweh your God; ²⁷and ^ayou grumbled in your tents and said, ‘Because Yahweh hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to give us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. ²⁸‘Where can we go up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are bigger and taller than we; the cities are large and fortified to heaven. And moreover, we saw ^athe sons of the Anakim there.”’ ²⁹“Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread, nor fear them. ³⁰‘Yahweh your God, who goes before you, will ^aHimself fight on your behalf, ¹just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, ³¹and in the wilderness where you saw how ^aYahweh your God carried you, just as a man carries his son, in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place.’ ³²“But ¹^,^afor all this, you did not believe Yahweh your God, ³³^awho goes before you on your way, ^bto spy out a place for you to encamp, in fire by night and cloud by day, to show you the way in which you should go.

³⁴“Then Yahweh heard the sound of your words, and He was angry and ^aswore an oath, saying, ³⁵‘^aNot one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land which I swore to give your fathers, ³⁶except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and ^ato him and to his sons I will give the land on which he has set foot, because he has followed Yahweh fully.’ ³⁷“^aYahweh was angry with me also on your account, saying, ‘^bNot even you shall enter there. ³⁸‘Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, ^ahe shall enter there; strengthen him, for ^bhe will cause Israel to inherit it. ³⁹‘Moreover, ^ayour little ones who you said would become plunder, and your sons, who this day have ^bno knowledge of good or evil, shall enter there, and I will give it to them, and they shall possess it. ⁴⁰‘But as for you, ^aturn around and set out for the wilderness by the way to the ¹Red Sea.’

⁴¹“^aThen you said to me, ‘We have sinned against Yahweh; we will indeed go up and fight, just as Yahweh our God commanded us.’ And every man of you girded on his weapons of war and regarded it as easy to go up into the hill country. ⁴²“^aAnd Yahweh said to me, ‘Say to them, “Do not go up and do not fight—for I am not among you—so that you are not ¹defeated before your enemies.”’ ⁴³“So I spoke to you, but you would not listen. Instead ^ayou rebelled against the ¹command of Yahweh and acted presumptuously and went up into the hill country. ⁴⁴“^aAnd the Amorites who ¹lived in that hill country came out to meet you and pursued you ^bas bees do and crushed you from Seir to Hormah. ⁴⁵“Then you returned and wept before Yahweh; but ^aYahweh did not listen to your voice nor give ear to you. ⁴⁶“So you remained in ^aKadesh many days, according to the days that you remained there.

Wanderings in the Wilderness

2“^aThen we turned and set out for the wilderness by the way to the ¹Red Sea, as Yahweh spoke to me, and circled ^bMount Seir for many days. ²“And Yahweh spoke to me, saying, ³‘You have circled this mountain long enough. Now turn north, ⁴^aand command the people, saying, “You are going to pass through the ^bterritory of your brothers the sons of Esau who live in Seir; and ^cthey will be afraid of you. So be very careful; ⁵do not ¹provoke them, for I will not give you any of their land, even as little as a ²footstep ^abecause I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. ⁶“You shall buy food from them with money so that you may eat, and you shall also bargain with them for water with money so that you may drink. ⁷“For Yahweh your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand; He has known your ¹wanderings through this ^agreat wilderness. These ^bforty years Yahweh your God has been with you; you have not lacked a thing.”’

⁸“So we passed beyond our brothers the sons of Esau, who live in Seir, away from the ^aArabah road, away from Elath and ^bfrom Ezion-geber. And we turned and passed through by the way of the wilderness of Moab. ⁹“Then Yahweh said to me, ‘Do not harass Moab, nor provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of ¹their land as a possession because I have given ^aAr to ^bthe sons of Lot as a possession.’ ¹⁰(The ^aEmim lived there formerly, a people as great, numerous, and tall as the Anakim. ¹¹Like the Anakim, they are also regarded as ^aRephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim. ¹²^aNow the Horites formerly lived in Seir, but the sons of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them and settled in their place, ^bjust as Israel would do to the land of ¹their possession which Yahweh gave to them.) ¹³‘Now arise and cross over the ¹brook Zered yourselves.’ So we crossed over the ²brook Zered. ¹⁴“Now the ¹time that it took for us to come from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed over the ²brook Zered was ^athirty-eight years, until ^ball the generation of the men of war came to an end from within the camp, as ^cYahweh had sworn to them. ¹⁵“^aMoreover the hand of Yahweh was against them, to bring them into confusion from within the camp until they all came to an end.

¹⁶“So it happened when ^aall the men of war had come to an end in death from among the people, ¹⁷that Yahweh spoke to me, saying, ¹⁸‘Today you are about to cross over ^aAr, the border of Moab. ¹⁹‘And you will come opposite the ^asons of Ammon. Do not harass them nor provoke them, for I will not give you any of the land of the sons of Ammon as a possession because I have given it to ^bthe sons of Lot as a possession.’ ²⁰(It is also regarded as the land of the ^aRephaim, for Rephaim formerly lived in it, but the Ammonites call them Zamzummin, ²¹a people as great, numerous, and tall as the Anakim, but Yahweh destroyed them before them. And they dispossessed them and settled in their place, ²²just as He did for the sons of Esau, who ^alive in Seir, when He destroyed ^bthe Horites from before them; they dispossessed them and settled in their place even to this day. ²³And the ^aAvvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the ¹^,^bCaphtorim who came from ²^,^cCaphtor, destroyed them and lived in their place.) ²⁴‘Arise, set out, and pass through the ¹^,^avalley of Arnon. Look! I have given Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land into your hand; begin to take possession and provoke him to battle. ²⁵‘This day I will begin to put ^athe dread and fear of you ¹upon the peoples ²everywhere under the heavens, who, when they hear the report of you, ^bwill tremble and be in anguish because of you.’

²⁶“^aSo I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying, ²⁷‘Let me pass through your land, I will ¹go only on the highway; I will not turn aside to the right or to the left. ²⁸‘You will sell me food for money so that I may eat, and give me water for money so that I may drink; ^aonly let me pass through on ¹foot, ²⁹just as the sons of Esau who live in Seir and the Moabites who live in ^aAr did for me, until I cross over the Jordan into the land which Yahweh our God is giving to us.’ ³⁰“But ^aSihon king of Heshbon was not willing for us to pass ¹through his land, for ^bYahweh your God stiffened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, in order to give him over into your hand, as he is today. ³¹“And Yahweh said to me, ‘See, I have begun to give Sihon and his land ¹over to you. Begin to possess, so that you may fully possess his land.’

³²“Then Sihon ¹with all his people came out to meet us in battle at Jahaz. ³³“^aBut Yahweh our God gave him ¹over to us, and we ^bstruck him down with his sons and all his people. ³⁴“So we captured all his cities at that time and ¹^,^adevoted to destruction ²the men, women, and little ones of every city. We left no survivor remaining. ³⁵“We took ^aonly the animals as our plunder and the spoil of the cities which we had captured. ³⁶“From ^aAroer which is on the edge of the ¹valley of Arnon and from the city which is in the ²valley, even to Gilead, there was not a town that was too high for us; Yahweh our God gave all ³over to us. ³⁷“^aOnly you did not go near to the land of the sons of Ammon, all along the ¹river ^bJabbok and the cities of the hill country, and wherever Yahweh our God had commanded us.

Israel Takes Possession of the Land

3“^aThen we turned and went up the road to Bashan, and Og king of Bashan, ¹with all his people, came out to meet us in battle at Edrei. ²“But Yahweh said to me, ‘Do not fear him, for I have given him and all his people and his land over into your hand; and you shall do to him just as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.’ ³“So Yahweh our God also gave Og, king of Bashan, with all his people over into our hand, and we struck ¹them until ²there was no survivor remaining for him. ⁴“And we captured all his cities at that time; there was not a town which we did not take from them: sixty cities, all the region of ^aArgob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. ⁵“All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates and bars, besides a great many ¹unwalled towns. ⁶“And we ¹devoted them to destruction, as we did to ^aSihon king of Heshbon, ²^,^bdevoting to destruction ³the men, women, and little ones of every city. ⁷“^aBut all the animals and the spoil of the cities we took as our plunder.

⁸“^aThus we took the land at that time from the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, from the ¹valley of Arnon to Mount Hermon ⁹(Sidonians ^acall Hermon ^bSirion, and the Amorites call it ^cSenir): ¹⁰all the cities of the plateau and all Gilead and ^aall Bashan, as far as Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. ¹¹(For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the ^aRephaim. Behold, his ¹bedstead was an iron ²bedstead; it is in ^bRabbah of the sons of Ammon. Its length was ³nine cubits, and its width four cubits ⁴by ordinary cubit.)

¹²“So we took possession of this land at that time. From ^aAroer, which is by the ¹valley of Arnon, and half the hill country of ^bGilead and its cities I gave to the Reubenites and to the Gadites. ¹³“And the rest of Gilead and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh, all the region of Argob. (Concerning all Bashan, it is called the land of Rephaim. ¹⁴^aJair the son of Manasseh took all the region of Argob as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites and called ¹it—that is, Bashan—after his own name, ²Havvoth-jair, as it is to this day.) ¹⁵“^aAnd to Machir I gave Gilead. ¹⁶“And to the Reubenites and to the Gadites I gave from Gilead even as far as the ¹valley of Arnon, the middle of the ²valley ³as a border and as far as the ⁴river ^aJabbok, the border of the sons of Ammon; ¹⁷the Arabah also, with the Jordan ¹as a border, from ²^,^aChinnereth ^beven as far as the sea of the Arabah, ^cthe Salt Sea, ³at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah on the east.

¹⁸“Then I commanded you at that time, saying, ‘^aYahweh your God has given you this land to possess it; ^ball you men of valor shall cross over armed before your brothers, the sons of Israel. ¹⁹‘^aBut your wives and your little ones and your livestock (I know that you have ^bmuch livestock) shall remain in your cities which I have given you, ²⁰^auntil Yahweh gives rest to your brothers as to you, and they also possess the land which Yahweh your God will give them beyond the Jordan. ^bThen you may return, every man to his possession which I have given you.’ ²¹“And I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, ‘Your eyes have seen all that Yahweh your God has done to these two kings; so Yahweh shall do to all the kingdoms into which you are about to cross. ²²‘Do not fear them, for Yahweh your God ^ais the one fighting for you.’

Moses Pleads to Cross the Jordan

²³“I also pleaded with Yahweh at that time, saying, ²⁴‘O Lord Yahweh, You have begun to show Your slave ^aYour greatness and Your strong hand; for what ^bgod is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as Yours? ²⁵‘Let me, I pray, cross over and see the ^agood land that is beyond the Jordan, ¹that good hill country and Lebanon.’ ²⁶“But ^aYahweh was angry with me on your account and would not listen to me; and Yahweh said to me, ‘¹Enough! Speak to Me no more of this matter. ²⁷‘Go up to the top of ^aPisgah and lift up your eyes to the west and north and south and east, and see it with your eyes, ^bfor you shall not cross over this Jordan. ²⁸‘^aBut command Joshua and strengthen him and encourage him, ^bfor he shall go across ¹at the head of this people, and he will cause them to inherit the land which you will see.’ ²⁹“So we remained in the valley opposite ^aBeth-peor.

Keep the Commandments of Yahweh

4“So now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which ^aI am teaching you to do, so that ^byou may live and go in and take possession of the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, is giving you. ²“^aYou shall not add to the word which ^bI am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh your God which I am commanding you. ³“^aYour eyes have seen what Yahweh has done in the case of Baal-peor, for all the men who walked after Baal-peor, Yahweh your God has destroyed ¹them from among you. ⁴“But you who clung to Yahweh your God are alive today, every one of you.

⁵“See, I have taught you statutes and judgments ^ajust as Yahweh my God commanded me, that you should do thus in the land where you are entering to possess it. ⁶“You shall keep and do them, ^afor that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ ⁷“For ^awhat great nation is there that has a god ^bso near to it as is Yahweh our God ^cwhenever we call on Him? ⁸“Or what great nation is there that has ^astatutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today?

⁹“Only ^akeep yourself and keep your soul very carefully, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen and lest they depart from your heart ^ball the days of your life. But ^cmake them known to your sons and to your grandsons. ¹⁰“Remember the day you stood before Yahweh your God at Horeb, when Yahweh said to me, ‘Assemble the people to Me, that I may cause them to hear My words ^aso they may learn to ¹fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may ^bteach their children.’ ¹¹“And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, ^aand the mountain burned with fire to the very heart of the heavens: darkness, cloud, and dense gloom. ¹²“Then Yahweh spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but you saw no form—only a voice. ¹³“So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to do, that is, ^athe Ten ¹Commandments; and ^bHe wrote them on two tablets of stone. ¹⁴“And Yahweh commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it.

¹⁵“So ^akeep your souls very carefully, since you did not see any ^bform on the day Yahweh spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, ¹⁶lest you ^aact corruptly and ^bmake a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, ¹⁷the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of ^aany winged bird that flies in the sky, ¹⁸the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water below the earth, ¹⁹and lest you lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, ^aall the host of heaven, ^band be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which Yahweh your God has apportioned for all the peoples under the whole heaven. ²⁰“But Yahweh has taken you and brought you out of ^athe iron furnace, from Egypt, to ^bbe a people for His own inheritance, as today.

²¹“^aNow Yahweh was angry with me on your account and swore that I would not cross the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance. ²²“For ^aI will die in this land, I shall not cross the Jordan, but you shall cross and take possession of this ^bgood land. ²³“So keep yourselves, ^alest you forget the covenant of Yahweh your God which He cut with you and ^bmake for yourselves a graven image in the form of anything against which Yahweh your God has commanded you. ²⁴“For Yahweh your God is a ^aconsuming fire, a ^bjealous God.

