Deuteronomy 9-28

New American Standard Bible

Israel Provoked God

9 “Hear, Israel! You are crossing the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess ^(A)nations greater and mightier than you, cities that are great and ^(B)fortified to heaven, ²a people who are great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard it said, ‘^(C)Who can stand against the sons of Anak?’ ³So be aware today that ^(D)it is the Lord your God who is crossing over ahead of you as ^(E)a consuming fire. He will destroy them and He will subdue them before you, so that ^(F)you may drive them out and eliminate them quickly, just as the Lord has spoken to you.

⁴“^(G)Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them away from ^[a]you, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to take possession of this land.’ Rather, it is ^(H)because of the ^[b]wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you. ⁵It is ^(I)not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to take possession of their land, ^[c]but it is because of the ^[d]wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and in order to confirm ^(J)the ^[e]oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

⁶“Know, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are ^(K)a ^[f]stubborn people. ⁷Remember, do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to anger in the wilderness; ^(L)from the day that you left the land of Egypt until you arrived at this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. ⁸Even ^(M)at Horeb you provoked the Lord to anger, and the Lord was so angry with you that He would have destroyed you. ⁹When I went up to the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with you, then I remained on the mountain for forty days and nights; ^(N)I neither ate bread nor drank water. ¹⁰The Lord gave me the two tablets of stone ^(O)written by the finger of God; and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. ¹¹It came about ^(P)at the end of forty days and nights that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. ¹²^(Q)Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go down from here quickly, because your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have behaved corruptly. They have ^(R)quickly turned aside from the way that I commanded them; they have made a cast metal image for themselves.’ ¹³The ^(S)Lord also said to ^[g]me, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed, it is a ^[h]^(T)stubborn people. ¹⁴^(U)Leave Me alone, that I may destroy them and ^(V)wipe out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’

¹⁵“^(W)So I turned and came down from the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. ¹⁶And I saw that you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God. You had made for yourselves a cast metal image of a calf; you had quickly turned aside from the way that the Lord had commanded you. ¹⁷So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my two hands, and smashed them to pieces before your eyes! ¹⁸^(X)Then I fell down before the Lord ^(Y)like the first time, for forty days and nights; ^(Z)I neither ate bread nor drank water, ^(AA)because of all your sin which you had committed by doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. ¹⁹For ^(AB)I was afraid of the anger and the rage with which the Lord was angry with you so as to destroy you; ^(AC)but the Lord listened to me that time as well. ²⁰The Lord was also angry enough with Aaron to destroy him; so I also prayed for Aaron at the same time. ²¹^(AD)And I took your ^[i]sinful thing which you had made, the calf, and burned it in the fire and crushed it, grinding it thoroughly until it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the stream that came down from the mountain.

²²“Then at ^(AE)Taberah, at ^(AF)Massah, and at ^(AG)Kibroth-hattaavah you kept provoking the Lord to anger. ²³And when the Lord sent you from ^(AH)Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘^(AI)Go up and take possession of the land which I have given you,’ you rebelled against the ^[j]command of the Lord your God; ^(AJ)you neither trusted Him nor listened to His voice. ²⁴^(AK)You have been rebellious toward the Lord since the day I knew you.

²⁵“^(AL)So I fell down before the Lord for the forty days and nights, which I ^[k]did because the Lord said He would destroy you. ²⁶^(AM)And I prayed to the Lord and said, ‘Lord God, do not destroy Your people, Your inheritance, whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand! ²⁷Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not turn Your attention to the stubbornness of this people, or to their wickedness, or their sin. ²⁸Otherwise, the people of the land from which You brought us will say, “^(AN)Since the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which He had ^[l]promised them, and since He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness!” ²⁹Yet they are Your people, and ^(AO)Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your ^(AP)great power and Your outstretched arm.’

The Tablets Rewritten

10 “At that time the Lord said to me, ‘^(AQ)Cut out for yourself two tablets of stone like the first two, and come up to Me on the mountain, and ^(AR)make an ^[m]ark of wood for yourself. ²Then ^(AS)I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you smashed to pieces, and ^(AT)you shall put them in the ark.’ ³So ^(AU)I made an ark of acacia wood and ^(AV)cut out two tablets of stone like the first two, and I went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. ⁴Then He wrote on the tablets, like the first writing, ^(AW)the Ten ^[n]Commandments ^(AX)which the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire ^(AY)on the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them to me. ⁵Then I turned and ^(AZ)came down from the mountain, and I ^(BA)put the tablets in the ark which I had made; ^(BB)and they are there, just as the Lord commanded me.”

⁶(Now the sons of Israel set out from ^[o]Beeroth ^(BC)Bene-jaakan to Moserah. ^(BD)There Aaron died and there he was buried, and his son Eleazar served as priest in his place. ⁷^(BE)From there they set out to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of streams of water. ⁸^(BF)At that time the Lord singled out the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord ^(BG)to serve Him and to bless in His name, until this day. ⁹^(BH)Therefore, Levi does not have a portion or inheritance with his brothers; the Lord is his inheritance, just as the Lord your God spoke to him.)

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

¹²“^(BJ)And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to ^[p]fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and ^(BK)love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with ^(BL)all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³and to keep the Lord’s commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good? ¹⁴Behold, ^(BM)to the Lord your God belong heaven and the ^[q]highest heavens, ^(BN)the earth and all that is in it. ¹⁵^(BO)Yet the Lord set His affection on your fathers, to love them, and He chose their ^[r]descendants after them, you over all the other peoples, as it is this day. ¹⁶^(BP)So circumcise ^[s]your heart, and do not ^(BQ)stiffen your neck any longer. ¹⁷^(BR)For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the ^(BS)Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, ^(BT)who does not show partiality, nor ^(BU)take a bribe. ¹⁸He executes justice for ^(BV)the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the stranger by giving him food and clothing. ¹⁹^(BW)So show your love for the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. ²⁰You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him, and ^(BX)cling to Him, and ^(BY)you shall swear by His name. ²¹He is ^(BZ)your glory and He is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you which your eyes have seen. ²²^(CA)Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons in all, ^(CB)and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.

Rewards of Obedience

11 “You shall therefore ^(CC)love the Lord your God, and always ^(CD)keep His directive, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments. ²Know this day ^(CE)that I am not speaking with your sons who have not known and who have not seen the ^[t]discipline of the Lord your God—His greatness, His mighty hand, His outstretched arm, ³and ^(CF)His signs and His works which He did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land; ⁴and what He did to Egypt’s army, to its horses and its chariots, ^(CG)when He made the water of the ^[u]Red Sea ^[v]engulf them while they were pursuing you, and the Lord ^[w]completely eliminated them; ⁵and what He did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place; ⁶and ^(CH)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 ^(CI)every living thing that ^[x]followed them, among all Israel— ⁷but your own eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord which He did.

⁸“You shall therefore keep every commandment which I am commanding you today, ^(CJ)so that you may be strong and go in and take possession of the land into which you are about to cross to possess it; ⁹and ^(CK)so that you may prolong your days on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their ^[y]descendants, ^(CL)a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰For the land, into which you are entering to possess it, is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you used to sow your seed and water it ^[z]by your foot like a vegetable garden. ¹¹But ^(CM)the land into which you are about to cross to possess it, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven, ¹²a land for which the Lord your God cares; ^(CN)the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it, from the ^[aa]beginning even to the end of the year.

