1

1 These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel. He was on this side of the Jordan in the desert wilderness, in the plain near the Red Sea Suph , between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.

2 It is only an eleven-day journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea.

3 It was the fortieth year, eleventh month, on the first day of the month. Moses spoke to the children of Israel, according to all the commandments Jehovah gave him for them.

4 After he killed Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who lived at Astaroth in Edrei:

5 On this side east of Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses declared the Law. He said:

6 »Jehovah our God spoke to us in Horeb. He said: ‘You have lived long enough on this mountain.

7 »Leave this place and go to the mountain of the Amorites, and all the places near there in the plain, in the hills, and in the valley and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and to Lebanon, to the great river, the river Euphrates.

8 »I have given you this land. Go in and possess the land Jehovah pledged to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and to their descendants offspring after them.’

9 »I spoke to you then and said: ‘I am not able to bear the burden of you alone.

10 »‘Jehovah your God has increased your numbers. Today you are more numerous than the stars of heaven.

11 »‘Jehovah the God of your fathers will make you a thousand times as many as you are, and bless you, as he promised you!

12 »‘How can I alone bear your encumbrance, your burden, and your strife?

13 »‘Take wise men with understanding, who are known among your tribes. I will make them rulers over you.’

14 »You answered me: ‘The thing you speak is good for us to do.’

15 »So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men and known, and made them rulers over you. I made them captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens, and officers among your tribes.

16 »I charged your judges to hear the cases between your countrymen and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger with him.

17 »You will not show partiality in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great. You will not fear man for the judgment is God's. The case that is too hard for you, bring to me, and I will hear it.’

18 I commanded you at that time all the things you should do.

19 »When we left Horeb, we went through that entire great and terrible wilderness. You saw it by way of the mountain of the Amorites, as Jehovah our God commanded us. We went to Kadesh-barnea.

20 »I said to you: ‘You have arrived at the mountain of the Amorites. Jehovah gives this mountain to us.

21 »See, Jehovah your God give you this land. Possess it, for Jehovah the God of your fathers said to you: Do not fear. Do not be discouraged.’

22 »Every one of you came near to me and said: ‘We will send men before us. They will search the land. They will bring us word about the way we must go and what cities are there.’

23 What you said pleased me very much. I took twelve of your men, one from each tribe.

24 They went up to the mountain to the valley of Eshcol, and explored it.

25 They picked the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down to us. They brought us word again. They said: ‘It is a good land that Jehovah our God gives us.’

26 Even so they were not willing to go. They rebelled against the command of Jehovah your God:

27 »You complained in your tents, and said: Jehovah hates us so he brought us out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.

28 »‘Where can we go up? Our brothers caused us to lose heart. They said: The people are stronger and taller than we are. The cities are large and the walls go up to the sky. Moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there.« ’

29 »I said to you: ‘Do not be afraid of them.

30 »‘Jehovah your God leads you. He will fight for you just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes!

31 »‘You saw how Jehovah your God carried you like a father carries his son all the way until you reached this place.’

32 »Yet in all this you did not trust Jehovah your God.

33 »He went ahead of you to find places for you to camp. He offered fire by night and cloud by day to show you the way you should go.

34 »Jehovah heard what you said. He was angry and solemnly swore:

35 »‘Not one man of this evil generation will see that good land, which I swore to give your fathers,

36 »‘Except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it. I will give him and his descendants the land he walks on. This is because he followed Jehovah wholeheartedly.

37 »‘Jehovah was angry with me because of you. He said to me: ‘You will also not go there.

38 »‘Your assistant Joshua son of Nun will go there. He will lead the people into the land. Encourage him to go there.

39 »‘The little ones that you said would be taken captive will enter the land. Your children who do not know good from bad will go in. I will give it to them and they will possess it.

40 »‘But you must turn around and go back through the desert toward the Red Sea.’

41 »You answered: ‘We have sinned against Jehovah. We will fight just as Jehovah our God commanded us.’ When every man puts on his armor and weapons of war they will be ready to go to the mountain.

42 »‘But Jehovah said to me: ‘Tell them, do not go and fight! I am not with you. Your enemies will defeat you.« ’

43 I told you, but you would not listen. You disobeyed Jehovah’s command and proudly invaded the mountainous region.

44 The Amorites who lived there came out and attacked you. They chased you like a swarm of bees. They defeated you! They drove you back from Seir all the way to Hormah.

45 You returned and cried to Jehovah. Jehovah, however, did not listen to you. He turned a deaf ear to you!

46 That is why you stayed in Kadesh as long as you did.

2

1 »We went back into the desert. We followed the road that leads to the Red Sea as Jehovah told me. For a long time we traveled around the region of Mount Seir.

2 »Then Jehovah said to me:

3 ‘You traveled around this mountain long enough. Now go north.

4 »‘Give these instructions to the people: »You will pass through the territory of your relatives, the descendants of Esau. They live in Seir. They will be afraid of you. Therefore watch yourselves carefully.

5 »‘Do not start a fight with them, because I am not giving you any of their land, not so much as one foot. I gave Esau's descendants the region of Mount Seir as their property.

6 »‘You must pay them in silver for the food you eat and the water you drink.

7 »‘Remember how Jehovah your God blessed you in everything you have done. He took care of you as you wandered through this vast desert. He has been with you these forty years. You had everything you needed.« ’

8 We moved on and left the road that goes from the towns of Elath and Eziongeber to the Dead Sea. »We turned northeast toward Moab.«

9 »Then Jehovah said to me: ‘Do not trouble the people of Moab, the descendants of Lot. And do not start a war with them. I gave them the city of Ar, and I am not going to give you any of their land.’

10 The Emits used to live there. They are a mighty race of giants who lived in Ar. They were as tall as the Anakim, another race of giants.

11 Like the Anakim they were also known as Rephaim; but the Moabites called them Emim.

12 Horites used to live in Seir, but the descendants of Esau chased them out. They destroyed their nation and settled there themselves. This is similar to the Israelites who later chased their enemies out of the land that Jehovah gave them.

13 Then we crossed the Zered River Valley just as Jehovah told us to do.

14 This was thirty-eight years after we left Kadesh-Barnea. By that time all the men who had been in the army at Kadesh-Barnea had died, just as Jehovah said they would.

15 Jehovah kept getting rid of them until finally none of them were left.

16 »When the last of these soldiers died,

17 »Jehovah said to me Moses :

18 »‘You will cross over the border of Moab at Ar today.

19 »‘When you come near the Ammonites, do not bother them or start a fight with them. I am not giving you any of the land that I already gave to the descendants of Lot as their property.

20 »‘This territory is also known as the land of the Rephaim. That is the name of the giants who formerly lived there. The Ammonites called them Zamzummim.

21 »They were as tall as the Anakim. There were many of them. They were a mighty race. But Jehovah destroyed them. Then the Ammonites took over their land and settled there.

22 »Jehovah did the same thing for the Edomites, the descendants of Esau, who live in the mountains of Edom. He destroyed the Horites. That allowed the Edomites to take over their land and settled there, where they still live.

23 »The Avims lived in Hazerim, even as far as Azzah. The Caphtorims came from Caphtor to destroy them and live there in their place.

24 Moses continued: »Cross over the Arnon River. I will help you defeat Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon and his country. Possess his land and engage him in battle.

25 »From this day forward I will make all the people and nations through out the earth afraid of you. They will hear reports about you and tremble and be in anguish because of you.

26 »I sent messengers from the desert of Kedemoth to King Sihon of Heshbon with the following offer of peace:

27 ‘If you allow us to travel through your country, we will go straight through and will not leave the road.

28 ‘We will pay you in silver for the food we eat and the water we drink. Please let us go through,

29 as the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir, and the Moabites, who live in Ar, did for us. We will keep going until we cross the Jordan River into the land Jehovah our God is giving us.’

30 King Sihon of Heshbon would not allow us to pass through. Jehovah your God made him stubborn and overconfident in order to hand him over to you, as he has now done.

31 »Then Jehovah said to me: ‘I make King Sihon and his land helpless before you. Capture his land and occupy it.’

32 Sihon came out with all his men to fight us near the town of Jahaz,

33 and Jehovah our God helped us defeat them. We killed Sihon, his sons, and all his people.

34 We captured and destroyed every town in Sihon's kingdom. We killed everyone.

35 We took the livestock and everything else of value.

36 Jehovah helped us capture every town from the Arnon River Gorge north to the boundary of Gilead. This included the town of Aroer on the edge of the gorge and the town in the middle of the gorge.

37 However, we did not go near the Ammonite towns, both in the mountains and near the Jabbok River, just as Jehovah commanded.

3

1 »Next we headed for the land of Bashan. King Og of Bashan and all his army came to fight us at Edrei.

2 »Jehovah said to me: ‘Do not be afraid of him. I will hand him, all his army, and his land, over to you. Do to him what you did to King Sihon of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon.’

3 »So Jehovah our God also handed King Og of Bashan and all his army over to us. We defeated him and left no survivors.

4 »We captured all his cities. Not one was missed. We captured a total of sixty cities in the territory of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.

5 »All of these cities were fortified with high walls and double-door gates with bars across the gates. We also captured a large number of unwalled villages.

6 »We destroyed all the towns and put to death all the men, women, and children. This was just as we did in the towns that belonged to King Sihon of Heshbon.

7 »We kept the livestock and took plunder from the towns.

8 »Sihon and Og ruled Amorite kingdoms east of the Jordan River. Their land stretched from the Arnon River Gorge in the south to Mount Hermon in the north. We captured it all.

9 »Mount Hermon is called Mount Sirion by the people of Sidon. The Amorites call it Mount Senir.

10 »All the cities of the plain, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, and Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan were captured.

11 »Of the Rephaim only King Og of Bashan was left. His bed was made of iron and was more than thirteen feet long and six feet wide. It is still in the Ammonite city of Rabbah.

12 »We took possession of this land. I gave the tribes of Reuben and Gad the land north of Aroer near the Arnon Valley and half of the mountain region of Gilead with its cities.

13 »I assigned the rest of Gilead and also all of Bashan, where Og had ruled, that is, the entire Argob region to half the tribe of Manasseh. Bashan was known as the land of the Rephaim.

14 Jair, from the tribe of Manasseh, took the entire region of Argob, that is, Bashan, as far as the border of Geshur and Maacah. He named the villages after himself, and they are still known as the villages of Jair.

15 I assigned Gilead to the clan of Machir of the tribe of Manasseh.

16 »I assigned the territory from Gilead to the Arnon River to the tribes of Reuben and Gad. The middle of the river was their southern boundary, and their northern boundary was the Jabbok River, part of which formed the Ammonite border.

17 »On the west their territory extended to the Jordan River, from Lake Galilee in the north down to the Dead Sea in the south and to the foot of Mount Pisgah on the east.

18 »Then I gave them the following instructions: ‘Jehovah our God gave you the land east of the Jordan to occupy. Now arm your fighting men and send them across the Jordan ahead of the other tribes of Israel, to help them occupy their land.

19 »‘Your wives, children, and livestock, for you have a lot of livestock, will remain behind in the towns I assigned to you.

20 »‘Help the other Israelites until they occupy the land Jehovah is giving them west of the Jordan and until Jehovah lets them live there in peace, just as he has done here for you. After that, you may return to the land I assigned to you.’

21 »I also gave Joshua this command: ‘You have seen with your own eyes everything Jehovah your God has done to these two kings. Jehovah will do the same to all of the kingdoms on the other side of the Jordan River where you are going.

22 »‘Do not be afraid of them. For Jehovah your God fights for you.’

23 »Then I pleaded with Jehovah:

24 »‘O Sovereign Lord Jehovah, you have begun to show me how great and powerful you are. What kind of god is there in heaven or on earth that can do the deeds and the mighty acts you have done?

25 »‘Please let me go over and see the beautiful land on the other side of the Jordan River. Let me see those beautiful mountains in Lebanon.’

26 »Jehovah was angry with me because of you, so he would not listen to me. He said: ‘Enough of that! Do not talk to me anymore about this.

27 »‘Go to the top of Mount Pisgah, and look west, north, south, and east. You may look at the land, but you will never cross the Jordan River.

28 »‘Joshua will lead Israel across the Jordan to take the land. So help him. Encourage him and strengthen him. Tell him what he must do.’

29 So we stayed in the valley at Beth Peor.

4

1 »Israel, listen to these laws and teachings! If you obey them you will live! Go in and take the land that Jehovah the God of your fathers is giving you.

2 »He is your God. I am telling you everything he has commanded. So do not add anything or take anything away.

3 »You saw how he killed everyone who worshiped the god Baal at Peor.

4 »But all of you who were faithful to Jehovah your God are still alive today.