²⁵“When you ¹become the father of children and children’s children and remain long in the land and ^aact corruptly and ^bmake ²a graven image in the form of anything and ^cdo that which is evil in the sight of Yahweh your God so as to provoke Him to anger, ²⁶I ^acall heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will ^bsurely perish quickly from the land where you are going over the Jordan to possess it. You shall not prolong your days on it, but will be utterly destroyed. ²⁷“And Yahweh will ^ascatter you among the peoples, and you will remain few in number among the nations where Yahweh drives you. ²⁸“^aAnd there you will serve gods, the work of man’s hands, ^bwood and stone, ^cwhich neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. ²⁹“^aBut from there you will seek Yahweh your God, and you will find Him, for you will search for Him ^bwith all your heart and all your soul. ³⁰“When you ^aare in distress and all these things have come upon you, ^bin the last days ^cyou will return to Yahweh your God and listen to His voice. ³¹“For Yahweh your God is a ^acompassionate God; ^bHe will not fail you nor ^cdestroy you nor ^dforget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.

³²“Indeed, ^aask now concerning the former days which were before you, since the ^bday that God created ¹man on the earth, and inquire ^cfrom one end of the heavens to the other. ^dHas anything been done like this great thing, or has anything been heard like it? ³³“^aHas any people heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you have heard it, and lived? ³⁴“^aOr has a god tried to go to take for himself a nation from within another nation ^bwith trials, with signs and wonders and with war and ^cwith a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with great terrors, ¹as Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? ³⁵“To you it was shown that you might know that Yahweh, He is God; ^athere is no other besides Him. ³⁶“^aOut of the heavens He caused you to hear His voice ^bto discipline you; and on earth He caused you to see His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire. ³⁷“¹^,^aBecause He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their seed after them. And He ²^,^bpersonally brought you from Egypt by His great power, ³⁸dispossessing before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in and ^ato give you their land for an inheritance, as it is today. ³⁹“Know therefore today, and take it to your heart, that ^aYahweh, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other. ⁴⁰“^aSo you shall keep His statutes and His commandments which I am commanding you today, that ^bit may go well with you and with your children after you, and ^cthat you may prolong your days on the land which Yahweh your God is giving you for all the days.”

⁴¹^aThen Moses set apart three cities across the Jordan to the east toward the sunrise, ⁴²that a manslayer might flee there, who slew his neighbor ¹without premeditation, ²not hating him previously; so he shall flee to one of these cities that he might live: ⁴³^aBezer in the wilderness on the plateau for the Reubenites, and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.

⁴⁴Now this is the law which Moses set before the sons of Israel; ⁴⁵these are the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments which Moses spoke to the sons of Israel when they came out from Egypt, ⁴⁶across the Jordan, in the valley ^aopposite Beth-peor, in the land of ^bSihon king of the Amorites who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the sons of Israel struck down when they came out from Egypt. ⁴⁷And they took possession of his land and the land of ^aOg king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who were across the Jordan to the east toward the sunrise, ⁴⁸from ^aAroer, which is on the edge of the ¹valley of Arnon, even as far as ^bMount Sion (that is, Hermon), ⁴⁹with all the Arabah across the Jordan to the east, even as far as the sea of the Arabah, ¹at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah.

The Ten Commandments Repeated

5Then Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the judgments which I am speaking today in your ¹hearing, that you may learn them and be careful to do them. ²“Yahweh our God cut ^aa covenant with us at Horeb. ³“^aYahweh did not cut this covenant with our fathers, but with us, with all those of ¹us alive here today. ⁴“Yahweh spoke to you ^aface to face at the mountain ^bfrom the midst of the fire. ⁵^aI was standing between Yahweh and you at that time, to declare to you the word of Yahweh; ^bfor you were afraid because of the fire and did not go up the mountain. ¹He said,

⁶‘^aI am Yahweh your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of ¹slavery. ⁷‘^aYou shall have no other gods ¹before Me. ⁸‘^aYou shall not make for yourself ¹an idol—any likeness of what is in heaven above ²or on the earth beneath ³or in the water under the earth.

⁹‘You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, ^avisiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, ¹⁰but ^ashowing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

¹¹‘^aYou shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain, for Yahweh will not ¹leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain. ¹²‘^aObserve the sabbath day to keep it holy, as Yahweh your God commanded you. ¹³‘Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

¹⁴but ^athe seventh day is a sabbath of Yahweh your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male slave or your female slave or your ox or your donkey or any of your cattle or your sojourner who is within your gates, so that your male slave and your female slave may rest as well as you. ¹⁵‘^aYou shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm; therefore Yahweh your God commanded you to observe the sabbath day.

¹⁶‘^aHonor your father and your mother, as Yahweh your God has commanded you, ^bthat your days may be prolonged and that it may go well with you on the land which Yahweh your God gives you. ¹⁷‘^aYou shall not murder. ¹⁸‘^aYou shall not commit adultery. ¹⁹‘^aYou shall not steal. ²⁰‘^aYou shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. ²¹‘^aYou shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, and you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male slave or his female slave, his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.’

²²“These words Yahweh spoke to all your assembly at the mountain from the midst of the fire, of the cloud and of the dense gloom, with a great voice, and He added no more. ^aHe wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. ²³“Now it happened that when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders. ²⁴“And you said, ‘Behold, Yahweh our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire; we have seen today that God speaks with man, yet he lives. ²⁵‘^aSo now then why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of Yahweh our God any longer, then we will die. ²⁶‘For ^awho is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? ²⁷‘As for you, go near and hear all that Yahweh our God says; then speak to us all that Yahweh our God speaks to you, and we will hear and do it.’

²⁸“And Yahweh heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, ^aand Yahweh said to me, ‘I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They have done well in all that they have spoken. ²⁹‘^aOh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear Me and ^bkeep all My commandments all the days, that ^cit may be well with them and with their sons forever! ³⁰‘Go, say to them, “Return to your tents.” ³¹‘^aBut as for you, stand here by Me, that I may speak to you all the commandments and the statutes and the judgments which you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess.’ ³²“So you shall be careful to do just as Yahweh your God has commanded you; ^ayou shall not turn aside to the right or to the left. ³³“^aIn all the way which Yahweh your God has commanded you, you shall walk, ^bthat you may live and that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days in the land which you will possess.

The Commandment to Love Yahweh

6“Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments, which Yahweh your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do it in the land where you are going over to possess it, ²so that you and your son and your grandson might ^afear Yahweh your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I am commanding you, ^ball the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. ³“O Israel, you shall listen and ¹be careful to do it, that ^ait may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in ^ba land flowing with milk and honey.

⁴“^aHear, O Israel! ¹Yahweh is our God, ^bYahweh is one! ⁵“^aYou shall love Yahweh your God ^bwith all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ⁶“^aThese words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. ⁷“^aYou shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. ⁸“^aYou shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as ¹phylacteries between your eyes. ⁹“^aYou shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

¹⁰“Then it will be, when Yahweh your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you, ^agreat and good cities which you did not build, ¹¹and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and ^ayou will eat and be satisfied, ¹²then beware, lest ^ayou forget Yahweh who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of ¹slavery. ¹³“^aYahweh your God you shall ¹fear; and Him you shall serve; and by His name you shall ^bswear. ¹⁴“^aYou shall not walk after other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you, ¹⁵for Yahweh your God in the midst of you is a ^ajealous God—lest the anger of Yahweh your God be kindled against you, and He destroy you from the face of the earth.

¹⁶“^aYou shall not put Yahweh your God to the test, ^bas you tested Him at Massah. ¹⁷“^aYou should diligently keep the commandments of Yahweh your God and His testimonies and His statutes which He has commanded you. ¹⁸“And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of Yahweh, that ^ait may be well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land which Yahweh swore to give your fathers, ¹⁹by driving out all your enemies from before you, as Yahweh has spoken.

²⁰“^aWhen your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which Yahweh our God commanded you?’ ²¹then you shall say to your son, ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and Yahweh brought us from Egypt with a strong hand. ²²‘Moreover, Yahweh showed great and calamitous signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household; ²³but He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He had sworn to our fathers.’ ²⁴“So Yahweh commanded us to do all these statutes, ^ato fear Yahweh our God for our good all our days and ^bfor our survival, as it is today. ²⁵“^aAnd it will be righteousness for us if we ¹are careful to do all this commandment before Yahweh our God, just as He commanded us.

Devote the Nations to Destruction

7“^aWhen Yahweh your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and He clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, ^bseven nations more numerous and stronger than you, ²and when Yahweh your God gives them over before you and you strike them down, ^athen you shall devote them to destruction. ^bYou shall cut no covenant with them ^cand show no favor to them. ³“Furthermore, ^ayou shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your ¹daughters to ²their sons, nor shall you take ³their daughters for your ⁴sons. ⁴“For ¹they will turn your ²sons away from ³following Me, and they will serve other gods; then the anger of Yahweh will be kindled against you, and ^aHe will quickly destroy you. ⁵“But thus you shall do to them: ^ayou shall tear down their altars and shatter their sacred pillars and cut their ¹Asherim in pieces and burn their graven images with fire. ⁶“For you are ^aa holy people to Yahweh your God; Yahweh your God has chosen you to be ^ba people for His ¹own treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the ²earth.

⁷“^aYahweh did not set His affection on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, ⁸but because Yahweh loved you and kept the ^aoath which He swore to your fathers, ^bYahweh brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the house of ¹slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ⁹“You shall know therefore that Yahweh your God, ^aHe is God, ^bthe faithful God, ^cwho keeps ¹His covenant and ²His lovingkindness to a thousand generations with those who ^dlove Him and keep His commandments; ¹⁰but ^arepays those who hate Him to ¹their faces, to make ²them perish; He will not delay ³with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face. ¹¹“Therefore, you shall keep the commandment and the statutes and the judgments which I am commanding you today, to do them.

Yahweh’s Covenant Blessings

¹²“^aThen it will be, because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, that Yahweh your God will keep with you ¹His covenant and ²His lovingkindness which He swore to your fathers. ¹³“And He will ^alove you and bless you and ^bmultiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock, ¹in the land which He swore to your fathers to give you. ¹⁴“You shall be blessed above all peoples; there will be no male or female ^abarren among you or among your cattle. ¹⁵“^aAnd Yahweh will take away from you all sickness; and He will not put on you any of the harmful diseases of Egypt which you have known, but He will give them to all who hate you. ¹⁶“And you shall consume all the peoples whom Yahweh your God will give over to you; ^ayour eye shall not pity them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that would be ^ba snare to you.

¹⁷“If you should say in your heart, ‘These nations are more numerous than I; how can I ^adispossess them?’ ¹⁸you shall not be afraid of them; you shall well ^aremember what Yahweh your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: ¹⁹^athe great trials which your eyes saw and the signs and the wonders and the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which Yahweh your God brought you out. So shall Yahweh your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. ²⁰“Moreover, Yahweh your God will send ^athe hornet against them until those who remain and hide themselves from you perish. ²¹“You shall not dread ¹them, for ^aYahweh your God is in your midst, ^ba great and fearsome God. ²²“^aAnd Yahweh your God will clear away these nations before you little by little; you will not be able to put an end to them quickly, lest the ¹wild beasts become too numerous for you. ²³“^aBut Yahweh your God will give them over before you and will ¹throw them into great confusion until they are destroyed. ²⁴“^aAnd He will give their kings into your hand so that you will make their name perish from under heaven; ^bno man will be able to stand before you until you have destroyed them. ²⁵“The graven images of their gods you are to ^aburn with fire; you shall ^bnot covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be ^csnared by it, for it is an ^dabomination to Yahweh your God. ²⁶“And you shall not bring an abomination into your house and become devoted to ^adestruction like it; you shall utterly detest it, and you shall utterly abhor it, for it is devoted to destruction.

Do Not Forget Yahweh Your God

8“The entire commandment that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, that you ^amay live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which Yahweh swore to give to your fathers. ²“^aAnd you shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has ^bled you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, ^ctesting you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. ³“And He humbled you and let you be hungry and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that ^aman does not live by bread alone, but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh. ⁴“^aYour clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. ⁵“^aThus you shall know in your heart that Yahweh your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son. ⁶“So you shall keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, to walk in His ways and to ¹fear Him. ⁷“For ^aYahweh your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills; ⁸a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; ⁹a land where you will eat food without scarcity, in which you will not lack anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. ¹⁰“And so ^ayou will eat and be satisfied, and you shall bless Yahweh your God for the good land which He has given you.

¹¹“¹Beware lest you ^aforget Yahweh your God by not keeping His commandments and His judgments and His statutes which I am commanding you today; ¹²lest ^ayou eat and are satisfied and build good houses and live in them, ¹³and your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, ¹⁴and your heart becomes ¹lifted up and you ^aforget Yahweh your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of ²slavery. ¹⁵“He led you through ^athe great and fearsome wilderness, with its ^bfiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water; He ^cbrought water for you out of the rock of flint. ¹⁶“In the wilderness He fed you manna ^awhich your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might ^btest you, to do good for you ¹in the end, ¹⁷lest ^ayou say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand made me this wealth.’ ¹⁸“But you shall remember Yahweh your God, for ^ait is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. ¹⁹“Now it will be, if you ever forget Yahweh your God and walk after other gods and serve them and worship them, ^aI testify against you today that you will surely perish. ²⁰“Like the nations that Yahweh makes to perish before you, so ^ayou shall perish, because you would not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God.

