Deuteronomy 15-18

New American Standard Bible

The Sabbatical Year

15 “^(A)At the end of every seven years you shall ^[a]grant a release of debts. ² And 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 (B)From a foreigner you may require it, but your hand shall ^[b]forgive whatever of yours is with your brother. ⁴ However, there will be no poor among you, since ^(C)the Lord will certainly bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, ⁵ if only you listen obediently to the voice of the Lord your God, to ^[c]follow carefully all this commandment which I am commanding you today. ^6 (D)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 ^(E)a poor person among you, one of your brothers, in any of your ^[d]towns in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, ^(F)you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother; ⁸ but ^(G)you shall fully open your hand to him, and generously lend him enough for his need in whatever he lacks. ⁹ Be careful that there is no mean-spirited ^[e]thought in your heart, ^[f]such as, ‘^(H)The seventh year, the year of release of debts, is near,’ and ^(I)your eye is malicious toward your poor brother, and you give him nothing; then he ^(J)may cry out to the Lord against you, and it will be a sin in you. ¹⁰ You shall generously give to him, and your heart shall not be ^[g]grudging when you give to him, because ^(K)for this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all your work, and in all ^[h]your undertakings. ^11 (L)For the poor will not cease ^[i]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 “^(M)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 ^[j]free. ¹³ And when you set him ^[k]free, you shall not send him away empty-handed. ¹⁴ You 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. ¹⁵ And 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 ^[l]this of you today. ¹⁶ But it shall come about, ^(N)if he says to you, ‘I will not leave you,’ because he loves you and your household, since he is doing well with you, ¹⁷ then you shall take an ^[m]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 ^[n]free, because he has given you six years with double the ^[o]service of a hired worker; so the Lord your God will bless you in whatever you do.

¹⁹ “^(O)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 (P)You and your household shall eat it every year before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses. ^21 (Q)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. ²² You shall eat it within your gates; ^(R)the unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as ^(S)a gazelle or a deer. ²³ Only ^(T)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 ^(U)the month of Abib and ^[p](V)celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. ² You 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 (W)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 ^(X)all the days of your life. ⁴ For seven days no leaven shall be seen with you in your entire territory, and ^(Y)none of the meat which you sacrifice on the evening of the first day shall be left overnight until the morning. ⁵ You are not allowed to sacrifice the Passover in any of your ^[q]towns which the Lord your God is giving you; ⁶ but only ^(Z)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. ⁷ You shall ^(AA)cook and eat it in the place which the Lord your God chooses. In the morning you are to return to your tents. ⁸ For six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and ^(AB)on the seventh day there shall be ^(AC)a festive assembly to the Lord your God; you shall do no work on it.

⁹ “^(AD)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. ¹⁰ Then you shall ^[r]celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with a ^[s]voluntary offering of your hand in a proportional amount, which you shall give just as the Lord your God blesses you; ¹¹ and you shall ^(AE)rejoice before the Lord your God, you, your son and your daughter, and your male and female slaves, and ^(AF)the Levite who is in your ^[t]town, and ^(AG)the stranger, the ^[u]orphan, and the widow who are in your midst, at the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish His name. ^12 (AH)You shall also remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful and ^[v]comply with these statutes.

¹³ “^(AI)You shall ^[w]celebrate the Feast of ^[x]Booths for seven days when you have gathered in from your threshing floor and your wine vat; ¹⁴ and you shall ^(AJ)rejoice in your feast, you, your son and your daughter, and your male and female slaves, and the Levite, the stranger, the ^[y]orphan, and the widow who are in your ^[z]towns. ¹⁵ For 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 “^(AK)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 ^(AL)they are not to appear before the Lord empty-handed. ¹⁷ Everyone ^[aa]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 ^[ab]towns which the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. ^19 (AM)You shall not distort justice, ^(AN)you shall not ^[ac]show partiality; and ^(AO)you shall not accept a bribe, because a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and distorts the words of the righteous. ²⁰ Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue, so that ^(AP)you may live and possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

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

Administration of Justice

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

² “^(AT)If there is found in your midst, in any of your ^[af]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, ³ and that person has gone and ^(AU)served other gods and worshiped them, ^(AV)or the sun, the moon, or any of the heavenly ^[ag]lights, ^(AW)which I have commanded not to do, ⁴ and if it is reported to you and you have heard about it, then you shall investigate thoroughly. And ^[ah]if it is true and the report is trustworthy that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, ⁵ then 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 ^(AX)you shall stone them to ^[ai]death. ^6 (AY)On the ^[aj]testimony of two witnesses or three witnesses, the ^[ak]condemned shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the ^[al]testimony of only one witness. ^7 (AZ)The hands of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. ^(BA)So you shall eliminate the evil from your midst.

