Deuteronomy Chapter 1
Moses reminds Israel of Jehovah's promises at Horeb
1 These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite the Red Sea, between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.
2 It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb, by way of Mount Seir, to Kadesh-barnea.
3 In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the Israelites about all that the Lord had commanded him concerning them,
4 after he had defeated Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth in Edrei.
5 Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses resolved to declare this law, saying:
6 The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain.”
7 Turn back and go to the hill country of the Amorites and all its surrounding areas, in the Arabah, in the hill country, in the valleys, in the Negev, and along the coast of the sea, to the land of the Canaanites, and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates.
8 See, I have given you the land; go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them.
Appointment of judges
9 At that time I spoke to you, saying, “I am not able to carry you alone.
10 The Lord your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven.
11 May the Lord, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand times more than you are now and bless you as he has promised!
12 How can I alone bear your troubles, your burdens, and your disputes?
13 Give me wise, understanding, and experienced men from among your tribes, and I will appoint them as your leaders.”
14 And you answered me and said, “What you have said is good.”
15 So I took the leading men of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and appointed them as leaders over you, commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens, and officers of your tribes.
16 And then I commanded your judges, saying, “Hear between your brothers, and judge fairly between a man and his brother, and between a foreigner and a stranger.
17 Do not show partiality in judgment; hear both small and great alike. Do not be afraid of anyone, for judgment belongs to God. And the case that is too difficult for you, bring it to me, and I will hear it.”
18 So I commanded you at that time all that you should do.
Mission of the Twelve Spies
19 We set out from Horeb and traveled through all that vast and dreadful wilderness you saw, along the road to the hill country of the Amorites, just as the Lord our God commanded us. We came to Kadesh-barnea.
20 Then I said to you, “You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us.
21 See, the Lord your God has given you the land. Go up and take possession of it, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.”
22 Then all of you came to me and said, “Let us send men ahead of us to spy out the land for us and bring back a report about the way we should go up and the cities we should enter.”
23 The plan seemed good to me, so I took twelve men from among you, one from each tribe.
24 They set out and went up into the hill country and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied out the land.
25 They took some of the produce of the land in their hands and brought it down to us and gave us an account, saying, “The land the Lord our God is giving us is good.”
26 Yet you refused to go up; you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God.
27 You grumbled in your tents, saying, “Because the Lord hates us, he brought us out of Egypt to give us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us.”
28 Where can we go up? Our brothers have made us afraid, saying, “The people are greater and taller than we are, and the cities are large, with walls reaching to heaven. We even saw the descendants of Anak there.”
29 Then I said to you, “Do not be afraid or terrified of them.
30 The Lord your God, who goes before you, will fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes.
31 You saw in the wilderness how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you traveled until you came to this place.
32 Yet even after all this, you did not believe the Lord your God,
33 even though he went before you on the way to search out a place for you to camp, in fire by night to show you the way you should go, and in a cloud by day.
God punishes Israel
34 The Lord heard your words and was angry; he swore, saying,
35 “ Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your ancestors,
36 except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land he set foot on, because he has followed the Lord wholeheartedly.
37 The Lord was also angry with me because of you, and he said to me, ‘You will not go in there either.’
38 Joshua son of Nun, who serves you, shall go in there. Encourage him, because he will lead Israel to inherit it.
39 Your little ones, whom you said would be taken as plunder, your children who do not know good from evil, they shall go in there, and I will give them the land, and they shall inherit it.
40 But as for you, turn back and go to the wilderness by way of the Red Sea.”
The defeat in Horma
41 Then you answered and said to me, “We have sinned against the Lord. We will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God has commanded us.” So each of you armed yourselves with your weapons of war and prepared to go up the mountain.
42 But the Lord said to me, “Tell them, ‘Do not go up or fight, for I am not with you, or you will be defeated by your enemies.’”
43 I spoke to you, but you did not listen. You rebelled against the Lord’s command and presumptuously went up the mountain.
44 The Amorites, who lived in the mountains, came out against you and chased you like a swarm of bees, and defeated you at Seir, as far as Hormah.
45 You returned and wept before the Lord, but he did not listen to your voice or pay attention to you.
46 And you were in Kadesh for many days, the days that you were there.
Deuteronomy Chapter 2
The Years in the Desert
1 Then we turned back and went out into the wilderness along the road to the Red Sea, as the Lord had told me. We circled Mount Seir for a long time.
2 And the Lord spoke to me, saying,
3 “ You have circled this mountain long enough; now turn north.
4 And command the people, saying, ‘When you pass through the territory of your brothers, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir, they will be afraid of you. But you must be very careful.
5 Do not attack them, for I will not give you any of their land, not even enough to set the sole of your foot on, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as his inheritance.
6 You may buy food from them with money, and eat it; and you may also buy water from them, and drink it.
7 For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows that you have gone through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you, and you have lacked nothing.’”
8 So we turned away from the territory of our brothers, the descendants of Esau, who lived in Seir, by way of the Arabah from Elath and Ezion-geber. Then we turned and went by way of the wilderness of Moab.
9 The Lord said to me, “Do not harass Moab or engage them in war, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession, because I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as their inheritance.”
10 (The Emim lived there formerly, a great and numerous people, as tall as the Anakites.
11 They were considered giants, like the Anakites, but the Moabites called them Emim.
12 The Horites lived in Seir formerly, but the descendants of Esau drove them out and destroyed them from before them. They settled in their place, just as Israel did in the land the Lord gave them as their possession.)
13 Now then, go over the Zered Valley. So we crossed the Zered Valley.
14 The days we traveled from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the Zered Valley were thirty-eight years, until all the fighting men of the camp were gone, as the Lord had sworn to them.
15 The hand of the Lord was also upon them to destroy them from the camp until they were all gone.
16 After all the fighting men of the people had died,
17 the Lord spoke to me, saying,
18 “ Today you will cross over from Moab to Ar.
19 When you approach the Ammonites, do not harass them or contend with them, for I will not give you any of the Ammonite land as a possession, because I have given it to the descendants of Lot as an inheritance.”
20(It was also considered a land of giants; giants once lived there, whom the Ammonites called Zamzummim;
21 a great and numerous people, and tall like the sons of Anak; whom the Lord destroyed before the Ammonites. These succeeded them and lived in their place,
22 as the Lord did to the descendants of Esau who lived in Seir, before whom he destroyed the Horites; and they succeeded them and lived in their place to this day.
23 And the Avvites who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorites who came out of Caphtor destroyed them and lived in their place.)
24 Arise, go out, and cross the Arnon Valley; behold, I have delivered into your hand Sihon king of Heshbon, the Amorite, and his land; begin to take possession of it, and make war with him.
25 Today I will begin to put your fear and dread upon the peoples under the whole heaven, who will hear of your fame, and they will tremble and be distressed before you.
Israel defeats Sihon
26 So I sent messengers from the Desert of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying,
27 “ Let me pass through your land along the road; I will go along the road, not turning aside to the right or to the left.
28 You shall sell me food for money, that I may eat; you shall also give me water for money, that I may drink. I will only pass through on foot,
29 as the descendants of Esau who lived in Seir and the Moabites who lived in Ar did for me, until I cross the Jordan into the land that the Lord our God is giving us.”
30 But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass through his territory, for the Lord your God had hardened his spirit and obstinate his heart, so as to deliver him into your hand, as he has done to this day.
31 Then the Lord said to me, “See, I have begun to deliver Sihon and his land into your hands; begin to take possession of it and inherit it.”
32 Then Sihon and all his people came out against us to fight at Jahaz.
33 But the Lord our God delivered him into our hands, and we defeated him and his sons and all his people.
34 We took all his cities and utterly destroyed them all—men, women, and children—leaving no one alive.
35 We took only the livestock and the spoil of the cities we had captured.
36 From Aroer, which is on the bank of the Arnon River, and the city in the valley, as far as Gilead, there was not a city that escaped us; the Lord our God delivered them all into our hands.
37 Only we did not go into the land of the Ammonites, nor into all that is along the bank of the Jabbok River, nor into the cities of the hill country, nor into any place that the Lord our God had forbidden us to enter.
Deuteronomy Chapter 3
Israel defeats Og, king of Bashan.
1 So we turned back and went up the road to Bashan, and Og king of Bashan came out against us to fight, he and all his people, at Edrei.
2 The Lord said to me, “Do not be afraid of him, for I have given all his people and his land into your hands. You shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.”
3 So the Lord our God also delivered Og king of Bashan and all his people into our hands, and we defeated them until we had destroyed them all.
4 We took all his cities at that time; there was not a city that we did not take from them—sixty cities, all the land of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
5 All these were fortified cities with high walls, gates, and bars, besides many other unwalled cities.
6 We utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, putting to death in every city the men, women, and children.
7 We took for ourselves all the livestock and the spoil of the cities.
8 At that time we also took the land from the Arnon Valley to Mount Hermon from the two Amorite kings who were on this side of the Jordan.
9 (The Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites Senir.)
10 All the cities of the plain, all Gilead, and all Bashan as far as Salcah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
11 For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the giants. His bed, an iron bed, is it not in Rabbah of the Ammonites? Its length is nine cubits, and its width four cubits, according to the cubit of a man.
Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh settle east of the Jordan River.
12 And this land which we inherited at that time, from Aroer, which is by the Arnon Brook, and half of Mount Gilead with its cities, I gave to the Reubenites and the Gadites;
13 and the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, of the kingdom of Og, all the land of Argob, which was called the land of the giants, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh.
14 Jair the son of Manasseh took all the land of Argob as far as the border of Geshur and Maacah, and called it after himself, Bashan-havoth-jair, to this day.
15 And Gilead I gave to Machir.
16 And to the Reubenites and Gadites I gave from Gilead as far as the Arnon Brook, their boundary being the middle of the valley, as far as the Jabbok Brook, which is the boundary of the Ammonites;
17 also the Arabah, with the Jordan as its boundary from Chinnereth to the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah to the east.
18 And I commanded you at that time, saying, “The Lord your God has given you this land as an inheritance; but all your valiant men shall go out armed before your brothers, the children of Israel.”