5 »I have taught you laws and rules as Jehovah my God commanded me. You must obey them when you enter the land and take possession of it.

6 »Carefully obey the laws. For this will show your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations. They will hear all these statutes and say: ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’

7 »What great nation is there, who has God so near to them? For we call on Jehovah our God for all things!

8 »And what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments so righteous as the law I present to you this day?

9 »Be on your guard! Make sure you do not forget, as long as you live, what you have seen with your own eyes. Teach them to your children and your grandchildren.

10 »Do you remember the day you stood in the presence of Jehovah your God at Mount Sinai Horeb ? He said to me: ‘assemble the people. I want them to hear what I have to say, so that they will learn to obey me as long as they live. Then they will teach their children to do the same.’

11 »Tell your children how you went close and stood at the foot of the mountain covered with thick clouds of dark smoke and fire blazing up to the sky.

12 »Tell them how Jehovah spoke to you from the fire. Tell them that you heard him speak but did not see him in any form at all.

13 »He told you what you must do to keep the covenant he made with you. You must obey the Ten Commandments, which he wrote on two stone tablets.

14 »Jehovah told me to teach you all the laws that you are to obey in the land that you are about to invade and occupy.

15 »Be careful! When God spoke to you from the fire, he was invisible.

16 »Do not commit the sin of worshiping idols. Do not make idols to be worshiped, whether they are shaped like men, women,

17 animals on the earth, birds that fly in the air,

18 or they are like reptiles that creep on the ground, or fish from the water.

19 »Do not be tempted to bow down and worship the sun or moon or stars the host or army of the heavens . Jehovah put them there a heritage for all the people under the heavens.

20 »But you are Jehovah’s people! He led you through fiery trials and rescued you from Egypt.

21 »Furthermore, Jehovah was angry with me because of you. So Jehovah your God took an oath that I would not cross the Jordan River and enter the good land he is giving you as your property inheritance possession .

22 »I am going to die in this land. I will not cross the Jordan River. But you are going to go across and take possession of that good land.

23 »Take care of yourselves. Do not forget the covenant of Jehovah your God, which he made with you. Do not make a graven image, or the likeness of anything, which Jehovah your God has forbidden.

24 »For Jehovah your God is a consuming fire, even a totally demanding zealous God. He requires exclusive devotion!

25 »When you have children, and grandchildren, and you have remained in the land a long time do not corrupt yourselves. If you make a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, and do evil in the sight of Jehovah your God, you will provoke him to anger:

26 »I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day that you will soon utterly perish from off the land you possess the other side of the Jordan. You will not prolong your days upon it, but will be destroyed.

27 »Jehovah will scatter you among the nations. You will become few in number among the heathen, where Jehovah will lead you.

28 »You will serve gods that are the work of men's hands. Made of wood and stone. They cannot see, hear, eat or smell.

29 »From there you will seek Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your being. And you will find him!

30 »When you are in trouble distress and all these things happen to you in the latter days, turn to Jehovah your God and obey his voice.

31 »Jehovah your God is a merciful God. He will not forsake you. He will not destroy you, nor forget the covenant he made with your fathers.

32 »Ask about the days from the past. A time that came before you, since the day that God created man upon the earth. And ask from one side of heaven to the other whether there has ever been anything like this great thing, or anything like it has been heard?

33 »Did people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as you have heard, and live?

34 »Has God attempted to take a nation from the middle of another nation? Has he done this by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by great terrors? Yes, and by the use of his great power! Jehovah your God did all this for you in Egypt before your very eyes!

35 »This was shown to you that you might know that JEHOVAH IS GOD! THERE IS NO ONE BESIDES HIM!

36 »He made you hear his voice out of heaven. That way he could instruct teach correct discipline you. He showed you his great fire on the earth. You heard his words from the middle of the fire.

37 »He loved your fathers. Therefore he chose their descendants. In fact he watched over you and he brought you out of Egypt with his mighty power.

38 »He drove out nations far greater than you so that he could bring you in and give you their land as an inheritance as it is today.

39 »Know this and consider it in your heart today: JEHOVAH IS GOD in heaven above, and on the earth beneath: THERE IS NO ONE ELSE!

40 »You must keep the regulations and commandments I commanded you today. Then all will go well with you and with your children after you. You may prolong your days on the earth that Jehovah your God gives you for all time.«

41 Moses set aside three cities on the east side of the Jordan.

42 Those who unintentionally killed someone whom they had never hated could flee to one of these cities and save their lives.

43 The cities were Bezer on the desert plateau for the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead for the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan for the tribe of Manasseh.

44 Moses gave God's Laws and teachings to the people of Israel.

45 After they came out of Egypt they were in the valley east of the Jordan River he gave them the laws.

46 They were near the town of Bethpeor. This was in the territory that had belonged to King Sihon of the Amorites, who had ruled in the town of Heshbon. Moses and the people of Israel defeated him when they came out of Egypt.

47 They occupied his land and the land of King Og of Bashan, the other Amorite king who lived east of the Jordan.

48 This land extended from the town of Aroer, on the edge of the Arnon River, north to Mount Sirion, that is, Mount Hermon.

49 It included the region east of the Jordan River as far south as the Dead Sea and east to the foot of Mount Pisgah.

5

1 Moses called all the people of Israel, and said: »Hear, O Israel, the regulations and laws I declare to you today. Learn them and obey them!

2 »Jehovah our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.

3 »Jehovah did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, all of us here alive today.

4 »Jehovah talked with you face to face on the mountain out of the middle of the fire,

5 »I stood between Jehovah and you at that time, to declare to you the word of Jehovah. You were afraid because of the fire. So you would not go up onto the mountain. He said:

6 »‘I am Jehovah your God. I brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

7 »‘Do not have any other god but me.

8 »‘Do not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above, or on the earth below, or that is in the waters beneath the earth:

9 »‘Do not bow down to them. Do not serve them! For I Jehovah your God am a totally demanding zealous God. I require exclusive devotion and punish the fathers and children who hate me to the third and fourth generation.

10 »‘I show loving kindness to thousands of generations who love me and obey my commandments.

11 »‘Do not take the name of Jehovah your God in vain. Jehovah will not leave him unpunished who takes his name in vain.

12 »‘Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it keep it holy , as Jehovah your God has commanded you.

13 »‘Do all your work in six days.

14 »‘The seventh day is the Sabbath of Jehovah your God: in it you should not do any work. Your son and daughter should not work. Your manservant and maidservant should not work. Your ox, donkey, cattle or any stranger living with you should not work. Your manservant and maidservant should rest as much as you do.

15 »‘Remember that you were servants in the land of Egypt, and that Jehovah your God brought you out through a mighty act. Jehovah your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

16 »‘Honor your father and your mother, as Jehovah your God commands you and your days will be prolonged and things will go well with you, in the land Jehovah gives you.

17 »‘Do not kill.

18 »‘Do not commit adultery.

19 »‘Do not steal.

20 »‘Do not bear false witness against another man.

21 »‘Do not desire another man's wife; do not covet another man's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his donkey, or any thing that belongs to him.’

22 »Jehovah spoke to us when we gathered on the mountain. He spoke with a loud voice from the dark fiery cloud. Jehovah gave us these words, and only these. Then he wrote them on two flat tablets of stone and gave them to me.

23 »Fire blazed from the mountain, and you heard the voice coming from the darkness. Then your elders came to me.

24 »They said: ‘Today Jehovah our God has shown us how powerful and glorious he is. He spoke to us from the fire. We learned that people could live, even though God speaks to them.

25 »‘We do not want to take a chance on being killed by that terrible fire. If we hear Jehovah’s voice again we will die.

26 »‘Has any other human ever heard the only true God speaking from fire, as we have? And if they have, would they live to tell about it?

27 »‘They spoke to Moses: ‘Moses, go and listen to everything that Jehovah our God says. Then tell us whatever Jehovah our God tells you. We will listen and obey.’

28 »Jehovah heard the words you spoke to me. He told me: ‘I have heard what the people said to you. Everything they said was good.

29 If only they had such a heart in them that they would respect reverence me and obey all my commandments for as long as they live! Then things would go well for them and their children from generation to generation.’

30 Jehovah continued: »Tell the people to go back to their tents.«

31 But you stay here with me. I will give you all the commands, laws, and rules that you must teach them to obey in the land I will give them to possess.

32 Be careful to do what Jehovah your God has commanded you. Never turn to the right or to the left.

33 Follow all the directions Jehovah your God has given you. Then you will continue to live. Life will go well for you! You will live for a long time in the land that you are going to possess.

6

1 »These are the commands, decrees and laws Jehovah your God commanded me to teach you. Obey them after you enter the land and take possession of it.

2 »As long as you live, you, your son, and your grandson must respect Jehovah your God. All of you must obey his laws and commandments I give you. Then you will live a long time.

3 »Listen, O Israel, and be careful to obey these laws. Things will go well for you and your population will increase in a land flowing with milk and honey. This is what Jehovah the God of your ancestors promised you.

4 »Listen, Israel! JEHOVAH OUR GOD IS ONE GOD!

5 »You must love Jehovah your God with all your heart and with your entire mind and with all your strength.

6 »These words that I command you this day must be in your heart.

7 »Carefully teach them to your sons. Talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way. Speak about them when you lie down, and when you rise up.

8 »Bind them for a sign upon your hand. They shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

9 »Write them upon the posts of your house, and on your gates.

10 »It shall be like the time when Jehovah your God brought you into the land he promised to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. He would give you large and beautiful cities that you did not build.

11 »The houses will be full of good things that you did not put in them. There will be wells that you did not dig. There will be vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant. Jehovah will bring you into this land and you will have all you want to eat.

12 »Beware that you do not forget Jehovah, for he brought you out of Egypt your house of bondage.

13 »You must respect Jehovah your God. Serve him and swear by his name!

14 »Do not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples around you.

15 »Jehovah your God is a totally demanding zealous God. He tolerates no rivals! The anger of Jehovah your God will burn against you. He will then destroy you from the face of the earth.

16 »Do not test Jehovah your God like you tested him in Massah.

17 »Obey the commandments of Jehovah your God. Obey his testimonies and statutes for he commanded you.

18 »Do what is right and good in Jehovah’s sight. Then you will be able to go in and possess this good land from your enemies, just as he promised your ancestors.

19 »You will throw out all your enemies as Jehovah said.

20 »In the future your son will ask you: ‘What is the meaning of these laws and regulations that Jehovah our God has commanded you?’

21 »‘You will answer your son: ‘We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt, and Jehovah brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

22 »‘Jehovah showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and terrible signs, against Egypt, Pharaoh and his entire household.

23 »‘He brought us out from there. That way he could give us the land he swore to give to our fathers.

24 »‘Jehovah commanded us to do all these statutes. He required that we respect Jehovah our God. This was for our own good that he might preserve us alive, as things are today.

25 »‘If we are careful to do these commandments before Jehovah our God, just as he ordered us, it will mean righteousness for us.’«

7

1 »Jehovah your God will bring you into the land you are to possess. He will clear away many nations ahead of you. The nations he will clear: the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, and the Canaanites, the Perizzites, Hivites, and the Jebusites. These seven nations are larger and mightier than you.

2 »Jehovah your God will deliver them to you. You must crush them! Completely destroy them. You should make no covenant with them. Do not show them mercy.

3 »Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons.

4 »They will lead your young people away from me to serve other gods. So the anger of Jehovah will be kindled against you and will destroy you suddenly.

5 »Deal with them in this way: Destroy their altars and break down their sacred pillars. Cut down their idols and burn them with fire.

6 »You are a holy people to Jehovah your God. Jehovah your God has chosen you to be his own special people out of all the nations of the earth.

7 »Jehovah set his heart on you. He chose you, even though you did not outnumber all the other people. You were the smallest of all nations.

8 »You were chosen because Jehovah loved you and kept the oath he swore to your fathers. So he used his mighty hand to bring you out. He freed you from slavery under Pharaoh king of Egypt.

9 »Keep in mind that Jehovah your God is the only true God. He is the faithful God. He keeps his promise and is merciful to thousands of generations of those who love him and obey his commandments.

10 »He destroys everyone who hates him. He never takes long to pay back anyone who hates him.

11 »So obey the commandments, laws, and judgments I give you today.

12 »If you listen to these rules and faithfully obey them, Jehovah your God will keep his covenant with you and be merciful to you, as he swore to your fathers.

13 »He will love you, bless you, and increase the number of your descendants. He will bless you with children. He will bless your land with produce: grain, new wine, and olive oil. He will bless your herds with calves, and your flocks with lambs and kids. This will all happen in the land Jehovah will give you, as he swore to your fathers.