Israel Provoked Yahweh

9“Hear, O Israel! You are crossing over the Jordan today to go in to dispossess ^anations greater and mightier than you, great cities ¹^,^bfortified to heaven, ²a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard it said, ‘^aWho can stand before the sons of Anak?’ ³“So you shall know today that ^ait is Yahweh your God who is crossing over before you as ^ba consuming fire. He will destroy them, and He will subdue them before you, so that ^cyou may dispossess them and make them perish quickly, just as Yahweh has spoken to you.

⁴“^aDo not say in your heart when Yahweh your God has driven them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness Yahweh has brought me in to possess this land,’ but it is ^bbecause of the wickedness of these nations that Yahweh is dispossessing them before you. ⁵“It is ^anot for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that Yahweh your God is dispossessing them before you, in order to confirm ^bthe ¹oath which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

⁶“So you shall know it is not because of your righteousness that Yahweh your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are ^aa ¹stiff-necked people. ⁷“Remember, do not forget how you provoked Yahweh your God to wrath in the wilderness; ^afrom the day that you went out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against Yahweh. ⁸“Even ^aat Horeb you provoked Yahweh to wrath, and Yahweh was so angry with you that He would have destroyed you. ⁹“When I went up to the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which Yahweh had cut with you, then I remained on the mountain forty days and nights; ^aI neither ate bread nor drank water. ¹⁰“And Yahweh gave me the two tablets of stone ^awritten by the finger of God; and on them were all the words which Yahweh had spoken with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. ¹¹“Now it happened ^aat the end of forty days and nights, that Yahweh gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. ¹²“^aThen Yahweh said to me, ‘Arise, go down from here quickly, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have ^bquickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made a molten image for themselves.’ ¹³“^aYahweh spoke further to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed, ¹they are a ²^,^bstiff-necked people. ¹⁴‘^aLet Me alone, that I may destroy them and ^bblot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and more numerous than they.’

¹⁵“^aSo I turned and came down from the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. ¹⁶“And I saw that you had indeed sinned against Yahweh your God. You had made for yourselves a molten calf; you had turned aside quickly from the way which Yahweh had commanded you. ¹⁷“And I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my hands and shattered them before your eyes. ¹⁸“^aAnd I fell down before Yahweh, ^bas at the first, forty days and nights; ^cI neither ate bread nor drank water ^dbecause of all your sin which you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of Yahweh to provoke Him to anger. ¹⁹“For ^aI was afraid of the anger and the wrath with which Yahweh was provoked against you in order to destroy you, ^bbut Yahweh listened to me that time also. ²⁰“And Yahweh was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him; so I also prayed for Aaron at the same time. ²¹“^aNow I took your ¹sinful thing, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it very small until it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the brook that came down from the mountain.

²²“Again at ^aTaberah and at ^bMassah and at ^cKibroth-hattaavah you provoked Yahweh to wrath. ²³“When Yahweh sent you from ^aKadesh-barnea, saying, ‘^bGo up and possess the land which I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the ¹command of Yahweh your God; ^cyou did not believe Him, and you did not listen to His voice. ²⁴“^aYou have been rebellious against Yahweh from the day I knew you.

²⁵“^aSo I fell down before Yahweh the forty days and the forty nights, which I ¹did because Yahweh had said He would destroy you. ²⁶“^aAnd I prayed to Yahweh and said, ‘O Lord Yahweh, do not destroy Your people, even Your inheritance, whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a strong hand. ²⁷‘Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look at the stiff-neck of this people or at their wickedness or their sin, ²⁸lest the land from which You brought us say, “^aBecause Yahweh was not able to bring them into the land which He had ¹promised them and because He hated them He has brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.” ²⁹‘Yet they are Your people, even ^aYour inheritance, whom You have brought out by Your ^bgreat power and Your outstretched arm.’

The Tablets Rewritten

10“At that time Yahweh said to me, ‘^aCarve out for yourself two tablets of stone like the former ones, and come up to Me on the mountain, and ^bmake an ark of wood for yourself. ²‘^aAnd I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you shattered, and ^byou shall put them in the ark.’ ³“So ^aI made an ark of acacia wood and ^bcarved out two tablets of stone like the former ones and went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. ⁴“And He wrote on the tablets, like the former writing, ^athe Ten ¹Commandments ^bwhich Yahweh had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire ^con the day of the assembly; and Yahweh gave them to me. ⁵“Then I turned and ^acame down from the mountain and ^bput the tablets in the ark which I had made; ^cand there they are, as Yahweh commanded me.”

⁶(Now the sons of Israel set out from ¹Beeroth ^aBene-jaakan to Moserah. ^bThere Aaron died, and there he was buried, and Eleazar his son ministered as priest in his place. ⁷^aFrom there they set out to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of brooks of water. ⁸^aAt that time Yahweh set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, to stand before Yahweh ^bto minister for Him and to bless in His name to this day. ⁹^aTherefore, Levi does not have a portion or inheritance with his brothers; Yahweh is his inheritance, just as Yahweh your God spoke to him.)

¹⁰“^aI, moreover, stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights like the first time, and Yahweh listened to me that time also; Yahweh was not willing to destroy you. ¹¹“Then Yahweh said to me, ‘Arise, go on your journey ahead of the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.’

Circumcise Your Heart

¹²“^aSo now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God ask from you, but to ¹fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all His ways and ^blove Him, and to serve Yahweh your God with ^call your heart and with all your soul, ¹³and to keep the commandments of Yahweh and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good? ¹⁴“Behold, ^ato Yahweh your God belong heaven and the ¹highest heavens, ^bthe earth and all that is in it. ¹⁵“^aYet on your fathers did Yahweh set His affection to love them, and He chose their seed after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day. ¹⁶“^aSo circumcise ¹your heart, and ^bstiffen your neck no longer. ¹⁷“^aFor Yahweh your God is the God of gods and the ^bLord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the fearsome God ^cwho does not show partiality nor ^dtake a bribe. ¹⁸“He executes justice for ^athe orphan and the widow, and shows love for the sojourner by giving him food and clothing. ¹⁹“^aSo show love for the sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. ²⁰“Yahweh your God you shall fear; Him you shall serve, and to Him you shall ^acling, and by His name ^byou shall swear. ²¹“He is ^ayour praise, and He is your God, who has done these great and fearsome things for you which your eyes have seen. ²²“^aYour fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons in all, ^band now Yahweh your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.

Love and Serve Yahweh

11“You shall therefore ^alove Yahweh your God, and ^bkeep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments all your days. ²“So know this day ^athat I am not speaking with your sons who have not known and who have not seen the ¹discipline of Yahweh your God—His greatness, His strong hand and His outstretched arm, ³and ^aHis signs and His works which He did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land; ⁴and what He did to Egypt’s army, to its horses and its chariots, ^awhen He made the water of the ¹Red Sea to ²engulf them while they were pursuing you, and Yahweh made them perish ³utterly; ⁵and what He did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place; ⁶and ^awhat He did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and ^bevery living thing that ¹followed them, among all Israel— ⁷but your own eyes have seen all the great work of Yahweh which He did.

⁸“You shall therefore keep every commandment which I am commanding you today, ^aso that you may be strong and go in and possess the land into which you are about to cross to possess it; ⁹^aso that you may prolong your days on the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give to them and to their seed, ^ba land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰“For the land, into which you are entering to possess it, is not like the land of Egypt from which you came out, where you used to sow your seed and water it with your ¹foot like a vegetable garden. ¹¹“But ^athe land into which you are about to cross to possess it, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven, ¹²a land for which Yahweh your God cares; ^athe eyes of Yahweh your God are always on it, from the ¹beginning even to the end of the year.

¹³“And it will be that, ^aif you listen obediently to my commandments which I am commanding you today, ^bto love Yahweh your God and to serve Him ^cwith all your heart and all your soul, ¹⁴that ¹^,^aI, Yahweh, will give the rain for your land in its season, the ²^,^bearly and ³late rains, that you may gather in your grain and your new wine and your oil. ¹⁵“^aAnd ¹I will give ²grass in your fields for your cattle, and ^byou will eat and be satisfied. ¹⁶“¹^,^aBeware lest your hearts be deceived, and you turn away and serve other gods and worship them, ¹⁷and ^athe anger of Yahweh will be kindled against you, and He will ^bshut up the heavens ^cso that there will be no rain and the ground will not yield its fruit; and ^dyou will perish quickly from the good land which Yahweh is giving you.

¹⁸“^aYou shall therefore place these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as ¹phylacteries between your eyes. ¹⁹“^aAnd you shall teach them to your sons, speaking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up. ²⁰“^aAnd you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, ²¹so that ^ayour days and the days of your sons may be multiplied on the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give them, as ¹^,^blong as the heavens remain above the earth. ²²“For if you are ^acareful to keep this entire commandment which I am commanding you to do, ^bto love Yahweh your God, to walk in all His ways, and to ^ccling to Him, ²³then Yahweh will ^adispossess all these nations from before you, and you will ^bdispossess nations greater and mightier than you. ²⁴“^aEvery place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours; ^byour border will be from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as the ¹western sea. ²⁵“^aNo man will be able to stand before you; Yahweh your God will put the dread of you and the fear of you on all the land on which you set foot, as He has spoken to you.

A Blessing and a Curse

²⁶“^aSee, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: ²⁷the ^ablessing, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I am commanding you today; ²⁸and the ^acurse, if you do not listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, by walking after other gods which you have not known.

²⁹“And it will be, when Yahweh your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, ^athat you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. ³⁰“Are they not across the Jordan, west of the way toward the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite ^aGilgal, beside ^bthe ¹oaks of Moreh? ³¹“For you are about to cross the Jordan to go in to possess the land which Yahweh your God is giving you, and ^ayou shall possess it and live in it, ³²and you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the judgments which I am setting before you today.

Yahweh’s Chosen Place of Worship

12“These are the statutes and the judgments which you shall be careful to do in the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess ^aall the days you live on the ¹earth. ²“You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess serve their gods, on the ^ahigh mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. ³“^aAnd you shall tear down their altars and shatter their sacred pillars and burn their ¹Asherim with fire, and you shall cut the graven images of their gods in pieces and ^bdestroy their name from that place. ⁴“You shall not do thus toward Yahweh your God. ⁵“^aBut you shall seek Yahweh at the place which Yahweh your God will choose from all your tribes, to establish His name there for His dwelling, and there you shall come. ⁶“And there you shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, ^ayour tithes, the ¹contribution of your hand, your votive offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. ⁷“There also you and your households shall eat before Yahweh your God, and ^abe glad in all that you send forth your hand to do, in which Yahweh your God has blessed you.

⁸“You shall not do at all what we are doing here today, ^aevery man doing whatever is right in his own eyes; ⁹for you have not as yet come to ^athe resting place and the ^binheritance which Yahweh your God is giving you. ¹⁰“Now you will cross the Jordan and live in the land which Yahweh your God is giving you to inherit. And ^aHe will give you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in security. ¹¹^aThen it will be that the place in which Yahweh your God will choose for His name to dwell, there you shall bring all that I am commanding you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the ¹contribution of your hand, and all your choice votive offerings which you will vow to Yahweh. ¹²“And you shall ^abe glad before Yahweh your God, you and your sons and daughters, your male and female slaves, and the ^bLevite who is within your gates, since ^che has no portion or inheritance with you.

¹³“^aBeware, lest you offer your burnt offerings in every cultic place you see, ¹⁴but in the place which Yahweh chooses in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you.

¹⁵“^aHowever, you may sacrifice and eat meat within any of your gates, ¹whatever you desire, according to the blessing of Yahweh your God which He has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of ^bthe gazelle and the deer. ¹⁶“^aOnly you shall not eat the blood; ^byou are to pour it out on the ground like water. ¹⁷“^aYou are not allowed to eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or new wine or oil, or the firstborn of your herd or flock, or any of your votive offerings which you vow, or your freewill offerings, or the ¹contribution of your hand. ¹⁸“But ^ayou shall eat them before Yahweh your God in ^bthe place which Yahweh your God will choose, you and your son and daughter, and your male and female slaves, and the ^cLevite who is within your gates; and you shall ^dbe glad before Yahweh your God in all that you send forth your hand to do. ¹⁹“^aBeware lest you forsake the Levite all your days upon your land.

²⁰“When Yahweh your God enlarges your territory ^aas He has promised you, and you say, ‘I will eat meat,’ because ¹you desire to eat meat, then you may eat meat, ²whatever you desire. ²¹“If the place where Yahweh your God chooses to set His name is too far away from you, then you may sacrifice of your herd and flock which Yahweh has given you, as I have commanded you; and you may eat within your gates ¹whatever you desire. ²²“Just as a gazelle or a deer is eaten, so you will eat it; the unclean and the clean alike may eat of it. ²³“Only be strong in yourselves ^anot to eat the blood, for the blood is the ¹life, and you shall not eat the ²life with the flesh. ²⁴“You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the ground like water. ²⁵“You shall not eat it, so that ^ait may be well with you and your sons after you, for ^byou will be doing what is right in the sight of Yahweh. ²⁶“^aOnly your holy things which you may have and your votive offerings, you shall take and go to the place which Yahweh chooses. ²⁷“And ^ayou shall offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of Yahweh your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of Yahweh your God, and ^byou shall eat the flesh.

²⁸“Be careful to listen to all these words which I command you, so that ^ait may be well with you and your sons after you forever, for you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of Yahweh your God.