19 Only your wives, your children, and your livestock—I know you have many livestock—may remain in the cities I have given you,
20 until the Lord gives rest to your brothers, as well as to you, and they too inherit the land the Lord your God is giving them on the other side of the Jordan. Then each of you may return to the inheritance I have given you.
21 At that time I also commanded Joshua, saying, “Your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to those two kings. So the Lord will do to all the kingdoms you are about to cross over to.
22 Do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is the one who fights for you.”
Moses is not allowed to enter Canaan.
23 At that time I prayed to the Lord, saying,
24 “ O Lord God, you have begun to show your servant your greatness and your mighty hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do works and mighty deeds like yours?
25 Let me cross over, I pray, and see that good land beyond the Jordan—that good mountain and Lebanon.”
26 But the Lord was angry with me because of you, and so he would not listen to me. The Lord said to me, “It is enough! Do not speak to me of this matter again.
27 Go up to the top of Pisgah and look west, north, south, and east, and see with your own eyes, for you shall not cross the Jordan.
28 Command Joshua, encourage him, and strengthen him, for he shall go over before this people and cause them to inherit the land that you will see.”
29 So we stood in the valley opposite Beth-peor.
Deuteronomy Chapter 4
Moses exhorts to obedience
1 Now therefore, O Israel, listen to the statutes and decrees that I am teaching you, so that you may obey them and live, and go in and possess the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.
2 Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I give you.
3 Your eyes saw what the Lord did because of Baal-peor; the Lord your God destroyed from among you all who followed Baal-peor.
4 But you who followed the Lord your God are all alive today.
5 See, I have taught you statutes and decrees, just as the Lord my God commanded me, so that you may observe them in the land that you are entering to possess.
6 Therefore, keep them and do them. For this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, who will hear all these statutes and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”
7 For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call on him?
8 And what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this entire law that I am setting before you today?
Israel's experience at Horeb
9 Therefore, take heed to yourself, and diligently guard your soul, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but teach them to your children and your children’s children.
10 On the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me, “Assemble the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, which they shall learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and which they shall teach to their children”
—11 and you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire to the midst of heaven, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness;
12 and the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of his words, but you saw no form, except a voice.
13 And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform; the Ten Commandments, and wrote them on two tablets of stone.
14 The Lord also commanded me at that time to teach you the statutes and judgments, so that you might observe them in the land which you are going over to possess.
Warning against idolatry
15 Therefore, take careful care of yourselves, for you saw no form of any kind on the day the Lord spoke to you out of the fire.
16 Be careful not to corrupt yourselves by making for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether male or female,
17 or any animal on the earth, or any winged bird that flies in the air,
18 or any creature that creeps on the ground, or any fish in the waters below.
19 And beware lest you lift up your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and worship them and serve them, which the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.
20 But the Lord took you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be his people, his inheritance, as you are this day.
21 The Lord was angry with me because of you, and he swore that I would not cross the Jordan or enter the good land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.
22 So I will die in this land and will not cross the Jordan, but you will cross over and possess that good land.
23 Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and do not make for yourselves an idol or any image of anything the Lord your God has forbidden.
24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
25 When you have children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly and make an idol or any image of anything, and do evil in the sight of the Lord your God, provoking him to anger;
26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that you will soon perish completely from the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live long there, but will be destroyed.
27 The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you.
28 There you will serve gods made by human hands, of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.
29 But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.
30 When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you, in the latter days you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice.
31 For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the covenant he swore to your ancestors.
32 Ask now if in the days that were before you, since the day God created humankind on the earth, from one end of heaven to the other, anything like this great thing has ever happened, or if anything like it has ever been heard of.
33 Has any people ever heard the voice of God speaking out of the fire, as you have, and not perished?
34 Or has God ever attempted to take for himself a nation from among another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by awesome deeds, like all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
35 You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him.
36 From heaven he made you hear his voice to instruct you; on earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from the midst of the fire.
37 Because he loved your ancestors, he chose their descendants after them and brought you out of Egypt with his presence and with his great power,
38 to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you, and to bring you in and give you their land as an inheritance, as it is today.
39 Know this day and consider it in your heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other.
40 Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you forever.
The cities of refuge east of the Jordan
41 Then Moses set apart three cities on this side of the Jordan toward the sunrise,
42 so that the manslayer who killed his neighbor unintentionally, without having had any prior enmity with him, could flee there and save his life by fleeing to one of these cities:
43 Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain, for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for the Manasseh people.
Moses recapitulates the promulgation of the law
44 This, then, is the law that Moses set before the children of Israel.
45 These are the testimonies, the statutes, and the decrees that Moses spoke to the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt;
46 on this side of the Jordan, in the valley before Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel defeated when they came out of Egypt;
47 and they possessed his land, and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites who were on this side of the Jordan, to the east.
48 From Aroer, which is on the bank of the Arnon River, to Mount Zion, which is Hermon;
49 and all the Arabah on this side of the Jordan, to the east, as far as the Sea of the Arabah, at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah.
Deuteronomy Chapter 5
The Ten Commandments
1 Then Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and decrees that I am speaking in your hearing today. Learn them and be careful to obey them.
2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.
3 The Lord did not make this covenant with our ancestors, but with us, all of us who are alive here today.
4 The Lord spoke to you face to face on the mountain out of the fire.
5 At that time I stood between the Lord and you to declare to you the word of the Lord, because you were afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain. He said:
6 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
7 You shall have no other gods before me.
8 You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
9 You shall not bow down to them or serve them; For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
10 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
11 You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
12 Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you.
13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your ox or donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest, as you do.
15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
16 Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
17 You shall not murder.
18 You shall not commit adultery.
19 You shall not steal.
20 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
21 You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor desire your neighbor’s house, nor his field, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.
22 These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly on the mountain out of the fire, the cloud, and the darkness, with a loud voice; and he added no more. And he wrote them on two tablets of stone, which he gave to me.
23 And it came to pass, when ye heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, and saw the mountain burning with fire, ye came unto me, all the princes of your tribes, and your elders,
The terror of the people
24 And you said, “Behold, the Lord our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire. Today we have seen that the Lord speaks to man, and he still lives.
25 Now then, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the Lord our God one more time, we shall die.
26 For what is man, that he should hear the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have heard, and yet live?
27 Go near, and hear all that the Lord our God says; and you shall tell us all that the Lord our God says to you, and we will hear and do it.”
28 And the Lord heard the sound of your words when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me, “I have heard the sound of the words of this people, which they have spoken to you; all that they have said is good.”
29 Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me and always keep all my commandments, so that it might go well with them and their children forever!
30 Go and tell them, “Return to your tents.”
31 But you remain here with me, and I will tell you all the commandments, statutes, and decrees that you shall teach them, so that they may obey them in the land that I am giving them to possess.
32 See that you do as the Lord your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left.
33 Walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper, and prolong your days in the land that you are about to possess.
Deuteronomy Chapter 6
The great commandment
1 These, then, are the commandments, statutes, and decrees that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, so that you may observe them in the land that you are crossing the border to possess,
2 so that you, your children, and your grandchildren may fear the Lord your God by keeping all his statutes and commandments that I am giving you all the days of your life, and so that you may live long.
3 Hear, therefore, O Israel, and be careful to obey them, so that it may go well with you in the land flowing with milk and honey, and that you may increase greatly, as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you.
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
6 These words that I am commanding you today shall be on your heart.
7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.
8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Exhortations to obedience
10 When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build,
11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—and when you have eaten and are satisfied,
12 be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
13 Fear the Lord your God and serve him alone; take your oaths in his name.
14 Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you,
15 because the Lord your God is a jealous God among you. He is trying to prevent his anger from burning against you and him from destroying you from the face of the earth.
16 Do not put the Lord your God to the test as you did at Massah.
17 Carefully keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies and his statutes which he has commanded you.
18 Do what is right and good in the eyes of the Lord, so that it may go well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land that the Lord swore to your ancestors,
19 so that he may drive out your enemies before you, as the Lord has promised.
20 In time to come, when your son asks you, “What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the decrees that the Lord our God commanded you?”
21 then you shall say to your son, “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
22 The Lord performed great and awesome signs and wonders in Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his household, before our very eyes.
23 He brought us out of there to bring us in and give us the land that he swore to our ancestors.
24 The Lord commanded us to observe all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, so that it may go well with us always and that he may preserve our lives, as it is this day.”
25 And we will have righteousness when we are careful to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.
Deuteronomy Chapter 7
Warnings against idolatry in Canaan
1 When the Lord your God has brought you into the land you are about to enter and possess, and he has driven out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you—
2 and the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must utterly destroy them. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.
3 Do not intermarry with them; do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons,
4 because they will turn your children away from following me to serve other gods. Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and he will quickly destroy you.
5 But this is what you must do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their idols in the fire.
A holy people for Jehovah
6 For you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
7 It was not because you were more numerous than other peoples that the Lord set his affection on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples.
8 But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your ancestors that the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.
10 He repays those who hate him to their face by destroying them; he will not be slow to repay those who hate him to their face.
11 Therefore, be careful to observe the commands, decrees and laws that I am giving you today.
Blessings of obedience
12 Because you have listened to these decrees and have kept and obeyed them, the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy he swore to your ancestors.
13 He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land—your grain, your new wine, your oil, the increase of your cattle, and the offspring of your flocks—in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.
14 You will be blessed above all peoples; there will be no barren man or woman among you, nor any barren livestock.
15 The Lord will take away from you every sickness, and he will not inflict on you any of the terrible plagues of Egypt that you know, but he will inflict them on all who hate you.
16 You will destroy all the peoples the Lord your God gives you; you will not spare them, nor will you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.
17 If you say in your heart, “These nations are much more numerous than I; how can I destroy them?”
18 Do not be afraid of them. Remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt,
19 the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs and wonders, and the mighty hand and outstretched arm with which the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all the peoples you dread.
20 The Lord your God will also send hornets among them until those who are left and those who hide from you perish.
21 Do not be terrified because of them, for the Lord your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God.
22 The Lord your God will drive out these nations before you little by little; you will not be able to destroy them all at once, or the wild animals will become too numerous for you.
23 But the Lord your God will deliver them over to you, and he will break them into great ruins until they are destroyed.
24 He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you will blot out their names from under heaven. No one will be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them.
25 You shall burn the images of their gods with fire; you shall not covet the silver or gold on them to take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God.