¹³“And it shall come about, ^(CO)if you listen obediently to my commandments which I am commanding you today, ^(CP)to love the Lord your God and to serve Him ^(CQ)with all your heart and all your soul, ¹⁴that ^[ab]^(CR)He will provide rain for your land in its season, the ^[ac]^(CS)early and ^[ad]late rain, so that you may gather your grain, your new wine, and your oil. ¹⁵^[ae]^(CT)He will also provide grass in your field for your cattle, and ^(CU)you will eat and be satisfied. ¹⁶^[af]^(CV)Beware that your hearts are not easily deceived, and that you do not turn away and serve other gods, and worship them. ¹⁷Otherwise, ^(CW)the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and He will ^(CX)shut up the sky ^(CY)so that there will be no rain, and the ground will not yield its produce; then ^(CZ)you will quickly perish from the good land which the Lord is giving you.

¹⁸“^(DA)You shall therefore take these words of mine to ^[ag]heart and to soul; and you shall tie them as a sign on your ^[ah]hand, and they shall be as ^[ai]frontlets ^[aj]on your forehead. ¹⁹^(DB)You shall also teach them to your sons, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up. ²⁰^(DC)And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, ²¹so that ^(DD)your days and the days of your sons may be increased on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as ^[ak]^(DE)long as the heavens are above the earth. ²²For if you are ^(DF)careful to keep all of this commandment which I am commanding you to do, ^(DG)to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and ^(DH)cling to Him, ²³then the Lord will ^[al]^(DI)dispossess all these nations from you, and you will ^[am]^(DJ)dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. ²⁴^(DK)Every place on which the sole of your foot steps shall be yours; ^(DL)your border will be from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as ^[an]the western sea. ²⁵^(DM)No one will be able to stand against you; the Lord your God will ^[ao]instill the dread of you and the fear of you in all the land on which you set foot, just as He has spoken to you.

²⁶“^(DN)See, I am placing before you today a blessing and a curse: ²⁷the ^(DO)blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today; ²⁸and the ^(DP)curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, ^[ap]by following other gods which you have not known.

²⁹“And it shall come about, when the Lord your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, ^(DQ)that you shall place the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. ³⁰Are they not across the Jordan, west of the road toward the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite ^(DR)Gilgal, beside ^(DS)the ^[aq]oaks of Moreh? ³¹For you are about to cross the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and ^(DT)you shall possess it and live in it, ³²and you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the judgments which I am placing before you today.

Laws of the Sanctuary

12 “These are the statutes and the judgments which you shall carefully ^[ar]follow in the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess ^[as]^(DU)as long as you live on the ^[at]earth. ²You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations whom you are going to dispossess serve their gods, on the ^(DV)high mountains, on the hills, and under every leafy tree. ³And ^(DW)you shall tear down their altars and smash their memorial stones to pieces, and burn their ^[au]Asherim in the fire, and cut to pieces the carved images of their gods; and you shall ^(DX)eliminate their name from that place. ⁴You shall not act this way toward the Lord your God. ⁵^(DY)But you shall seek the Lord at the place which the Lord your God will choose from all your tribes, to establish His name there for His dwelling, and you shall come there. ⁶You shall bring there your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, ^(DZ)your tithes, the ^[av]contribution of your hand, your vowed offerings, your ^[aw]voluntary offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. ⁷There you and your households shall eat before the Lord your God, and ^(EA)rejoice in all ^[ax]your undertakings in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

⁸“You shall not do at all what we are doing here today, ^(EB)everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes; ⁹for you have not as yet come to ^(EC)the resting place and the ^(ED)inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁰When you cross the Jordan and live in the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and ^(EE)He gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in security, ¹¹^(EF)then it shall come about that the place in which the Lord your God will choose for His name to dwell, there you shall bring everything that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the ^[ay]contribution of your hand, and all your choice vowed offerings which you will vow to the Lord. ¹²And you shall ^(EG)rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and daughters, your male and female slaves, and the ^(EH)Levite who is within your gates, since ^(EI)he has no portion or inheritance with you.

¹³“^(EJ)Be careful that you do not offer your burnt offerings in any cultic place that you see, ¹⁴but only in the place which the Lord chooses in one of your tribes: there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do everything that I command you.

¹⁵“^(EK)However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your gates, ^[az]whatever you desire, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as ^(EL)the gazelle and the deer. ¹⁶^(EM)Only you shall not eat the blood; ^(EN)you are to pour it out on the ground like water. ¹⁷^(EO)You are not allowed to eat within your gates the tithe of your grain, new wine, or oil, or the firstborn of your herd or flock, or any of your vowed offerings which you vow, or your ^[ba]voluntary offerings, or the ^[bb]contribution of your hand. ¹⁸But ^(EP)you shall eat them before the Lord your God in ^(EQ)the place which the Lord your God will choose, you and your son and daughter, and your male and female slaves, and the ^(ER)Levite who is within your gates; and you shall ^(ES)rejoice before the Lord your God in all ^[bc]your undertakings. ¹⁹^(ET)Be careful that you do not abandon the Levite ^[bd]as long as you live in your land.

²⁰“When the Lord your God extends your border ^(EU)as He has ^[be]promised you, and you say, ‘I will eat meat,’ because ^[bf]you desire to eat meat, then you may eat meat, ^[bg]whatever you desire. ²¹If the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, then you may slaughter animals from your herd and flock which the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you; and you may eat within your gates ^[bh]whatever you desire. ²²Just as a gazelle or a deer is eaten, so you may eat it; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it. ²³Only be sure ^(EV)not to eat the blood, for the blood is the ^[bi]life, and you shall not eat the ^[bj]life with the flesh. ²⁴You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the ground like water. ²⁵You shall not eat it, so that ^(EW)it may go well for you and your sons after you, since ^(EX)you will be doing what is right in the sight of the Lord. ²⁶^(EY)Only your holy things which you may have and your vowed offerings, you shall take and go to the place which the Lord chooses. ²⁷And ^(EZ)you shall offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, and ^(FA)you shall eat the flesh.

²⁸“Be careful and listen to all these words which I am commanding you, so that ^(FB)it may go well for you and your sons after you forever, for you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.

²⁹“When ^(FC)the Lord your God cuts off from you the nations which you are going in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and live in their land, ³⁰be careful that you are not ensnared ^[bk]to follow them, after they are destroyed from your presence, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations serve their gods, that I also may do likewise?’ ³¹^(FD)You shall not behave this way toward the Lord your God, because every abominable act which the Lord hates, they have done for their gods; for ^(FE)they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire for their gods.

³²“^[bl]^(FF)Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; ^(FG)you shall not add to nor take anything away from it.

Reject Idolatry

13 “^[bm]^(FH)If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, ²and the sign or the wonder comes true, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘^(FI)Let’s follow other gods (whom you have not known) and let’s serve them,’ ³you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God is ^(FJ)testing you to find out whether ^(FK)you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. ⁴^(FL)You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and ^(FM)cling to Him. ⁵But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be ^(FN)put to death, because he has spoken falsely against the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of ^[bn]slavery, ^(FO)to drive you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. ^(FP)So you shall eliminate the evil from among you.

⁶“^(FQ)If your brother, your mother’s son, or your son or daughter, or the wife ^[bo]you cherish, or your friend who is like your own soul, entices you secretly, saying, ‘^(FR)Let’s go and serve other gods’ (whom neither you nor your fathers have known, ⁷of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near you, or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other end), ⁸^(FS)you shall not consent to him or listen to him; ^(FT)and your eye shall not pity him, nor shall you spare or conceal him. ⁹^(FU)Instead, you shall most certainly kill him; ^(FV)your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. ¹⁰So you shall stone him ^[bp]to death, because he has attempted ^(FW)to drive you away from the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of ^[bq]slavery. ¹¹Then ^(FX)all Israel will hear about it and be afraid, and will not do such a wicked thing among you again.

