Bible in 90 Days

²⁰ Moses replied, “If you will do as you say, if you will arm yourselves before the Lord for war, ²¹ and every armed man of yours will cross the Jordan before the Lord until He has driven out His enemies before Him, ²² and the land [west of the Jordan] is subdued before the Lord, then afterward you shall return and be blameless [in this matter] before the Lord and before Israel, and this land [east of the Jordan] shall be yours as a possession before the Lord. ²³ But if you do not do this, behold, you will have sinned against the Lord; and be sure that your sin will find you out. ²⁴ Build yourselves cities for your children, and folds for your sheep, and do that of which you have spoken.”

²⁵ Then the descendants of Gad and of Reuben said to Moses, “Your servants will do just as my lord commands. ²⁶ Our children, our wives, our livestock, and all our cattle shall be there in the cities of Gilead. ²⁷ But your servants will cross over, every man armed for war, before the Lord to the battle, just as my lord says.”

²⁸ So Moses gave the command concerning them to Eleazar the priest, and to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the leaders of the fathers’ households of the tribes of the Israelites. ²⁹ Moses said to them, “If the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben will cross over the Jordan with you, every man armed for battle before the Lord, and the land is subdued before you, then you shall give them the land of Gilead [east of the Jordan River] as a possession; ³⁰ but if they will not cross over with you armed, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan [and surrender their right to their land east of the Jordan River].” ³¹ The sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben answered, “As the Lord has said to your servants, so will we do. ³² We will cross over armed before the Lord into the land of Canaan, so that the possession of our inheritance on [the east] side of the Jordan may be ours.”

³³ So Moses gave to them, to the sons of Gad and to the sons of Reuben and to the half-tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon, the king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Og, the king of Bashan, the land with its cities and territories, the cities of the surrounding land. ³⁴ The sons of Gad built Dibon, Ataroth, Aroer, ³⁵ Atroth-shophan, Jazer, Jogbehah, ³⁶ Beth-nimrah, and Beth-haran, fortified (walled) cities, and sheepfolds for sheep. ³⁷ The sons of Reuben built Heshbon, Elealeh, Kiriathaim, ³⁸ Nebo, and Baal-meon (their names being changed) and Sibmah; and they gave other names to the cities which they built. ³⁹ The sons of Machir the son of Manasseh went to Gilead and took it, and drove out the Amorites who were in it. ⁴⁰ So Moses gave Gilead to [the tribe of] Machir the son of Manasseh, and they settled in it. ⁴¹ [The sons of] Jair the son of Manasseh went and took its towns (tent villages) and called them Havvoth-jair. ⁴² Nobah went and took Kenath and its villages, and called it Nobah after his own name.

Review of the Journey from Egypt to Jordan

33 These are the stages of the journeys of the Israelites, by which they came out of the land of Egypt by their [tribal] armies, under the leadership of Moses and Aaron. ² Moses recorded their points of departure, as the Lord commanded, stage by stage; and these are their journeys according to their points of departure: ³ They set out from Rameses on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the day after the Passover the Israelites moved out triumphantly in the sight of all the Egyptians, ⁴ while the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn whom the Lord had struck down among them. Upon their gods the Lord also executed judgments.

⁵ Then the Israelites moved out from Rameses [where they had all joined together], and camped in Succoth. ⁶ They moved out from Succoth and camped in Etham, which is on the edge of the wilderness. ⁷ They moved out from Etham and turned back to Pi-hahiroth, east of Baal-zephon, and they camped before Migdol. ⁸ They moved out from before Pi-hahiroth and passed through the midst of the [Red] Sea into the wilderness; and they went a three days’ journey in the Wilderness of Etham and camped at Marah. ⁹ They moved out from Marah and came to Elim; in Elim there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they camped there. ¹⁰ They moved out from Elim and camped by the Red Sea (Sea of Reeds). ¹¹ They moved out from the Red Sea and camped in the Wilderness of Sin. ¹² They moved out from the Wilderness of Sin and camped at Dophkah. ¹³ They moved out from Dophkah and camped at Alush. ¹⁴ They moved out from Alush and camped at Rephidim; now it was there that the people had no water to drink. ¹⁵ They moved out from Rephidim and camped in the Wilderness of Sinai [where they remained for about a year]. ¹⁶ They moved out from the Wilderness of Sinai and camped at Kibroth-hattaavah.