26 You shall not bring any abominable thing into your house, lest you become an accursed thing; you shall utterly abhor and detest it, for it is an accursed thing.
Deuteronomy Chapter 8
The good land they are to possess
1 Be careful to obey every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase in number, and go in and possess the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors.
2 Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.
3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
4 Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell these forty years.
5 Know in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.
6 You shall therefore keep the commandments of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and fearing him.
7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with brooks, streams, and springs flowing out into the valleys and hills;
8 a land of wheat and barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey;
9 a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you can mine copper.
10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, you will bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
A warning not to forget God
11 Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his decrees and his statutes that I am giving you today.
12 Otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built fine houses and settled down,
13 and your herds and flocks grow large, and your silver and gold increase, and all you have is multiplied,
14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery;
15 He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that land of fiery serpents and scorpions, and a thirsty land where there was no water; and he brought you water out of the flinty rock.
16 He fed you in the wilderness with manna, a food your ancestors had never known, humbling and testing you so that in the end it might go well with you.
17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hand have produced this wealth for me.”
18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.
19 But if you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will certainly be destroyed.
20 Like the nations that the Lord will destroy before you, so you will perish, because you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God.
Deuteronomy Chapter 9
God will destroy the nations of Canaan.
1 Hear, O Israel: You are about to cross the Jordan today to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, cities large and fortified up to heaven,
2 a great and tall people, the descendants of the Anakim, of whom you know, and of whom you have heard it said, “Who can stand against the sons of Anak?”
3 Know therefore today that it is the Lord your God who goes before you like a consuming fire, who will destroy them and subdue them before you; and you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the Lord has promised you.
4 Do not think in your heart, after the Lord your God has driven them out before you, “Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land”; for it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you.
5 It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out before you, and to confirm the word that the Lord swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
The rebellion of Israel at Horeb
6 Therefore, know that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.
7 Remember, do not forget, how you provoked the Lord your God to anger in the wilderness; from the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord.
8 At Horeb you provoked the Lord to anger, and the Lord was angry with you and was ready to destroy you.
9 When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I was on the mountain forty days and forty nights, without eating bread or drinking water.
10 Then the Lord gave me the two stone tablets written with the finger of God; on them were written all the words that the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly.
11 At the end of the forty days and forty nights, the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant.
12 Then the Lord said to me, “Get up, go down quickly from here, for your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned aside from the way that I commanded them; they have made for themselves a molten image.”
13 The Lord also said to me, “I have observed this people, and indeed, they are a stiff-necked people.
14 Let me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven, and I will make you over a nation mighty and far more numerous than they.”
15 Then I turned and came down from the mountain, which was burning with fire, with the tablets of the covenant in my two hands.
16 And I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God; you had made for yourselves a molten calf, turning quickly from the way which the Lord had commanded you.
17 So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands, and broke them before your eyes.
18 So I fell down before the Lord as before, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin that you had committed in doing evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.
19 For I was afraid because of the fury and wrath with which the Lord was angry with you, to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me this time also.
20 The Lord was also very angry with Aaron, to destroy him; and I prayed for Aaron at that time also.
21 Then I took the object of your sin, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire, and ground it very finely until it was reduced to powder; and I threw its powder into the stream that flowed down from the mountain.
22 Also at Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the Lord to anger.
23 And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, “Go up and possess the land that I have given you,” you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God, and did not believe him or obey his voice.
24 You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day I have known you.
25 So I fell down before the Lord forty days and forty nights, because the Lord had said that he would destroy you.
26 And I prayed to the Lord, saying, “O Lord God, do not destroy your people and your inheritance, which you have redeemed through your greatness, which you brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
27 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; Do not look at the stubbornness of this people, nor at their wickedness or their sin,
28 lest the people of the land from which you brought us say, “Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land he promised them, or because he hated them, he brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.”
29 Yet they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out by your great power and outstretched arm.
Deuteronomy Chapter 10
El pacto renovado
1 At that time the Lord said to me, “Cut for yourself two stone tablets like the first ones, and come up to me on the mountain, and make yourself an ark of wood.
2 I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke, and you shall put them in the ark.”
3 So I made an ark of acacia wood and cut two stone tablets like the first ones, and I went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand.
4 He wrote on the tablets, according to the first writing, the Ten Commandments that the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly. The Lord gave them to me.
5 Then I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tablets in the ark that I had made; and there they are, just as the Lord commanded me.
6 (Then the Israelites journeyed from Beeroth-bene-jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died and was buried, and his son Eleazar succeeded him as priest.
7 From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of flowing streams.
8 At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister to him and to bless in his name, to this day.
9 Therefore Levi has no portion or inheritance among his brothers; the Lord is his inheritance, as the Lord your God told him.)
10 And I remained on the mountain, as in the first days, forty days and forty nights. And the Lord listened to me this time also, and the Lord was not willing to destroy you.
11 Then the Lord said to me, “Arise, go, so that you may go before the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.”
What God requires
12 And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I command you today for your good?
14 Behold, the heavens and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, as does the earth and all that is in it.
15 The Lord set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations, as he is this day.
16 Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer.
17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, who is not partial and does not accept bribes.
18 He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.
19 You shall love the foreigner residing among you, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.
20 Fear the Lord your God; serve him only; hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name.
21 He is the one you shall praise; he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things that your eyes have seen.
22 Your ancestors went down to Egypt with seventy people, and now the Lord has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.
Deuteronomy Chapter 11
The greatness of Jehovah
1 You shall therefore love the Lord your God, and keep his charge, his statutes, his decrees, and his commandments, always.
2 And understand today, for I am not speaking to your children, who have not known or seen the discipline of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his outstretched arm,
3 and his signs, and his works which he did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to all his land;
4 and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the waters of the Red Sea rush upon them, as they came after you, and the Lord destroyed them to this day;
5 and what he has done for you in the wilderness, until you have come to this place;
6 and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab the son of Reuben; how the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and all their livestock, in the midst of all Israel.
7 But your eyes have seen all the great works which the Lord has done.
Blessings of the Promised
8 Therefore, keep all the commandments that I am commanding you today, so that you may be strong and go in and possess the land that you are crossing over to possess,
9 and so that you may live long in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey.
10 The land that you are crossing over to possess is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, like a vegetable garden.
11 The land that you are crossing over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks in the rain from heaven;
12 a land that the Lord your God cares for; the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.
13 If you carefully obey my commands I am giving you today—to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul—
14 then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil.
15 I will also provide grass in the fields for your livestock, and you will eat and be satisfied.
16 But be careful that your hearts are not led astray and you turn away and serve other gods and worship them.
17 If that happens, the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and he will shut up the heavens so that there will be no rain and the land will not yield its produce, and you will quickly perish from the good land the Lord is giving you.
18 Therefore, lay up these words of mine in your hearts and minds. Tie them as signs on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
19 And you shall teach them diligently to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up,
20 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,
21 so that your days and the days of your children may be as numerous in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as the heavens are above the earth.
22 For if you carefully observe all these commandments that I am commanding you to do, and if you love the Lord your God, walking in all his ways and holding fast to him,
23 then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and stronger than yourselves.
24 Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours; your territory shall extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea.
25 No one shall be able to stand against you; the Lord your God will put the fear and dread of you on all the land on which you tread, as he has promised you.
26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse:
27 the blessing, if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today;
28 the curse, if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.
29 When the Lord your God has brought you into the land that you are going to possess, you shall place the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal,
30 which are beyond the Jordan, west of the road, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, by the great trees of Moreh.
31 For you are crossing the Jordan to go in and possess the land that the Lord your God is giving you; and you will possess it and live in it.
32 You shall therefore be careful to observe all the statutes and decrees that I set before you today.
Deuteronomy Chapter 12
The unique sanctuary
1 These are the statutes and decrees that you must be careful to observe in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess, all the days that you live on the land.
2 You shall completely destroy all the places where the nations you are dispossessing served their gods, on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every spreading tree.
3 You shall tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn their Asherah poles with fire, cut down the carved images of their gods, and blot out their names from that place.
4 You shall not worship the Lord your God in their way.
5 But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name there for his dwelling place, and there you shall go.
6 There you shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, your heave offerings, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks.
7 There you shall eat before the Lord your God and rejoice, you and your families, in all the work of your hands in which the Lord your God has blessed you.
8 You shall not do as we do here today, each one doing what seems right to him,
9 for you have not yet entered the rest and the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you.
10 But you shall cross the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. He will give you rest from all your enemies around you, and you will live securely.
11 And to the place that the Lord your God chooses to put his name there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the contributions you present, and all the choice offerings of the vows you make to the Lord.
12 And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God—you, your sons, your daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who lives among you, because he has no portion or inheritance with you.
13 Be careful not to offer your burnt offerings anywhere you see.
14 But at the place that the Lord chooses among your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do everything that I command you.
15 However, you may slaughter and eat meat in all your towns as much as you like, according to the blessing that the Lord your God has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat it, as they would the meat of a gazelle or a deer.
16 But you must not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.
17You shall not eat within your towns the tithe of your grain, your wine, or your oil, nor the firstborn of your herds or flocks, nor the vow offerings you make, nor the freewill offerings, nor the heave offerings you present.
18 But you shall eat them before the Lord your God in the place the Lord your God chooses—you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, and the Levite residing within your towns. You shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all the work of your hands.
19 Be careful not to neglect the Levite as long as you live in the land.
20 When the Lord your God enlarges your territory as he has promised you, and you say, “I will eat meat,” because you desire it, you may eat as much as you desire.
21Si estuviere lejos de ti el lugar que Jehová tu Dios escogiere para poner allí su nombre, podrás matar de tus vacas y de tus ovejas que Jehová te hubiere dado, como te he mandado yo, y comerás en tus puertas según todo lo que deseares.
22 Just as you eat gazelle and deer, so you may eat them; both the unclean and the clean may eat them.
23 Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh.
24 You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.
25 You shall not eat any of it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.
26 But the things you have consecrated, and your vows, you shall take and go with them to the place that the Lord chooses;
27 and you shall offer your burnt offerings, both the meat and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God; the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, and you may eat the meat.
28 Observe and listen to all these words that I command you, so that by doing what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God, it may go well with you and your children after you forever.