²⁹“When ^aYahweh your God cuts off before you the nations which you are going in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and inhabit their land, ³⁰beware lest you be ensnared ¹to follow them, after they are destroyed before you, and lest you inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations serve their gods, that I also may do likewise?’ ³¹“^aYou shall not do thus toward Yahweh your God, for every abominable act which Yahweh hates they have done for their gods; for ^bthey even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.

³²“¹^,^aWhatever I am commanding you, you shall be careful to do; ^byou shall not add to nor take away from it.

Stone Those Who Prophesy Against Yahweh

13“¹^,^aIf a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, ²and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘^aLet us walk after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’ ³you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for Yahweh your God is ^atesting you to find out if ^byou love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul. ⁴“^aYou shall walk after Yahweh your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and ^bcling to Him. ⁵“But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be ^aput to death because he has ¹counseled ²rebellion against Yahweh your God who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of ³slavery, ^bto drive you from the way in which Yahweh your God commanded you to walk. ^cSo you shall purge the evil from among you.

⁶“^aIf your brother, your mother’s son, or your son or daughter, or the wife ¹you cherish, or your friend who is as your own soul, entices you secretly, saying, ‘^bLet us go and serve other gods’ (whom neither you nor your fathers have known, ⁷of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near you or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other end), ⁸^ayou shall not be willing to accept him or listen to him; ^band your eye shall not pity him; and you shall not spare him or conceal him. ⁹“^aBut you shall surely kill him; ^byour hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. ¹⁰“So you shall stone him ¹to death because he has sought ^ato drive you from Yahweh your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of ²slavery. ¹¹“Thus ^aall Israel will hear and be afraid and will never again do such an evil thing among you.

¹²“If you hear in one of your cities, which Yahweh your God is giving you to live in, anyone saying that ¹³some vile men have gone out from among you and have driven the inhabitants of their city astray, saying, ‘^aLet us go and serve other gods’ (whom you have not known), ¹⁴then you shall inquire and search out and ask thoroughly. Behold, if it is true and the matter is confirmed, that this abomination has been done among you, ¹⁵^ayou shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, ¹devoting it to destruction and all that is in it and its cattle with the edge of the sword. ¹⁶“^aThen you shall gather all its spoil into the middle of its open square and burn the city and all its spoil with fire as a whole burnt offering to Yahweh your God; and it shall be a ¹^,^bruin forever. It shall never be rebuilt. ¹⁷“Now nothing from that which is devoted to destruction shall cling to your hand, in order that Yahweh may turn from ^aHis burning anger and ^bgrant compassion to you and show compassion to you and ^cmake you multiply, just ^das He has sworn to your fathers, ¹⁸¹if you will listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, ²keeping all His commandments which I am commanding you today, ³and doing what is right in the sight of Yahweh your God.

Clean and Unclean Animals

14“You are ^athe sons of Yahweh your God; ^byou shall not gash yourselves nor ¹shave your forehead for the sake of the dead. ²“For you are ^aa holy people to Yahweh your God, and Yahweh has chosen you to be a ^bpeople for His ¹treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

³“^aYou shall not eat any abominable thing. ⁴“^aThese are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, ⁵¹the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. ⁶“And any animal that divides the hoof and has the hoof split in ¹two and ²chews the cud, among the animals, that one you may eat. ⁷“Nevertheless, you are not to eat of these among those which ¹chew the cud or among those that divide the hoof in ²two: the camel and the ³rabbit and the ⁴shaphan, for though they ⁵chew the cud, they do not divide the hoof; they are unclean for you. ⁸“And the pig, because it divides the hoof but does not chew the cud, it is unclean for you. You shall not eat any of their flesh nor touch their carcasses.

⁹“These you may eat of all that are in water: anything that has fins and scales you may eat, ¹⁰but anything that does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.

¹¹“You may eat any clean bird. ¹²“But ^athese are the ones which you shall not eat: the ¹eagle and the vulture and the ²buzzard, ¹³and the red kite, the falcon, and the kite in their kinds, ¹⁴and every raven in its kind, ¹⁵and the ostrich, the owl, the gull, and the hawk in their kinds, ¹⁶the little owl, the ¹great owl, the white owl, ¹⁷the pelican, the carrion vulture, the cormorant, ¹⁸the stork, and the heron in their kinds, and the hoopoe and the bat. ¹⁹“And all the ¹teeming life with wings are unclean to you; they shall not be eaten. ²⁰“You may eat any clean bird.

²¹“^aYou shall not eat anything which dies of itself. You may give it to the sojourner who is within your gates, so that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner, for you are ^ba holy people to Yahweh your God. ^cYou shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

²²“You ^ashall surely tithe all the produce from ¹what you sow, which comes out of the field every year. ²³“And you shall eat in the presence of Yahweh your God, ^aat the place where He chooses for His name to dwell, the tithe of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and your flock, so that you may ^blearn to fear Yahweh your God all your days. ²⁴“And if the ¹distance is so great for you that you are not able to ²bring the tithe, since the place where Yahweh your God chooses ^ato set His name is too far away from you when Yahweh your God blesses you, ²⁵then you shall ¹exchange it for money and bind the money in your hand and go to the place which Yahweh your God chooses. ²⁶“And you may spend the money for whatever your ¹heart desires: for oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink or whatever your ²heart ³desires; and ^athere you shall eat in the presence of Yahweh your God and be glad, you and your household. ²⁷“Also you shall not forsake ^athe Levite who is within your gates, ^bfor he has no portion or inheritance among you.

²⁸“^aAt the end of every third year you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year and shall deposit it within your gates. ²⁹“And the Levite, ^abecause he has no portion or inheritance among you, and ^bthe sojourner, the ¹orphan, and the widow who are within your gates, shall come and ^ceat and be satisfied, in order that ^dYahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.

Remission of Debt Every Seven Years

15“^aAt the end of every seven years you shall ¹grant a remission of debts. ²“And this is the manner of remission: every creditor shall release what he has loaned to his neighbor; he shall not exact it of his neighbor and his brother because the remission from Yahweh has been proclaimed. ³“^aFrom a foreigner you may exact it, but your hand shall release whatever of yours is with your brother. ⁴“However, there will be no needy one among you, since ^aYahweh will surely bless you in the land which Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, ⁵if only you listen obediently to the voice of Yahweh your God, to be careful to do all this commandment which I am commanding you today. ⁶“^aFor Yahweh your God will bless you as He has promised you, and you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; and you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.

⁷“If there is ^aa needy one among you, one of your brothers, in any of your gates of the towns in your land which Yahweh your God is giving you, ^byou shall not harden your heart nor close your hand from your needy brother; ⁸but ^ayou shall freely open your hand to him and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks. ⁹“Beware lest there be a vile ¹thought in your heart, saying, ‘^aThe seventh year, the year of the remission of debts, is near,’ and ^byour eye is hostile toward your needy brother, and you give him nothing; then he ^cmay cry to Yahweh against you, and it will be a sin in you. ¹⁰“You shall generously give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because ^afor this thing Yahweh your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you send forth your hand to do. ¹¹“^aFor the needy will never cease to be ¹in the land; therefore I am commanding you, saying, ‘You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your afflicted and needy in your land.’

¹²“^aIf your brother, a Hebrew man or woman, is sold to you, then he shall serve you six years, but in the seventh year you shall ¹let him go to be free from you. ¹³“When you ¹let him go to be free from you, you shall not ²let him go empty-handed. ¹⁴“You shall furnish him generously from your flock and from your threshing floor and from your wine vat; you shall give to him as Yahweh your God has blessed you. ¹⁵“And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you; therefore I am commanding you ¹this today. ¹⁶“And it will be that, ^aif he says to you, ‘I will not go out from you,’ because he loves you and your household, since he fares well with you; ¹⁷then you shall take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also you shall do likewise to your maidservant.

¹⁸“It shall not seem hard in your sight when you ¹let him go to be free from you, for he has given you six years with ²double the service of a hired man; so Yahweh your God will bless you in whatever you do.

¹⁹“^aYou shall set apart as holy to Yahweh your God all the firstborn males that are born of your herd and of your flock; you shall not work with the firstborn of your herd nor shear the firstborn of your flock. ²⁰“^aYou and your household shall eat it every year before Yahweh your God in the place which Yahweh chooses. ²¹“^aBut if it has any defect, such as lameness or blindness, or any serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to Yahweh your God. ²²“You shall eat it within your gates; ^athe unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as ^ba gazelle or a deer. ²³“Only ^ayou shall not eat its blood; you are to pour it out on the ground like water.

The Passover

16“Keep ^athe month of Abib and ¹^,^bcelebrate the Passover to Yahweh your God, for in the month of Abib Yahweh your God brought you out of Egypt by night. ²“And you shall sacrifice the Passover to Yahweh your God from the flock and the herd, in the place where Yahweh chooses for His name to dwell. ³“^aYou shall not eat leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), so that you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt ^ball the days of your life. ⁴“For seven days no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory, and ^anone of the flesh which you sacrifice on the evening of the first day shall remain overnight until morning. ⁵“You are not allowed to sacrifice the Passover in any of your gates of the towns which Yahweh your God is giving you; ⁶but ^aat the place where Yahweh your God chooses for His name to dwell, there you shall sacrifice the Passover in the evening at sunset, at the appointed time that you came out of Egypt. ⁷“And you shall ^acook and eat it in the place which Yahweh your God chooses. In the morning you are to return to your tents. ⁸“Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and ^aon the seventh day there shall be ^ba solemn assembly to Yahweh your God; you shall do no work on it.

The Feast of Weeks

⁹“^aYou shall count seven weeks for yourself; you shall begin to count seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. ¹⁰“Then you shall ¹celebrate the Feast of Weeks to Yahweh your God with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, which you shall give just as Yahweh your God blesses you; ¹¹and you shall ^abe glad before Yahweh your God, you and your son and your daughter and your male and female slaves and ^bthe Levite who is within your gates and ^cthe sojourner and the ¹orphan and the widow who are in your midst, in the place where Yahweh your God chooses for His name to dwell. ¹²“^aAnd you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.

The Feast of Booths

¹³“^aYou shall ¹celebrate the Feast of Booths seven days after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and your wine vat; ¹⁴and you shall ^abe glad in your feast, you and your son and your daughter and your male and female slaves and the Levite and the sojourner and the ¹orphan and the widow who are within your gates. ¹⁵“Seven days you shall celebrate a feast to Yahweh your God in the place which Yahweh chooses, because Yahweh your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether glad.

¹⁶“^aThree times in a year all your males shall appear before Yahweh your God in the place which He chooses, at the Feast of Unleavened Bread and at the Feast of Weeks and at the Feast of Booths, and ^bthey shall not appear before Yahweh empty-handed. ¹⁷“Every man ¹shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of Yahweh your God which He has given you.

Do Not Distort Justice

¹⁸“You shall appoint for yourself judges and officers in all your gates of the towns which Yahweh your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. ¹⁹“^aYou shall not distort justice; ^byou shall not ¹be partial, and ^cyou shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous. ²⁰“Righteousness! Righteousness, you shall pursue, that ^ayou may live and possess the land which Yahweh your God is giving you.

²¹“^aYou shall not plant for yourself an ¹Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of Yahweh your God, which you shall make for yourself. ²²“^aAnd you shall not set up for yourself a sacred pillar which Yahweh your God hates.

17“^aYou shall not sacrifice to Yahweh your God an ox or a sheep which has a defect or any ¹blemish, for that is an abominable thing to Yahweh your God.

²“^aIf there is found in your midst, in any of your gates of the towns which Yahweh your God is giving you, a man or a woman who does what is evil in the sight of Yahweh your God, by trespassing against His covenant, ³and has gone and ^aserved other gods and worshiped them, ^bor the sun or the moon or any of the heavenly host, ^cwhich I have not commanded, ⁴and if it is told to you and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire thoroughly. Behold, if it is true and the matter is confirmed that this abomination has been done in Israel, ⁵then you shall bring out that man or that woman who has done this evil deed to your gates, that is, the man or the woman, and ^ayou shall stone them, and they will die. ⁶“^aOn the mouth of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the mouth of one witness. ⁷“^aThe hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. ^bSo you shall purge the evil from your midst.

Judging Cases

⁸“^aIf any case is too difficult for you to judge, between ¹one kind of homicide or another, between ²one kind of lawsuit or another, and between ³one kind of assault or another, being cases of dispute in your gates, then you shall arise and go up to ^bthe place which Yahweh your God chooses. ⁹“So you shall come to ^athe Levitical priest or the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall inquire of them, and they will declare to you the judgment in the case. ¹⁰“And you shall do according to the ¹terms of the judgment which they declare to you from that place which Yahweh chooses; and you shall be careful to do according to all that they teach you. ¹¹“^aAccording to the ¹terms of the law which they teach you, and according to the judgment which they tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside from the word which they declare to you, to the right or the left. ¹²“And the man who acts ^apresumptuously by not listening to the priest who stands there to minister to Yahweh your God, or to the judge, that man shall die; thus you shall purge the evil from Israel. ¹³“Then all the people will hear and be afraid and will not act ^apresumptuously again.

Statutes for the King

¹⁴“When you enter the land which Yahweh your God gives you, and you ^apossess it and live in it, and you say, ‘^bI will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ ¹⁵you shall surely set a king over you whom Yahweh your God chooses, one ^afrom among your brothers you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your brother. ¹⁶“^aMoreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he ^bcause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses. ^cYahweh has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’ ¹⁷“^aAnd he shall not multiply wives for himself, ¹or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.

¹⁸“Now it will be when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll ¹^,^ain the presence of the Levitical priests. ¹⁹“And it shall be with him, and he shall read it ^aall the days of his life, that he may learn to fear Yahweh his God, ¹to carefully observe all the words of this law and these statutes, ²⁰that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers ^aand that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his sons in the midst of Israel.