14 »God will bless you more than any other people. There will not be a male or a female barren among you or your livestock.

15 »Jehovah will take away every sickness from you. He will not afflict you with any of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you have known. He will put them on all who hate you.

16 »Destroy all the peoples whom Jehovah your God gives you. Do not look at them with pity. Do not serve their gods. For that would be a snare to you.

17 »You may say in your heart: These nations are stronger then we are, how can we throw them out of their land?

18 »Do not be afraid of them. Remember what Jehovah your God did to Pharaoh and all of Egypt.

19 »You saw with your own eyes the terrible plagues, the miraculous signs, and the amazing things Jehovah did. He used his mighty hand and powerful arm to bring you out. He will do the same thing to all the people who frighten you.

20 »Jehovah your God will send the hornet against them. Those who are left will hide from you and perish.

21 »Do not be terrified of them. Jehovah your God is with you. He is great and awesome God.

22 »Jehovah your God will drive out these nations before you little by little. You will not be able to put an end to them quickly. This is because the wild beasts are too numerous and will multiply around you.

23 »Jehovah your God will deliver them over to you. He will throw them into great confusion until they are destroyed.

24 »He will deliver their kings into your hand. You will make their name perish from under heaven. They will not be able to stand before you for you will destroy them.

25 »Burn the carved images of their gods with fire. Do not covet the silver or the gold that is on them. Do not take it for yourselves, or you will be snared by it. It is an abomination to Jehovah your God.

26 »Do not bring an abomination into your house. You must utterly detest it and you must utterly abhor it, for it is something banned.«

8

1 »Be careful to do all the commandments I commanded you today! You will then live and multiply and go in and possess the land Jehovah promised to give to your forefathers.

2 »Remember the forty years Jehovah your God led you in the wilderness. He did this in order to humble you and test you. He wanted to know what was in your heart. Whether you would obey his commandments.

3 »He humbled you allowed you to suffer with hunger and then fed you with manna. Neither you nor your fathers had seen this before. He did this to teach you that a person cannot live on bread alone but must live on all everything every word that proceeds from the mouth of Jehovah.

4 »Your clothes did not wear out! And your feet did not swell these past forty years.

5 Learn this lesson by heart: Jehovah your God disciplined you like parents discipline their children.

6 »Obey the commandments of Jehovah your God. Walk in his ways and respect him.

7 »Jehovah your God will lead you into a good land. It is a land with rivers that do not dry up. Springs and underground streams flow through the valleys and the hills.

8 »The land has wheat and barley, grapevines, fig trees, and pomegranates. The land has honey and olive trees for olive oil.

9 »The land will have enough food for you, and you will have everything you need. The land has rocks with iron ore. You will be able to mine copper ore in the mountains.

10 »When you have eaten all you want, thank Jehovah your God for the good land he has given you.

11 »Be careful that you do not forget Jehovah your God. Always obey his judgments and Laws that I give you today.

12 »You will eat all you want. You will build nice houses and live in them.

13 »Your herds and flocks, silver and gold, and all that you have will increase.

14 »When this happens, be careful that you do not become arrogant and forget Jehovah your God. He brought you out of slavery in Egypt.

15 »He was the one who led you through that vast and dangerous wilderness. It was a parched, arid land, with poisonous snakes and scorpions. He was the one who made water come out of solid rock for you.

16 »He fed you in the desert with manna. Your fathers had never seen this. He did this in order to humble you and test you. But he also did this so that things would go well for you in the end.

17 »When you succeed do not brag: ‘I am rich. I earned it all myself.’«

18 »Remember that Jehovah your God gives you the strength to make a living. That is how he keeps the promise he made to your fathers.

19 »I warn you: ‘If you forget Jehovah your God and worship other gods, you will perish.’«

20 »Jehovah will destroy you, just as he destroyed the nations you fought. This is because you will not listen to him.

9

1 »Hear, O Israel, you are about to cross the Jordan River. You will force out nations that are larger and mightier than you, with big cities that have sky-high walls.

2 »Their people are tall and strong. They are descendants of Anakim. You know all about them. You also heard it said: Who can oppose the descendants of Anak?

3 »Understand today that Jehovah your God is the one who is going ahead of you like a consuming raging devouring fire. He will wipe them out. Then he will use you to crush their power. You will take possession of their land and will quickly destroy them as Jehovah promised you.

4 »When Jehovah your God expels these people right before your very eyes, do not say to yourselves: ‘Jehovah brought us here to possess this land because we live right are righteous .’ This is not the case. It is because these nations are so wicked that Jehovah is forcing them out of your way.

5 »It is not because you have been living right or because you are so honest that you enter to take possession of their land. It is because these people are so wicked that Jehovah your God is forcing them out of your way. It is also because Jehovah wants to confirm the promise he swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

6 »Understand this! It is not because you have been living right that Jehovah your God is giving you this good land to possess. You are a rebellious and impossible stiff-necked stubborn people!

7 »Never forget how you made Jehovah your God angry in the desert. You rebelled against Jehovah from the day you left Egypt until you came here.

8 »Even at Mount Horeb you made Jehovah so angry that he wanted to destroy you.

9 »When I went up on the mountain to get the stone tablets, the tablets of the promise that Jehovah made to you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights without food or water.

10 »Then Jehovah gave me the two stone tablets inscribed by God’s finger Holy Spirit . On them were written all the words Jehovah spoke to you from the fire on the mountain on the day of the assembly.

11 »At the end of forty days and nights Jehovah gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant.

12 »Jehovah said to me: ‘Go down from here quickly, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly. They quickly turned aside from the way that I commanded them. They have made a cast-idol for themselves.’

13 »‘Jehovah spoke further to me: ‘I have seen this people. They are a very stubborn people.

14 »‘Leave me alone that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’

15 »So I turned and came down from the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire. I carried the two stone tablets of the covenant in my two hands.

16 »I saw that you had indeed sinned against Jehovah your God. You made yourselves an idol, cast in the shape of a calf. You turned aside quickly from the way Jehovah had commanded you.

17 »I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my hands and smashed them before your eyes.

18 »I fell down before Jehovah. Like the first, forty days and nights I did not eat or drink. This was because of all your sin you committed in doing what was evil in the sight of Jehovah to provoke Him to anger.

19 »I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure from Jehovah. For he was wrathful against you to the point of destroying you! But Jehovah listened to me that time also.

20 »Jehovah was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him! So I also prayed for Aaron at the same time.

21 »I took your sinful thing, the calf that you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it. I ground it very small until it was as fine as dust. I threw its dust into the brook that flowed down the mountain.

22 »Again at Taberah and at Massah and at Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked Jehovah to anger.

23 »‘Jehovah sent you from Kadesh-barnea. He said: ‘Go up and possess the land I have given you.’ Then you rebelled against the command of Jehovah your God. You did not believe him. You did not listen to his voice!

24 »You have rebelled against Jehovah from the day I knew you.

25 »So I fell down prostrate before Jehovah the forty days and forty nights. I did this because Jehovah said he would destroy you.

26 »I prayed to Jehovah and said: ‘O Jehovah our God, do not destroy your people for they are your inheritance. You have redeemed them through your greatness. You brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

27 »‘»Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not look at the stubbornness of this people or at their wickedness or their sin.

28 »‘»The land from which you brought us may say: »Jehovah was not able to bring them into the land he promised them and because he hated them he has brought them out to slay them in the desert wilderness.«

29 »Even now they are your people, your inheritance, whom you brought out by your great power and outstretched arm.«

10

1 »Jehovah said to me: ‘Cut out for yourself two tablets of stone like the former ones. Come up to me on the mountain, and build an ark of wood for yourself.

2 »‘I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets that you shattered. You must place them in the Ark.’

3 »I made an Ark out of acacia wood and cut out two tablets of stone like the first ones. Then I took the two tablets in my hands and went up on the mountain.

4 »He wrote on the tablets, like the former writing. It was the Ten Commandments Ten Words that Jehovah proclaimed to you on the mountain. It was from the middle of the fire on the day of the assembly. Jehovah gave them to me.

5 »Then I came down from the mountain and put the tablets in the Ark I had made. They are there just as Jehovah commanded me.

6 The sons of Israel set out from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died. He was buried there. Eleazar his son ministered as priest in his place.

7 From there they set out to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with streams of water.

8 Jehovah then set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the Ark of the covenant of Jehovah. They were to stand before Jehovah to serve and pronounce blessings in his name until this day.

9 Levi does not have a portion or inheritance with his brothers. Jehovah is his inheritance; just as Jehovah your God spoke to him.

10 »I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights like the first time. Jehovah listened to me this time also. Jehovah was not willing to destroy you.

11 »‘Jehovah said to me: ‘Arise and proceed on your journey ahead of the people. That way they may go in and possess the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.’

12 »Now, O Israel, what does Jehovah your God require from you? You are to respect Jehovah your God. Walk in all his ways and love him! Serve Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your being.

13 »Obey Jehovah’s commandments and his statutes I am commanding you today for your good!

14 »Behold, heaven and the highest heavens belong to Jehovah your God, even the earth and all that is in it.

15 »Yet Jehovah set his affection on your fathers. He loved them. He chose you their descendants above all peoples, as it is this day.

16 »Circumcise your heart, and do not stiffen your neck. Circumcise: Cut short the foreskin. Remove hardness of the heart.

17 »Jehovah your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords! He is the great, the powerful, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe.

18 »He executes justice for the orphan and the widow. He shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing.

19 »Love those who are aliens. For you were also aliens in the land of Egypt.

20 »Respect Jehovah your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name.

21 »He is your praise! He is your God! He performed for you those great and awesome things you saw with your own eyes.

22 »Your fathers traveled to Egypt, seventy persons in all. Now Jehovah your God has made you as numerous as the stars of the universe physical heavens .

11

1 »Love Jehovah your God, and obey all his laws, regulations and commandments.

2 »Know today that I do not speak with your sons who have not known and who have not seen the discipline of Jehovah your God. They have not seen his greatness and his awesome power.

3 »They have not seen his signs and the work he did in the middle of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land.

4 »And what He did to Egypt's army, to its horses and its chariots, when He made the water of the Red Sea engulf them while they pursued. Jehovah completely destroyed them!

5 »They do not know what Jehovah did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place.

6 »And what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them in all Israel.

7 »You have seen with your own eyes all the great deeds Jehovah did.

8 »Obey every commandment I command you today. Then you may be strong and go in and possess the land you will cross over to possess.

9 »Then you may prolong your days on the land Jehovah swore to give to your fathers and their descendants. It is a land flowing with milk and honey.

10 »The land you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you came. You used to sow your seed and irrigate it with your foot as in a vegetable garden.

11 »But the land you go to possess is a land of hills and valleys. It drinks water from the rain from the clouds in the sky.

12 »Jehovah your God cares about this land. Jehovah watches over it day after day and year by year.

13 »If you faithfully obey my commandments that I give you today, love Jehovah your God, and serve him with all your heart and with all your being,

14 I will send rain on your land at the proper time, both in the fall and in the spring. You will gather your own grain, new wine, and olive oil.

15 »I will provide grass in the fields for your animals. You will be able to eat and be filled.

16 »Guard yourselves! Your heart could be deceived. You could turn away and serve other gods and worship them.

17 »Jehovah will become angry with you. He will shut the sky and there will be no rain. Then the ground will not grow any crops. You will quickly disappear from this good land Jehovah is giving you.

18 »Take these words of mine to heart and keep them in mind. Write them down, tie them around your wrist, and wear them as headbands to remind you.

19 »Teach them to your children! Talk about them in your home and away. Speak of them when you lie down or get up.

20 »Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

21 »You and your descendants will live a long time in the land that Jehovah promised your ancestors. Your families will live there as long as the sky is above the earth.

22 »Love Jehovah your God and obey all the laws and teachings I commanded you today. Hold fast to him.

23 »Then Jehovah will drive out all these nations from before you. You will drive out nations greater and mightier than you.

24 »Every place on which the sole of your foot treads will be yours. Your border will be from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as the western sea.

25 »No man will be able to stand before you. Jehovah your God will lay the dread of you and the fear of you on all the land where you set foot. This is as he promised you.

26 »See I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse:

27 »Receive the blessing when you listen to the commandments of Jehovah your God, which I command you today.

28 »Receive the curse when you do not listen to the commandments of Jehovah your God, but turn aside from the way that I command you today, by following other gods you have not known.

29 »When Jehovah your God brings you into the land you are about to possess, you will offer blessings on Mount Gerizim and cursing on Mount Ebal.

30 »Are they not across the Jordan toward the setting sun? Are they in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oaks big trees of Moreh?