Warnings against idolatry
29Cuando Jehová tu Dios haya destruido delante de ti las naciones adonde tú vas para poseerlas, y las heredes, y habites en su tierra,
30guárdate que no tropieces yendo en pos de ellas, después que sean destruidas delante de ti; no preguntes acerca de sus dioses, diciendo: De la manera que servían aquellas naciones a sus dioses, yo también les serviré.
31No harás así a Jehová tu Dios; porque toda cosa abominable que Jehová aborrece, hicieron ellos a sus dioses; pues aun a sus hijos y a sus hijas quemaban en el fuego a sus dioses.
32Cuidarás de hacer todo lo que yo te mando; no añadirás a ello, ni de ello quitarás.
Deuteronomy Chapter 13
1 If a prophet or one who foretells by dreams arises among you and announces to you a sign or wonder,
2 and if the sign or wonder he has foretold takes place, and he says, “Let us follow other gods,” which you have not known, “and let us serve them,”
3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
4 You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him, keep his commandments and obey his voice; you shall serve him and cling to him.
5 That prophet or dreamer of dreams must be put to death, because he has spoken rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and has tried to turn you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. You shall purge the evil from among you.
6 If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, your daughter, your wife, or your closest friend entices you secretly, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods,” gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known,
7 of the gods of the peoples around you, near to you or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other,
8 you shall not consent to him or listen to him. You shall not pity him or spare him or conceal him.
9 But you shall surely put him to death. Your hand shall be the first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people.
10 You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
11 So that all Israel may hear and fear and never again do such a thing among you.
12 If you hear it said concerning any of your towns, which the Lord your God is giving you to live in,
13 that wicked men have gone out from among you and have enticed the inhabitants of their town, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods,” which you have not known,
14 then you shall inquire, search, and ask carefully. And if it seems true, indeed certain, that such an abomination has been committed among you,
15 You shall surely strike down the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it and everything in it, and you shall also kill its livestock with the edge of the sword.
16 You shall gather all its plunder into the middle of the public square and burn the city and all its plunder with fire, offering it as a burnt offering to the Lord your God. It shall become a heap of ruins forever; it shall never be rebuilt.
17 None of the devoted things shall cling to your hand, so that the Lord may turn from his fierce anger and have mercy on you and be gracious to you and multiply you, as he swore to your ancestors,
18 if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, carefully keeping all his commandments that I am giving you today, to do what is right in the sight of the Lord your God.
Deuteronomy Chapter 14
1 You are the children of the Lord your God; you shall not cut yourselves or shave your heads for the dead.
2 For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
Clean and unclean animals
3 You shall not eat any detestable thing.
4 These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat,
5 the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the wild sheep.
6 And every animal with a cloven hoof that has two cloven hooves and chews the cud, you may eat.
7 But these you shall not eat among those that chew the cud or have cloven hooves: the camel, the hare, and the rabbit; for they chew the cud but do not have cloven hooves, they are unclean for you.
8 Nor the pig, for it has cloven hooves but does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. You shall not eat their flesh, nor touch their carcasses.
9 Of all that is in the water, you may eat: whatever has fins and scales.
10 But whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.
11 You may eat any clean bird.
12 But these are the birds you may not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the osprey,
13 the buzzard, the kite,
14 any raven,
15 the ostrich, the barn owl, the seagull, the sparrowhawk,
16 the screech owl, the ibis, the moorhen,
17 the pelican, the buzzard, the cormorant,
18 the stork, the heron, the hoopoe, and the bat.
19 All winged insects are unclean; they must not be eaten.
20 You may eat any clean bird.
21 You must not eat anything that dies of itself. You may give it to a foreigner residing in your towns, and they may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner, for you are a people holy to the Lord your God. You must not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.
The law of tithing
22 You shall surely tithe all the produce of the grain that your field yields each year.
23 You shall eat before the Lord your God in the place he chooses to make his name dwell there, the tithe of your grain, your new wine, and your oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks, so that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always.
24 But if the journey is too long for you, and you are not able to carry it, because the place the Lord your God chooses to make his name dwell there is too far from you, when the Lord your God blesses you,
25 then you shall sell it and keep the money in your hand and go to the place the Lord your God chooses.
26 You shall spend the money for whatever you wish: cattle, sheep, wine, strong drink, or whatever your heart desires. There you shall eat before the Lord your God and rejoice, you and your household.
27 Do not neglect the Levite who lives among you, for he has no portion or inheritance with you.
28 At the end of every three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce of that year and store it up in your towns.
29 Then the Levite, who has no portion or inheritance with you, and the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
Deuteronomy Chapter 15
The year of remission
1 Every seven years you shall grant a release.
2 And this is the manner of the release: Whoever has made a loan with his hand and obligated his neighbor with it, he shall forgive his debtor; he shall not exact it of his neighbor or his brother, because the Lord’s release has been proclaimed.
3 You shall demand repayment from a foreigner, but whatever your brother owes you, you shall forgive,
4 so that there will be no beggar among you. For the Lord will bless you abundantly in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess,
5 if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all these commandments that I command you today.
6 For the Lord your God will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many nations, but you will borrow from none. You will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.
We lend to the poor
7 If there is a poor person among you, one of your fellow Israelites, in any of your towns within the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not harden your heart or shut your hand against your needy brother.
8 Rather, be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs.
9 Be careful not to harbor a wicked thought in your heart: “The seventh year, the year of release, is near.” So you must not look enviously at your needy brother and withhold anything from him. If he does, he may cry out to the Lord against you, and it will be your sin.
10 You must be generous and give to him freely, without a grudging heart, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.
11 For there will never cease to be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you: “You shall be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.”
Laws concerning slaves
12 If your fellow Hebrew man or woman sells himself to you and serves you six years, in the seventh year you shall set him free.
13 And when you set him free, you shall not send him away empty-handed.
14 You shall supply him liberally from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress; you shall give him of that with which the Lord has blessed you.
15 And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today.
16 If he says to you, “I will not leave you,” because he loves you and your household, and because it is well with him;
17 Then you shall take an awl and pierce his ear through the door, and he shall be your servant forever. You shall do the same to your maidservant.
18 Do not consider it hard to you when you set him free, for he has served you six years for half the wages of a hired worker. And the Lord your God will bless you in all that you do.
Consecration of the firstborn males
19 You shall consecrate to the Lord your God every firstborn male of your herds and flocks; you shall not use the firstborn of your herds, nor shear the firstborn of your flocks.
20 You and your household shall eat them year after year before the Lord your God in the place that the Lord chooses.
21 If it has any defect, if it is blind or lame or has any blemish, you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God.
22 You may eat it within your towns; the unclean and the clean may eat it, as you would a gazelle or a deer.
23 Only you shall not eat its blood; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.
Deuteronomy Chapter 16
Annual festivals
1 Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night.
2 Sacrifice the Passover to the Lord your God from the flock and the herd at the place the Lord will choose as a dwelling for his Name.
3 Do not eat leavened bread with it; for seven days eat unleavened bread with it, the bread of affliction, because you came out of Egypt in haste, so that you may remember the day you came out of Egypt all the days of your life.
4 No leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory for seven days, and none of the meat you slaughter on the evening of the first day shall remain until morning.
5 You may not sacrifice the Passover in any of the towns the Lord your God is giving you,
6 but at the place the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name, sacrifice the Passover in the evening at sunset, at the time you came out of Egypt.
7 You shall roast it and eat it in the place the Lord your God chooses, and in the morning you shall return to your dwelling.
8 For six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work on it.
9 You shall count off seven weeks; from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain, you shall begin to count off the seven weeks.
10 You shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God; you shall give from your freewill offering, as the Lord your God has blessed you.
11 You shall rejoice before the Lord your God—you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite who is within your towns, and the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you—in the place the Lord your God chooses to make his Name dwell there.
12 Remember that you were a slave in Egypt; Therefore, you shall keep and observe these statutes.
13 You shall celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days, after you have gathered in the harvest of your threshing floor and your winepress.
14 You shall rejoice in your feasts, you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns.
15 For seven days you shall celebrate a feast to the Lord your God in the place that the Lord chooses, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, and you shall be truly joyful.
Administration of justice
16 Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which he chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles. And none shall appear before the Lord empty-handed;
17 each one with the offering of his hand, according to the blessing which the Lord your God has given you.
18 Appoint judges and officials in all your towns, which the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.
19 Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality, and do not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the words of the righteous.
20 Pursue justice, and only justice, so that you may live and inherit the land the Lord your God is giving you.
21 Do not plant any tree as an Asherah pole beside the altar of the Lord your God that you will make for yourself,
22 nor set up a pillar, which the Lord your God hates.
Deuteronomy Chapter 17
1 You shall not offer as a sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep in which there is a blemish or any defect, for that is an abomination to the Lord your God.
2 If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, a man or woman who has done evil in the sight of the Lord your God, in transgressing his covenant,
3 going and serving other gods and bowing down to them, whether to the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have forbidden,
4 and it is brought to you, and after you have heard it and investigated it thoroughly, and it seems certain that such an abomination has been committed in Israel,
5 then you shall bring out to your gates the man or woman who has done this evil thing, whether man or woman, and you shall stone them to death with stones.
6 On the testimony of two or three witnesses, a person shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness.
7 The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people; so you shall purge the evil from your midst.
8 When you encounter a difficult case in a trial, whether it be one kind of bloodshed or one kind of legal right or one kind of injury, in a legal dispute within your towns, then you shall arise and go to the place that the Lord your God chooses.
9 You shall go to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office at that time and inquire of them, and they shall tell you the verdict of the case.
10 You shall do according to the verdict that they give you at the place that the Lord chooses, and you shall be careful to do according to all that they tell you.
11 You shall do according to the law that they teach you and according to the judgment that they declare to you; you shall not turn aside to the right or to the left from the verdict that they declare to you.
12 And the man who acts presumptuously, not obeying the priest who stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or the judge, that man shall be put to death; and you shall purge the evil from the midst of Israel.
13 And all the people shall hear, and fear, and not be presumptuous.
Instructions about a king
14 When you have entered the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me”;
14 When you have entered the land the Lord your God is giving you, and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “I will set a king over me like all the nations around me,”
15 you must set over you the one the Lord your God chooses. He must be one of your own people; you may not set over you a foreigner who is not one of your own people.