¹²“If you hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you to live in, anyone saying that ¹³some worthless men have gone out from among you and have seduced the inhabitants of their city, saying, ‘^(FY)Let’s go and serve other gods’ (whom you have not known), ¹⁴then you shall investigate, search out, and inquire thoroughly. And if it is true and the matter is certain that this abomination has been committed among you, ¹⁵^(FZ)you shall most certainly strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword. ^[br]Utterly destroy it and all who are in it and its cattle, with the edge of the sword. ¹⁶^(GA)Then you shall gather all its plunder into the middle of its public square, and burn the city and all its plunder with fire as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God; and it shall be a ^[bs]^(GB)ruin forever. It shall never be rebuilt. ¹⁷Nothing at all from what is designated for destruction is to cling to your hand, in order that the Lord may turn from ^(GC)His burning anger and ^(GD)show mercy to you, and have compassion on you and ^(GE)make you increase, just ^(GF)as He has sworn to your fathers, ¹⁸^[bt]if you will listen to the voice of the Lord your God, ^[bu]keeping all His commandments which I am commanding you today, ^[bv]and doing what is right in the sight of the Lord your God.

Clean and Unclean Animals

14 “You are ^(GG)sons of the Lord your God; ^(GH)you shall not cut yourselves nor ^[bw]shave a bald spot ^[bx]above your forehead for the dead. ²For you are ^(GI)a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a ^(GJ)people for His personal possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

³“^(GK)You shall not eat any detestable thing. ⁴^(GL)These are the animals that you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, ⁵^[by]the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. ⁶And any animal that has a divided hoof and has its hoofs split in two, and ^[bz]chews the cud, among the animals, ^[ca]that animal you may eat. ⁷However, you are not to eat these among the ones that ^[cb]chew the cud, or among those that have the hoof divided in ^[cc]two: the camel, the ^[cd]rabbit, and the rock hyrax, for though they ^[ce]chew the cud, they do not have a divided hoof; they are unclean to you. ⁸And the pig, because it has a divided hoof but does not chew the cud, it is unclean for you. You shall not eat any of their flesh, nor touch their carcasses.

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

¹¹“You may eat any clean bird. ¹²But ^(GM)these are the ones that you shall not eat: the ^[cf]eagle and the vulture and the ^[cg]buzzard, ¹³and the red kite, the falcon, and the kite in their kinds, ¹⁴and every raven in its kind, ¹⁵and the ostrich, the owl, the seagull, and the hawk in their kinds, ¹⁶the little owl, the ^[ch]great owl, the white owl, ¹⁷the pelican, the carrion vulture, the cormorant, ¹⁸the stork, and the heron in their kinds, and the hoopoe and the bat. ¹⁹And all the swarming insects with wings are unclean to you; they shall not be eaten. ²⁰You may eat any clean bird.

²¹“^(GN)You shall not eat anything which dies of itself. You may give it to the stranger who is in your ^[ci]town, so that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a stranger; for you are ^(GO)a holy people to the Lord your God. ^(GP)You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

²²“You ^(GQ)shall certainly tithe all the produce from ^[cj]what you sow, which comes from the field every year. ²³You shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God, ^(GR)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 ^(GS)learn to fear the Lord your God always. ²⁴But if the ^[ck]distance is so great for you that you are not able to ^[cl]bring the tithe, since the place where the Lord your God chooses ^(GT)to set His name is too far away from you when the Lord your God blesses you, ²⁵then you shall ^[cm]exchange it for money, and bind the money in your hand and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses. ²⁶And you may spend the money on whatever your ^[cn]heart desires: on oxen, sheep, wine, other strong drink, or whatever your ^[co]heart ^[cp]desires; and ^(GU)there you shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice, you and your household. ²⁷Also you shall not neglect ^(GV)the Levite who is in your ^[cq]town, ^(GW)for he has no portion or inheritance among you.

²⁸“^(GX)At the end of every third year you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year, and you shall deposit it in your ^[cr]town. ²⁹And the Levite, ^(GY)because he has no portion or inheritance among you, and ^(GZ)the stranger, the ^[cs]orphan, and the widow who are in your ^[ct]town, shall come and ^(HA)eat and be satisfied, in order that ^(HB)the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.

The Sabbatical Year

15 “^(HC)At the end of every seven years you shall ^[cu]grant a release of debts. ²And this is the regulation for the release of debts: every creditor is to forgive what he has loaned to his neighbor; he shall not require it of his neighbor and his brother, because the Lord’s release has been proclaimed. ³^(HD)From a foreigner you may require it, but your hand shall ^[cv]forgive whatever of yours is with your brother. ⁴However, there will be no poor among you, since ^(HE)the Lord will certainly bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, ⁵if only you listen obediently to the voice of the Lord your God, to ^[cw]follow carefully all this commandment which I am commanding you today. ⁶^(HF)For the Lord your God will have blessed you just as He has promised you, and you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; and you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.

⁷“If there is ^(HG)a poor person among you, one of your brothers, in any of your ^[cx]towns in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, ^(HH)you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother; ⁸but ^(HI)you shall fully open your hand to him, and generously lend him enough for his need in whatever he lacks. ⁹Be careful that there is no mean-spirited ^[cy]thought in your heart, ^[cz]such as, ‘^(HJ)The seventh year, the year of release of debts, is near,’ and ^(HK)your eye is malicious toward your poor brother, and you give him nothing; then he ^(HL)may cry out to the Lord against you, and it will be a sin in you. ¹⁰You shall generously give to him, and your heart shall not be ^[da]grudging when you give to him, because ^(HM)for this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all your work, and in all ^[db]your undertakings. ¹¹^(HN)For the poor will not cease ^[dc]to exist in the land; therefore I am commanding you, saying, ‘You shall fully open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.’

¹²“^(HO)If your fellow countryman, a Hebrew man or woman, is sold to you, then he shall serve you for six years, but in the seventh year you shall set him ^[dd]free. ¹³And when you set him ^[de]free, you shall not send him away empty-handed. ¹⁴You shall give generously to him from your flock, your threshing floor, and from your wine vat; you shall give to him as the Lord your God has blessed you. ¹⁵And you are to remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I am commanding ^[df]this of you today. ¹⁶But it shall come about, ^(HP)if he says to you, ‘I will not leave you,’ because he loves you and your household, since he is doing well with you, ¹⁷then you shall take an ^[dg]awl and pierce it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your servant permanently. You shall also do the same to your female slave.

¹⁸“It shall not seem difficult for you when you set him ^[dh]free, because he has given you six years with double the ^[di]service of a hired worker; so the Lord your God will bless you in whatever you do.

¹⁹“^(HQ)You shall consecrate to the Lord your God all the firstborn males that are born in your herd and in your flock; you shall not work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock. ²⁰^(HR)You and your household shall eat it every year before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses. ²¹^(HS)But if it has any impairment, such as a limp, or blindness, or any serious impairment, you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God. ²²You shall eat it within your gates; ^(HT)the unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as ^(HU)a gazelle or a deer. ²³Only ^(HV)you shall not eat its blood; you are to pour it out on the ground like water.

The Feasts of Passover, of Weeks, and of Booths

16 “Observe ^(HW)the month of Abib and ^[dj]^(HX)celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. ²You shall sacrifice the Passover to the Lord your God from the flock and the herd, in the place where the Lord chooses to establish His name. ³^(HY)You shall not eat leavened bread with it; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in a hurry), so that you will remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt ^(HZ)all the days of your life. ⁴For seven days no leaven shall be seen with you in your entire territory, and ^(IA)none of the meat which you sacrifice on the evening of the first day shall be left overnight until the morning. ⁵You are not allowed to sacrifice the Passover in any of your ^[dk]towns which the Lord your God is giving you; ⁶but only ^(IB)at the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish His name, you shall sacrifice the Passover in the evening at sunset, at the time that you came out of Egypt. ⁷You shall ^(IC)cook and eat it in the place which the Lord your God chooses. In the morning you are to return to your tents. ⁸For six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and ^(ID)on the seventh day there shall be ^(IE)a festive assembly to the Lord your God; you shall do no work on it.