31 »You are about to cross the Jordan to go in to possess the land Jehovah your God is giving you. You must possess it and live in it,

32 »Be careful to do all the statutes and judgments I present to you today.

12

1 »These are the statutes and the judgments you should carefully observe in the land Jehovah, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess as long as you live on the earth.

2 »Destroy all the places where the nations you dispossess serve their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree.

3 »Tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars. Burn their Asherah poles with fire. Cut down the carved images of their gods and obliterate their name from that place.

4 »Do not worship Jehovah your God with such things.

5 »You should seek Jehovah at the place Jehovah your God chooses out of all your tribes. This is where he will dwell and establish his name. This is where you should go.

6 »There you shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, and the contribution of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock.

7 »You and your households should eat there before Jehovah your God, and rejoice in all your undertakings that Jehovah your God has blessed.

8 »Do not behave the way we do here today, every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes.

9 »For you have not as yet come to the resting place and the inheritance that Jehovah your God is giving you.

10 »When you cross the Jordan and live in the land Jehovah your God gives you to inherit, and he gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in security.

11 »It will happen in the place Jehovah choose for his name to dwell, there you shall bring all that I command you. Bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution of your hand, and all your choice vowed offerings that you will vow to Jehovah.

12 »Rejoice be filled with joy before Jehovah your God, you and your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance with you.

13 »Be careful that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place you see,

14 but in the place Jehovah chooses in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.

15 »In whatever city you live, you may slaughter and eat as much meat as you want from what Jehovah your God has blessed you with. Clean and unclean people may eat it as if they were eating a gazelle or a deer.

16 »Never eat the blood. Pour it on the ground like water.

17 »You may not eat Jehovah’s offerings in your cities. Those offerings are: one-tenth of your grain, new wine, and olive oil; the firstborn of your cattle, sheep, or goats; the offerings you vow to bring; your freewill offerings; and your contributions.

18 »You and your sons and daughters, male and female slaves, and the Levites who live in your cities must eat these in the presence of Jehovah your God at the place he will choose. There in the presence of Jehovah your God enjoy everything for which you have worked.

19 »Remember to take care of the Levites as long as you live in your land.

20 »Jehovah your God will expand your country's borders as he promised. You will say: I am hungry for meat. Then eat as much meat as you want.

21 »If the place Jehovah your God chooses to put his name is too far away from you, you may slaughter an animal from the herds or flocks that Jehovah has given you. Eat as much as you want in your city. I have commanded you to do this.

22 »Eat it as you would eat a gazelle or a deer. Clean and unclean people may eat it together.

23 »Make sure you never eat blood, because blood contains life. Never eat the life with the meat.

24 »Never eat blood! Pour it on the ground like water.

25 »If you do not eat blood, things will go well for you and your descendants. You will be doing what Jehovah considers right.

26 »Take the holy things and the offerings you have vowed to bring, and go to the place Jehovah will choose.

27 »Sacrifice the meat and the blood of your burnt offerings on the altar of Jehovah your God. The blood of your sacrifices is to be poured out beside the altar of Jehovah your God, but you may eat the meat.

28 »If you obey these laws, you will be doing what Jehovah your God says is right and good. Then he will help you and your descendants succeed.

29 »Israel, Jehovah will get rid of the nations you attack. You may have their land.

30 »Be careful that you are not ensnared to follow them, for they will be destroyed. Do not inquire after their gods, saying: How do these nations serve their gods that I also may do likewise?

31 »Do not behave this way toward Jehovah your God, for every abominable act Jehovah hates they have done for their gods. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.

32 »Be careful to do what I command you. Do not add to it nor take away from it.

13

1 »If a prophet or an interpreter of dreams appears among you and gives you a sign or a wonder portent omen forecast of the future ,

2 in order to lead you to worship and serve gods that you have not worshiped before, and even if what they promise comes true,

3 do not listen to them. Jehovah your God is allowing them to test you. He will then know that you love Jehovah with all your heart.

4 »Follow Jehovah and respect him. Obey him and keep his commandments. Worship him and be faithful to him stick to him stay close to him cleave, cling to him .

5 »Put to death any interpreters of dreams or prophets that tell you to rebel against Jehovah. For he Jehovah rescued you from Egypt, where you were slaves. Such people are evil and are trying to lead you away from the life that Jehovah has commanded you to live. They must be put to death, in order to get rid of this evil.

6 »If your brother, your mother's son, or your son or daughter, or the wife you cherish, or your very best friend tries to secretly entice you, saying: ‘Let us go and serve other gods, gods neither you nor your fathers have known,

7 »‘the gods of the people who are around you from one end of the earth to the other end.’

8 »Do not yield to him or listen to him. Your eye should not have pity on him. You should not spare or conceal him.

9 »You must kill him! Your hand should be first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.

10 »Stone him to death because he has sought to draw you away from Jehovah your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

11 »All Israel will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such a wicked thing among you.

12 »If you hear in one of the cities Jehovah has given you, anyone saying that

13 some worthless men have gone out from among you and have mislead the inhabitants of their city, saying: Let us go and serve other gods you have not known.

14 »Investigate and search out and inquire thoroughly. If it is true and the matter established that this abomination has been done among you,

15 strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it and all that is in it and its cattle with the edge of the sword.

16 »Gather all its treasure into the middle of its open square and burn the city and all its treasure with fire as a whole burnt offering to Jehovah your God. It shall be a ruin forever. It shall never be rebuilt.

17 »Do not take anything that is put under ban. If you comply obey , Jehovah may turn from his burning anger and show mercy to you. He may have compassion on you and make you increase, just as he swore to your fathers.

18 »Listen to the voice of Jehovah your God. Obey all his commandments that I am commanding you today. Do what is right in the sight of Jehovah your God.

14

1 »You are the sons of Jehovah your God. Do not cut yourselves nor shave your forehead for the sake of the dead.

2 »You are a holy people to Jehovah your God. Out of all the people on the face of the earth Jehovah has chosen you to be a people for His own possession.

3 »Do 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 roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope chamois and the mountain sheep.

6 »You may eat any animal that divides the hoof and has the hoof split in two and chews the cud.

7 »Do not eat of these that chew the cud, or among those that divide the hoof in two: the camel and the rabbit and the shaphan. Even though they chew the cud, they do not divide the hoof. They are unclean for you.

8 »The pig, because it divides the hoof but does not chew the cud, it is unclean for you. Do not eat any of their flesh nor touch their carcasses.

9 »These you may eat of all that are in water: anything that has fins and scales you may eat.

10 »Do not eat anything that does not have fins and scales. It is unclean for you.

11 »You may eat any clean bird.

12 »These are the ones you should not eat: the eagle and the vulture and the buzzard,

13 and the red kite, the falcon, and the kite in their kinds,

14 and every raven in its kind,

15 and the ostrich, the owl, the sea gull, and the hawk in their kinds,

16 the swan, the great owl, the white owl,

17 the pelican, the carrion vulture, the cormorant,

18 the stork, and the heron in their kinds, and the hoopoe and the bat.

19 »And all the teeming life with wings is unclean to you. Do not eat them.

20 »You may eat any clean bird.

21 »Do not eat anything that dies by itself. You may give it to the alien who is in your town, so that he may eat it. You may sell it to a foreigner, for you are a holy people to Jehovah your God. Do not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.

22 »You shall surely tithe all the produce from what you sow, which comes out of the field every year.

23 »You shall eat in the presence of Jehovah your God, at the place where He chooses to establish his name, the tithe of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and your flock, so that you may learn to respect Jehovah your God always.

24 »The place Jehovah your God will choose to put his name may be too far away. He may bless you with so much that you cannot carry the tithe of your income that far.

25 »If so, exchange the tenth part of your income for silver. Take the silver with you, and go to the place Jehovah your God will choose.

26 Use the silver to buy whatever you want: cattle, sheep, goats, wine, liquor-whatever you choose. Then you and your family will eat and enjoy yourselves there in the presence of Jehovah your God.

27 »Do not neglect the Levites who live in your towns. They have no property of their own.

28 »At the end of every third year bring the tithe of all your crops and store it in your towns.

29 »This food is for the Levites, since they own no property, and for the foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your towns. They are to come and get all they need. Do this, and Jehovah your God will bless you in everything you do.

15

1 »Release all debts at the end of every seven years.

2 »This is how you should release. Every man who has a loan to his neighbor shall release it. He shall not require it from his neighbor, or from his brother, because it is called Jehovah's release.

3 »You may collect from a foreigner, but your hand should release that debt which is yours with your brother.

4 »There should not be any poor people among you. Jehovah your God will certainly bless you in the land he is giving you as your own possession.

5 »He will bless you only if you listen carefully to Jehovah your God and faithfully obey all these commandments I give you today.

6 »Jehovah your God will bless you, as he promised. You will make loans to many nations. But you will not have to borrow from any of them. You will rule many nations. But no nation will ever rule over you.

7 »This is what you must do whenever there are poor Israelites in one of your cities in the land that Jehovah your God is giving you.

8 »Be generous to these poor people. Freely lend them as much as they need. Never be hardhearted and stingy with them.

9 »When the seventh year, the year when payments on debts are canceled, is near, you might be stingy toward poor Israelites and give them nothing. Be careful not to think these worthless thoughts. The poor will complain to Jehovah about you, and you will be condemned for your sin.

10 »Give the poor what they need, because then Jehovah will make you successful in everything you do.

11 »There will always be some Israelites who are poor and needy. That is why I am commanding you to be generous with them.

12 »If you buy Israelites your own brothers as slaves, you must set them free after six years.

13 »Do not send him away empty handed when you set him free.

14 »Supply him liberally from your flock and from your threshing floor and from your wine vat. Give to him as Jehovah your God has blessed you.

15 »Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Jehovah your God redeemed you. Therefore I command you this today!

16 »If he says to you: I will not leave you. If it is because he loves you and your household, since he fares well with you,

17 then you shall take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door. He will be your servant for a very long time. You should do likewise to your maidservant.

18 »It should not seem hard to you when you set him free. After all he has given you six years with double the service of a hired man. Jehovah your God will bless you in whatever you do.

19 »To Jehovah your God you shall consecrate all the firstborn males that are born of your herd and of your flock; you shall not work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock.

20 »You and your household shall eat it every year before Jehovah your God in the place Jehovah chooses.

21 »If it has any defect, such as lameness or blindness, or any serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to Jehovah your God.

22 »Eat it within your gates. The unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as a gazelle or a deer.

23 »Do not eat its blood! Pour it out on the ground like water.

16

1 »Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover to Jehovah your God. It was in the month of Abib that Jehovah your God brought you out of Egypt by night.

2 »Sacrifice the Passover to Jehovah your God from the flock and the herd, in the place where Jehovah chooses to establish his name.

3 »Do not eat leavened bread with it. Eat unleavened bread for seven days. It is the bread of affliction. You should remember all the days of your life the day when you came out of the land of Egypt in haste.

4 »No leaven should be seen with you in all your territory for seven days. None of the flesh you sacrifice on the evening of the first day shall remain overnight until morning.

5 »You are not allowed to sacrifice the Passover in any of your towns Jehovah your God is giving you.

6 »It must be at the place where Jehovah your God chooses to establish his name. Sacrifice the Passover in the evening at sunset, at the time that you came out of Egypt.

7 »Cook and eat it in the place Jehovah your God chooses. In the morning you are to return to your tents.

8 »Eat unleavened bread for six days. On the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly to Jehovah your God. Do not do work on it.

9 »You shall count seven weeks for yourself. Count off seven weeks from the beginning of your grain harvest.

10 »Then celebrate the Festival of Weeks to Jehovah your God. Bring a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings Jehovah your God has given you.

11 »Enjoy yourselves in the presence of Jehovah your God along with your sons, daughters, male and female slaves, the Levites who live in your cities, the foreigners, orphans, and widows who live among you. Enjoy yourselves at the place Jehovah your God will choose as a dwelling for his name.

12 »Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. Carefully obey these laws.

13 »Gather the grain from your threshing floor and make your wine. Then celebrate the Festival of Booths for seven days.

14 »Enjoy yourselves at the festival along with your sons, daughters, male and female slaves, the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your cities.

15 »For seven days you will celebrate this festival dedicated to Jehovah your God in the place he will choose. You will enjoy yourselves, because Jehovah your God will bless all your harvest and all your work.

16 »Three times a year all your men must come into the presence of Jehovah your God at the place he will choose. At the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks, and the Festival of Booths. But no one may come into the presence of Jehovah without an offering.

17 »Every man shall give, as he is able; according to the blessing Jehovah your God has given you.

18 »Appoint judges and officers for your tribes in every city Jehovah your God gives you. / They are to judge the people fairly.