16 He must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt to acquire more horses, because the Lord has said to you, “You must never go back that way again.”
17 He must not acquire many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold for himself.
18 When he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the original that is in the custody of the Levitical priests.
19 He shall keep it with him and read in it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, and to do them;
20 so that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, nor turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left; so that he and his children may prolong his days in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.
Deuteronomy Chapter 18
The portions of the Levites
1 The Levitical priests, that is, the whole tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance in Israel; they shall eat of the burnt offerings to the Lord and of his inheritance.
2 They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the Lord is their inheritance, as he has told them.
3 And this shall be the priests’ due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice of an ox or a sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder, the cheeks, and the stomach.
4 The firstfruits of your grain, your new wine, and your olive oil, and the first of the wool of your flocks you shall give him;
5 for the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the name of the Lord, he and his descendants forever.
6 When a Levite comes from any of your towns, from all Israel where he has lived, and comes with all his heart to the place the Lord chooses,
7 he shall minister in the name of the Lord his God, just as all his fellow Levites who stand there before the Lord.
8 He shall eat the same portion as the others, in addition to his inheritance.
Admonition against pagan
9 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable customs of the nations there.
10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft,
11 casts spells, is a medium or spiritist, or who consults the dead.
12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God is driving out those nations before you.
13 You must be blameless before the Lord your God.
14 The nations you are about to dispossess listen to soothsayers and diviners, but as for you, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do so.
God promises a prophet like Moses.
15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to him.
16 According to all that you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, “Let me not hear the voice of the Lord my God anymore, nor see this great fire again, lest I die.”
17 And the Lord said to me, “They have spoken well in what they have said.
18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he will speak to them all that I command him.
19 But whoever does not listen to my words that he speaks in my name, I myself will require it of him.
20 The prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.
21 And if you say in your heart, “How shall we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?”
22 If a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, but what he says does not happen or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; The prophet spoke presumptuously; do not be afraid of him.
Deuteronomy Chapter 19
Cities of refuge
1 When the Lord your God destroys the nations whose land the Lord your God is giving you, and you have dispossessed them and settled in their towns and houses,
2 you shall set apart for yourself three cities in the midst of the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess.
3 You shall prepare the roads and divide the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance into three parts, so that all who commit manslaughter may flee there.
4 This is the case of the manslaughter who shall flee there and live: anyone who kills his neighbor unintentionally and without having had any prior enmity with him,
5 like someone going with his neighbor to the mountains to cut wood, and as he swings the ax to cut down a tree, the blade leaps off its handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies; that person shall flee to one of these cities and live.
6 lest the avenger of blood, enraged, pursue the manslayer, and overtake him because the journey is long, and strike him down, even though he should not be put to death, since he had no enmity with his neighbor before.
7 Therefore I command you, saying, “You shall set apart three cities.
8 And if the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he swore to your fathers, and gives you all the land that he promised to give to your fathers,
9 provided that you carefully observe all these commandments that I command you today, to love the Lord your God and to walk in his ways always, then you shall add three more cities to these three,
10 so that innocent blood may not be shed in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you will not be guilty of bloodshed.”
11 But if anyone hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him, and rises up against him and strikes him down so that he dies, and flees to one of these cities,
12 then the elders of his city shall send and bring him out from there and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.
13 You shall not spare him, but you shall purge innocent blood from Israel, and it shall go well with you.
14 In the inheritance that you possess in the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not move the boundaries of your neighbor’s property that the ancients set up.
Laws concerning testimony
15 A single witness shall not be accepted against a person in any crime or sin, in connection with any offense committed. Only on the testimony of two or three witnesses shall the accusation stand.
16 If a false witness arises against a person to testify against him,
17 then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord and before the priests and judges who are in office at that time.
18 The judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if that witness is found to be false and has falsely accused his brother,
19 then you shall do to him as he intended to do to his brother, and you shall purge the evil from among you.
20 Those who remain shall hear and be afraid, and they shall no longer commit such wickedness among you.
21 You shall show him no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Deuteronomy Chapter 20
Laws on war
1 When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than yours, do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, is with you.
2 And when you are about to go into battle, the priest shall stand and address the people,
3 and say to them, “Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not let your hearts faint, do not be afraid, do not be terrified, and do not be dismayed before them,
4 for the Lord your God is with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you victory.”
5 And the officers shall speak to the people, saying, “Who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and someone else dedicate it.
6 Or who has planted a vineyard and has not enjoyed its fruit?” Go back to your home, lest you die in battle and someone else enjoy her.
7 And who has betrothed a wife and not taken her? Let him go back to his home, lest he die in battle and someone else take her.
8 Then the officers shall speak again to the people and say, “Who is a fainthearted and cowardly man? Let him go back to his home, and not discourage the hearts of his brothers, as he has discouraged himself.”
9 When the officers have finished speaking to the people, then the commanders of the army shall take command at the head of the people.
10 When you approach a city to attack it, you shall offer it terms of peace.
11 And if it answers, “Peace,” and opens its doors to you, then all the people found in it shall become your subjects and serve you.
12 But if he does not make peace with you, but wages war against you, then you shall besiege it.
13 When the Lord your God delivers it into your hand, you shall put every male in it to the sword.
14 You shall take the women, the children, the livestock, and everything else in the city—all its plunder—and eat the plunder of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you.
15 You shall do the same to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not cities of these nations.
16 But of the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive a soul,
17 but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded you,
18 lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations that they have done for their gods, and you sin against the Lord your God.
19 When you besiege a city, fighting against it for many days to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe in them, for you may eat of them; and you shall not cut them down, for the tree of the field is not a man to come against you in the siege.
20 But the tree that you know does not bear fruit, you may cut down and use to build a siege wall against the city that makes war against you, until you subdue it.
Deuteronomy Chapter 21
Atonement for a murder whose perpetrator is unknown.
1 If in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess, a dead body is found lying in the open country, and no one knows who killed the body,
2 then your elders and judges shall go out and measure the distance to the towns surrounding the body.
3 The elders of the town nearest to where the body was found shall take a heifer from the herd that has never worked or worn a yoke.
4 The elders of that town shall bring the heifer down to a rugged valley that has never been plowed or sown, and there in the valley they shall break the heifer’s neck.
5 Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the Lord your God has chosen them to minister to him and to pronounce blessings in the name of the Lord. Every dispute and every legal challenge shall be decided by their word.
6 All the elders of the nearest town to where the dead man was found shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley.
7 They shall testify and say, “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it.”
8 Forgive your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, O Lord, and do not hold your people Israel guilty of innocent blood. And their blood will be forgiven.
9 You will remove the guilt of innocent blood from among you when you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.
Various laws
10 When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God delivers them into your hand, and you take captives from them,
11 and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire her and take her to be your wife,
12 you shall bring her into your house. She shall shave her head and trim her nails,
13 and remove the clothes she wore in captivity, and she shall remain in your house. She shall mourn for her father and mother for a whole month. After that, you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.
14 But if she does not please you, you shall set her free; you shall not sell her for money or treat her as a slave, because you have humiliated her.
15 If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him children, and the firstborn son is by the unloved wife;
16 On the day he bequeaths his possessions to his sons, he may not give the right of firstborn to the son of the beloved in preference to the son of the hated, who is the firstborn;
17 But the son of the unloved woman he shall acknowledge as the firstborn, to give him double what he gives to all the others, for he is the beginning of his strength, and the right of the firstborn is his.
18 If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father or mother, and even after they have disciplined him, he still does not listen to them,
19 then his father and mother shall take him and bring him out to the elders of his town at the gate of the place where he lives.
20 They shall say to the elders of his town, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he does not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.”
21 Then all the men of his town shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and be afraid.
22 If anyone has committed a crime worthy of death, and you put him to death and hang him on a tree,
23 you shall not leave his body on the tree overnight; you shall surely bury him the same day, for he who is hanged is cursed by God; and you shall not defile your land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.
Deuteronomy Chapter 22
1 If you see your brother’s ox or lamb straying, do not withhold help from him; return it to your brother.
2 If your brother is not your neighbor or you do not know him, take it into your house, and it will remain with you until your brother looks for it, and then return it to him.
3 Do the same for his donkey, and do the same for his garment, and for anything else of your brother’s that he loses and you find; do not withhold help from him.
4 If you see your brother’s donkey or ox lying on the road, do not turn away from him; help him lift it up.
5 A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.
6 If you come across a bird’s nest in any tree or on the ground, with chicks or eggs, and the mother bird sitting on the chicks or eggs, do not take the mother bird with the young.
7 Let the mother bird go, but take the young birds for yourself, so that it may go well with you and you may live long.
8 When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof so that you will not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone falls from it.
9 Do not sow your vineyard with different kinds of seed, or you will perish both the seed you sow and the fruit of the vineyard.
10 Do not plow with an ox and a donkey together.
11 Do not wear clothing made of wool and linen together.
12 Make tassels on the four corners of the garment you wear.
Laws on chastity
13 If a man takes a wife and, after going in to her, dislikes her,
14 and accuses her of dishonest acts, saying, “I took this woman, and when I went in to her, I did not find her a virgin,”
15 then the young woman’s father and mother shall take the evidence of the young woman’s virginity and bring it to the elders of the city at the gate.
16 The young woman’s father shall say to the elders, “I gave my daughter to this man as a wife, and he dislikes her.
17 And behold, he accuses her of dishonest acts, saying, ‘I did not find your daughter a virgin.’ But here are the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.” Then they shall spread out the garment before the elders of the city.
18 The elders of the city shall take the man and punish him.
19 They shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver, which they shall give to the young woman’s father, because he has brought a bad report on a virgin of Israel. He shall have her as his wife, and he may not divorce her all his days.
20 But if it is found that the young woman was not a virgin,
21 then they shall bring her out to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done a disgraceful thing in Israel by playing the harlot in her father’s house; so you shall purge the evil from among you.
22 If a man is caught lying with a married woman, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman and the woman also. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.
23 If a man has a betrothed virgin girl, and a man finds her in the city and lies with her,
24 then you shall bring them both out to the gate of the city and stone them to death, the girl because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall purge the evil from among you.