The Portion of the Levites

18“^aThe Levitical priests, the whole tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel; they shall eat of the offerings to Yahweh by fire and of His inheritance. ²“^aAnd they shall have no inheritance among their brothers; Yahweh is their inheritance, as He ¹promised them.

³“^aNow this shall be the legal judgment for the priests taken from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, either an ox or a sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach. ⁴“You shall give him the ^afirst fruits of your grain, your new wine and your oil and the first shearing of your sheep. ⁵“^aFor Yahweh your God has chosen him and his sons from all your tribes, to ^bstand to minister in the name of Yahweh all the days.

⁶“Now if a Levite comes from any of your gates of the towns throughout Israel where he ^asojourns and comes ¹whenever he desires to the place which Yahweh chooses, ⁷then he shall minister in the name of Yahweh his God like all his brothers the Levites who stand there before Yahweh. ⁸“^aThey shall eat ¹equal portions, except what they receive from the sale of their fathers’ estates.

Do Not Imitate Abominations

⁹“When you enter the land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not learn to ¹^,^aimitate the abominations of those nations. ¹⁰“There shall not be found among you anyone ^awho makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one ^bwho practices soothsaying or one who interprets omens or a sorcerer, ¹¹or one who is an enchanter ^aor a medium or a spiritist or one who inquires of the dead. ¹²“For whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh; and ^abecause of these abominations Yahweh your God will dispossess them from before you. ¹³“^aYou shall be ¹blameless before Yahweh your God. ¹⁴“For those nations, which you shall dispossess, listen to those who ^apractice soothsaying and to diviners, but as for you, Yahweh your God has not allowed you to do so.

Yahweh Will Raise Up a Prophet

¹⁵“^aYahweh your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers; you shall listen to him. ¹⁶“This is ^aaccording to all that you asked of Yahweh your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of Yahweh my God; let me not see this great fire anymore, or I will die.’ ¹⁷“^aAnd Yahweh said to me, ‘They have ¹spoken well. ¹⁸‘I will raise up a prophet from among their brothers like you, and ^aI will put My words in his mouth, and ^bhe shall speak to them all that I command him. ¹⁹‘^aAnd it will be that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him. ²⁰‘But the prophet who speaks a word ^apresumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or ^bwhich he speaks in the name of other gods, ¹that prophet shall die.’ ²¹“Now ¹you may say in your heart, ‘How will we know the word which Yahweh has not spoken?’ ²²“^aWhen a prophet speaks in the name of Yahweh, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which Yahweh has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it ^bpresumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

Statutes About Cities of Refuge

19“^aWhen Yahweh your God cuts off the nations, whose land Yahweh your God gives you, and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and in their houses, ²^ayou shall set apart three cities for yourself in the midst of your land, which Yahweh your God gives you to ¹possess. ³“You shall prepare the ¹roads for yourself, and divide into three parts the territory of your land which Yahweh your God will give you to inherit, ²so that any manslayer may flee there.

⁴“^aNow this is the case of the manslayer who may flee there and live: when he strikes down his friend ¹without premeditation, ²not hating him previously— ⁵as when a man goes into the forest with his friend to cut wood, and his hand ¹swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron head slips off the ²handle and ³strikes his friend so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live; ⁶lest the avenger of blood pursue the manslayer when his heart is ¹angry, and overtake him, because the way is long, and ²strike down his life, though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated him previously. ⁷“Therefore, I am commanding you, saying, ‘You shall set apart three cities for yourself.’

⁸“Now if Yahweh your God ^aenlarges your territory, just as He has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land which He ¹promised to give to your fathers— ⁹if you ¹be careful to do all this commandment which I am commanding you today, ^ato love Yahweh your God and to walk in His ways all your days—^bthen you shall add three more cities for yourself, besides these three. ¹⁰“So innocent blood will not be shed in the midst of your land which Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance, and ^abloodguiltiness be on you.

¹¹“But ^aif there is a man who hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and rises up against him and strikes down ¹his life so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities, ¹²then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there and give him over into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. ¹³“¹^,^aYou shall not pity him, but ^byou shall purge the blood of the innocent from Israel, that it may go well with you.

Statutes About Boundaries and Witnesses

¹⁴“^aYou shall not move your neighbor’s boundary mark, which the ancestors have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that Yahweh your God gives you to ¹possess.

¹⁵“^aA single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin ¹which he has committed; at the mouth of two or three witnesses a matter shall be established. ¹⁶“^aIf a malicious witness rises up against a man to ¹accuse him of ²wrongdoing, ¹⁷then both the men who have the dispute shall stand ^abefore Yahweh, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days. ¹⁸“And the judges ^ashall inquire thoroughly, and behold, if the witness is a false witness and he has ¹accused his brother falsely, ¹⁹then ^ayou shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you. ²⁰“^aAnd the rest will hear and be afraid and will never again do such an evil thing among you. ²¹“Thus ^ayour eye shall not show pity: ^blife for life, ^ceye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Statutes About Warfare

20“If you go out to battle against your enemies and see ^ahorses and chariots and people more numerous than you, ^bdo not be afraid of them; for Yahweh your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you. ²“Now it will be, when you are drawing near to the battle, the priest shall approach and speak to the people. ³“And he shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, you are drawing near to the battle against your enemies today. Do not let your heart be faint. ^aDo not be afraid, nor be alarmed, nor be in dread before them, ⁴for Yahweh your God ^ais the one who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.’ ⁵“The officers also shall speak to the people, saying, ‘Who is the man that has built a new house and has not ^adedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it. ⁶‘Who is the man that has planted a vineyard and has not ¹begun to use its fruit? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man ²begin to use its fruit. ⁷‘^aAnd who is the man that is engaged to a woman and has not ¹married her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man ²marry her.’ ⁸“Then the officers shall speak further to the people and say, ‘^aWho is the man that is afraid and whose heart is faint? Let him go and return to his house, so that ¹he might not make his brothers’ hearts melt like his heart.’ ⁹“Now it will be that when the officers have finished speaking to the people, they shall appoint commanders of armies at the head of the people.

¹⁰“If you come near a city to fight against it, you shall call for terms of peace. ¹¹“Now it will be that if it ¹agrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your ^aforced labor and shall serve you. ¹²“However, if it does not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. ¹³“And Yahweh your God shall give it into your hand, ^aand you shall strike all the males in it with the edge of the sword. ¹⁴“Only the women and the little ones and ^athe animals and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall plunder for yourself; and you shall consume the spoil of your enemies which Yahweh your God has given you. ¹⁵“Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations ¹nearby. ¹⁶“^aOnly in the cities of these peoples that Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive anything that breathes. ¹⁷“But you shall devote them to destruction, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, as Yahweh your God has commanded you, ¹⁸so that they may not teach you to do ^aaccording to all their abominations which they have done for their gods, so that you would ^bsin against Yahweh your God.

¹⁹“If you besiege a city for many days, to make war against it in order to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by swinging an axe against them; for you may eat from them, and you shall not cut them down. ¹For is the tree of the field a man, that it should ²be besieged by you? ²⁰“Only the trees which you know are not trees for food you shall destroy and cut down, that you may build siegeworks against the city that is making war with you until it falls.

Atonement for Innocent Blood

21“If a slain person is found fallen in the open country in the land which Yahweh your God gives you to ¹possess, and it is not known who has struck him, ²then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the slain one. ³“And it shall be that the city which is nearest to the slain man, that is, the elders of that city, shall take a heifer of the herd, which has not been worked and which has not pulled in a yoke; ⁴and the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which has not been plowed or sown, and they shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. ⁵“Then ^athe priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for Yahweh your God has chosen them to minister for Him and to bless in the name of Yahweh; and every dispute and every ¹assault ²shall be settled by them. ⁶“And all the elders of that city ¹who are nearest to the slain man shall ^awash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley; ⁷and they shall answer and say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it. ⁸‘Atone for Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, O Yahweh, and do not place the guilt of ^ainnocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.’ And the bloodguiltiness shall be atoned for them. ⁹“^aSo you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of Yahweh.

Statutes About Domestic Relations

¹⁰“If you go out to battle against your enemies, and ^aYahweh your God gives them over into your hands and you take them away captive, ¹¹and see among the captives a beautiful woman and set your affection on her and would take her as a wife for yourself, ¹²then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall ^ashave her head and ¹trim her nails. ¹³“She shall also ¹remove the clothes of her captivity and shall remain in your house and ^aweep for her father and mother a full month; and after that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. ¹⁴“And it will be that, if you do not desire her, then you shall let her go ¹wherever she wishes; but you shall certainly not sell her for money; you shall not ²mistreat her because you have ^ahumbled her.

¹⁵“If a man has two wives, the one loved and ^athe other ¹unloved, and both the loved and the ²unloved have borne him sons, if the firstborn son belongs to the ³unloved, ¹⁶then it shall be in the day he ¹wills what he has to his sons, he cannot make the son of the loved the firstborn before the son of the ²unloved, who is the firstborn. ¹⁷“But he shall recognize the firstborn, the son of the ¹unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that ²he has, for he is the ^afirst of his vigor; ^bthe legal judgment for the firstborn belongs to him.

¹⁸“If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will ^anot obey his father or his mother, and when they discipline him, he will not even listen to them, ¹⁹then his father and mother shall seize him and bring him out to the elders of his city ¹at the gateway of his hometown. ²⁰“Then they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not listen to our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ ²¹“^aThen all the men of his city shall stone him, and he will die; so ^byou shall purge the evil from your midst, and ^call Israel will hear of it and fear.

A Man Hanged on a Tree Is Cursed

²²“And if a man has committed a sin, ^athe judgment of which is death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, ²³^ahis corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day (because ^bcursed of God is he who is hanged), so that you ^cdo not make unclean your land which Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance.

Various Statutes

22“^aYou shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep straying away and ¹ignore them; you shall certainly bring them back to your brother. ²“And if your brother is not near you, or if you do not know him, then you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall be with you until your brother searches for it; then you shall give it back to him. ³“Thus you shall do with his donkey, and you shall do likewise with his garment, and you shall do likewise with anything lost by your brother, which he has lost and you have found. You are not allowed to ¹ignore them. ⁴“You shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen down on the way and ¹ignore them; you shall certainly help him to raise them up.

⁵“A woman shall not wear man’s clothing, nor shall a man put on a woman’s clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh your God.

⁶“If you happen to come upon a bird’s nest along the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, ^ayou shall not take the mother with the young; ⁷you shall certainly let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, ^ain order that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days.

⁸“When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, so that you will not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone falls from it.

⁹“^aYou shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest ¹all the produce of the seed which you have sown and the increase of the vineyard become defiled.

¹⁰“^aYou shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.

¹¹“^aYou shall not wear a material mixed of wool and flax together.

¹²“^aYou shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of your garment with which you cover yourself.

Statutes About Sexual Immorality

¹³“^aIf any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then ¹turns against her, ¹⁴and charges her with shameful deeds and brings forth against her a bad name and says, ‘I took this woman, but when I came near her, I did not find her a virgin,’ ¹⁵then the girl’s father and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of the girl’s virginity to the elders of the city at the gate. ¹⁶“Then the girl’s father shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man as a wife, but he ¹turned against her; ¹⁷and behold, he has charged her with shameful deeds, saying, “I did not find your daughter a virgin.” But ¹this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the garment before the elders of the city. ¹⁸“So ^athe elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him, ¹⁹and they shall fine him ¹one hundred shekels of silver and give it to the girl’s father because he brought forth a bad name against a virgin of Israel. And she shall be his wife; he cannot ²divorce her all his days.

²⁰“But if this ¹^,^acharge is true, that the girl was not found a virgin, ²¹then they shall bring out the girl to the doorway of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her, and she will die because she has ^acommitted a disgraceful act in Israel by playing the harlot in her father’s house; thus ^byou shall purge the evil from among you.

²²“^aIf a man is found lying with a married woman, then both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman; thus you shall purge the evil from Israel.

²³“^aIf there is a girl who is a virgin engaged to a man, and another man finds her in the city and lies with her, ²⁴then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them, and they will die; the girl, because she did not cry out in the city, and the man, because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.

²⁵“But if in the field the man finds the girl who is engaged, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lies with her shall die. ²⁶“But you shall do nothing to the girl; there is no sin in the girl worthy of death, for just as a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, so is this case. ²⁷“When he found her in the field, the engaged girl cried out, but there was no one to save her.

²⁸“^aIf a man finds a girl who is a virgin, who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with her and they are found, ²⁹then the man who lay with her shall give to the girl’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall become his wife because he has violated her; he cannot divorce her all his days.

³⁰“¹^,^aA man shall not take his father’s wife so that he will not uncover his father’s skirt.

Those Who May Not Enter the Assembly

23“^aNo one who is ¹emasculated or has his male organ cut off shall enter the assembly of Yahweh. ²“No one of illegitimate birth shall enter the assembly of Yahweh; even to the tenth generation, none of his seed shall enter the assembly of Yahweh. ³“^aNo Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of Yahweh; even to the tenth generation, none of their seed shall ever enter the assembly of Yahweh, ⁴^abecause they did not meet you with ¹food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you ^bBalaam the son of Beor from Pethor of ²Mesopotamia, to curse you. ⁵“Nevertheless, Yahweh your God was not willing to listen to Balaam, but Yahweh your God ^aturned the curse into a blessing for you because Yahweh your God ^bloves you. ⁶“^aYou shall never seek their peace or their prosperity all your days.