19 »Never pervert justice. Always be impartial. Never take a bribe, because bribes blind wise people and deny justice to those who are in the right.

20 »Only strive for justice so you will live and take possession of the land that Jehovah your God is giving you.

21 »When you build the altar for Jehovah your God, never plant beside it any tree dedicated to the goddess Asherah.

22 »Never set up a sacred stone. These are things Jehovah your God hates.

17

1 »Never offer a bull or a sheep that has a defect or anything seriously wrong with it as a sacrifice to Jehovah your God. That is an abomination to him.

2 »In one of the cities Jehovah your God is giving you, there may be a man or woman among you who is doing what Jehovah considers evil. This person may be disregarding the conditions of Jehovah’s covenant.

3 »Some worship and bow down to other gods, the sun, the moon, or the whole army of heaven. I have forbidden this.

4 »If it is told you and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire thoroughly. If it is true and the thing certain that this detestable thing has been done in Israel,

5 »Bring that man or woman who has done this evil deed out to your gates. Stone the man or the woman to death.

6 »On the evidence and testimony of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death. He shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness.

7 »The witnesses must throw the first stone to put him to death, and afterward all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

8 »If any case is too difficult for you to decide, between one kind of homicide or another, between one kind of lawsuit or another, and between one kind of assault or another, being cases of dispute in your courts, then you should go to the place Jehovah your God chooses.

9 »Approach the Levitical priest or the judge who is in office in those days. Inquire of them and they will declare to you the verdict in the case.

10 »Act according to the terms of the verdict they declare to you from that place Jehovah chooses. Be careful to abide by all that they teach you.

11 »Act according to the verdict and the terms they tell you. Do not turn away from the word they declare to you.

12 »The man who acts presumptuously and does not listen to the priest or the judge will die. This way you will purge the evil from Israel. The priests and judges are there to serve Jehovah your God.

13 »Then all the people will hear and be afraid. They will not act presumptuously again.

14 »Enter the land Jehovah your God gives you. Possess it and live in it. You will say: I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,

15 you shall surely set a king over you whom Jehovah your God chooses. It will be one from among your countrymen. You may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman.

16 »He must not increase his herd of horses. He must not send the people to return to Egypt to get more horses. For Jehovah said to you: You should never again return that way.

17 »He must not take many wives or his heart will turn astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.

18 »When he first sits on the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll taken in the presence of the Levitical priests.

19 »He should keep it with him. He should read from it all the days of his life. In this way he will learn to respect Jehovah his God by carefully observing all the words of this Law and these statutes.

20 »He must not think he is better than the rest of his people. He will not disobey these commandments in any way. So he and his sons will rule for a long time in Israel.

18

1 »The Levitical priests including the entire tribe of Levi will receive no land or property of their own like the rest of the Israelites. They will eat what has been sacrificed to Jehovah. These sacrifices will be what they receive.

2 »They are to own no land, as the other tribes do. Their inheritance is the privilege of being Jehovah’s priests, as Jehovah told them.

3 »When cattle or sheep are sacrificed, the priests are to be given the shoulder, the jaw, and the stomach.

4 »They are to receive the first share of the grain, wine, olive oil, and wool.

5 »Jehovah chose from all your tribes the tribe of Levi to serve him and his sons as priests forever.

6 »Any Levite who wants to may come from any town in Israel to the one place of worship.

7 »He may serve there, as a priest of Jehovah his God, like the other Levites who are serving there.

8 »He is to receive the same amount of food as the other priests. He may keep everything his family sends him.

9 »When you come into the land that Jehovah your God gives you, do not follow the disgusting practices of the nations that are there.

10 »Do not sacrifice your children in the fires on your altars. Do not let your people practice divination or look for omens or use spells or charms.

11 »Do not allow them to consult the spirits of the dead.

12 »Jehovah your God hates people who do these disgusting things. That is why he is driving those nations out of the land as you advance.

13 »Be perfect without blemish with Jehovah your God.

14 »These nations whom you shall possess listened to observers of clouds and to diviners. As for you, Jehovah your God has not allowed you to do so.

15 »Jehovah your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your fellow Israelites. Listen to him!

16 »This is according to all that you asked of Jehovah your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly. You said: Let me not hear again the voice of Jehovah my God. Do not let me see this great fire anymore, or I will die.

17 »Jehovah said to me: ‘They have spoken well.

18 »‘I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you. I will put my words in his mouth. He will speak to them all that I command him.

19 »‘Whoever refuses to listen to the words that the prophet speaks in my name will answer to me.

20 »‘Any prophet who dares to say something in my name that I did not command him to say or who speaks in the name of other gods must die.

21 »‘« You may wonder: »How shall we recognize that Jehovah did not speak this message?«

22 »If a prophet speaks in Jehovah’s name and what he says does not happen or come true, then it did not come from Jehovah. That prophet has spoken on his own authority. Never be afraid of him.’

19

1 »When Jehovah your God destroys all the nations that are living in the land that he gives you. you will force them out and live in their cities and houses.

2 »When all this is done, set aside three cities in the land that Jehovah your God gives you.

3 »Provide a route to each of these cities and divide the land that Jehovah your God gives you into three regions. When a person kills someone he may run to one of these cities.

4 »A person who unintentionally kills someone he never hated in the past may run to one of these cities to save his life.

5 »For example: when a man goes into the forest with his friend to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron head slips off the handle and strikes his friend so that he dies. He may flee to one of these cities and live.

6 »Otherwise the avenger of blood might pursue the manslayer in the heat of his anger. He may overtake him and because the way is long he may take his life. Even though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated him previously.

7 »Hear my command: ‘You must set aside three cities for yourself.’

8 »If Jehovah your God enlarges your territory, just as he has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land he promised to give your fathers.

9 »And if you carefully observe all this commandment I command you today, to love Jehovah your God, and to walk in his ways always you shall add three more cities for yourself, besides these three.

10 »Innocent blood will not be shed in your land that Jehovah your God gives you as an inheritance. Blood guiltiness will not be on you.

11 »But if there is a man who hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and murders him. If he flees to one of these cities,

12 »the elders of his city will send for him. They will take him from there and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood that he may die.

13 »Do not pity him. Purge the blood of the innocent from Israel that it may go well with you.

14 »Do not move your neighbor's boundary mark. The ancestors have set this in your inheritance. You will inherit this in the land Jehovah your God gives you to possess.

15 »One witness is not enough to convict someone of a crime, offense, or sin he may have committed. Cases must be settled based on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

16 »This is what you must do whenever a witness takes the stand to accuse a person falsely of a crime.

17 »The two people involved must stand in Jehovah’s presence, in front of the priests and judges who are serving at that time.

18 »The judges must make a thorough investigation. If it is found that the witness lied when he testified against the other Israelite,

19 do to him what he planned to do to the other person. Get rid of this evil.

20 »When other people hear about this, they will be afraid. Never again will such an evil thing be done among you.

21 »Have no pity on him: Take a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, and a foot for a foot.

20

1 »When you go to war against your enemies, you may see horses, chariots, and armies larger than yours. Do not be afraid of them for Jehovah your God, who brought you out of Egypt, will be with you.

2 »A priest must come and speak to the troops before the battle begins.

3 He should say: »Listen, Israel, today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not lose your courage! Do not be afraid. Do not tremble because of them.

4 »Jehovah your God is going with you. He will fight for you against your enemies and give you victory.

5 »The officers should speak to the army: If you have built a new house that has not been dedicated, you may go home. Otherwise, you might die in battle, and someone else will dedicate it.

6 »Have you planted a vineyard and not used its fruits? Go home to your house and vineyard. If you die in battle another man will use its fruit.

7 »Is there anyone here engaged to be married? If so, he should go home. Otherwise, if he is killed in battle, someone else will marry the woman he is engaged to.

8 »The officers will also say to the men: Is there any man here who has lost his nerve and is afraid? If so, he is to go home. Otherwise, he will destroy the morale of the others.

9 »When the officers finish speaking to the army, leaders are to be chosen for each unit.

10 »When you go to attack a city, first give its people a chance to surrender.

11 »If they open the gates and surrender, they will all become your slaves and do forced labor for you.

12 »If the people of that city choose to fight and will not surrender, surround it with your army.

13 »When Jehovah your God lets you capture the city, kill every man in it.

14 »You may take the women, the children, the livestock, and everything else in the city for yourselves. You may use everything that belongs to your enemies. Jehovah has given it to you.

15 »This is what you must do to all the cities that are far away that do not belong to the nations nearby.

16 »Do not spare anyone's life in the cities of these nations Jehovah your God is giving you as your property.

17 »You must capture the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites for Jehovah and completely destroy them. Jehovah your God commands you.

18 »Otherwise, they will teach you to do all the disgusting things they do for their gods. You will sin against Jehovah your God.

19 »This is what you must do whenever you blockade a city for a long time in order to capture it in war. Do not harm any of its fruit trees with an ax. You may eat the fruit. Never cut those trees down, because the trees of the field are not people you have come to blockade.

20 »You may destroy trees that you know are not fruit trees. You may cut them down and use them in your blockade until you capture the city.

21

1 »This is what you must do if you find a murder victim lying in a field in the land that Jehovah your God is giving you. If no one knows who committed the murder,

2 your elders and judges must go and measure the distance from the body to each of the neighboring cities.

3 »When it is determined which city is nearest the body, the elders from that city must choose a heifer that has never been put to work and never worn a yoke.

4 »The elders of that city will bring the heifer down to a river, to a location where the land has not been plowed or planted. At the river they must break the heifer's neck.

5 »Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near. Jehovah your God has chosen them to serve him and to bless in the name of Jehovah. They will settle every dispute and every assault.

6 »All the elders of the city that is nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley.

7 »They will answer: ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did we see it.

8 »‘Forgive your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, O Jehovah. Do not hold us responsible for the murder of an innocent person.’ Forgive them of bloodguilt.

9 »Remove the guilt of innocent blood from your midst. Do what is right in the eyes of Jehovah’s.

10 »When you go to war with your enemies and Jehovah your God hands them over to you, you may take them captive.

11 »If you see a beautiful woman among the captives and your heart is set on her, you may marry her.

12 »Take her to your home. She should shave her head and cut her nails.

13 »She should no longer wear the clothes she was wearing when you captured her. She may live in your house and mourn the loss of her father and mother for one month. After that you may marry her.

14 »Later if you are not happy with the woman you may divorce her. She may go free. But you have slept with her as your wife, so you cannot sell her as a slave or make her into your own slave.

15 »If a man have two wives and loves one more than the other. The first son of either wife is the man's first-born son, even if the boy's mother is the wife he does not love. A man near death and dividing up his property must give a double share to his first-born son. This is because he was the first to be born.

16 »The day he wills his possessions to his sons, he should not put the firstborn son of the loved wife before the firstborn son of the unloved wife.

17 »He should acknowledge the firstborn son of the unloved wife. And give him a double portion of all that he has. He is the beginning of his strength. The right of the firstborn belongs to him.

18 »If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not listen or obey his father or his mother when they chastise him,

19 »His father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gateway of his hometown.

20 »They shall say to the elders of his city: This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious! He will not obey us! He is a glutton and a drunkard.

21 »All the men of his city shall stone him to death. In that way you will remove the evil from your midst. All Israel will hear about it and fear.

22 »If a man commits a sin worthy of death and he is put to death. You hang him on a tree stake .

23 »His corpse must not hang all night on the tree stake . Be sure to bury him the same day for he who is hanged is accursed of God. You do this so that you do not defile your land Jehovah your God gives you as an inheritance.

22

1 »If your brother’s bull or sheep stray do not ignore them. Bring them back to your brother.

2 »If you are not acquainted with your brother, or you just do not know him, then you should bring it home to your house. Keep it with you until your brother looks for it. Then you should give it to him.

3 »You should do the same with his donkey and his garment. You should do likewise with anything lost by your brother found by you. Do not ignore it.

4 »You should not see your brothers donkey or his bull fallen down on the way, and pay no attention to them. Help him lift it to its feet.

5 »A woman must not wear man's clothing or a man women’s clothing. The person who does these things is an abomination to Jehovah your God.

6 »If you find a bird's nest near the road, in a tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs in it. The mother could be sitting on the young or on eggs. Do not take the mother with the young.

7 »Let the mother go. You may take the young. Let the mother go. May things go well with you and you may prolong your days.

8 »When you build a new house make a parapet wall for your roof. This way you will not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone falls from it.

9 »Do not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, or all the produce of the seed that you have sown and the increase of the vineyard will become defiled.

10 »Do not plow with a bull and a donkey together.

11 »Do not wear a material mixed with wool and linen together.

12 »You should attach tassels to the four corners of your cloaks.