25 But if a man finds a betrothed virgin girl in the open country and the man forces her and lies with her, only the man who lay with her shall die.
26 But you shall do nothing to the virgin girl; she is not guilty of the death penalty. It is like when a man rises up against his neighbor and kills him. So it is in this case.
27 For he found her in the field; the betrothed young woman cried out, but there was no one to rescue her.
28 If a man finds a young virgin who is not betrothed, and he takes her and lies with her, and they are discovered,
29 then the man who lay with her shall give to the young woman’s father fifty pieces of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her; he may not divorce her all his days.
30 No one shall take his father’s wife, nor profane his father’s bed.
Deuteronomy Chapter 23
Those excluded from the congregation
1 No one whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off may enter the assembly of the Lord.
2 No one born of a bastard may enter the assembly of the Lord, nor may any of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, enter the assembly of the Lord.
3 No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord, nor may any of their descendants, even to the tenth generation; they may never enter the assembly of the Lord,
4 because they did not meet you with bread and water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Mesopotamia to curse you.
5 But the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam; instead, the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you.
6 You shall not seek their peace or their good all your days forever.
7 You shall not hate an Edomite, for he is your brother; you shall not hate an Egyptian, for you were a sojourner in their land.
8 Their children, in the third generation, will enter into the congregation of Jehovah.
Health laws
9 When you go out to battle against your enemies, you must keep yourself from every unclean thing.
10 If there is anyone among you who is unclean because of an impurity that occurred during the night, he must go outside the camp and not enter it.
11 But at night he must bathe with water, and at sunset he may come back into the camp.
12 You must have a place outside the camp to which you go out.
13 You must also have a tent peg among your weapons. When you are outside there, you must dig a hole with it and then cover up your excrement when you return.
14 For the Lord 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 holy, so that he does not see anything unclean among you and turn away from you.
Humanitarian laws
15 You shall not hand over to his master the servant who has run away from his master to you.
16 He shall dwell with you, in your midst, in the place which he chooses within any of your towns, wherever it pleases him; you shall not oppress him.
17 There shall be no prostitute among the daughters of Israel, nor a male prostitute among the sons of Israel.
18 You shall not bring the wages of a prostitute or the price of a dog into the house of the Lord your God for any vow, for both are an abomination to the Lord your God.
19 You shall not charge interest on money or on food or on anything that is lent for interest.
20 You may charge interest on a stranger, but you shall not charge interest on your brother, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands in the land which you are going to possess.
21 When you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not delay in fulfilling it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and it would be a sin in you.
22 But if you refrain from making a vow, you will not be guilty of sin.
23 But you shall keep and perform what you have uttered, as you have promised to the Lord your God, paying the freewill offering that you have vowed with your mouth.
24 When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, but you shall not put any in your basket.
25 When you enter your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the heads of grain with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain.
Deuteronomy Chapter 24
1 When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she does not please him because he has found some indecency in her, he shall write her a certificate of divorce, put it in her hand, and send her out of his house.
2 And when she has left his house, she may go and marry another man.
3 But if the latter man detests her and writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man who took her as his wife dies,
4 then her first husband, who divorced her, may not take her back to be his wife after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the Lord, and you shall not bring sin upon the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.
5 When a man is newly married, he shall not go out to war or be charged with any other duty; he shall be free at home for one year, to bring joy to the wife whom he has taken.
6 You shall not take a millstone, whether upper or lower, as a pledge, for that would be taking a person’s life as a pledge.
7 If anyone is found to have stolen one of his fellow Israelites and enslaved or sold him, that thief shall be put to death, and you shall purge the evil from among you.
8 As for the plague of leprosy, be careful to observe and do according to all that the Levitical priests teach you; just as I have commanded them, so you shall be careful to do.
9 Remember what the Lord your God did for Miriam on the way after you came out of Egypt.
10 When you lend something to your neighbor, you shall not enter his house to take it as a pledge.
11 You shall stand outside, and the person to whom you lent it shall bring out the pledge from you.
12 If the person is poor, you shall not lie down with his pledge still in your possession.
13 You shall surely return the pledge to him by sunset, so that he may sleep in his garment and bless you. This will be righteousness for you before the Lord your God.
14 You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your fellow Israelites or a foreigner residing in your land within your towns.
15 You shall pay him his wages on the day they are due, before the sun goes down, because he is poor and depends on them for his livelihood. Otherwise, he may cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.
16 Parents shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each one will die for their own sin.
17 You shall not withhold justice from the foreigner or the fatherless, nor take a widow’s garment as a pledge.
18 But remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. Therefore I command you to do these things:
19 When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
20 When you beat your olive trees, do not go over the branches you leave behind. Leave them for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow.
21 When you gather the grapes from your vineyard, do not go over the tops again. Leave them for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow.
22 Remember that you were a slave in Egypt. Therefore I command you to do these things.
Deuteronomy Chapter 25
1 If there is a dispute between people, and they go to court for a judge to decide, the judges shall acquit the innocent and condemn the guilty.
2 If the offender deserves to be flogged, the judge shall have him lie on the ground and flog him in his presence; the number of lashes shall be according to his crime.
3 Forty lashes may be given, but no more, lest your brother be humiliated in your sight if he is beaten with more than these.
4 You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.
5 If brothers live together and one of them dies without a son, the widow of the deceased shall not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall go to her and take her as his wife and make a bond of kinship with her.
6 The firstborn son she bears shall carry on the name of his deceased brother, so that his name will not be blotted out of Israel.
7 If the man refuses to marry his sister-in-law, then she shall go to the elders at the gate and say, “My brother-in-law refuses to establish a name for his brother in Israel; he refuses to become my relative.”
8 Then the elders of his town shall summon him and speak to him. If he still refuses to marry her,
9 then his sister-in-law shall come before him in the presence of the elders, take off his sandal, spit in his face, and declare, “This is what shall be done to the man who refuses to build up his brother’s house.”
10 And that place shall be called “The House of the Barefoot” in Israel.
11 If men are fighting with one another, and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from the hand of the one who is attacking him, and she reaches out and seizes his private parts,
12 then you shall cut off her hand; you shall not spare her.
13 You shall not have in your bag a large weight and a small weight,
14 nor shall you have in your house a large ephah and a small ephah.
15 You shall have a precise and just weight; a perfect and just ephah you shall have, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
16 For whoever does these things, and whoever does unjustly, is an abomination to the Lord your God.
Order to exterminate Amalek
17 Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt,
18 how he met you on the way and routed all the weak men who were following you when you were weary and exhausted, and he had no fear of God.
19 Therefore, when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; do not forget.
Deuteronomy Chapter 26
Firstfruits and tithes
1 When you have entered the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and have taken possession of it and settled in it,
2 then you shall take some of the firstfruits of all that you produce from the land the Lord your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then you shall go to the place the Lord your God will choose to make his name dwell there.
3 You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, “I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come into the land the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.”
4 The priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God.
5 Then you shall speak and say before the Lord your God, “My father was a Aramean who was nearly destroyed. He went down to Egypt and lived there with few men, and there he increased and became a great, powerful, and numerous nation;
6 The Egyptians mistreated us and afflicted us, and imposed harsh servitude on us.
7 Then we cried out to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.
8 So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror, and with signs and wonders.
9 He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
10 And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land that you, O Lord, have given me. You shall set it before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God.
11 And you shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you and to your household, you and the Levite and the foreigner who is among you.
12 When you have finished setting aside all the tithe of your produce in the third year, the year of tithing, you shall give it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your towns and be satisfied.
13 Then you shall say before the Lord your God, “I have removed the consecrated portion from my house and have given it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all that you have commanded me. I have not transgressed your commandments, nor have I forgotten them.
14 I have not eaten any of it while mourning, nor have I spent any of it while unclean, nor have I offered any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God; I have done according to all that you have commanded me.”
15 Look down from your holy dwelling place, from heaven, and bless your people Israel and the land you have given us, as you swore to our ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey.
16 The Lord your God commands you today to observe these statutes and decrees; be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul.
17 You have solemnly declared today that the Lord is your God, and that you will walk in his ways, keep his statutes, his commandments, and his decrees, and obey his voice.
18 And the Lord has declared today that you are his people, his treasured possession, as he promised you, to keep all his commandments,
19 so that he may exalt you above all the nations he has made, for praise, fame, and glory, and so that you may be a holy people to the Lord your God, as he has said.
Deuteronomy Chapter 27
Order to write the law on stones on Mount Ebal
1 Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, “You shall keep all the commandments that I am commanding you today.
2 On the day you cross the Jordan into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall set up large stones and plaster them with lime.
3 You shall write on them all the words of this law, when you have crossed over to enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you.
4 When you have crossed the Jordan, you shall set up these stones that I am commanding you today on Mount Ebal and plaster them with lime.
5 There you shall build an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones; you shall not use any iron tool on them.
6 You shall build the altar of the Lord your God of uncut stones and offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God.
7 You shall also sacrifice peace offerings and eat there, and rejoice before the Lord your God.”
8 And you shall write very clearly on the stones all the words of this law.
9 And Moses, with the Levitical priests, spoke to all Israel, saying, “Be silent and listen, O Israel; today you have become the people of the Lord your God.
10 You shall therefore obey the voice of the Lord your God, and keep his commandments and his statutes, which I command you today.”
The curses on Mount Ebal
11 And Moses commanded the people on that day, saying,
12 “ When you have crossed the Jordan, these shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin.
13 And these shall stand on Mount Ebal to pronounce the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.
14 And the Levites shall speak and say to all the men of Israel with a loud voice:
15 “Cursed is the man who makes a carved or cast image, an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of a craftsman, and sets it up in secret.” And all the people shall answer and say, “Amen.”
16 “Cursed is he who dishonors his father or his mother.” And all the people shall say, “Amen.”
17 “Cursed is he who moves his neighbor’s boundary marker.” And all the people shall say, “Amen.”
18 Cursed is he who leads the blind astray on the road. And all the people shall say, Amen.
19Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. And all the people shall say, “Amen!”
20Cursed is anyone who lies with his father’s wife, for he has uncovered his father’s bosom. And all the people shall say, “Amen!”
