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

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

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

Atonement for an Unsolved Murder

21 If someone is found slain, lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who the killer was,^{(M) 2} your elders and judges shall go out and measure the distance from the body to the neighboring towns. ³ Then the elders of the town nearest the body shall take a heifer that has never been worked and has never worn a yoke^{(N) 4} and lead it down to a valley that has not been plowed or planted and where there is a flowing stream. There in the valley they are to break the heifer’s neck. ⁵ The Levitical priests shall step forward, for the Lord your God has chosen them to minister and to pronounce blessings^(O) in the name of the Lord and to decide all cases of dispute and assault.^{(P) 6} Then all the elders of the town nearest the body shall wash their hands^(Q) over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, ⁷ and they shall declare: “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done. ⁸ Accept this atonement for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, Lord, and do not hold your people guilty of the blood of an innocent person.” Then the bloodshed will be atoned for,^{(R) 9} and you will have purged^(S) from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

Marrying a Captive Woman

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

The Right of the Firstborn

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

A Rebellious Son

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

Various Laws

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

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand^(A)(B)

¹⁰ When the apostles^(C) returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida,^{(D) 11} but the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God,^(E) and healed those who needed healing.

¹² Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.”

¹³ He replied, “You give them something to eat.”

They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” ¹⁴ (About five thousand men were there.)

But he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” ¹⁵ The disciples did so, and everyone sat down. ¹⁶ Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them.^(F) Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. ¹⁷ They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.

Peter Declares That Jesus Is the Messiah^(G)(H)

¹⁸ Once when Jesus was praying^(I) in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?”

¹⁹ They replied, “Some say John the Baptist;^(J) others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.”^(K)

²⁰ “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.”^(L)

Jesus Predicts His Death

²¹ Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone.^{(M) 22} And he said, “The Son of Man^(N) must suffer many things^(O) and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law,^(P) and he must be killed^(Q) and on the third day^(R) be raised to life.”^(S)

²³ Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.^{(T) 24} For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.^{(U) 25} What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? ²⁶ Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them^(V) when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.^(W)

²⁷ “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.”