13 »If a man marries a woman and has sex with her and then turns against her,

14 he charges her with shameful deeds and publicly defames her. He says: ‘When I had sex with this woman, I did not find proof of her virginity.’

15 »The girl's father and her mother must present evidence of the girl's virginity to the elders of the city at the gate.

16 »The girl's father shall say to the elders: I gave my daughter to be this man’s wife, but he turned against her.

17 »He has charged her with shameful deeds. He says: ‘I did not find your daughter to be a virgin.« »But this is the evidence of my daughter's virginity.« And they shall spread the garment before the elders of the city.

18 »The elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him,

19 »They will fine him a hundred shekels of silver. They will give it to the girl's father, because he publicly defamed a virgin of Israel. She will remain his wife. He may not divorce her all his days.

20 »On the other hand if this charge is true, that the girl was not found a virgin,

21 they will take the girl to the doorway of her father's house. The men of her city shall stone her to death because she has committed an act of folly in Israel by playing the harlot in her father's house. You must purge the evil from among you.

22 »If a man is caught having sexual intercourse with another mans wife, then both of them shall die! Both the man and the woman committing adultery must be killed. Thus you shall purge the evil from Israel.

23 »Suppose there is a girl who is a virgin engaged to a man, and another man has sexual relations with her.

24 »You must bring them both out to the gate of that city and you must stone them to death! The girl did not protest what was happening and the man has violated his neighbor's woman. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.

25 »If an engaged woman is raped forced to experience sex only the man who commits the act will die.

26 »Do nothing to the woman. There is no sin in the woman worthy of death. This is like the case where a man attacks and murders his neighbor.

27 »When he found her in the field, the woman who is engaged protested, but there was no one to save her.

28 »Suppose a man finds a woman who is a virgin, who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with her and they are discovered.

29 The man who has sex with her must give to the girl's father fifty shekels of silver, and she will become his wife because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.

30 »A man must not have sexual intercourse with his father's wife. This would violate his father.

23

1 »No man whose testicles have been crushed or whose penis is cut off shall enter the assembly of Jehovah.

2 »No one of illegitimate birth shall enter the assembly of Jehovah. None of his descendants to the tenth generation shall enter the assembly of Jehovah.

3 »No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of Jehovah. Their descendants to the tenth generation shall not enter the assembly of Jehovah.

4 »This is because they did not meet you with food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt. It is because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.

5 »Jehovah your God was not willing to listen to Balaam. Jehovah your God turned the curse into a blessing for you because Jehovah your God loves you.

6 »Never seek peace or try to help the Ammonites or the Moabites as long as you live.

7 »Do not detest an Edomite for he is your brother. Do not detest an Egyptian, because you were an alien strangers guests in his land.

8 »The sons of the third generation who are born to them may enter the assembly of Jehovah.

9 »Guard yourself from every evil thing when your army goes to war against your enemies.

10 »If there is among you any man who is unclean because of a nocturnal emission he must go outside the camp. He may not reenter the camp.

11 »When evening approaches he should bathe himself with water. He may reenter the camp at sundown.

12 »Set up a toilet area outside the camp and go out there.

13 »Keep a spade among your tools. When you sit down outside use the spade to dig and cover up your excrement.

14 »Jehovah your God walks in the middle of your camp. He is there to deliver you and to defeat your enemies before you. Therefore your camp must be holy. He must not see anything indecent among you or He will turn away from you.

15 »Do not hand over an escaped slave to his master.

16 »Let him live with you in your midst. Let him choose a place in one of your towns where it pleases him. Do not mistreat him.

17 »None of the daughters of the sons of Israel shall be a temple prostitute.

18 »Do not bring the hire fee of a harlot or the wages of a dog into the house of Jehovah your God for any vow offering. Both of these are an abomination to Jehovah your God.

19 »Do not charge interest to your brothers, interest on money, food, anything that may be loaned at interest.

20 »You may charge interest to a foreigner, but to your brother countrymen you shall not charge interest. That way Jehovah your God will bless you in all that you undertake in the land you are about to possess.

21 »When you vow to Jehovah your God do not delay the payback. It would be sin, and Jehovah your God will surely require it of you.

22 »It would not be sin if you refrain from vowing.

23 »Be careful to perform the promise that comes from your lips, just as you have voluntarily vowed to Jehovah your God. Keep your promise.

24 »When you enter your neighbor's vineyard you may eat grapes until you are full. But you shall not put any in your basket.

25 »When you enter your neighbor's standing grain you may pluck the heads with your hand. But you must not wield a sickle in your neighbor's standing grain.

24

1 »When a man marries a woman and later decides he does not love her because he found something he does not like about her he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house.

2 »She leaves his house and becomes another man's wife.

3 »If the latter husband turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife,

4 »her former husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife. She has been defiled. That is an abomination before Jehovah, and you shall not bring sin on the land Jehovah your God gives you as an inheritance.

5 »A newly married man must not be drafted into the army or charged with any duty. He shall be free at home one year and shall give happiness to the wife he has married.

6 »Do not take a hand mill or an upper millstone as security for a debt. That would be taking away a man’s livelihood.

7 »If a man is caught kidnapping any of his brothers of the sons of Israel, and he deals with him violently or sells him, the thief shall die. You will purge the evil from among you.

8 »Stay away from the infection of leprosy. Diligently observe and do according to all that the Levitical priests teach you. I have commanded them, so be careful to obey.

9 »Remember what Jehovah your God did to Miriam on the road out of Egypt.

10 »When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort do not go into his house and repossess the security.

11 »Remain outside, and the man to whom you make the loan must bring the pledged security out to you.

12 »If he is a poor man, do not keep the pledged security over night.

13 »Return the pledge to him before the sun goes down. He will have his pledged item and he may sleep. He will bless you. And it will be righteousness for you before Jehovah your God.

14 »Do not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of your aliens who is in your land in your towns.

15 »Pay him his wages on the workday day before the sunsets. He is poor and sets his heart on it. He will not complain against you to Jehovah and it becomes your sin.

16 »Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers. Everyone shall be put to death for his own sin.

17 »Do not pervert the justice due an alien or an orphan. Do not take a widow's garment in pledge.

18 »Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and that Jehovah your God redeemed you from there. I therefore command you to do this.

19 »When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow, in order that Jehovah your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

20 »When you beat the olives from your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again. It shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow.

21 »When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not go over it again. It shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow.

22 »You must remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt. I am commanding you to do this.

25

1 »When there is a dispute between men and they go to court, and the judges decide their case. They justify the righteous and condemn the wicked.

2 »If the wicked man deserves to be beaten, the judge will then make him lie down and be beaten in his presence. The number of lashes is according to his guilt.

3 »He must not beat him more than forty lashes. If he beats more than that your brother will be degraded in your eyes.

4 »Do not muzzle the bull while he is threshing.

5 »When brothers live together and one of them dies without a son the wife of the deceased shall not marry outside the family to a strange man. Her husband's brother shall marry her and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her.

6 »The firstborn son she bears will assume the name of the dead brother. That way his name will not be blotted out from Israel.

7 »If the man does not desire to take his brother's wife, his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say: My husband's brother refuses to establish a name for his brother in Israel. He is not willing to perform the duty of a husband's brother to me.

8 »The elders of his city must summon him and speak to him. If he persists and says: I do not desire to take her,

9 his brother's wife shall must to him in the sight of the elders. She will pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face. Then she will declare: It is done to the man who does not build up his brother's house.

10 »His name in Israel will be: ‘The house of him whose sandal is removed.’

11 »If two brothers struggle together and the wife of one approaches to help her husband against the other man, and puts out her hand and seizes his genitals,

12 you must cut off her hand. Do not show pity.

13 »Do not have differing weights, a large and a small, in your bag.

14 »Do not have in your house differing measures, a large and a small.

15 »You must have a full and just weight. You should have a full and just measure, that your days may be prolonged in the land Jehovah your God gives you.

16 »Everyone who does these things, everyone who acts unjustly is an abomination to Jehovah your God.

17 »Remember what Amalek did to you along the way when you came out from Egypt.

18 »He met you along the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear when you were faint and weary. He did not respect God.

19 »When Jehovah your God has given you rest from all your surrounding enemies, in the land Jehovah your God gives you as an inheritance to possess. You will blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget.

26

1 »When you enter the land Jehovah your God gives you as an inheritance you will possess it and live in it.

2 »Take some of the first of all the produce of the ground that you bring in from your land that Jehovah your God gives you, and put it in a basket and go to the place where Jehovah your God chooses to establish His name.

3 »Go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him: I declare this day to Jehovah my God! I have entered the land Jehovah swore to our fathers to give us.

4 »The priest will take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of Jehovah your God.

5 »Answer before Jehovah your God: ‘My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt and traveled there. They were few in number but he became a great, mighty and populous nation.

6 »‘The Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us. They imposed hard labor on us.

7 »‘We cried out to Jehovah, the God of our fathers, and Jehovah heard our voice. He saw our affliction and our toil and our oppression.

8 »‘Jehovah brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and 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 »‘Now behold, I have brought the first of the produce of the ground that You, O Jehovah have given me. Set it down before Jehovah your God, and worship before Jehovah your God.’

11 »You, the Levite and the alien among you will rejoice in all the good Jehovah your God has given you and your household.

12 ‘Finish paying all the tithe of your increase in the third year, the year of tithing. Then you shall give it to the Levite, the stranger, and the orphan and to the widow, that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.

13 »Say before Jehovah your God: ‘I have removed the sacred portion from my house. I also have given it to the Levite and the alien, the orphan and the widow, according to all your commandments that you have commanded me. I have not transgressed or forgotten any of your commandments.

14 »‘I have not eaten of it while mourning. I have not removed any of it while I was unclean, nor offered any of it to the dead. I have listened to the voice of Jehovah my God. I have done according to all that you have commanded me.

15 »‘Look down from your holy place in heaven and bless your people Israel. Bless the ground you have given us, a land flowing with milk and honey, as you swore to our fathers.’

16 »This day Jehovah your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your being.

17 »You declared Jehovah to be your God today. You said you would walk in his ways and keep his statutes, his commandments and his ordinances, and listen to his voice.

18 »Jehovah declared you to be his people and a treasured possession. Obey his commandments and receive his promise.

19 »He will set you high above all nations that he has made, for praise, fame, and honor. You will be a consecrated people to Jehovah your God, as he has spoken.

27

1 Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people. They said: »Keep all the commandments that I command you today.

2 »This is the way it will be on the day when you cross the Jordan to the land that Jehovah your God gives you. You will set up for yourself large stones and coat them with lime

3 and write on them all the words of the Law. When you cross over to enter the land Jehovah your God gives you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as Jehovah, the God of your fathers, promised you.

4 »When you cross the Jordan, you shall set up these stones on Mount Ebal, as I am commanding you today, and you shall coat them with lime.

5 »Build an altar there to Jehovah your God. Build the altar of stones. Do not use an iron tool on them.

6 »Build the altar of Jehovah your God of uncut stones. Offer on it burnt offerings to Jehovah your God

7 and sacrifice peace offerings and eat there, and rejoice before Jehovah your God.

8 »Write on the stones all the words of the Law very distinctly.«

9 Moses and the Levitical priests spoke to all Israel. They said: »Be silent and listen, O Israel! This day you have become a people for Jehovah your God.

10 »Obey Jehovah your God, and do his commandments and his statutes which I command you today.«

11 Moses also charged the people on that day. He said:

12 »When you cross the Jordan, these will stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin.

13 »For the curse, these will stand on Mount Ebal: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.

14 »The Levites will answer all the men of Israel with a loud voice:

15 »‘Cursed is the man who makes an idol or a molten image. It is an abomination to Jehovah! It is the secret work of the hands of the craftsman. All the people will answer: Amen.

16 »‘Cursed is the man who dishonors his father or mother. All the people will say: Amen.

17 »‘Cursed is he who moves his neighbor's boundary mark. All the people will say: Amen.

18 »‘Cursed is the man who misleads a blind person on the road. And all the people answer: Amen.

19 »‘Cursed is he who withholds justice due an alien, orphan, and widow. The people all say: Amen.

20 »‘Cursed is the man who has sexual activities with his father's wife, because he has violated his father’s rights.’ And all the people say: ‘Amen.’

21 »‘Cursed is he who has sex with any animal. All the people will say: Amen.

22 »‘Cursed is he who has sexual activities with his sister, the daughter of his father or of his mother. All the people answer: Amen.

23 »‘Cursed is he who indulges in sex with his mother-in-law. And all the people say: Amen.

24 »‘Cursed is he who beats his neighbor in secret.’ And all the people will say: ‘Amen.’