21Cursed is anyone who has sexual relations with any animal. And all the people shall say, “Amen!”
22Cursed is anyone who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother. And all the people shall say, “Amen!”
23Cursed is anyone who lies with his mother-in-law. And all the people shall say, “Amen!”
24Cursed is anyone who strikes his neighbor in secret. And all the people shall say, “Amen!”
25Cursed is anyone who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person. And all the people shall say, “Amen!”
26Cursed is anyone who does not uphold the words of this law by carrying them out. And all the people shall say, “Amen.”
Deuteronomy Chapter 28
Blessings of obedience
1 If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I am giving you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.
2 All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:
3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.
4 The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
5 Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.
6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.
7 The Lord will cause all your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They will come out against you one way but flee before you seven ways.
8 The Lord will command the blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. and he will bless you in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
9 The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he promised on oath to you, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him.
10 All the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you.
11 The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock, and the crops of your land—in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.
12 The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will not borrow.
13 The Lord will make you the head, not the tail; And you will be above only, and not below, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, to keep and do them,
14 and if you do not turn aside from all the words which I command you today, neither to the right hand nor to the left, to go after other gods and serve them.
Consequences of disobedience
15 But if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you:
16 You will be cursed in the city, and cursed in the country.
17 Cursed will be your basket and your kneading trough.
18 Cursed will be the fruit of your womb, the produce of your ground, the increase of your cattle, and the lambs of your flocks.
19 Cursed will you be when you come in, and cursed when you go out.
20 The Lord will send on you curses, confusion, and rebuke in all that you undertake, until you are destroyed and perish quickly because of the evil of your deeds by which you have forsaken Me.
21 The Lord will bring pestilence on you until He has consumed you from the land which you are entering to possess.
22 The Lord will strike you with consumption, fever, inflammation, and burning heat, with drought, blight, and mildew; and they will pursue you until you perish.
23 The heavens above you will be bronze, and the earth beneath you iron.
24 The Lord will turn the rain of your land into dust and ashes; it will come down on you from the heavens until you perish.
25 The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will go out against them one way, but flee from them seven ways. You will be an object of scorn to all the kingdoms of the earth.
26 Your carcasses will be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and no one will frighten them away.
27 The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, with scabs, and with an incurable itch.
28 The Lord will strike you with madness, blindness, and confusion of mind;
29 You will grope around at midday like a blind person groping in the dark, and you will not prosper in your ways. You will be oppressed and robbed all your days, with no one to rescue you.
30 You will marry a woman, but another man will sleep with her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not enjoy its fruit.
31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken from you and not returned. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and you will have no one to rescue them.
32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another people. Your eyes will see it and you will faint for them all day long, but you will have no power.
33 A people you do not know will eat the produce of your land and all your labor. You will be oppressed and crushed all your days.
34 And you will go mad because of what you will see with your eyes.
35 The Lord will afflict you with painful boils on your knees and legs, from the soles of your feet to the crown of your head, and you will not be healed.
36 The Lord will drive you and the king you set over you to a nation neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you will serve other gods, gods of wood and stone.
37 You will become a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples to whom the Lord will drive you.
38 You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because locusts will devour it.
39 You will plant vineyards and cultivate them, but you will not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because worms will eat them.
40 You will have olive trees throughout your territory, but you will not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives will fall off.
41 You will have sons and daughters, but they will not be yours, for they will go into captivity.
42 Locusts will devour all your trees and the produce of your land.
43 The foreigner residing among you will rise higher than you, while you sink lower.
44 He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him; he will be the head, and you will be the tail.
45 All these curses will come upon you, pursue you, and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord your God by keeping his commands and decrees that he gave you.
46 They will be a sign and a wonder upon you and your descendants forever.
47 Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things,
48 therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst and nakedness, and in want of all things; and he will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.
49 The Lord will bring against you a nation from afar, from the end of the earth, like an eagle flying, a nation whose language you do not understand;
50 A fierce-faced nation that will show no respect for the elderly nor pity the young.
51 They will devour the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine, or oil, nor the young of your cattle or the flocks of your sheep until they have destroyed you.
52 They will besiege all your cities until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, fall down throughout your land. They will besiege all your cities and all the land the Lord your God has given you.
53 You will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters whom the Lord your God has given you, during the siege and the distress with which your enemy will afflict you.
54 The most tender and delicate man among you will look with envy upon his brother, the wife he has borne, and the rest of his children who remain.
55 so that she will not give any of her children’s flesh to any of them, since she will have nothing left, during the siege and the distress with which your enemy will oppress you in all your cities.
56 The tender and delicate woman among you, who would never set the sole of her foot on the ground, because of her delicacy and tenderness, will look with disdain upon the husband of her womb, her son, her daughter,
57 the newborn coming from between her feet, and her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly, because of the lack of everything, during the siege and the distress with which your enemy will oppress you in your cities.
58 If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, fearing this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God,
59 then the Lord will inflict on you and your descendants extraordinary plagues, severe and lasting plagues, and debilitating and lingering sicknesses.
60 He will bring on you all the diseases of Egypt, which you dreaded, and they will not leave you.
61 The Lord will also inflict on you every sickness and every plague not written in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed.
62 You will be left few in number, instead of being as numerous as the stars in the sky, because you did not obey the Lord your God.
63 Just as the Lord delighted in doing you good and multiplying you, so the Lord will delight in ruining and destroying you. You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess.
64 And the Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other; and there you will serve other gods, gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.
65And even among these nations you will find no rest, nor will the sole of your foot find a resting place; for there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a despairing soul.
66 Your life will hang in doubt before you; you will be in terror night and day, with no assurance of life.
67 In the morning you will say, “If only it were evening!” and in the evening you will say, “If only it were morning!” because of the terror in your heart and the sights your eyes will see.
68 The Lord will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way he said to you, “You will never return.” There you will be sold to your enemies as male and female slaves, and no one will buy you.
Deuteronomy Chapter 29
Jehovah's covenant with Israel in Moab
1 These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant he made with them at Horeb.
2 So Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “You yourselves have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and all his officials and to all his land,
3 the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs and the great wonders.
4 But to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to understand, eyes to see, or ears to hear.
5 I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn out on your feet.
6 You have eaten no bread, and you have not drunk wine or other fermented drink, so that you may know that I am the Lord your God.”
7 When you arrived at this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out against us to fight, and we defeated them.
8 We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
9 Therefore, keep the words of this covenant and do them, so that you may prosper in all that you do.
10 Today you are all standing before the Lord your God: the heads of your tribes, your elders, your officers, all the men of Israel,
11 your little ones, your wives, and the foreigners residing in your camp, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water.
12 so that you may enter into the covenant of the Lord your God, and into his oath, which the Lord your God makes with you today,
13 to establish you today as his people, and to be your God, as he has promised you, and as he swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
14 I make this covenant and this oath not only with you,
15 but also with those who are standing here with us today before the Lord our God, and with those who are not here with us today.
16 For you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we passed through the midst of the nations through which you passed;
17 and you have seen their abominations and their idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold, which they have with them.
18 Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or family or tribe whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations; lest there be among you a root bearing bitter fruit and wormwood,
19And it shall come to pass that when he hears the words of this curse, he blesses himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the hardness of my heart, that by drunkenness I may quench my thirst.
20 The Lord will not be willing to forgive him, but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse written in this book will rest on him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven.
21 The Lord will separate him from all the tribes of Israel for evil, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the law.
22 And future generations, your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from afar, will say, when they see the plagues of that land and the diseases with which the Lord has afflicted it—
23 (scorched and brimstone, its whole land scorched, sown and unplanted, with no vegetation growing in it, like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim, which the Lord overthrew in his fierce anger and wrath)
—24 Moreover, all the nations will ask, “Why has the Lord done this to this land? What is the meaning of this fierce and great anger?”
25 And they will answer, “Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, which he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt,
26 and went and served other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know and who had given them nothing.”
27 Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses written in this book;
28 and the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger, in fury, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is today.
29 The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.
Deuteronomy Chapter 30
Conditions for restoration and blessing
1 When all these things have come upon you—the blessing and the curse I have set before you—and you repent among all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you,
2 and you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and soul, according to all that I command you today,
3 then the Lord will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you. He will gather you again from all the nations where he has scattered you.
4 Even if you have been scattered to the farthest parts of the earth under the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back.
5 The Lord your God will bring you back to the land your ancestors inherited, and it will be yours to possess. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors.
6 The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, so that you may love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.
7 The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you and persecute you.
8 You will again obey the Lord and keep all his commands I am giving you today.
9 The Lord your God will make you abound in all the work of your hands, in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock, and the crops of your land. For the Lord will again rejoice over you as he rejoiced over your ancestors,
10 when you obey the Lord your God and keep his commands and decrees written in this Book of the Law, and when you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
11 For this commandment that I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it far away.
12 It is not in heaven, so that you have to say, “Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?”
13 Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to say, “Who will cross the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?”
14 For the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may obey it.
15 See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.
16 For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his decrees, so that you may live and increase, and the Lord your God may bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.
17 But if your heart turns away and you do not listen, and if you are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them,
18 I declare to you today that you will certainly perish; you will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.
19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your descendants may live,
20 loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him. For the Lord is your life and will give you many years, so that you may live in the land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Deuteronomio Capítulo 31
Joshua is installed as Moses
1 So Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel:
2 He said to them, “I am now 120 years old. I am no longer able to go out and come in. The Lord has also told me, ‘You shall not cross this Jordan.’
3 The Lord your God himself will cross over before you. He will destroy these nations before you, and you will dispossess them. Joshua will be the one to cross over before you, just as the Lord has said.
4 The Lord will do to them as he did to Sihon and Og, kings of the Amorites, and to their land, which he destroyed.
5 The Lord will deliver them over to you, and you must do to them everything I have commanded you.
6 Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
7 Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, For you will go with this people into the land that the Lord swore to their ancestors to give them, and you will cause them to inherit it.
8 The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.
9 So Moses wrote this law and gave it to the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel.
10 Moses commanded them, saying, “At the end of every seven years, in the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles,
11 when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.
12 Assemble the people—men, women, and children, and the foreigners residing in your towns—so they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God and carefully follow all the words of this law.