⁹“^(IF)You shall count seven weeks for yourself; you shall begin to count seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. ¹⁰Then you shall ^[dl]celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with a ^[dm]voluntary offering of your hand in a proportional amount, which you shall give just as the Lord your God blesses you; ¹¹and you shall ^(IG)rejoice before the Lord your God, you, your son and your daughter, and your male and female slaves, and ^(IH)the Levite who is in your ^[dn]town, and ^(II)the stranger, the ^[do]orphan, and the widow who are in your midst, at the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish His name. ¹²^(IJ)You shall also remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful and ^[dp]comply with these statutes.

¹³“^(IK)You shall ^[dq]celebrate the Feast of ^[dr]Booths for seven days when you have gathered in from your threshing floor and your wine vat; ¹⁴and you shall ^(IL)rejoice in your feast, you, your son and your daughter, and your male and female slaves, and the Levite, the stranger, the ^[ds]orphan, and the widow who are in your ^[dt]towns. ¹⁵For seven days you shall celebrate a feast to the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.

¹⁶“^(IM)Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God at the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Booths; and ^(IN)they are not to appear before the Lord empty-handed. ¹⁷Everyone ^[du]shall give as he is able, in accordance with the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you.

¹⁸“You shall appoint for yourself judges and officers in all your ^[dv]towns which the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. ¹⁹^(IO)You shall not distort justice, ^(IP)you shall not ^[dw]show partiality; and ^(IQ)you shall not accept a bribe, because a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and distorts the words of the righteous. ²⁰Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue, so that ^(IR)you may live and possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

²¹“^(IS)You shall not plant for yourself an ^[dx]Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of the Lord your God, which you shall make for yourself. ²²And ^(IT)you shall not set up for yourself a memorial stone, which the Lord your God hates.

Administration of Justice

17 “^(IU)You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep which has a blemish or any ^[dy]defect, for that is a detestable thing to the Lord your God.

²“^(IV)If there is found in your midst, in any of your ^[dz]towns which the Lord your God is giving you, a man or a woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, by violating His covenant, ³and that person has gone and ^(IW)served other gods and worshiped them, ^(IX)or the sun, the moon, or any of the heavenly ^[ea]lights, ^(IY)which I have commanded not to do, ⁴and if it is reported to you and you have heard about it, then you shall investigate thoroughly. And ^[eb]if it is true and the report is trustworthy that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, ⁵then you are to bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil deed, that is, the man or the woman, and ^(IZ)you shall stone them to ^[ec]death. ⁶^(JA)On the ^[ed]testimony of two witnesses or three witnesses, the ^[ee]condemned shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the ^[ef]testimony of only one witness. ⁷^(JB)The hands of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. ^(JC)So you shall eliminate the evil from your midst.

⁸“^(JD)If a case is too difficult for you to decide, between ^[eg]one kind of homicide or another, between ^[eh]one kind of lawsuit or another, and between ^[ei]one kind of assault or another, that are cases of dispute in your ^[ej]courts, then you shall arise and go up to ^(JE)the place which the Lord your God chooses. ⁹So you shall come to ^(JF)the Levitical priests or the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall inquire of them and they will declare to you the ^[ek]verdict. ¹⁰Then you shall act in accordance with the ^[el]terms of the verdict which they declare to you from that place which the Lord chooses; and you shall be careful to act in accordance with everything that they instruct you to do. ¹¹^(JG)In accordance with the ^[em]terms of the law about which they instruct you, and in accordance with the verdict which they tell you, you shall act; you shall not turn aside from the word which they declare to you, to the right or the left. ¹²But the person who acts ^(JH)insolently by not listening to the priest who stands there to serve the Lord your God, nor to the judge, that person shall die; so you shall eliminate the evil from Israel. ¹³Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and will not act ^(JI)insolently again.

¹⁴“When you enter the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and you ^(JJ)take possession of it and live in it, and you say, ‘^(JK)I will appoint a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ ¹⁵you shall in fact appoint a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses. One ^(JL)from among your countrymen you shall appoint as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves, anyone who is not your countryman. ¹⁶^(JM)In any case, he is not to acquire many horses for himself, nor shall he ^(JN)make the people return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since ^(JO)the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’ ¹⁷And ^(JP)he shall not acquire many wives for himself, so that his heart does not turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.

¹⁸“Now it shall come about, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this Law on a scroll ^[en]^(JQ)in the presence of the Levitical priests. ¹⁹And it shall be with him, and he shall read it ^(JR)all the days of his life, so that he will learn to fear the Lord his God, ^[eo]by carefully following all the words of this Law and these statutes, ²⁰so that his heart will not be haughty toward his countrymen, ^(JS)and that he will not turn away from the commandment to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may ^[ep]live long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.

Portion for the Levites

18 “^(JT)The Levitical priests, the whole tribe of Levi, shall not have a portion or inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the Lord’s offerings by fire and His ^[eq]property. ²^(JU)They shall not have an inheritance among their countrymen; the Lord is their inheritance, as He ^[er]promised them.

³“^(JV)Now this shall be the priests’ portion from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, either an ox or a sheep: they shall give the priest the shoulder, the two cheeks, and the stomach. ⁴You shall give him the ^(JW)first fruits of your grain, your new wine, and your oil, and the first fleece of your sheep. ⁵^(JX)For the Lord your God has chosen him and his sons from all your tribes, to ^(JY)stand to serve in the name of the Lord always.

⁶“Now if a Levite comes from any of your ^[es]towns throughout Israel where he ^(JZ)resides, and he comes ^[et]whenever he desires to the place which the Lord chooses, ⁷then he shall serve in the name of the Lord his God, like all his fellow Levites who stand there before the Lord. ⁸^(KA)They shall eat ^[eu]equal portions, except for what they receive from the sale of their fathers’ estates.

Spiritism Forbidden

⁹“When you enter the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to ^[ev]^(KB)imitate the detestable things of those nations. ¹⁰There shall not be found among you anyone ^(KC)who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, a ^(KD)soothsayer, one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, ¹¹or one who casts a spell, ^(KE)or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who consults the dead. ¹²For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord; and ^(KF)because of these detestable things the Lord your God is going to drive them out before you. ¹³^(KG)You are to be blameless before the Lord your God. ¹⁴For these nations, which you are going to dispossess, listen to ^(KH)soothsayers and diviners, but as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do so.

¹⁵“^(KI)The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen; to him you shall listen. ¹⁶This is ^(KJ)in accordance with everything that you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Do not let me hear the voice of the Lord my God again, and do not let me see this great fire anymore, or I will die!’ ¹⁷And ^(KK)the Lord said to me, ‘They have ^[ew]spoken well. ¹⁸I will raise up for them a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and ^(KL)I will put My words in his mouth, and ^(KM)he shall speak to them everything that I command him. ¹⁹^(KN)And it shall come about that whoever does not listen to My words which he speaks in My name, I Myself will ^[ex]require it of him. ²⁰But the prophet who speaks a word ^(KO)presumptuously in My name, a word which I have not commanded him to speak, or ^(KP)which he speaks in the name of other gods, ^[ey]that prophet shall die.’ ²¹And if you say in your heart, ‘How will we recognize the word which the Lord has not spoken?’ ²²^(KQ)When the prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, and the thing does not happen or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it ^(KR)presumptuously; you are not to be afraid of him.