25 »‘Cursed is he who accepts a bribe to punish an innocent person.’ All the people will say: ‘Amen.’

26 »‘Cursed is he who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law by obeying them.’ And all the people will say: ‘Amen.’

28

1 »Carefully obey Jehovah your God. Faithfully follow all his commandments that I give you today. If you do this Jehovah your God will place you high above all the other nations in the world.

2 »These are all the blessings that will come to you and stay close to you because you obey Jehovah your God:

3 »Jehovah will bless your towns and your fields.

4 »Jehovah will bless you with many children, with abundant crops, and with many cattle and sheep.

5 »Jehovah will bless your grain crops and the food you prepare from them.

6 »Jehovah will make you successful in your daily work.

7 »Jehovah will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be struck before you: they shall come out against you one-way, and shall flee before you seven ways.

8 »Jehovah will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land Jehovah your God gives you.

9 »Jehovah will establish you as a holy people to himself. He swore this to you, if you obey the commandments of Jehovah your God and walk in His ways.

10 »All the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of Jehovah, and they will be afraid of you.

11 »Jehovah will make you abound in prosperity, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your animals and in the produce of your ground, the land that Jehovah swore to your fathers to give you.

12 »Jehovah will open for you his good storehouse. The skies will give rain to your land in due season. It will bless all the work of your hand. You will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow.

13 »Jehovah will make you the head and not the tail, and you only will be above, and you will not be underneath. If you listen to the commandments of Jehovah your God, which I charge you today, to observe them carefully,

14 and do not turn aside from any of the words I command you today, to the right or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

15 »If you do not obey Jehovah your God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

16 »Cursed will you be in the city, and cursed will you be in the country.

17 »Your basket and your kneading bowl will be cursed.

18 »Cursed will be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock.

19 »Jehovah will curse everything you do!

20 »If you do evil and reject Jehovah, he will bring on you trouble, confusion, and rebuke in everything you do. Soon you will be quickly and completely destroyed.

21 »He will plague you with disease after disease on you until there is not one of you left in the land.

22 »Jehovah will strike you with infectious diseases, with swelling and fever. He will send drought and scorching winds to destroy your crops. These disasters will be with you until you die.

23 »The sky above will look like copper and the ground below will be as hard as iron.

24 Jehovah will send dust storms and sandstorms on you from the sky until you are destroyed.

25 »Jehovah will cause you to be stricken before your enemies. You will go out one way against them, and flee seven ways from them. You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

26 »Your body will be food to all birds of the air, and to the beasts of the earth. And no man shall frighten them away.

27 »Jehovah will strike you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors and with the scab and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed.

28 »You will become insane and go blind. Jehovah will make you so confused,

29 that even in bright sunshine you will have to feel your way around like a blind person. You will tell day from night! For the rest of your life, people will beat and rob you. No one will be able to stop them.

30 »A man will be engaged to a woman, but before they can get married, enemy soldiers will rape her. Some of you will build houses, but never get to live in them. If you plant a vineyard, you will not be around long enough to enjoy the first harvest.

31 »Your cattle will be killed while you watch. You will not get to eat any of the meat. Your donkeys and sheep will be stolen. No one will be around to force your enemies to give them back.

32 »Your sons and daughters will be dragged off to a foreign country. And you will stand there helpless. Even if you watch for them until you go blind, you will never see them again.

33 »A foreign nation will take all the crops that you have worked so hard to grow. You will receive nothing but constant oppression and harsh treatment.

34 »You will lose your mind experience insanity because of all the suffering.

35 »Jehovah will strike you on the knees and legs with sore boils. From the sole of your foot to the crown of your head they will not heal.

36 »Jehovah will bring you and your king, whom you set over you, to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known. There you will serve other gods made of wood and stone.

37 »You will become a thing of revulsion. All the nations where Jehovah will send you will make an example of you and laugh at you.

38 »You will plant many crops in your fields, but harvest little for locusts will destroy your crops.

39 »You will plant vineyards and tend them but will not drink the wine from them. Worms will eat them.

40 »You will have olive trees throughout all your coasts, but you shall not anoint with the oil, for your olive shall drop off its fruit.

41 »Even your infant sons and daughters will be taken as prisoners of war.

42 »Locusts will take over all your trees and the fruit of your land.

43 »The alien who is living among you will be lifted up higher and higher over you, while you go down lower and lower.

44 »They will be able to make loans to you, but you won't be able to make loans to them. They will be the head, and you will be the tail.

45 »All these disasters will come on you. They will be with you until you are destroyed. This is because you did not obey Jehovah your God and keep all the laws that he gave you.

46 »Everyone will look at you and your descendants and realize that Jehovah has placed you under a curse for a very long time.

47 »You did not serve Jehovah your God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things.

48 »You will serve your enemies whom Jehovah will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.

49 »Jehovah will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you will not understand,

50 a nation of fierce countenance who will have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young.

51 »They will eat the offspring of your animals and the crops from your fields until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, no new wine, no olive oil, no calves from your herds, and no lambs or kids from your flocks. They will continue to do this until you are completely desolate.

52 »They will blockade all your cities until the high, fortified walls you trust come down everywhere in your land. They will blockade all the cities everywhere in the land that Jehovah your God is giving you.

53 »Because of the hardships your enemies will make you suffer during the blockade, you will eat the flesh of your own children, the sons and daughters, whom Jehovah your God has given you.

54 »The kindest and most sensitive man among you will become stingy toward his brother, the wife he loves, and the children he still has left.

55 »He will give none of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all that he has left. These are hardships your enemies will make you suffer during the blockade of all your cities.

56 »The kindest and most sensitive woman among you, so sensitive and tender that she would not even step on an ant, will become stingy toward the husband she loves or toward her own son or daughter.

57 »She will not share with them the afterbirth from her body and the children she gives birth to. She will secretly eat them out of dire necessity. These are hardships your enemies will make you suffer during the blockade of your cities.

58 »You might not faithfully obey every word of the teachings that are written in this book. You might not respect this glorious and awe inspiring name: JEHOVAH your God.

59 »If so, Jehovah will strike you and your descendants with unimaginable plagues. They will be terrible continuing plagues. They will be severe and lingering diseases.

60 »He will bring all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded. They will cling to you.

61 »Jehovah will also bring you every kind of sickness and plague not written in this Book of the Law. They will continue until you are dead.

62 »You were at one time as numerous as the stars in the sky. But only a few of you will be left. This is because you did not obey Jehovah your God.

63 »Jehovah was very glad to make you prosperous and numerous. Now Jehovah will be more than glad to destroy you and wipe you out. You will be torn out of the land you are about to enter and possess.

64 »Jehovah will scatter you among all the people of the world. He will scatter you from one end of the earth to the other. There you will serve gods made of wood and stone that neither you nor your ancestors ever knew.

65 »You will find no peace among those nations. There will be no place to call your own. There Jehovah will give you an unsettled mind, failing eyesight, and despair.

66 »Your life will always be in danger. Day and night you will be filled with terror. You will live in constant fear of death.

67 »Your hearts will pound with fear at everything you see. Every morning you will wish for evening. Every evening you will wish for morning.

68 »Jehovah will send you back to Egypt in ships, even though he said that you would never have to go there again. There you will try to sell yourselves to your enemies as slaves. But no one will want to buy you.

29

1 These are the terms of the covenant that Jehovah commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab. All this was in addition to the covenant Jehovah made with them at Mount Sinai.

2 Moses called together all the people of Israel and said: »You saw for yourselves what Jehovah did to the king of Egypt, to his officials, and to his entire country.

3 »You saw the terrible plagues, the miracles, and the great wonders that Jehovah performed.

4 »To this very day Jehovah has not given you a heart to know, eyes to see, or ears to hear.

5 »I led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you. Your sandal has not worn out on your foot.

6 »You have not eaten bread. You have not drunk wine or strong drink. This in order that you might know that I am Jehovah your God.

7 When you reached this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out to meet us for battle. We defeated them!

8 »We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manassites.

9 »Keep the words of this covenant to do them that you may prosper in all that you do.

10 »You stand today, all of you, before Jehovah your God: your leaders, your tribes, your elders and your officers, even all the men of Israel.

11 »Your little ones, your wives, and the alien who is within your camps, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water,

12 that you may enter into the covenant with Jehovah your God, and into His oath that Jehovah your God is making with you today.

13 »Jehovah will confirm today with this promise that you are his people and that he is your God. This is what he told you. This is what he promised your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with an oath.

14 »You are not the only people to receive this promise and its conditions.

15 »It is for those of you who are standing here with us today in the presence of Jehovah our God and also for those who are not here today.

16 »You know how we lived in Egypt and how we passed through other countries on our way here.

17 »You saw their loathsome idols made of wood, stone, silver, and gold.

18 »Make sure that no man, woman, family, or tribe standing here today turns from Jehovah our God to serve the gods of other nations. This would be like a root that grows to be a bitter and poisonous plant.

19 »Be sure there is no one here today who hears these solemn demands and yet convinces himself that all will be well with him. He would go stubbornly on his own way. That would destroy all of you, good and evil alike.

20 Jehovah will never be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of Jehovah and His jealousy will burn against that man. Every curse which is written in this book will rest on him. Jehovah will blot out his name from under heaven.

21 »Jehovah will destroy you by piling on you all the curses that are written in this book of Law. You will be forgotten forever.

22 »The next generation of your children and foreigners who come from distant countries will see the plagues that have happened in this land and the diseases Jehovah sent here.

23 »All its land is brimstone and salt. It is a burning waste, unsown and unproductive. No grass grows on it. Like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which Jehovah overthrew in his anger and in his wrath.

24 »All the nations will say: Why has Jehovah done thus to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?'

25 »Then men will say: ‘Because they forsook the covenant of Jehovah, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.

26 »‘They served other gods and worshiped them. These are gods whom they have not known and whom he had not allotted to them.

27 »‘Jehovah became angry against this land and brought on it all the curses described in this book.

28 »‘His fierce anger and fury caused Jehovah to uproot these people from their land and deported them to another country. This is where they still are today.’

29 »Some secret things are hidden. They belong to Jehovah our God. The things that have been revealed in these teachings belong to us and to our children forever. We must obey every word of this Law.

30

1 »All these blessings and curses I have spoken about will happen to you. Take them to heart when you are among all the nations where Jehovah your God will scatter you.

2 »If you and your children return to Jehovah your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your being, doing everything I command you today,

3 he will restore your fortunes. He will have mercy on you and gather you from all the nations of the world where he has scattered you.

4 »Jehovah your God will gather you from the ends of the earth. He will bring you back.

5 »Jehovah your God will bring you into the land your fathers possessed. You will possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.

6 »Jehovah your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, to LOVE JEHOVAH YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART AND WITH ALL YOUR BEING, that you may live.

7 »Jehovah your God will inflict all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you and who persecute you.

8 »You shall again obey Jehovah, and observe all his commandments that I command you today.

9 »Jehovah your God will prosper you abundantly in all the work of your hand. In the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your cattle and in the produce of your ground, you will prosper. Jehovah will again rejoice over you for good, just as he rejoiced over your fathers;

10 if you obey Jehovah your God to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, if you turn to Jehovah your God with all your heart with all your being.

11 »This commandment that I command you today is not too difficult for you. It is not out of reach.

12 »It is not in heaven, that you should say: Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may obey it?

13 »This commandment is not on the other side of the sea. You do not have to ask: Who will cross the sea to get it for us so that we can hear it and obey it?

14 »No, these words are very near you. They are in your mouth and in your heart so that you will obey them.

15 »I set before you today life and good, death and evil.

16 »I command you today to Love Jehovah your God, follow his directions, and obey his commandments, laws, and rules. Then you will live, your population will increase, and Jehovah your God will bless you in the land that you are about to enter and possess.

17 »If your hearts turn away, and you do not listen, you might be tempted to bow down to other gods and worship them.

18 »If you do, I tell you today that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live for a long time in the land that you are about to possess when you cross the Jordan River.

19 »I call on heaven and earth as witnesses today that I have offered you life or death, blessings or curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants will live.

20 »LOVE JEHOVAH YOUR GOD, OBEY HIM, AND BE LOYAL TO HIM. THIS WILL BE YOUR WAY OF LIFE. It will mean a long life for you in the land that Jehovah swore to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

31

1 Moses continued to speak to all the Israelites:

2 »I am one hundred and twenty years old now. I am not able to lead you anymore. Jehovah has told me that I may not cross the Jordan River.

3 »Jehovah your God is the one who will cross the river ahead of you. He will destroy those nations as you arrive. You will take possession of their land. Joshua will also cross the river ahead of you, as Jehovah told you.

4 »Jehovah will destroy those people, just as he defeated Sihon and Og, kings of the Amorites, and destroyed their country.