⁷“You shall not abhor an Edomite, for ^ahe is your brother; you shall not abhor an Egyptian, ^bfor you were a sojourner in his land. ⁸“The sons of the third generation who are born to them may enter the assembly of Yahweh.

⁹“When you go out as ¹an army against your enemies, you shall keep yourself from every evil thing.

¹⁰“^aIf there is among you any man who is unclean because of a nocturnal emission, then he must go outside the camp; he may not ¹reenter the camp. ¹¹“But it shall be when evening approaches, he shall bathe himself with water, and at sundown he may ¹reenter the camp.

¹²“You shall also have a place outside the camp and go out there, ¹³and you shall have a ¹spade among your tools, and it shall be when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and shall turn ²to cover up your excrement. ¹⁴“Since ^aYahweh your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to give your enemies over to you, therefore your camp must be ^bholy; and He must not see ¹anything indecent among you, ²or He will turn away from you.

¹⁵“^aYou shall not hand over to his master a slave who has ¹escaped from his master to you. ¹⁶“He shall live with you in your midst, in the place which he shall choose in one of your gates of the towns where it pleases him; ^ayou shall not mistreat him.

¹⁷“^aNone of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, ^bnor shall any of the sons of Israel be a cult prostitute. ¹⁸“You shall not bring the hire of a harlot or the wages of a ¹^,^adog into the house of Yahweh your God for any votive offering, for both of these are an abomination to Yahweh your God.

¹⁹“^aYou shall not charge interest to your brother: interest on money, food, or anything that may be loaned at interest. ²⁰“^aYou may charge interest to a foreigner, but to your brother you shall not charge interest, so that ^bYahweh your God may bless you in all ¹that you send forth your hand to do in the land which you are about to enter to ²possess.

²¹“^aWhen you make a vow to Yahweh your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for Yahweh your God will surely require it of you; and it will be a sin in you. ²²“However, if you refrain from vowing, it will not be a sin in you. ²³“You shall be careful and do what goes out from your lips, just as you have voluntarily vowed to Yahweh your God that which you spoke with your mouth.

²⁴“When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, then you may eat grapes ¹until you are fully satisfied, but you shall not put any in your ²basket.

²⁵“^aWhen you enter your neighbor’s standing grain, then you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not wield a sickle in your neighbor’s standing grain.

Statutes About Divorce

24“If a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens ¹that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some ^aindecency in her, and ^bhe writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house, ²and she goes out of his house and goes and becomes another man’s wife, ³and if the latter husband ¹turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife, ⁴then her ^aformer husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife, since she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before Yahweh, and you shall not bring sin on the land which Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance.

⁵“^aWhen a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out with the army nor be charged with any duty; he shall be free at home one year and shall ^bgive gladness to his wife whom he has taken.

Remember You Were Slaves in Egypt

⁶“No one shall take a handmill or an upper millstone in pledge, for he would be taking a life in pledge.

⁷“^aIf a man is ¹caught kidnapping any of his brothers of the sons of Israel, and he mistreats him or sells him, then that thief shall die; so you shall purge the evil from among you.

⁸“^aTake care against ¹an infection of leprosy, to be very careful and to do according to all that the Levitical priests instruct you; as I have commanded them, so you shall be careful to do. ⁹“Remember what Yahweh your God did ^ato Miriam on the way as you came out of Egypt.

¹⁰“^aWhen you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not enter his house to take his deposit. ¹¹“You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the deposit out to you. ¹²“Now if he is an afflicted man, you shall not sleep with his deposit. ¹³“^aWhen the sun goes down you shall surely return the deposit to him, that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you; and ^bit will be righteousness for you before Yahweh your God.

¹⁴“^aYou shall not oppress a hired person who is afflicted and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of your sojourners who is in your land within your gates. ¹⁵“^aYou shall give him his wages on his day ¹before the sun goes down, for he is afflicted and sets his soul on it, so that ^bhe will not cry against you to Yahweh and it become sin in you.

¹⁶“^aFathers shall not be put to death ¹for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death ²for their fathers; each shall be put to death for his own sin.

¹⁷“^aYou shall not pervert the justice ¹due a sojourner or ²an orphan, nor ^btake a widow’s garment in pledge. ¹⁸“But you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and that Yahweh your God redeemed you from there; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing.

¹⁹“^aWhen you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be ^bfor the sojourner, for the ¹orphan, and for the widow, in order that Yahweh your God ^cmay bless you in all the work of your hands. ²⁰“^aWhen you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs after you finish; it shall be ^bfor the sojourner, for the ¹orphan, and for the widow.

²¹“When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it after you finish; it shall be for the sojourner, for the ¹orphan, and for the widow. ²²“And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing.

25“^aIf there is a dispute between men and they go to court for judgment, and ¹the judges judge their case, ^band they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked, ²then it shall be if the wicked man ¹^,^adeserves to be struck, the judge shall then make him lie down and be struck in his presence with the number of stripes according to his ²guilt. ³“^aHe may strike him forty times but no more, lest he strike him with many more stripes than these and your brother be ^bdishonored in your eyes.

⁴“^aYou shall not muzzle the ox while it is threshing.

⁵“If brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son, then the wife of the one who died shall not be married outside the family to a strange man. ^aHer husband’s brother shall go in to her and take her to himself as wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. ⁶“And it will be that the firstborn whom she bears shall ¹assume the name of his dead brother, so that ^ahis name will not be blotted out from Israel. ⁷“^aBut if the man does not desire to take his brother’s wife, then his brother’s wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to raise up a name for his brother in Israel; he is not willing to perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me.’ ⁸“Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak to him. And if he stands and says, ‘I do not desire to take her,’ ⁹^athen his brother’s wife shall come to him in the sight of the elders and pull his sandal off his foot and ^bspit in his face; and she shall answer and say, ‘Thus it is done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.’ ¹⁰“And in Israel his name shall be called, ‘The house of him whose sandal is removed.’

¹¹“If two men, a man and his brother, are struggling together, and the wife of one comes near to deliver her husband from the hand of the one who is striking him, and she puts out her hand and seizes his genitals, ¹²then you shall cut off her ¹hand; ²^,^ayou shall not show pity.

¹³“^aYou shall not have in your bag ¹differing weights, a large and a small. ¹⁴“You shall not have in your house ¹differing measures, a large and a small. ¹⁵“You shall have a full and just weight; you shall have a full and just ¹measure, ^athat your days may be prolonged in the ²land which Yahweh your God gives you. ¹⁶“For ^aeveryone who does these things, everyone who acts unjustly, is an abomination to Yahweh your God.

¹⁷“^aRemember what Amalek did to you along the way when you came out from Egypt, ¹⁸how he met you along the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear, but you were faint and weary; and he ^adid not ¹fear God. ¹⁹“Therefore it will be, when Yahweh your God has given you ^arest from all your surrounding enemies, in the land which Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance to ¹possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you must not forget.

Bringing First Fruits and Tithes

26“Then it will be, when you enter the land which Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance and you possess it and live in it, ²that you shall take some of ^athe first of all the fruit of the ground which you bring in from your land that Yahweh your God gives you, and you shall put it in a basket and ^bgo to the place where Yahweh your God chooses for His name to dwell. ³“And you shall go to the priest who is in office in those days and say to him, ‘I declare this day to Yahweh ¹my God that I have entered the land which Yahweh swore to our fathers to give us.’ ⁴“Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of Yahweh your God. ⁵“And you shall answer and say before Yahweh your God, ‘^aMy father was a ¹wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt and ²sojourned there, ^bfew in number; but there he became a ^cgreat, mighty, and populous nation. ⁶‘And the ^aEgyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us and imposed hard slave labor on us. ⁷‘Then ^awe cried out to Yahweh, the God of our fathers, and Yahweh heard our voice and saw our affliction and our toil and our oppression; ⁸^aand Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm and with great terror and with signs and wonders; ⁹and He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, ^aa land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰‘So now behold, I have brought the first of the fruit of the ground ^awhich You, O Yahweh, have given me.’ And you shall set it down before Yahweh your God and worship before Yahweh your God; ¹¹and you and ^athe Levite and the sojourner who is among you shall ^bbe glad in all the good which Yahweh your God has given you and your household.

¹²“^aWhen you have finished ¹paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year, the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the sojourner, to the ²orphan, and to the widow, that they may eat within your gates and be satisfied. ¹³“Then you shall say before Yahweh your God, ‘I have purged the sacred portion from my house, and I also have given it to the Levite and the sojourner, the ¹orphan and the widow, according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me; ^aI have not trespassed against or forgotten any of Your commandments. ¹⁴‘I have not eaten of it ¹while mourning, nor have I purged any of it while I was unclean, nor have I given any of it to the dead. I have listened to the voice of Yahweh my God; I have done according to all that You have commanded me. ¹⁵‘^aLook down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the ground which You have given to us, ^ba land flowing with milk and honey, as You swore to our fathers.’

¹⁶“This day Yahweh your God commands you to do these statutes and judgments. You shall therefore be careful to do them ^awith all your heart and with all your soul. ¹⁷“^aYou have today declared Yahweh to be your God, and ¹that you would walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments, and His judgments, and listen to His voice. ¹⁸“And Yahweh has today declared you to be ^aHis people, a treasured possession, as He promised you, and ¹that you should keep all His commandments; ¹⁹and ¹that He will ^aset you high above all nations which He has made, for praise, a name, and beauty; and that you shall be ^ba holy people to Yahweh your God, as He has spoken.”

Curses on Mount Ebal

27Then Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, “Keep the entire commandment which I am commanding you today. ²“^aSo it will be on the day when you cross the Jordan to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, that you shall set up for yourself large stones and coat them with lime ³and write on them all the words of this law when you cross over, so that you may enter the land which Yahweh your God gives you, ^aa land flowing with milk and honey, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, ¹promised you. ⁴“So it will be when you cross the Jordan, you shall set up ^aon Mount Ebal, these stones, ¹as I am commanding you today, and you shall coat them with lime. ⁵“Moreover, you shall build there an altar to Yahweh your God, an altar of stones; you ^ashall not ¹wield an iron tool on them. ⁶“You shall build the altar of Yahweh your God of ¹uncut stones, and you shall offer on it burnt offerings to Yahweh your God; ⁷and you shall sacrifice peace offerings and eat there and ^abe glad before Yahweh your God. ⁸“And you shall write on the ¹stones all the words of this law very distinctly.”

⁹Then Moses and the Levitical priests spoke to all Israel, saying, “Be silent and listen, O Israel! This day you have become a people for Yahweh your God. ¹⁰“You shall therefore listen to the voice of Yahweh your God and do His commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today.”

¹¹Moses also commanded the people on that day, saying, ¹²“When you cross the Jordan, these shall stand on ^aMount Gerizim to bless the people: ^bSimeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. ¹³“For the curse, these shall stand on Mount Ebal: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. ¹⁴“The Levites shall then answer and say to all the men of Israel with a loud voice,

¹⁵‘Cursed is the man who makes ^aa graven image or a molten image, an abomination to Yahweh, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ And ^ball the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’

¹⁶‘^aCursed is he who dishonors his father or mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

¹⁷‘^aCursed is he who moves his neighbor’s boundary mark.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

¹⁸‘^aCursed is he who leads a blind person astray on the road.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

¹⁹‘^aCursed is he who perverts the justice due a sojourner, ¹orphan, and widow.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

²⁰‘^aCursed is he who lies with his father’s wife because he has uncovered his father’s skirt.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

²¹‘^aCursed is he who lies with any animal.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

²²‘^aCursed is he who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

²³‘^aCursed is he who lies with his mother-in-law.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

²⁴‘^aCursed is he who strikes his neighbor in secret.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

²⁵‘^aCursed is he who takes a bribe to strike down ¹innocent blood.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

²⁶‘^aCursed is he who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

Blessings for Keeping the Commandments

28“^aNow it will be, if you diligently listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I am commanding you today, Yahweh your God ^bwill set you high above all the nations of the earth. ²“And all these blessings will come upon you and ^aovertake you if you listen to the voice of Yahweh your God:

³“Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be ^ain the ¹field.

⁴“Blessed shall be the ¹offspring of your ²body and the ³produce of your ground and the ⁴offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock.

⁵“Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

⁶“Blessed shall you be ^awhen you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.

⁷“Yahweh shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be ¹defeated before you; they will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways. ⁸“Yahweh will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in ^aall that you send forth your hand to do, and He will bless you in the land which Yahweh your God gives you. ⁹“^aYahweh will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of Yahweh your God and walk in His ways. ¹⁰“So all the peoples of the earth will see that ¹^,^ayou are called by the name of Yahweh, and they will be afraid of you. ¹¹“^aAnd Yahweh will make you abound in prosperity, in the ¹offspring of your ²body and in the ³offspring of your beast and in the ⁴produce of your ground, in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give you. ¹²“Yahweh will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and ^ayou shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. ¹³“^aAnd Yahweh will make you the head and not the tail, and you only will be above, and you will not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I am commanding you today, to keep and to do, ¹⁴and ^ado not turn aside from any of the words which I am commanding you today, to the right or to the left, to walk after other gods to serve them.

Curses for Not Keeping the Commandments

¹⁵“^aBut it will be, if you do not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to keep and to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I am commanding you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

¹⁶“^aCursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the ¹field.

¹⁷“^aCursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

¹⁸“^aCursed shall be the ¹offspring of your ²body and the ³produce of your ground, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock.