⁸ “^(BB)If a case is too difficult for you to decide, between ^[am]one kind of homicide or another, between ^[an]one kind of lawsuit or another, and between ^[ao]one kind of assault or another, that are cases of dispute in your ^[ap]courts, then you shall arise and go up to ^(BC)the place which the Lord your God chooses. ⁹ So you shall come to ^(BD)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 ^[aq]verdict. ¹⁰ Then you shall act in accordance with the ^[ar]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 (BE)In accordance with the ^[as]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. ¹² But the person who acts ^(BF)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. ¹³ Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and will not act ^(BG)insolently again.

¹⁴ “When you enter the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and you ^(BH)take possession of it and live in it, and you say, ‘^(BI)I will appoint a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ ¹⁵ you shall in fact appoint a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses. One ^(BJ)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 (BK)In any case, he is not to acquire many horses for himself, nor shall he ^(BL)make the people return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since ^(BM)the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’ ¹⁷ And ^(BN)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 ^[at](BO)in the presence of the Levitical priests. ¹⁹ And it shall be with him, and he shall read it ^(BP)all the days of his life, so that he will learn to fear the Lord his God, ^[au]by carefully following all the words of this Law and these statutes, ²⁰ so that his heart will not be haughty toward his countrymen, ^(BQ)and that he will not turn away from the commandment to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may ^[av]live long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.

Portion for the Levites

18 “^(BR)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 ^[aw]property. ^2 (BS)They shall not have an inheritance among their countrymen; the Lord is their inheritance, as He ^[ax]promised them.

³ “^(BT)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. ⁴ You shall give him the ^(BU)first fruits of your grain, your new wine, and your oil, and the first fleece of your sheep. ^5 (BV)For the Lord your God has chosen him and his sons from all your tribes, to ^(BW)stand to serve in the name of the Lord always.

⁶ “Now if a Levite comes from any of your ^[ay]towns throughout Israel where he ^(BX)resides, and he comes ^[az]whenever he desires to the place which the Lord chooses, ⁷ then he shall serve in the name of the Lord his God, like all his fellow Levites who stand there before the Lord. ^8 (BY)They shall eat ^[ba]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 ^[bb](BZ)imitate the detestable things of those nations. ¹⁰ There shall not be found among you anyone ^(CA)who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, a ^(CB)soothsayer, one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, ¹¹ or one who casts a spell, ^(CC)or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who consults the dead. ¹² For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord; and ^(CD)because of these detestable things the Lord your God is going to drive them out before you. ^13 (CE)You are to be blameless before the Lord your God. ¹⁴ For these nations, which you are going to dispossess, listen to ^(CF)soothsayers and diviners, but as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do so.

¹⁵ “^(CG)The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen; to him you shall listen. ¹⁶ This is ^(CH)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!’ ¹⁷ And ^(CI)the Lord said to me, ‘They have ^[bc]spoken well. ¹⁸ I will raise up for them a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and ^(CJ)I will put My words in his mouth, and ^(CK)he shall speak to them everything that I command him. ^19 (CL)And it shall come about that whoever does not listen to My words which he speaks in My name, I Myself will ^[bd]require it of him. ²⁰ But the prophet who speaks a word ^(CM)presumptuously in My name, a word which I have not commanded him to speak, or ^(CN)which he speaks in the name of other gods, ^[be]that prophet shall die.’ ²¹ And if you say in your heart, ‘How will we recognize the word which the Lord has not spoken?’ ^22 (CO)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 ^(CP)presumptuously; you are not to be afraid of him.