13 And let their children, who have not known, hear and learn to fear the Lord your God all the days you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.
14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “The day of your death is near. Call Joshua, and stand at the tent of meeting, so that I may commission him.” So Moses and Joshua went and stood at the tent of meeting.
15 The Lord appeared at the tent in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood over the entrance to the tent.
16 The Lord said to Moses, “You are about to rest with your ancestors, and this people will rise up and play the harlot with the foreign gods of the land they are entering and will live in. They will forsake me and break my covenant with them, which I have made with them.
17And my anger will burn against them on that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be consumed. Many evils and troubles will come upon them, and they will say on that day, “Have these evils not come upon me because my God is not among me?”
18 But I will surely hide my face on that day because of all the evil they will have done by turning to other gods.
19 Now therefore, write this song for yourselves and teach it to the children of Israel; put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel.
20 For I will bring them into the land I swore to their ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey; and they will eat and be satisfied and grow fat; but they will turn to other gods and serve them, and they will provoke me to anger and break my covenant.
21 And when many calamities and distresses befall them, this song will testify against them as a witness, for it will be remembered by the mouths of their descendants; for I know their plans beforehand, before I bring them into the land I swore to give them.
22 So Moses wrote this song that day and taught it to the Israelites.
23 Then he gave this charge to Joshua son of Nun, saying, “Be strong and courageous, for you will bring the Israelites into the land I swore to give them, and I will be with you.”
Order to keep the law by the ark
24 When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book until it was completed,
25 he gave orders to the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying,
26 “Take this Book of the Law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, so that it may remain there as a witness against you.
27 For I know your rebellion and your stiff neck. Even now, while I am still alive with you, you are rebellious against the Lord. How much more so after I am gone!
28 Assemble all the elders of your tribes and your officers before me, so that I may speak these words in their hearing and call heaven and earth to witness against them.
29 For I know that after my death you will surely become corrupt and turn aside from the way I have commanded you. In the latter days disaster will befall you because you have done evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger with the work of your hands.”
Song of Moses
30 Then Moses spoke the words of this song in the hearing of all the congregation of Israel until he finished it.
Deuteronomy Chapter 32
1 Listen, heavens, and I will speak; let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
2 My teaching will fall like rain, my words will distill like dew, like gentle showers on new grass, like showers on tender plants.
3 For I will proclaim the name of the Lord; ascribe greatness to our God.
4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, righteous and upright is he.
5 Corruption is not his; blemish belongs to his children, a crooked and perverse generation.
6 Do you thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people? Is he not your Father, who created you, who made you and established you?
7 Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will tell you; your elders, and they will explain.
8 When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided up mankind, he set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the Israelites.
9 For the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted inheritance.
10 He found him in a desert land, in the parched and abode of the wilderness; he encircled him and instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
11 Like an eagle stirring up its nest, hovering over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions,
12 the Lord alone guided him, and there was no foreign god with him.
13 He made him ride on the heights of the earth, and he ate the fruits of the field; he made him suck honey from the rock, and oil from the flinty rock;
14 curds from cows and milk from sheep, with the fat of lambs and rams of Bashan, male goats and the finest of wheat; And you drank wine from the blood of the grape.
15 But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked (You grew fat, you grew rich); then he forsook God who made him, and spurned the Rock of his salvation.
16 They stirred him up to jealousy with foreign gods; they provoked him to anger with abominations.
17 They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they had not known, to new gods that had come from nearby, which your ancestors did not fear.
18 You forgot the Rock who begot you; you have forgotten God your Maker.
19 The Lord saw it and was filled with anger because of the contempt his sons and daughters showed.
20 He said, “I will hide my face from them; I will see what their end will be, for they are a perverse generation, faithless children.”
21They made me jealous with what is not God; they provoked me to anger with their idols. I will also make them jealous with a people that is not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
22 For a fire is kindled in my anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol; it devours the earth and its produce, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.
23 I will heap evils upon them; I will use my arrows upon them.
24 They will be consumed by famine, and devoured by burning fever and bitter pestilence. I will also send the teeth of wild beasts upon them, with the venom of serpents of the earth.
25 Outside the sword will destroy, and within the chambers terror; both young man and maiden, infant and gray-haired man.
26 I said I would scatter them far away, that I would make the memory of them cease from among mankind,
27 had I not feared the provocation of the enemy, lest their adversaries should boast, lest they should say, “Our mighty hand has done all this, and not the Lord.”
28 For they are a nation without counsel, and there is no understanding in them.
29 Oh, that they were wise, that they would understand this, and know the end that awaits them!
30 How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had given them up?
31 For their rock is not like our Rock, and even our enemies are their judges.
32 For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of poison, their clusters of bitter fruit.
33 Their wine is the poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of asps.
34 Do I not have these things stored up with me, sealed up in my treasuries?
35 Vengeance is mine, and recompense; in due time their foot will slip, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and what is prepared for them rushes on.
36 For the Lord will judge his people, and he will relent for the sake of his servants, when he sees that the strength is gone, and that there is neither bond nor free left.
37 And he will say, “Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge,
38 who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up to help you and defend you!”
39 See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none who can deliver out of my hand.
40 For I lift up my hand to heaven and declare, “I live forever!”
41 If I sharpen my gleaming sword and take hold of judgment, I will take vengeance on my enemies and repay those who hate me.
42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword will devour flesh—in the blood of the slain and the captives, on the long-haired heads of the enemy.
43 Praise his people, you nations, for he will avenge the blood of his servants and take vengeance on his enemies; he will make atonement for the land of his people.
44 Then Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and Joshua son of Nun.
45 When Moses had finished reciting all these words to all Israel,
46 he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I am testifying to you today, so that you may command your children to be careful to obey all the words of this law.
47 For this is not a vain thing for you; it is your life, and by this law you will prolong your days in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”
Moses is allowed to view the land of Canaan.
48 The Lord spoke to Moses that same day, saying,
49 “ Go up to this mountain of Abarim, to Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, across from Jericho, and see the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites as their inheritance.
50 Die on the mountain you are going up to, and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people.
51 For you sinned against me among the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin, because you did not honor me as holy among the Israelites.
52 You will see the land before you, but you will not enter it, the land I am giving to the Israelites.”
Deuteronomy Chapter 33
Moses blesses the twelve tribes of Israel
1 This is the blessing with which Moses, the man of God, blessed the Israelites before his death.
2 He said: “The Lord came from Sinai, and dawned on them from Seir; he shone forth from Mount Paran, and came from the ten thousands of holy ones, with the law of fire in his right hand.
3 Yet he loved his people; all his holy ones were in his hand. Therefore they followed in your steps, receiving instruction from you,
4 when Moses commanded us a law as an inheritance for the congregation of Jacob.
5 He was king in Jeshurun, when the leaders of the people were assembled with the tribes of Israel.
6 Let Reuben live, and not die; and let his men not be few.”
7 And this is the blessing he pronounced for Judah: “Hear, O Lord, the voice of Judah, and bring him to his people; let his hands be sufficient for him, and be his help against his enemies.”
8 Of Levi he said: “Let your Thummim and your Urim belong to your faithful servant, whom you tested at Massah, with whom you contended at the waters of Meribah,
9 who said of his father and mother, ‘I have never seen them,’ and did not acknowledge his brothers or recognize his children. Yet they have kept your word and fulfilled your covenant.
10 They shall teach your judgments to Jacob and your law to Israel; they shall offer incense before you and burnt offerings on your altar.
11 Bless, O Lord, all their work and accept the work of their hands. Strike the loins of their enemies and foes so that they may never rise again.”
12 Of Benjamin he said: “The one the Lord loves will dwell securely near him; he will cover him always, and he will abide between his shoulders.”
13 To Joseph he said: “May the Lord bless your land with the best of heaven, with the dew, and with the deep that lies beneath.
14 With the choice fruits of the sun, with the rich produce of the moon,
15 With the finest fruit of the ancient mountains, with the abundance of the everlasting hills,
16 And with the best gifts of the earth and its fullness; and may the favor of him who dwelt in the burning bush come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the brow of him who is prince among his brothers.
17 Like the firstborn of his bull is his glory, and his horns like the horns of a wild ox; with them he will gore the peoples together to the ends of the earth; they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.”
18 To Zebulun he said: “Rejoice, Zebulun, when you go out; and you, Issachar, in your tents.”
19 They will call the peoples to their mountain; there they will offer sacrifices of righteousness, for they will suck up the abundance of the seas, and the hidden treasures of the sand.
20 Of Gad he said: Blessed is he who enlarged Gad! He lies down like a lion, and tears away arm and head.
21 He chooses the best of the land for himself, for there the portion of the lawgiver has been reserved for him. He went before the people; with Israel he carried out the commands and the righteous decrees of the Lord.
22 Of Dan he said: Dan is a lion’s cub that leaps out of Bashan.
23 Of Naphtali he said: Naphtali is satisfied with favor and full of the blessing of the Lord; he possesses the west and the south.
24 Of Asher he said: Blessed above children is Asher; may he be beloved by his brothers, and may he dip his foot in oil.
25 Iron and bronze will be your bars, and as your days, so will your strength be.
26 There is none like the God of Jeshurun, who rides on the heavens to help you, and on the clouds in his majesty.
27 The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms; he drove out the enemy before you and said, “Destroy him!”
28 So Israel will dwell securely; the fountain of Jacob will dwell alone in a land of grain and new wine; its heavens will also drip with dew.
29 Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the shield of your help, and the sword of your triumph? So your enemies will be humbled, and you will tread on their high places.
Deuteronomy Chapter 34
Death and burial of Moses
1 Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead as far as Dan,
2 all of Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea,
3 the Negev, the plain, the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar.
4 And the Lord said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘To your descendants I will give it.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.”
5 So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord.
6 And he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows his burial place to this day.
7 Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died; his eyes were not dim, nor did his natural vigor abate.
8 The Israelites wept for Moses in the plains of Moab for thirty days, and so the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were completed.
9 Now Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him, and the Israelites obeyed him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses.
10 Since then, there has not arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.
11 There was no one like him in all the signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt—to Pharaoh, to all his officials, and to all the land of Egypt—
12 in his great power and in the awesome and magnificent deeds he performed in the sight of all Israel.