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

²⁰“^aYahweh will send upon you the curse, confusion, and ^brebuke, in all ¹that you send forth your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until ^cyou perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken Me. ²¹“^aYahweh will make the pestilence cling to you until He has consumed you from the land where you are entering to possess it. ²²“^aYahweh will strike you with consumption and with fever and with inflammation and with fiery heat and with ¹the sword and ^bwith scorching wind and with mildew, and they will pursue you until ^cyou perish. ²³“And ¹the heaven which is over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you, iron. ²⁴“^aYahweh will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

²⁵“^aYahweh shall cause you to be ¹defeated before your enemies; you will go out one way against them, but you will flee seven ways before them, and you will ^bbecome an example of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth. ²⁶“^aAnd your carcasses will be food to all birds of the sky and to the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away.

²⁷“^aYahweh will strike you with the boils of Egypt and with ^btumors and with the scab and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. ²⁸“Yahweh will strike you with madness and with blindness and with bewilderment of heart; ²⁹and you will ¹^,^agrope at noon, as the blind man gropes in darkness, and you will not succeed in your ways; but you shall only be oppressed and robbed all your days, with none to save you. ³⁰“^aYou shall betroth a wife, but another man will violate her; ^byou shall build a house, but you will not live in it; you shall plant a vineyard, but you will not ¹use its fruit. ³¹“Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat of it; your donkey shall be torn away from you and will not be returned to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you will have none to save you. ³²“^aYour sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and yearn for them all the day long; but there will be nothing ¹you can do. ³³“^aA people whom you do not know shall eat up the produce of your ground and all your labors, and you will never be anything but oppressed and crushed all your days. ³⁴“And you shall be driven mad by the sight of what your eyes see. ³⁵“^aYahweh will strike you on the knees and legs with sore boils, from which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the top of your head. ³⁶“^aYahweh will lead you and your king, whom you set over you, to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods, ^bwood and stone. ³⁷“^aYou shall become an object of horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the people where Yahweh drives you.

³⁸“^aYou shall bring out much seed to the field, but you will gather in little, for ^bthe locust will consume it. ³⁹“^aYou shall plant and cultivate vineyards, but you will neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm will devour them. ⁴⁰“^aYou shall have olive trees throughout your territory, but you will not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives will drop off. ⁴¹“^aYou shall become the father of sons and daughters, but they will not be yours, for they will go into captivity. ⁴²“^aThe cricket shall possess all your trees and the produce of your ground. ⁴³“^aThe sojourner who is among you shall rise above you higher and higher, but you will go down lower and lower. ⁴⁴“^aHe shall lend to you, but you will not lend to him; ^bhe shall be the head, and you will be the tail.

⁴⁵“So all these curses shall come on you and pursue you and overtake you ^auntil you are destroyed, because you would not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. ⁴⁶“And they shall become ^aa sign and a wonder on you and your seed forever.

⁴⁷“^aBecause you did not serve Yahweh your God with gladness and a merry heart—because of the abundance of all things, ⁴⁸therefore you shall serve your enemies whom Yahweh will send against you, ^ain hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things; and He ^bwill put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.

⁴⁹“^aYahweh will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, ^bas the eagle swoops down, a nation whose tongue you shall not understand, ⁵⁰a nation of fierce countenance who will ^ahave no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young. ⁵¹“Moreover, it shall eat the ¹offspring of your herd and the produce of your ground until you are destroyed, who also will not allow grain, new wine, or oil, and the increase of your herd or the young of your flock to remain for you until they have caused you to perish. ⁵²“^aAnd it shall besiege you in all your gates until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land, and it shall besiege you in all your gates throughout your land which Yahweh your God has given you. ⁵³“^aThen you shall eat the ¹offspring of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters whom Yahweh your God has given you, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will ²oppress you. ⁵⁴“The man who is ¹refined and very delicate among you ²shall be hostile toward his brother and toward the wife ³he cherishes and toward the rest of his children who remain, ⁵⁵so that he will not give even one of them any of the flesh of his children which he will eat, since he has nothing else remaining, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will ¹oppress you in all your gates. ⁵⁶“^aThe ¹refined and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and ²refinement, ³shall be hostile toward the husband ⁴she cherishes and toward her son and daughter, ⁵⁷and toward her afterbirth which issues from between her ¹legs and toward her children whom she bears; for ^ashe will eat them secretly for lack of anything else, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will ²oppress you in your gates.

⁵⁸“If you are not careful to do all the words of this law which are written in this book, to ¹^,^afear this glorious and fearsome ^bname, Yahweh your God, ⁵⁹then Yahweh will bring wondrous plagues on you and plagues on those who are your seed, even great and enduring plagues, and miserable and enduring sicknesses. ⁶⁰“^aAnd He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they will cling to you. ⁶¹“Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, Yahweh will bring on you ^auntil you are destroyed. ⁶²“Then you shall remain few in number, ^awhereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you did not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God. ⁶³“And it will be that as Yahweh ^adelighted over you to prosper you and multiply you, so Yahweh will ^bdelight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you will be ^ctorn from the land where you are entering to possess it. ⁶⁴“Moreover, Yahweh will ^ascatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall ^bserve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known. ⁶⁵“^aMoreover, among those nations you shall find no relief, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there ^bYahweh will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. ⁶⁶“So your life shall ¹hang in doubt before you; and you will be in dread night and day and shall not have any faith in your life. ⁶⁷“^aIn the morning you shall say, ‘Would that it were evening!’ And at evening you shall say, ‘Would that it were morning!’ because of the dread of your heart which you dread, and because of the sight of your eyes which you will see. ⁶⁸“And Yahweh will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way about which I spoke to you, ‘You will never see it again!’ And there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”

The Covenant in Moab

29¹^,^aThese are the words of the covenant which Yahweh commanded Moses to cut with the sons of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the ^bcovenant which He had cut with them at Horeb.

²¹And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “You have seen all that Yahweh did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and all his servants and all his land; ³^athe great trials which your eyes have seen, those great signs and wonders. ⁴“Yet to this day ^aYahweh has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear. ⁵“And I have led you forty years in the wilderness; ^ayour clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandal has not worn out on your foot. ⁶“^aYou have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or strong drink, in order that you might know that I am Yahweh your God. ⁷“^aThen you came to this place, and Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out to meet us for battle, but we struck them down; ⁸and we took their land and ^agave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manassites. ⁹“^aSo you shall keep the words of this covenant to do them, ^bthat you may prosper in all that you do.

¹⁰“You stand today, all of you, before Yahweh your God: your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Israel, ¹¹your little ones, your wives, and the sojourner who is within your camps, from ^athe one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water, ¹²that you may enter into the covenant with Yahweh your God and into His oath, which Yahweh your God is cutting with you today, ¹³in order that He may establish you today as His people and that ^aHe may be your God, just as He spoke to you and as He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

¹⁴“Now not with you alone am I ^acutting this covenant and this oath, ¹⁵^abut both with those who stand here with us today in the presence of Yahweh our God and with those who are not with us here today— ¹⁶for you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed; ¹⁷moreover, you have seen their detestable things and their idols of ^awood, stone, silver, and gold, which they had with them— ¹⁸^alest there be among you a man or woman, or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from Yahweh our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there be among you ^ba root bearing poisonous fruit and wormwood. ¹⁹“And it will be when he hears the words of this curse, that he will ¹bless himself in his heart, saying, ‘I have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart in order ²to sweep away the watered land with the dry.’ ²⁰“Yahweh shall not be willing to pardon him, but rather the anger of Yahweh and ^aHis jealousy will ¹^,^bburn against that man, and every curse which is written in this book will ²rest on him, and Yahweh will ^cblot out his name from under heaven. ²¹“Then Yahweh will separate him out for ¹adversity from all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant ^awhich are written in this book of the law.

²²“And the generation to come, your sons who rise up after you and ^athe foreigner who comes from a distant land, shall see the plagues of the land and the diseases with which Yahweh has ¹afflicted it, and they will say, ²³‘All its land is ^abrimstone and salt, ^ba burning waste, ¹unsown and nothing sprouting, and no grass grows in it, like the overthrow of ^cSodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which Yahweh overthrew in His anger and in His wrath.’ ²⁴“And all the nations will say, ‘^aWhy has Yahweh done thus to this land? Why this great burning anger?’ ²⁵“Then men will say, ‘^aBecause they forsook the covenant of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, which He cut with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. ²⁶‘And they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they have not known and whom He had not apportioned to them. ²⁷‘Therefore, the anger of Yahweh was kindled against that land, ^ato bring upon it every curse which is written in this book; ²⁸and ^aYahweh uprooted them from their land in anger and in fury and in great wrath, and He cast them into another land, as it is this day.’

²⁹“^aThe secret things belong to Yahweh our God, but ^bthe things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

Yahweh Will Take You Back

30“So it will be, when all of these things have come upon you, ^athe blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you cause these things to return to your heart ^bin all the nations where Yahweh your God has banished you, ²and you ^areturn to Yahweh your God and listen to His voice ^bwith all your heart and soul according to all that I am commanding you today, you and your sons, ³then Yahweh your God will ¹^,^areturn ²you from captivity and return His compassion on you, and He ^bwill gather you again from all the peoples where Yahweh your God has ^cscattered you. ⁴“If those of you who are banished are at the ends of the sky, ^afrom there Yahweh your God will gather you, and from there He will take you back. ⁵“^aAnd Yahweh your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and ^bmultiply you more than your fathers.

⁶“Moreover ^aYahweh your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed, ^bto love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live. ⁷“^aAnd Yahweh your God will ¹inflict all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. ⁸“And you shall return and listen to the voice of Yahweh, and you shall do all His commandments which I am commanding you today. ⁹“^aThen Yahweh your God will ¹prosper you abundantly in all the work of your hand, in the ²offspring of your ³body and in the ⁴offspring of your cattle and in the ⁵produce of your ground, for ^bYahweh will return to rejoice over you for good, just as He rejoiced over your fathers, ¹⁰¹when you listen to the voice of Yahweh your God to keep His commandments and His statutes which ^aare written in this book of the law, ²when you return to Yahweh your God ^bwith all your heart and soul.

¹¹“For this commandment which I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it far from you. ¹²“It is not in heaven, ¹that you should say, ‘^aWho will go up to heaven for us and get it for us and make us hear it, that we may do it?’ ¹³“Nor is it beyond the sea, ¹that you should say, ‘Who will cross the sea for us and get it for us and make us hear it, that we may do it?’ ¹⁴“But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.

Choose Life

¹⁵“See, ^aI have set before you today life and ¹prosperity, and death and ²calamity; ¹⁶in that I am commanding you today ^ato love Yahweh your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you ^bmay live and multiply, and that Yahweh your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. ¹⁷“But if your heart turns away and you will not listen, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, ¹⁸I declare to you today that ^ayou shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter ¹and possess it. ¹⁹“^aI call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, ^bthe blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your seed, ²⁰^aby loving Yahweh your God, by listening to His voice, and ^bby holding fast to Him; ^cfor ¹this is your life and the length of your days, ²that you may live in ^dthe land which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”

Be Strong and Courageous

31So Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. ²And he said to them, “I am ^a120 years old today; ^bI am no longer able to come and go, and Yahweh has said to me, ‘^cYou shall not cross this Jordan.’ ³“^aIt is Yahweh your God who will cross ahead of you; He will destroy these nations before you, and you shall dispossess them. ^bJoshua is the one who will cross ahead of you, just as Yahweh has spoken. ⁴“And Yahweh will do to them just as He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when He destroyed them. ⁵“^aAnd Yahweh will give them over before you, and you shall do to them according to all the commandments which I have commanded you. ⁶“^aBe strong and courageous. ^bDo not be afraid or be in dread of them, for ^cYahweh your God is the one who goes with you. ^dHe will not fail you or forsake you.”

⁷Then Moses called to Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “^aBe strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land which Yahweh has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall give it to them as an inheritance. ⁸“^aAnd Yahweh is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. ^bHe will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”

⁹So Moses wrote this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi ^awho carried the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, and to all the elders of Israel. ¹⁰Then Moses commanded them, saying, “At the end of every seven years, at the time of ^athe year of the remission of debts, at the ^bFeast of Booths, ¹¹when all Israel comes ^ato appear before Yahweh your God at ^bthe place which He will choose, ^cyou shall read this law in front of all Israel in their hearing. ¹²“Assemble the people, the men and the women and little ones and ¹the sojourner who is within your gates, so that they may hear and so that they may ^alearn and fear Yahweh your God and be careful to do all the words of this law. ¹³“And their children, who have not known, will hear and learn to fear Yahweh your God, all the days you live on the land ¹which you are about to cross the Jordan to ²possess.”

Yahweh Has Moses Write a Song

¹⁴Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Behold, ¹^,^athe time for you to die is near; call Joshua and present yourselves at the tent of meeting, that I may commission him.” ^bSo Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves at the tent of meeting. ¹⁵^aAnd Yahweh appeared in the tent in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood at the doorway of the tent. ¹⁶And Yahweh said to Moses, “Behold, ^ayou are about to lie down with your fathers; and ^bthis people will arise and play the harlot with the foreign gods of the land, into the midst of which they are going, and they ^cwill forsake Me and break My covenant which I have cut with them. ¹⁷“^aThen My anger will be kindled against them in that day, and ^bI will forsake them and ^chide My face from them, and they will be consumed, and many evils and troubles will find them, so that they will say in that day, ‘^dIs it not because our God is not among us that these evils have found us?’ ¹⁸“But I will surely hide My face in that day because of all the evil which they will do, for they will turn to other gods.