¹⁷ They moved out from Kibroth-hattaavah and camped at Hazeroth. ¹⁸ They moved out from Hazeroth and camped at Rithmah [near Kadesh, the place from which the twelve spies were sent to spy out the land of Canaan]. ¹⁹ They moved out from Rithmah and camped at Rimmon-perez. ²⁰ They moved out from Rimmon-perez and camped at Libnah. ²¹ They moved out from Libnah and camped at Rissah. ²² They moved out from Rissah and camped at Kehelathah. ²³ They moved out from Kehelathah and camped at Mount Shepher. ²⁴ They moved out from Mount Shepher and camped at Haradah. ²⁵ They moved out from Haradah and camped at Makheloth. ²⁶ They moved out from Makheloth and camped at Tahath. ²⁷ They moved out from Tahath and camped at Terah. ²⁸ They moved out from Terah and camped at Mithkah. ²⁹ They moved out from Mithkah and camped at Hashmonah. ³⁰ They moved out from Hashmonah and camped at Moseroth. ³¹ They moved out from Moseroth and camped at Bene-jaakan. ³² They moved out from Bene-jaakan and camped at Hor-haggidgad. ³³ They moved out from Hor-haggidgad and camped at Jotbathah. ³⁴ They moved out from Jotbathah and camped at Abronah. ³⁵ They moved out from Abronah and camped at Ezion-geber [or Elath on the gulf of Aqabah]. ³⁶ They moved out from Ezion-geber and camped in the Wilderness of Zin, which is Kadesh. ³⁷ They moved out from Kadesh and camped at Mount Hor, on the edge of the land of Edom.

³⁸ Aaron the priest went up on Mount Hor at the command of the Lord, and died there in the fortieth year after the Israelites came out of the land of Egypt, on the first day of the fifth month.^{(A) 39} Aaron was a hundred and twenty-three years old when he died on Mount Hor.

⁴⁰ The Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev (the South country) in the land of Canaan, heard that the sons of Israel were coming.

⁴¹ They moved out from Mount Hor and camped at Zalmonah. ⁴² Then they moved out from Zalmonah and camped at Punon. ⁴³ They moved out from Punon and camped at Oboth. ⁴⁴ They moved out from Oboth and camped at Iye-abarim, on the border of Moab. ⁴⁵ They moved out from Iyim (Iye-abarim) and camped at Dibon-gad. ⁴⁶ They moved out from Dibon-gad and camped at Almon-diblathaim. ⁴⁷ They moved out from Almon-diblathaim and camped in the mountains of Abarim, before [Mount] Nebo. ⁴⁸ They moved out from the mountains of Abarim and camped in the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho [their last stop on the journey to Canaan]. ⁴⁹ They camped by the Jordan from Beth-jeshimoth as far as Abel-shittim in the plains of Moab.

Law of Possessing the Land

⁵⁰ Then the Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho, saying, ⁵¹ “Say to the children of Israel, ‘When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, ⁵² then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you and destroy all their sculpted images, and destroy all their cast idols and completely eliminate all their [idolatrous] high places, ⁵³ and you shall take possession of the land and live in it, for I have given the land to you to possess. ⁵⁴ You shall inherit the land by lot according to your families; to the large tribe you shall give a larger inheritance, and to the small tribe you shall give a smaller inheritance. Wherever the lot falls to any man, that shall be [the location of] his [inheritance]. According to the tribes of your fathers (ancestors) you shall inherit. ⁵⁵ But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those you let remain of them will be like pricks in your eyes and like thorns in your sides, and they will attack you in the land in which you live. ⁵⁶ And as I [the Lord] planned to do to them, so I will do to you.’”