Cities of Refuge

19 “^(KS)When the Lord your God cuts off the nations whose land the Lord your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and in their houses, ²^(KT)you shall set aside for yourself three cities in the midst of your land which the Lord your God is giving you to ^[ez]possess. ³You shall prepare the ^[fa]roads for yourself, and divide into three regions the territory of your land which the Lord your God will give you as an inheritance, ^[fb]so that anyone who commits manslaughter may flee there.

⁴“^(KU)Now this is the case of the one who commits manslaughter, who may flee there and live: when he ^[fc]kills his friend ^[fd]unintentionally, ^[fe]not hating him previously— ⁵as when a person goes into the forest with his friend to cut wood, and his hand ^[ff]swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron head slips off the ^[fg]handle and ^[fh]strikes his friend so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live. ⁶Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue ^[fi]him ^[fj]in the heat of his anger, and overtake him because the way is long, and ^[fk]take his life, though he was not sentenced to death since he had not hated him previously. ⁷Therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall set aside for yourself three cities.’

⁸“And if the Lord your God ^(KV)enlarges your territory, just as He has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land that He ^[fl]promised to give your fathers— ⁹if you ^[fm]carefully follow all of this commandment which I am commanding you today, ^(KW)to love the Lord your God, and to walk in His ways always—^(KX)then you shall add three more cities for yourself, besides these three. ¹⁰So innocent blood will not be shed in the midst of your land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and ^(KY)guilt for bloodshed will not be on you.

¹¹“But ^(KZ)if there is a person who hates his neighbor, and waits in ambush for him and rises up against him and strikes ^[fn]him so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities, ¹²then the elders of his city shall send men and take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die. ¹³^[fo]^(LA)You shall not pity him, but ^(LB)you shall eliminate the guilt for the bloodshed of the innocent from Israel, so that it may go well for you.

Laws of Landmark and Testimony

¹⁴“^(LC)You shall not displace your neighbor’s boundary marker, which the ancestors have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to ^[fp]possess.

¹⁵“^(LD)A single witness shall not rise up against a person regarding any wrongdoing or any sin ^[fq]that he commits; on the ^[fr]testimony of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed. ¹⁶^(LE)If a malicious witness rises up against a person to testify against him of wrongdoing, ¹⁷then both people who have the dispute shall stand ^(LF)before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days. ¹⁸And the judges ^(LG)shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has testified against his brother falsely, ¹⁹then ^(LH)you shall do to him just as he had planned to do to his brother. So you shall eliminate the evil from among you. ²⁰And ^(LI)the rest of the people will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such an evil thing among you. ²¹So ^[fs]^(LJ)you shall not show pity: ^(LK)life for life, ^(LL)eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.

Laws of Warfare

20 “When you go out to battle against your enemies and see ^(LM)horses, chariots, and people more numerous than you, ^(LN)do not be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you. ²When you are approaching the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people. ³He shall say to them, ‘Hear, Israel, you are approaching the battle against your enemies today. Do not be fainthearted. ^(LO)Do not be afraid, or panic, or be terrified by them, ⁴for the Lord your God ^(LP)is the One who is going with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.’ ⁵The officers also shall speak to the people, saying, ‘Who is the man that has built a new house but has not ^(LQ)dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man would dedicate it. ⁶And who is the man that has planted a vineyard but has not ^[ft]put it to use? Let him go and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man ^[fu]would put it to use. ⁷^(LR)And who is the man that is ^[fv]betrothed to a woman and has not ^[fw]married her? Let him go and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man would ^[fx]marry her.’ ⁸Then the officers shall speak further to the people and say, ‘^(LS)Who is the man that is afraid and fainthearted? Let him go and return to his house, so that ^[fy]he does not make his brothers’ hearts melt like his heart!’ ⁹And when the officers have finished speaking to the people, they shall appoint commanders of armies at the head of the people.

¹⁰“When you approach a city to fight against it, you shall ^[fz]offer it terms of peace. ¹¹And if it ^[ga]agrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your ^(LT)forced labor and serve you. ¹²However, if it does not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. ¹³When the Lord your God gives it into your hand, ^(LU)you shall strike all the ^[gb]men in it with the edge of the sword. ¹⁴However, the women, the children, ^(LV)the animals, and everything that is in the city, all of its spoils, you shall take as plunder for yourself; and you shall ^[gc]use the spoils of your enemies which the Lord your God has given you. ¹⁵This is what you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations ^[gd]nearby. ¹⁶^(LW)Only in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave anything that breathes alive. ¹⁷Instead, you shall ^[ge]utterly destroy them, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you, ¹⁸so that they will not teach you to do ^[gf]^(LX)all the same detestable practices of theirs which they have done for their gods, ^[gg]by which you would ^(LY)sin against the Lord your God.

¹⁹“When you besiege a city for a long time, to make war against it in order to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by swinging an axe against them; for you may eat from them, so you shall not cut them down. For ^[gh]is the tree of the field a human, that it should ^[gi]be besieged by you? ²⁰Only the trees that you know ^[gj]are not fruit trees you shall destroy and cut down, so that you may construct siegeworks against the city that is making war against you until it falls.

Expiation of a Crime

21 “If a person who has been killed by someone is found lying in the open country in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to ^[gk]possess, and it is not known who struck him, ²then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the one who was killed. ³And it shall be that the city which is nearest to the person killed, that is, that the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd that has not been worked ^[gl]and has not pulled in a yoke; ⁴and the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which has not been plowed or sown, and they shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. ⁵Then ^(LZ)the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, because the Lord your God has chosen them to serve Him and to bless in the name of the Lord; and every dispute and ^[gm]violent crime shall be ^[gn]settled by them. ⁶And all the elders of that city ^[go]which is nearest to the person killed shall ^(MA)wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley; ⁷and they shall respond and say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see who did. ⁸^[gp]Forgive Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, Lord, and do not place the guilt for ^(MB)innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.’ And the guilt for bloodshed shall be ^[gq]forgiven them. ⁹^(MC)So you shall remove the guilt for innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

Domestic Relations

¹⁰“When you go out to battle against your enemies, and ^(MD)the Lord your God hands them over to you and you take them away captive, ¹¹and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and are strongly attracted to her and would take her as a wife for yourself, ¹²then you shall bring her into your home, and she shall ^(ME)shave her head and ^[gr]trim her nails. ¹³She shall also ^[gs]remove the clothes of her captivity and shall remain in your house, and ^(MF)weep for her father and mother a full month; and after that you may have relations with her and become her husband and she shall be your wife. ¹⁴But it shall be, if you are not pleased with her, then you shall let her go ^[gt]wherever she wishes; and you certainly shall not sell her for money, you shall not treat her as merchandise, since you have ^[gu]^(MG)humiliated her.

¹⁵“If a man has two wives, the one loved and ^(MH)the other ^[gv]unloved, and both the loved and the ^[gw]unloved have borne him sons, and the firstborn son belongs to the ^[gx]unloved, ¹⁶then it shall be on the day that he wills what he owns as an inheritance to his sons, he is not allowed to treat the son of the loved wife as the firstborn, ^[gy]at the expense of the son of the ^[gz]unloved, who actually is the firstborn son. ¹⁷On the contrary, he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the ^[ha]unloved wife, by giving him a double ^[hb]portion of everything that ^[hc]he owns, for he was the ^(MI)beginning of his ^[hd]strength; ^(MJ)to him belongs the right of the firstborn.