¹⁹“So now, ^awrite this song for yourselves and teach it to the sons of Israel; put it in their mouths, so that this song may be a witness for Me against the sons of Israel. ²⁰“^aFor when I bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to their fathers, and they have eaten and are satisfied and ^bbecome fat, then they will turn to other gods and serve them and spurn Me and break My covenant. ²¹“Then it will be, ^awhen many evils and troubles have found them, that this song will answer them as a witness (for it shall not be forgotten from the mouths of their seed); for ^bI know their intent which they are ¹developing today, before I have brought them into the land which I swore.” ²²^aSo Moses wrote this song the same day and taught it to the sons of Israel.

Joshua Is Commissioned

²³^aThen He commissioned Joshua the son of Nun and said, “^bBe strong and courageous, for you shall bring the sons of Israel into the land which I swore to them, and ^cI will be with you.”

²⁴And it happened, when Moses finished writing the words of this law in a book until they were complete, ²⁵that Moses commanded the Levites ^awho carried the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, saying, ²⁶“Take this book of the law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of Yahweh your God, that it may be there as a witness against you. ²⁷“For I know ^ayour rebellion and ^byour ¹stiff-neck; behold, while I am still alive with you today, you have been rebellious against Yahweh; how much more, then, after my death? ²⁸“Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their hearing and ^acall the heavens and the earth to witness against them. ²⁹“For I know that after my death you will ^aact corruptly and turn away from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the last days, for you will do that which is evil in the sight of Yahweh, provoking Him to anger with the work of your hands.”

The Song of Moses

³⁰Then Moses spoke in the hearing of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song, until they were complete:

32“^aGive ear, O heavens, and let me speak;And let the earth hear the words of my mouth.²“^aLet what I have learned drop as the rain,My speech distill as the dew,^bAs the droplets on the fresh grassAnd as the showers on the herb.³“^aFor I proclaim the name of Yahweh;^bAscribe greatness to our God!⁴“^aThe Rock! His work is ¹perfect,^bFor all His ways are ²just;^cA God of faithfulness and without injustice,Righteous and upright is He.⁵“¹^,^aThey have acted corruptly toward Him,They are not His children because of their defect;^bBut are a perverse and crooked generation.⁶“Do you thus ^arepay Yahweh,^bO people who are wickedly foolish and without wisdom?^cIs not He your Father who has bought you?^dHe has made you and established you.⁷“Remember the ancient days,Consider the years from generation to generation.^aAsk your father, and he will declare to you,Your elders, and they will speak to you.⁸“^aWhen the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,When He separated the sons of ¹man,He set the boundaries of the peoples^bAccording to the number of the ²sons of Israel.⁹“^aFor Yahweh’s portion is His people;Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance.¹⁰“^aHe found him in a desert land,And in the howling waste of a wilderness;He encircled him; He cared for him;He guarded him as ^bthe pupil of His eye.¹¹“^aLike an eagle that stirs up its nest,That hovers over its young,^bHe spread His wings and caught them;He carried them on His pinions.¹²“^aYahweh alone guided him,^bAnd there was no foreign god with him.¹³“^aHe made him ride on the high places of the earth,And he ate the produce of the field;^bAnd He made him suck honey from the rock,And ^coil from the flinty rock,¹⁴Curds of cows, and milk of the flock,With fat of lambs,And rams, the breed of Bashan, and goats,^aWith the finest of the wheat—And of the ^bblood of grapes you drank wine.¹⁵“^aBut ¹Jeshurun grew fat and kicked—You grew fat, thick, and sleek—^bThen he abandoned God ^cwho made him,And treated ^dthe Rock of his salvation with wicked foolishness.¹⁶“^aThey made Him jealous with strange gods;^bWith abominations they provoked Him to anger.¹⁷“^aThey sacrificed to demons who were not God,^bTo gods whom they have not known,^cNew gods who came lately,Whom your fathers did not dread.¹⁸“You neglected ^athe Rock who begot you,^bAnd forgot the God who brought you forth.¹⁹“^aAnd Yahweh saw this and spurned them^bBecause of the provocation of His sons and daughters.²⁰“Then He said, ‘I will hide My face from them;^aI will see what their end shall be;^bFor they are a perverse generation,^cSons in whom is no faithfulness.²¹‘^aThey have made Me jealous with what is not God;They have provoked Me to anger with their ¹^,^bidols.^cSo I will make them jealous with those who are not a people;I will provoke them to anger with a wickedly foolish nation,²²^aFor a fire is kindled in My anger,And it burns to the lowest part of Sheol,^bAnd it consumes the earth with its produce,And it sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.²³‘^aI will heap calamities on them;^bI will exhaust My arrows on them.²⁴‘^aThey will be wasted by famine, and consumed by ¹plague^bAnd bitter destruction;^cAnd the teeth of beasts I will send upon them,^dWith the venom of crawling things of the dust.²⁵‘^aOutside the sword will bereave,And inside terror—^bBoth choice man and virgin,The nursing baby with the man of gray hair.²⁶‘I would have said, “^aI will cut them to pieces;^bI will cause the memory of them to cease from men,”²⁷Had I not feared the provocation by the enemy,Lest their adversaries misjudge,Lest they say, “^aOur hand is ¹triumphant,And Yahweh has not done all this.”’²⁸“^aFor they are a nation where counsel perishes,And there is no discernment in them.²⁹“^aWould that they were wise, that they had insight into this,^bThat they would understand their ¹future!³⁰“^aHow could one pursue one thousand,And two put ten thousand to flight,Unless their ^bRock had sold them,And Yahweh had handed them over?³¹“Indeed their rock is not like our Rock,^aEven our enemies ¹themselves judge this.³²“For their vine is from the vine of Sodom,And from the fields of Gomorrah;Their grapes are grapes of ^apoison,Their clusters, bitter.³³“Their wine is the venom of ¹serpents,And the ²deadly poison of cobras.³⁴‘^aIs it not laid up in store with Me,Sealed up in My treasuries?³⁵‘^aVengeance is Mine, and retribution,^bIn due time their foot will stumble;^cFor the day of their disaster is near,And the impending things are hastening upon them.’³⁶“^aFor Yahweh will render justice to His people,^bAnd will have compassion on His slaves,When He sees that their ¹strength is gone,And there is none remaining, bond or free.³⁷“And He will say, ‘^aWhere are their gods,The rock in which they sought refuge?³⁸‘^aWho ate the fat of their sacrifices,And drank the wine of their drink offering?^bLet them rise up and help you,Let them be your hiding place!³⁹‘^aSee now that I, I am He,^bAnd there is no god besides Me;^cIt is I who put to death and give life.^dI have wounded, and it is I who heal,^eAnd there is no one who can deliver from My hand.⁴⁰‘Indeed, ^aI lift up My hand to heaven,And say, as I live forever,⁴¹^aIf I sharpen My ¹flashing sword,And My hand takes hold on judgment,^bI will render vengeance on My adversaries,And I will repay those who hate Me.⁴²‘^aI will make My arrows drunk with blood,^bAnd My sword will devour flesh,With the blood of the slain and the captives,From the long-haired ¹leaders of the enemy.’⁴³“^aO nations, cause His people to shout for joy;^bFor He will avenge the blood of His slaves,^cAnd He will render vengeance on His adversaries,^dAnd He will atone for His land and His people.”

⁴⁴Then Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and ¹^,^aJoshua the son of Nun. ⁴⁵Then Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel, ⁴⁶and he said to them, “^aPlace in your heart all the words with which I am warning you today, which you shall command ^byour sons to be careful to do, even all the words of this law. ⁴⁷“For it is not an idle word for you; indeed ^ait is your life. And ^bby this word you will prolong your days in the land, ¹which you are about to cross the Jordan to ²possess.”

Moses to Go Up Mount Nebo

⁴⁸^aAnd Yahweh spoke to Moses that very same day, saying, ⁴⁹“^aGo up to this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab ¹opposite Jericho, and look at the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the sons of Israel for a possession. ⁵⁰“Then die on the mountain where you ascend, and be ^agathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people, ⁵¹^abecause you both acted unfaithfully with Me in the midst of the sons of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the ^bwilderness of Zin, because you both did not treat Me as holy in the midst of the sons of Israel. ⁵²“^aFor you shall see the land at a distance, but ^byou shall not go there, into the land which I am giving the sons of Israel.”

The Blessing of Moses

33Now this is the blessing with which Moses ^athe man of God blessed the sons of Israel before his death. ²And he said, “^aYahweh came from Sinai,^bAnd He ¹dawned on them from Seir;^cHe shone forth from Mount Paran,And He came from ^dthe ²midst of ten thousand holy ones;^eAt His right hand there was ³flashing lightning for them.

³“^aIndeed, He loves ¹the people;^bAll ²Your holy ones are in Your hand,^cAnd they ³followed in Your steps;Everyone is bearing up Your words.⁴“^aMoses commanded us with a law,^bA possession for the assembly of Jacob.⁵“^aAnd He was king in Jeshurun,When the heads of the people were gathered,The tribes of Israel together.⁶“^aMay Reuben live and not die,Nor his men be few.”

⁷^aAnd this regarding Judah; so he said, “Hear, O Yahweh, the voice of Judah,And bring him to his people.With his hands he contended for ¹them,And may You be a help against his adversaries.”

⁸Of Levi he said, “Let Your ^aThummim and Your Urim belong to ¹Your ^bholy one,^cWhom You tested at Massah,²With whom You contended at the waters of Meribah;

⁹^aWho said of his father and his mother,‘I did not consider them’;And he did not recognize his brothers,Nor did he know his own sons,For ^bthey kept Your word,And they observed Your covenant.¹⁰“^aThey shall ¹teach Your judgments to Jacob,And Your law to Israel.^bThey shall put incense ²before You,And ^cwhole burnt offerings on Your altar.¹¹“O Yahweh, bless his substance,And accept the work of his hands;Crush the loins of those who rise up against him,And those who hate him, so that they will not rise again.”

¹²Of Benjamin he said, “^aMay the beloved of Yahweh dwell in security by Him,^bWho shields him all the day,^cAnd he dwells between His shoulders.”

¹³Of Joseph he said, “^aBlessed of Yahweh be his land,With the choice things of heaven, with the dew,And from the deep lying beneath,

¹⁴And with the choice produce of the sun,And with the choice yield of the months,¹⁵And with the ¹best things of ^athe ancient mountains,And with the choice things of the everlasting hills,¹⁶And with the choice things of the earth and its fullness,And the favor ^aof Him who dwelt in the bush.Let it come to the head of Joseph,And to the top of the head of the one distinguished among his brothers.¹⁷“As the firstborn of his ox, splendor is his,And his horns are the horns of ^athe wild ox;With them he will ^bpush the peoples,All ¹at once, to the ends of the earth.And those are the ten thousands of Ephraim,And those are the thousands of Manasseh.”

¹⁸^aOf Zebulun he said, “Be glad, Zebulun, in your going forth,And, Issachar, in your tents.

¹⁹“^aThey will call peoples to the mountain;There they will offer ^brighteous sacrifices;For they will ¹draw out ^cthe abundance of the seas,And the hidden treasures of the sand.”

²⁰^aOf Gad he said, “Blessed is the one who enlarges Gad;He lies down ^bas a ¹lion,And tears the arm, also the top of the head.

²¹“^aThen he ¹provided the first part for himself,^bFor there the ruler’s portion was ²reserved;^cAnd he came with the heads of the people;^dHe did the righteousness of Yahweh,And His judgments with Israel.”

²²^aOf Dan he said, “Dan is ^ba lion’s whelp,That leaps forth from Bashan.”

²³Of Naphtali he said, “^aO Naphtali, satisfied with favor,And full of the blessing of Yahweh,Take possession of the sea and the south.”

²⁴^aOf Asher he said, “More blessed than sons is Asher;May he be favored by his brothers,^bAnd may he dip his foot in oil.

²⁵“^aYour locks will be iron and bronze,^bAnd according to your days, so your fortitude will be.²⁶“^aThere is none like the God of ¹Jeshurun,^bWho rides the heavens ²to your help,And through the skies in His majesty.²⁷“^aThe eternal God is a ¹dwelling place,^bAnd underneath are the everlasting arms;^cAnd He drove out the enemy from before you,^dAnd said, ‘Destroy!’²⁸“^aSo Israel dwells in security,^bThe fountain of Jacob secluded,^cIn a land of grain and new wine;^dHis heavens also drop down dew.²⁹“^aBlessed are you, O Israel;^bWho is like you, a people saved by Yahweh,^cWho is the shield of your help^dAnd the sword of your majesty!^eSo your enemies will cower before you,^fAnd you will tread upon their high places.”

The Death of Moses

34^aThen Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And Yahweh ^bshowed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan, ²and all Naphtali and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah as far as the ¹^,^awestern sea, ³and the ¹Negev and the plain in the valley of Jericho, ^athe city of palm trees, as far as Zoar. ⁴Then Yahweh said to him, “This is the land which ^aI swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your seed’; I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.” ⁵So Moses ^athe servant of Yahweh ^bdied there in the land of Moab, according to the ¹command of Yahweh. ⁶And He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, ^aopposite Beth-peor; but ^bno man knows his burial place to this day. ⁷Now Moses was ^a120 years old when he died; ^bhis eye was not dim, nor his vigor abated. ⁸So the sons of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days. Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses came to an end.

⁹Now Joshua the son of Nun was ^afilled with the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him; and the sons of Israel listened to him and did as Yahweh had commanded Moses. ¹⁰^aAnd there has not yet arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom ^bYahweh knew face to face, ¹¹¹in regard to all the signs and wonders which Yahweh sent him to do in the land of Egypt against Pharaoh, all his servants, and all his land, ¹²and ¹in regard to all the mighty ²power and ³in regard to all the great terror which Moses did in the sight of all Israel.