5 »Jehovah will give you victory over them. You are to treat them exactly as I have told you.

6 »Be determined and with good courage. Do not be afraid of them. Your God, Jehovah, will be with you. He will not fail you or abandon you.

7 Then Moses called Joshua and said to him in the presence of all the people of Israel: »Be determined and with good courage. You are the one who will lead these people to occupy the land Jehovah promised to their ancestors.

8 »Jehovah is the one who goes ahead of you. He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be downhearted.«

9 Moses wrote this Law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi who carried the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah, and to all the elders of Israel.

10 Moses commanded them: »At the end of every seven years, at the time of the year of remission of debts, at the Feast of Booths,

11 when all Israel comes to appear before Jehovah your God at the place he will choose, you shall read this Law in front of all Israel in their hearing.

12 »Assemble the people, the men and the women and children and the alien who is in your town. Assemble them that they may hear and learn and respect Jehovah your God, and be careful to observe all the words of this Law.

13 »Their children, who have not known, will hear and learn to respect Jehovah your God, as long as you live on the land you will possess when you cross the Jordan River.

14 Then Jehovah said to Moses: »Behold, the time for you to die is near. Call Joshua, and present yourselves at the tent of meeting, that I may commission him.« So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves at the tent of meeting.

15 Jehovah appeared in the tent in a pillar of cloud. The pillar of cloud stood at the doorway of the tent.

16 Jehovah said to Moses: »You are about to lie down with your fathers in death. This people will arise and play the harlot with the strange gods of the land. They will plunge into the midst of it. They will forsake me and break my covenant that I made with them.

17 »‘My anger will be kindled against them in that day. I will abandon them and hide my face from them. They will be consumed by many evils and troubles. They will say in that day: ‘Is it because our God is not among us that these evils have come upon us?’

18 »I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil they will do. They will turn to other gods.

19 »Write this song for yourselves, and teach it to the sons of Israel. Put it on their lips, so that this song may be a witness for me against the sons of Israel.

20 »When I bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to their fathers, and they have eaten and are satisfied and become prosperous, then they will turn to other gods and serve them, and spurn me and break my covenant.

21 »Then it will happen, when many evils and troubles have come upon them, that this song will testify before them as a witness. It shall not be forgotten from the lips of their descendants. I know the intent they are developing today, before I have brought them into the land that I swore.«

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

23 Jehovah gave this command to Joshua, son of Nun: »Be strong and courageous, because you will bring the Israelites into the land that I swore to give them, and I will be with you.«

24 Moses finished writing all the words of this Law in a book.

25 He gave this command to the Levites who carried the Ark of Jehovah’s Covenant:

26 »Take this Book of the Law, and put it next to the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah your God, where it will be a witness against you.

27 »I know how rebellious you are. You are impossible to deal with. While I am alive and still with you, you are rebelling against Jehovah. How much more rebellious will you be after I die?

28 »Assemble all the elders of your tribes and your officers in front of me. As they listen, I will speak these words and call on heaven and earth to testify against them.

29 »I know that after I die you will become thoroughly corrupt and turn from the way I have commanded you to live. In the days to come disasters will happen to you because you will make Jehovah furious by doing what he considers evil.«

30 The whole congregation of Israel listened. Moses recited all the words of this song:

32

1 »Give ear, O physical heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

2 »My instruction shall drop as the rain; my words shall descend like dew, as the gentle rains on the tender plant, and as the showers on vegetation.

3 »I will proclaim the name of Jehovah and ascribe greatness to our God.

4 »He is the Rock! His work is perfect. For all His ways are just. He is a God of faithfulness and without evil. He is just and upright.

5 »They have corrupted themselves; they are not His sons. They are a blemished, crooked and perverse generation.

6 »Is this how you repay Jehovah, you foolish and unwise people? Is he not your Father and creator, who made you and formed you?

7 »Remember the days of old. Think about all the past generations. Ask your fathers to remind you, and your elders to tell you.

8 »When the Most High gave nations their inheritance, when he divided the descendants of Adam, he set up borders for the tribes corresponding to the number of the sons of Israel.

9 »Jehovah’s people were his property. Jacob was God’s own possession.

10 »He found his people in a desert land, in a barren place where animals howl. He guarded them, took care of them, and protected them because they were the precious apple pupil of his eye.

11 »Like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, spreads its wings to catch them, and carries them on its wings,

12 »Jehovah alone led his people. No foreign god was with them.

13 »He made him ride on the heights of the earth and fed him with the produce of the fields. He gave him honey from rocks and olive oil from solid rock.

14 »He ate cheese from cows and drank milk from sheep and goats. He gave them fat the best from the flock from lambs, rams from the stock of Bashan, male goats, and the best wheat. He drank the blood-red wine of grapes.

15 »Jeshurun Israel grew fat and disrespectful. You got fat! You were stuffed! You over eat! He abandoned the God who made him and scornfully treated the rock of his salvation.

16 »They made God furious because they worshiped foreign gods and angered him stirred up his zeal because they worshiped worthless idols.

17 »They sacrificed to demons that are not God. They served gods they did not know. These were new gods who came from nearby, gods your ancestors never worshiped.

18 »You ignored the rock that fathered you and forgot the God who gave you life.

19 »Jehovah saw this and rejected them. His own sons and daughters made him angry.

20 »He said: ‘I will turn away from them and find out what will happen to them. They are a devious and perverse generation. They are children who have no faith.

21 »They made him furious because they worshiped foreign gods. They angered him because they worshiped worthless idols. So I will use those who are not my people to make them jealous and a nation of godless fools to make them angry.

22 My anger has started a fire that will burn into the depths of the grave. It will consume the earth and its crops and set the foundations of the mountains on fire.

23 »I will heap distress on them! I will use my arrows on them.

24 »They will be wasted by famine, and consumed by plague and bitter destruction. I will send teeth of wild animals on them, with the venom of crawling things reptiles of the dust.

25 »Outside the sword will bereave. Inside terror shall destroy both young man and virgin, babies and old man with gray hair.

26 »I would have said: ‘I will cut them to pieces. I will remove the memory of them from men.’

27 »I did not want their enemies to make me angry. I did not want their opponents to misunderstand and say: We won this victory! Jehovah did not do all this!

28 »My people have lost their good sense. They do not understand.

29 They fail to see why they were defeated. They cannot understand what happened.

30 »Why were a thousand defeated by one? Why ten thousand by only two? Jehovah their God abandoned them! Their mighty God gave them up.

31 »Their rock is not like our rock! Their enemies know that their own gods are weak, not mighty like Israel's God.

32 »Their vine is like the vine of Sodom. Their fields are like Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of anger. Their clusters are bitter.

33 »Their wine is the poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of asps cobras .

34 »Is this not laid up in store with me and sealed up among my treasures?

35 »Vengeance and retribution belong to me. Vengeance is mine, I will repay. Their foot shall slide in time, for the day of their calamity is at hand. The things to come on them come quickly.

36 »Jehovah will bring his people justice. He will have compassion on his servants. He sees that their power is gone, and only the imprisoned and abandoned remain.

37 »He will say: ‘Where are their gods, the rock in which they sought refuge?

38 »Who ate the fat of their sacrifices? Who drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise up and help you. Let them be your hiding place!

39 »See now that I, even I, am he. There is no god besides me! It is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heals. There is no one who can deliver from my hand.

40 »Indeed, I lift up my hand to heaven, and say: As I live forever,

41 »I sharpen my flashing sword, and my hand takes hold on justice! I will render vengeance on my adversaries. I will repay those who hate me.

42 »I will make my arrows drunk with blood. My sword will devour flesh with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the longhaired leaders of the enemy.

43 »Rejoice you nations with his people. He will avenge the blood of his servants. He will render vengeance on his adversaries, and will atone for his land and his people.«

44 Then Moses came, along with Joshua son of Nun, and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people.

45 When Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel,

46 he said to them: »Take to your heart all the words with which I am warning you today. Command your sons to observe carefully all the words of this law.

47 »It is not an idle talk! Indeed it is your life. By this word you will prolong your days in the land you to possess on the other side of the Jordan.«

48 Jehovah spoke to Moses that same day. He said:

49 »Go up to this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo. It is in the land of Moab opposite Jericho. Look at the land of Canaan. I am giving this to the sons of Israel for a possession.

50 »Then die on the mountain you climb. Be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people,

51 »You broke faith with me among the sons of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin. You did not treat me as holy among of the sons of Israel.

52 »You will see the land at a distance, but you will not go into the land I am giving the sons of Israel.«

33

1 These are the blessings that Moses, the man of God, pronounced on the people of Israel before he died:

2 »Jehovah came from Mount Sinai. He rose like the sun over Edom and shone on his people from Mount Paran. Ten thousand angels were with him. A flaming fire was at his right hand.

3 »Jehovah loves his people. All Your holy ones are in your hand. They followed in your steps and everyone receives your words.

4 »Moses commanded us with a law these teachings , a heritage of the assembly of Jacob.

5 »He was king in Jeshurun Israel when the leaders and all the tribes of the people of Israel were gathered.

6 »Do not let his men be few.«

7 »Hear, O Jehovah, the voice of Judah, and bring him to his people. With his hands he contended for them. May you Jehovah be help against his adversaries.«

8 »Let Your Thummim and Your Urim belong to your godly man, whom you tested at Massah and with whom you contended at the waters of Meribah.

9 »Who said of his father and mother: ‘I have not seen them; and he did not acknowledge his brothers, nor did he regard his own sons. They observed your word and kept your covenant.’

10 »They will teach your ordinances to Jacob, and your Law to Israel. They will burn incense before you, and whole burnt offerings on your altar.

11 »O Jehovah, bless his skills and accept the work of his hands. Shatter the loins of those who rise up against him and those who hate him, so that they will not rise again.«

12 »May the beloved of Jehovah dwell in security by him who shields him all the day. He dwells between his shoulders.«

13 »Blessed of Jehovah is his land. Bless it with the dew from heaven above and with the deep waters lying below.

14 »Bless with the choice yield of the sun, and with the bounty produced each month.

15 »Bless with the best things of the ancient mountains, and with the choice things of the everlasting hills.

16 »Bless with the choice things of the earth and its fullness. Let the favor of him who dwelt in the bush come to the head of Joseph and to the crown of the head of the one distinguished among his brothers.

17 »As the firstborn of his bulls, majesty is his. His horns are the horns of the wild bull. With them he will push the peoples, all at once, to the ends of the earth. They are the ten thousands of Ephraim and the thousands of Manasseh.«

18 »Rejoice Zebulun in your going out. And rejoice Issachar in your tents.

19 »They will call peoples to the mountain. There they will offer righteous sacrifices. They will draw out the abundance of the seas and the hidden treasures of the sand.«

20 »Blessed is the one who enlarges Gad. He lies down as a lion and tears the arm, also the crown of the head.

21 »He provided the first part for himself. There the ruler's portion was reserved. He came with the leaders of the people and executed his ordinance of Israel and the justice of Jehovah.«

22 »Dan is a lion's cub. He leaps forth from Bashan.«

23 »O Naphtali, satisfied with favor, and full of the blessing of Jehovah, take possession of the sea and the south.«

24 »Asher is the most blessed with sons. May his brothers favor him. And may he dip his foot in oil.

25 »Your locks will be iron and bronze. According to your days, so will your leisurely walk be.

26 »There is none like the God of Jeshurun Israel . He rides the heavens to give you help. He goes through the skies in his majesty.

27 »The eternal God is a dwelling place. Underneath are the everlasting arms. He drove out the enemy from before you, and said: ‘Destroy!’

28 »Israel dwells in security. The fountain of Jacob is secluded in a land of grain and new wine. His heavens also drop down dew.

29 »You are blessed O Israel. Who is like you, a people saved by Jehovah? He is the shield of your help and the sword of your majesty! So your enemies will cringe before you and you will tread upon their high places.«

34

1 Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. Jehovah showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan,

2 and all Naphtali and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah as far as the western sea,

3 and the Negev and the plain in the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar.

4 Jehovah said: »This is the land that I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying: I will give it to your descendants. I let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.«

5 Moses the servant of Jehovah died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of Jehovah.

6 He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor. No man knows his burial place to this day.

7 Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died. His eye was not dim, nor his vigor abated.

8 So the sons of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days. Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses came to an end.

9 Joshua the son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. The sons of Israel listened to him and did as Jehovah had commanded Moses.

10 Since that time no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom Jehovah knew face to face intimately ,

11 for all the signs and wonders that Jehovah sent him to perform in the land of Egypt against Pharaoh, all his servants, and all his land,

12 and for all the great wonders and mighty power which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.