¹⁸“If any person has a stubborn and rebellious son who does ^(MK)not obey his father or his mother, and when they discipline him, he does not listen to them, ¹⁹then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city ^[he]at the gateway of his hometown. ²⁰And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he does not obey us, he is thoughtless and given to drinking.’ ²¹^(ML)Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so ^(MM)you shall eliminate the evil from your midst, and ^(MN)all Israel will hear about it and fear.

²²“Now if ^[hf]a person has committed a sin carrying ^(MO)a sentence of death and he is put to death, and you hang him on ^[hg]a tree, ²³^(MP)his body is not to be left overnight on the ^[hh]tree, but you shall certainly bury him on the same day (for ^(MQ)he who is hanged is cursed of God), so that you ^(MR)do not defile your land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

Various Laws

22 “^(MS)You shall not see your countryman’s ox or his sheep straying away, and avoid them; you shall certainly bring them back to your countryman. ²And if your countryman is not near you, or if you do not know him, then you shall bring it to your house, and it shall remain with you until your countryman looks for it; then you shall restore it to him. ³You shall also do this with his donkey, and you shall do the same with his garment, and you shall do likewise with any lost property of your countryman, which has been lost by him and you have found. You are not allowed to avoid them. ⁴You shall not see your countryman’s donkey or his ox fallen down on the road, and avoid them; you shall certainly help him raise them up.

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

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

⁸“When you build a new house, you shall make a ^[hi]parapet for your roof, so that you will not bring guilt for bloodshed on your house if anyone falls from it.

⁹“^(MV)You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, otherwise ^[hj]all the produce of the seed which you have sown and the yield of the vineyard will be ^[hk]forfeited to the sanctuary.

¹⁰“^(MW)You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.

¹¹“^(MX)You shall not wear a material of wool and linen combined together.

¹²“^(MY)You shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of your garment with which you cover yourself.

Laws on Morality

¹³“^(MZ)If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then ^[hl]turns against her, ¹⁴and he charges her with shameful behavior and ^[hm]publicly defames her, and says, ‘I took this woman, but when I came near her, I did not find her to have evidence of virginity,’ ¹⁵then the girl’s father and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of the girl’s virginity to the elders of the city at the gate. ¹⁶And the girl’s father shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man as a wife, but he ^[hn]turned against her; ¹⁷and behold, he has charged her with shameful behavior, saying, “I did not find your daughter to have evidence of virginity.” But ^[ho]this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread out the garment before the elders of the city. ¹⁸Then ^(NA)the elders of that city shall take the man and rebuke him, ¹⁹and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give it to the girl’s father, because he ^[hp]publicly defamed a virgin of Israel. And she shall remain his wife; he is not allowed to ^[hq]divorce her all his days.

²⁰“But if this ^[hr]^(NB)charge is true, and they did not find the girl to have evidence of virginity, ²¹then they shall bring the girl out to the doorway of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her ^[hs]to death, because she has ^(NC)committed a disgraceful sin in Israel by playing the prostitute in her father’s house; so ^(ND)you shall eliminate the evil from among you.

²²“^(NE)If a man is found sleeping with a married woman, then both of them shall die, the man who slept with the woman, and the woman; so you shall eliminate the evil from Israel.

²³“^(NF)If there is a girl who is a virgin ^[ht]betrothed to a man, and another man finds her in the city and sleeps with her, ²⁴then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and you shall stone them ^[hu]to death: the girl, because she did not cry out for help though she was in the city, and the man, because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall eliminate the evil from among you.

²⁵“But if the man finds the girl who is betrothed in the field, and the man seizes her and ^[hv]rapes her, then only the man who ^[hw]raped her shall die. ²⁶And you are not to do anything to the girl; there is no sin in the girl worthy of death, for just as a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, ^[hx]so is this case. ²⁷When he found her in the field, the betrothed girl ^[hy]cried out, but there was no one to save her.

²⁸“^(NG)If a man finds a girl who is a virgin, who is not betrothed, and he seizes her and has sexual relations with her, and they are discovered, ²⁹then the man who had sexual relations with her shall give the girl’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall become his wife, because he has violated her; he is not allowed to divorce her all his days.

³⁰“^[hz]^(NH)A man shall not take ^[ia]his father’s wife in marriage, so that he does not ^[ib]uncover his father’s garment.

Persons Excluded from the Assembly

23 “^(NI)No one who is ^[ic]emasculated or has his male organ cut off may enter the assembly of the Lord. ²No one of illegitimate birth may enter the assembly of the Lord; none of his descendants, even to the tenth generation, may enter the assembly of the Lord. ³^(NJ)No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, may ever enter the assembly of the Lord, ⁴^(NK)because they did not meet you with ^[id]food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you ^(NL)Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of ^[ie]Mesopotamia, to curse you. ⁵Nevertheless, the Lord your God was unwilling to listen to Balaam, but the Lord your God ^(NM)turned the curse into a blessing for you because the Lord your God ^(NN)loves you. ⁶^(NO)You shall never seek their peace or their prosperity all your days.

⁷“You shall not loathe an ^[if]Edomite, for ^(NP)he is your brother; you shall not loathe an Egyptian, ^(NQ)because you were a stranger in his land. ⁸The sons of the third generation who are born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord.

⁹“When you go out as ^[ig]an army against your enemies, you shall be on guard against every evil thing.

¹⁰“^(NR)If there is among you any man who is unclean because of a nocturnal emission, then he must go outside the camp; he may not ^[ih]reenter the camp. ¹¹But when evening approaches, he shall bathe himself with water, and at sundown he may ^[ii]reenter the camp.

¹²“You shall also have a place allocated outside the camp, so that you may go out there to relieve yourself, ¹³and you shall have a ^[ij]spade among your tools, and it shall be when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and shall turn and cover up your excrement. ¹⁴Since ^(NS)the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to save you and to ^[ik]defeat your enemies before you, your camp must be ^(NT)holy; so He must not see ^[il]anything indecent among you ^[im]or He will turn away from you.

¹⁵“^(NU)You shall not hand over to his master a slave who has ^[in]escaped from his master to you. ¹⁶He shall live with you in your midst, in the place that he chooses in one of your ^[io]towns where it pleases him; ^(NV)you shall not mistreat him.

¹⁷“^(NW)None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, ^(NX)nor shall any of the sons of Israel be a cult prostitute. ¹⁸You shall not bring the earnings of a prostitute or the money for a ^[ip]^(NY)dog into the house of the Lord your God as payment for any vowed offering, because both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God.

¹⁹“^(NZ)You are not to charge interest to your countrymen: interest on money, food, or anything that may be loaned on interest. ²⁰^(OA)You may charge interest to a foreigner, but to your countrymen you shall not charge interest, so that ^(OB)the Lord your God may bless you in all ^[iq]that you undertake in the land which you are about to enter to ^[ir]possess.

²¹“^(OC)When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for the Lord your God will certainly require it of you, and it will be a sin ^[is]for you. ²²However, if you refrain from making vows, it will not be a sin ^[it]for you. ²³You shall be careful and perform what goes out of your lips, since in fact you have vowed a ^[iu]voluntary offering to the Lord your God, whatever you have ^[iv]promised.

²⁴“When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat grapes ^[iw]until you are satisfied; but you are not to put any in your ^[ix]basket.

²⁵“^(OD)When you enter your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the heads of grain with your hand, but you are not to ^[iy]use a sickle on your neighbor’s standing grain.

Law of Divorce

24 “When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens, if she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some ^(OE)indecency in her, that ^(OF)he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and ^[iz]sends her away from his house, ²and she leaves his house and goes and becomes another man’s wife, ³and the latter husband ^[ja]turns against her, writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand, and ^[jb]sends her away from his house, or if the latter husband who took her to be his wife dies, ⁴then her ^(OG)former husband who ^[jc]sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife, after ^[jd]she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the Lord, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

⁵“^(OH)When a man takes a new wife, he is not to go out with the army, nor be assigned any duty; he shall be free at home for one year and shall ^(OI)make his wife whom he has taken happy.

Various Laws

⁶“No one shall seize a handmill or an upper millstone as a pledge for a loan, since he would be seizing the debtor’s ^[je]means of life as a pledge.

⁷“^(OJ)If someone is ^[jf]caught kidnapping any of his countrymen of the sons of Israel, and he treats him as merchandise and sells him, then that thief shall die; so you shall eliminate the evil from among you.

⁸“^(OK)Be careful about an infestation of leprosy, that you are very attentive and act in accordance with everything that the Levitical priests teach you; just as I have commanded them, you shall be careful to act. ⁹Remember what the Lord your God did ^(OL)to Miriam on the way as you came out of Egypt.

¹⁰“^(OM)When you make your neighbor a loan of any kind, you shall not enter his house to take his pledge. ¹¹You shall stand outside, and the person to whom you are making the loan shall bring the pledge outside to you. ¹²And if he is a poor man, you shall not sleep with his pledge. ¹³^(ON)When the sun goes down you shall certainly return the pledge to him, so that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you; and ^(OO)it will be righteousness for you before the Lord your God.

¹⁴“^(OP)You shall not exploit a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your countrymen or one of your strangers who are in your land in your ^[jg]towns. ¹⁵^(OQ)You shall give him his wages on his day ^[jh]before the sun sets—for he is poor and sets his ^[ji]heart on it—so that ^(OR)he does not cry out against you to the Lord, and it becomes a sin in you.

¹⁶“^(OS)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 alone.

¹⁷“^(OT)You shall not pervert the justice ^[jj]due a stranger or ^[jk]an orphan, nor ^(OU)seize a widow’s garment as a ^[jl]pledge. ¹⁸But you are to remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and that the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing.

¹⁹“^(OV)When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you are not to go back to get it; it shall belong ^(OW)to the stranger, the ^[jm]orphan, and to the widow, in order that the Lord your God ^(OX)may bless you in all the work of your hands. ²⁰^(OY)When you beat the olives off your olive tree, you are not to search through the branches ^[jn]again; that shall be left ^(OZ)for the stranger, the ^[jo]orphan, and for the widow.

²¹“When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you are not to ^[jp]go over it again; that shall be left for the stranger, the ^[jq]orphan, and the widow. ²²And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing.

Various Laws

25 “^(PA)If there is a dispute between people and they go to ^[jr]court, and ^[js]the judges decide their case, ^(PB)and they declare the righteous innocent and pronounce the wicked guilty, ²then it shall be if the wicked person ^[jt]^(PC)deserves to be beaten, the judge shall then make him lie down and have him beaten in his presence with the number of lashes according to his ^[ju]wrongful act. ³^(PD)He may have him beaten forty times, but not more, so that he does not have him beaten with many more lashes than these, and that your brother does not ^(PE)become contemptible in your eyes.

⁴“^(PF)You shall not muzzle the ox while it is threshing.

⁵“When brothers live together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a strange man. ^(PG)Her husband’s brother shall have relations with her and take her to himself as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. ⁶It shall then be that the firstborn to whom she gives birth shall ^[jv]assume the name of his father’s deceased brother, so that ^(PH)his name will not be wiped out from Israel. ⁷^(PI)But if the man does not desire to take his brother’s widow, then his brother’s widow 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.’ ⁸Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak to him. And if he persists and says, ‘I do not desire to take her,’ ⁹^(PJ)then his brother’s widow shall come up to him in the sight of the elders, and pull his sandal off his foot and ^(PK)spit in his face; and she shall ^[jw]declare, ‘This is what is done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house!’ ¹⁰And in Israel ^[jx]his family shall be called by the name, ‘The house of him whose sandal was removed.’

¹¹“If two men, a man and his countryman, have a fight ^[jy]with each other, and the wife of one comes up to save her husband from the hand of the one who is hitting him, and she reaches out with her hand and grasps ^[jz]that man’s genitals, ¹²then you shall cut off her ^[ka]hand; ^[kb]^(PL)you shall not show pity.

¹³“^(PM)You shall not have in your bag ^[kc]differing weights, a large and a small. ¹⁴You shall not have in your house ^[kd]differing measures, a large and a small. ¹⁵You shall have a correct and honest ^[ke]weight; you shall have a correct and honest ^[kf]measure, ^(PN)so that your days may be prolonged ^[kg]in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁶For ^(PO)everyone who does these things, everyone who acts unjustly is an abomination to the Lord your God.

¹⁷“^(PP)Remember what Amalek did to you on the way when you came out of Egypt, ¹⁸how he confronted you on the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear when you were tired and weary; and he ^(PQ)did not ^[kh]fear God. ¹⁹So it shall come about, when the Lord your God has given you ^(PR)rest from all your surrounding enemies in the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to ^[ki]possess, that you shall wipe out the mention of the name Amalek from under heaven; you must not forget.

Offering First Fruits

26 “Then it shall be, when you enter the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you take possession of it and live in it, ²that you shall take some of ^(PS)the first of all the produce of the ground which you bring in from your land that the Lord your God gives you, and you shall put it in a basket and ^(PT)go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish His name. ³And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare today to the Lord ^[kj]my God that I have entered the land which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ ⁴Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it before the altar of the Lord your God. ⁵And you shall respond and say before the Lord your God, ‘^(PU)My father was a ^[kk]wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt and ^[kl]resided there, ^(PV)few in number; but there he became a ^(PW)great, mighty, and populous nation. ⁶And the ^(PX)Egyptians treated us badly and oppressed us, and imposed hard labor on us. ⁷Then ^(PY)we cried out to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our wretched condition, our trouble, and our oppression; ⁸^(PZ)and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, an outstretched arm, and with great terror, and with signs and wonders; ⁹and He has brought us to this place, and has given us this land, ^(QA)a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰And now behold, I have brought the first of the produce of the ground ^(QB)which You, Lord have given me.’ Then you shall set it before the Lord your God, and worship before the Lord your God; ¹¹and you, ^(QC)the Levite, and the stranger who is among you shall ^(QD)rejoice in all the good which the Lord your God has given you and your household.

¹²“^(QE)When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the stranger, to the ^[km]orphan, and to the widow, so that they may eat in your ^[kn]towns and be satisfied. ¹³And you shall say before the Lord your God, ‘I have removed the sacred portion from my house, and have also given it to the Levite, the stranger, the ^[ko]orphan, and the widow, in accordance with all Your commandments which You have commanded me; ^(QF)I have not violated or forgotten any of Your commandments. ¹⁴I have not eaten of it while mourning, nor have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor offered any of it to the dead. I have listened to the voice of the Lord my God; I have acted in accordance with everything that You have commanded me. ¹⁵^(QG)Look down from Your holy dwelling place, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel, and the ground which You have given us, ^(QH)a land flowing with milk and honey just as You swore to our fathers.’

¹⁶“This day the Lord your God commands you to perform these statutes and ordinances. Therefore you shall be careful to perform them ^(QI)with all your heart and with all your soul. ¹⁷^(QJ)Today you have declared the Lord to be your God, and ^[kp]that you will walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments, and His ordinances, and listen to His voice. ¹⁸And the Lord has today declared you to be ^(QK)His people, His personal possession, just as He promised you, and ^[kq]that you are to keep all His commandments; ¹⁹and ^[kr]that He will ^(QL)put you high above all the nations which He has made, for glory, fame, and honor; and that you shall be ^(QM)a consecrated people to the Lord your God, just as He has spoken.”

The Curses at Mount Ebal

27 Then Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, “Keep all the commandments which I am commanding you today. ²^(QN)So it shall be on the day when you cross the Jordan to the land which the Lord your God is giving you, that you shall set up for yourself large stones and coat them with lime ³and write on them all the words of this Law, when you cross over, so that you may enter the land which the Lord your God is giving you, ^(QO)a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, ^[ks]promised you. ⁴So it shall be when you cross the Jordan, you shall set up these stones ^(QP)on Mount Ebal, ^[kt]as I am commanding you today, and you shall coat them with lime. ⁵Moreover, you shall build there an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones; you ^(QQ)shall not wield an iron tool on them. ⁶You shall build the altar of the Lord your God of ^[ku]uncut stones, and you shall offer on it burnt offerings to the Lord your God; ⁷and you shall sacrifice peace offerings and eat there, and ^(QR)rejoice before the Lord your God. ⁸You shall write on the ^[kv]stones all the words of this Law very clearly.”

⁹Then Moses and the Levitical priests spoke to all Israel, saying, “Be silent and listen, Israel! This day you have become a people for the Lord your God. ¹⁰So you shall ^[kw]obey the Lord your God, and do His commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today.”

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

¹⁵‘Cursed is the person who makes ^(QU)a carved image or cast metal image, an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of a craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ And ^(QV)all the people shall reply and say, ‘Amen.’

¹⁶‘^(QW)Cursed is one who treats his father or mother contemptuously.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

¹⁷‘^(QX)Cursed is one who displaces his neighbor’s boundary marker.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

¹⁸‘^(QY)Cursed is one who misleads a person who is blind on the road.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

¹⁹‘^(QZ)Cursed is one who distorts the justice due a stranger, an ^[kx]orphan, or a widow.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

²⁰‘^(RA)Cursed is he who sleeps with his father’s wife, because he has ^[ky]uncovered his father’s garment.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

²¹‘^(RB)Cursed is one who has sexual intercourse with any animal.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

²²‘^(RC)Cursed is he who sleeps with his sister, the daughter of his father or of his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

²³‘^(RD)Cursed is he who sleeps with his mother-in-law.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

²⁴‘^(RE)Cursed is he who attacks his neighbor in secret.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

²⁵‘^(RF)Cursed is he who accepts a bribe to attack an innocent person.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

²⁶‘^(RG)Cursed is anyone who does not fulfill the words of this Law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

The Blessings at Mount Gerizim

28 “^(RH)Now it shall be, if you diligently ^[kz]obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I am commanding you today, that the Lord your God ^(RI)will put you high above all the nations of the earth. ²And all these blessings will come to you and ^(RJ)reach you if you ^[la]obey the Lord your God:

³“Blessed will you be in the city, and blessed will you be ^(RK)in the ^[lb]country.

⁴“Blessed will be the ^[lc]children of your womb, the ^[ld]produce of your ground, and the ^[le]offspring of your animals: the newborn of your herd and the young of your flock.

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

⁶“Blessed will you be ^(RL)when you come in, and blessed will you be when you go out.

⁷“The Lord will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be ^[lf]defeated by you; they will go out against you one way and will flee at your presence seven ways. ⁸The Lord will command the blessing for you in your ^[lg]barns and in ^(RM)everything that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. ⁹^(RN)The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. ¹⁰So all the peoples of the earth will see that ^[lh]^(RO)you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will be afraid of you. ¹¹^(RP)And the Lord will give you more than enough prosperity, in the ^[li]children of your womb, in the ^[lj]offspring of your livestock, and in the ^[lk]produce of your ground, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. ¹²The Lord will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless every work of your hand; and ^(RQ)you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow. ¹³^(RR)And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will only be above, and not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God which I am commanding you today, to ^[ll]follow them carefully, ¹⁴and ^(RS)do not turn aside from any of the words which I am commanding you today, to the right or the left, to pursue other gods to serve them.

Consequences of Disobedience

¹⁵“^(RT)But it shall come about, if you do not ^[lm]obey the Lord your God, to be careful to ^[ln]follow all His commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

¹⁶“^(RU)Cursed will you be in the city, and cursed will you be in the ^[lo]country.

¹⁷“^(RV)Cursed will be your basket and your kneading bowl.

¹⁸“^(RW)Cursed will be the ^[lp]children of your womb, the ^[lq]produce of your ground, the newborn of your herd, and the offspring of your flock.

¹⁹“^(RX)Cursed will you be when you come in, and cursed will you be when you go out.

²⁰“^(RY)The Lord will send against you curses, panic, and ^(RZ)rebuke, in ^[lr]everything you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and until ^(SA)you perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have abandoned Me. ²¹^(SB)The Lord will make the plague cling to you until He has eliminated you from the land where you are entering to take possession of it. ²²^(SC)The Lord will strike you with consumption, inflammation, fever, feverish heat, and with ^[ls]the sword, ^(SD)with blight, and with mildew, and they will pursue you until ^(SE)you perish. ²³^[lt]The heaven which is over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you, iron. ²⁴^(SF)The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

²⁵“^(SG)The Lord will cause you to be defeated by your enemies; you will go out one way against them, but you will flee seven ways from their presence, and you will ^(SH)be an example of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth. ²⁶^(SI)Your dead bodies will ^[lu]serve as food for all birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away.

²⁷“^(SJ)The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt and with ^(SK)tumors, the festering rash, and with scabies, from which you cannot be healed. ²⁸The Lord will strike you with insanity, blindness, and with confusion of ^[lv]mind; ²⁹and you will be ^(SL)groping about at noon, just as a person who is blind gropes in the darkness, and you will not be successful in your ways; but you will only be ^[lw]oppressed and robbed all the time, with no one to save you. ³⁰^(SM)You will ^[lx]betroth a woman, but another man will ^[ly]violate her; ^(SN)you will build a house, but you will not live in it; you will plant a vineyard, but you will not make use of its fruit. ³¹Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat of it; your donkey will be snatched away from you, and will not ^[lz]be restored to you; your ^[ma]sheep will be given to your enemies, and you will have no one to save you. ³²^(SO)Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people, while your eyes look on and long for them constantly; but there will be nothing ^[mb]you can do. ³³^(SP)A people whom you do not know will eat the produce of your ground and every product of your labor, and you will never be anything but oppressed and mistreated continually. ³⁴You will also be driven insane by the sight of ^[mc]what you see. ³⁵^(SQ)The Lord will strike you on the knees and thighs with severe boils from which you cannot be healed, and strike you from the sole of your foot to the top of your head. ³⁶^(SR)The Lord will bring you and your king, whom you appoint over you, to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods, made of ^(SS)wood and stone. ³⁷And ^(ST)you will become an object of horror, a song of mockery, and an object of taunting among all the peoples where the Lord drives you.

³⁸“^(SU)You will bring out a great amount of seed to the field, but you will gather in little, because ^(SV)the locust will devour it. ³⁹^(SW)You will plant and cultivate vineyards, but you will neither drink of the wine nor bring in the harvest, because the worm will eat it. ⁴⁰^(SX)You will have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with the oil, because your olives will drop off prematurely. ⁴¹^(SY)You will father sons and daughters but they will not remain yours, because they will go into captivity. ⁴²^(SZ)The cricket will take possession of all your trees and the produce of your ground. ⁴³^(TA)The stranger who is among you will rise above you higher and higher, and you will go down lower and lower. ⁴⁴^(TB)He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him; ^(TC)he will be the head, and you will be the tail.

⁴⁵“So all these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you ^(TD)until you are destroyed, because you would not ^[md]obey the Lord your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. ⁴⁶And they will become ^(TE)a sign and a wonder ^[me]against you and your ^[mf]descendants forever.