Instruction for Apportioning Canaan

34 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Command the Israelites, ‘When you enter the land of Canaan, this is the land that shall be yours as an inheritance, the land of Canaan according to its boundaries, ³ your southern region shall be from the Wilderness of Zin along the side of Edom, and your southern boundary from the end of the Salt (Dead) Sea eastward. ⁴ Your boundary shall turn from the south to the ascent of Akrabbim, and continue on to Zin, and its limit shall be south of Kadesh-barnea. Then it shall go on to Hazar-addar and pass on to Azmon. ⁵ Then the boundary shall turn from Azmon to the Brook of Egypt (Wadi el-arish), and its limit shall be at the [Mediterranean] Sea.

⁶ ‘As the western boundary you shall have the Great [Mediterranean] Sea and its coastline. This shall be your western boundary.

⁷ ‘And this shall be your north border: from the Great [Mediterranean] Sea mark out your boundary line to ^[a]Mount Hor; ⁸ from Mount Hor you shall mark out your boundary to the entrance of Hamath, and the limit of the border shall be at Zedad; ⁹ then the [northern] boundary shall go on to Ziphron, and its limit shall be at Hazar-enan. This shall be your northern boundary.

¹⁰ ‘You shall mark out your eastern boundary from Hazar-enan to Shepham; ¹¹ the [eastern] boundary shall go down from Shepham to Riblah on the east side of Ain and shall descend and reach to the ^[b]slope on the east of the Sea of Chinnereth [the Sea of Galilee]; ¹² and the [eastern] boundary shall go down to the Jordan [River], and its limit shall be at the Salt (Dead) Sea. This shall be your land according to its boundaries all around.’”

¹³ So Moses commanded the Israelites, saying, “This is the land you are to inherit by lot, which the Lord has commanded to be given to the nine tribes and the half-tribe [of Manasseh], ¹⁴ for the tribe of the sons of Reuben and the tribe of the sons of Gad have received their inheritance by their fathers’ households, and the half-tribe of Manasseh have received their possession. ¹⁵ The two and a half tribes have received their inheritance across the Jordan [River] opposite Jericho, eastward toward the sunrise.”

¹⁶ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁷ “These are the names of the men who shall divide the land among you as an inheritance: Eleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun. ¹⁸ You shall take one leader from every tribe to divide the land for the inheritance. ¹⁹ These are the names of the men: From the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh; ²⁰ from the tribe of the sons of Simeon, Samuel the son of Ammihud; ²¹ from the tribe of Benjamin, Elidad the son of Chislon; ²² from the tribe of the sons of Dan a leader, Bukki the son of Jogli; ²³ of the sons of Joseph: from the tribe of the sons of Manasseh a leader, Hanniel the son of Ephod; ²⁴ from the tribe of the sons of Ephraim a leader, Kemuel the son of Shiphtan; ²⁵ from the tribe of the sons of Zebulun a leader, Elizaphan the son of Parnach; ²⁶ from the tribe of the sons of Issachar a leader, Paltiel the son of Azzan; ²⁷ from the tribe of the sons of Asher a leader, Ahihud the son of Shelomi; ²⁸ from the tribe of the sons of Naphtali a leader, Pedahel the son of Ammihud.” ²⁹ These are the [twelve] men whom the Lord commanded [to work with Joshua and Eleazar] to divide the inheritance to the sons of Israel in the land of Canaan.

Cities for the Levites

35 Then the Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan [across from] Jericho, saying, ² “Command the Israelites to give to the Levites cities to live in from the inheritance of their possession; and you shall give to the Levites pasture lands around the cities. ³ The cities shall be theirs to live in; and their pasture lands shall be for their cattle and for their herds and for all their livestock.

⁴ “The pasture lands around the cities which you shall give to the Levites shall reach from the wall of the city and outward a thousand cubits (1,500 ft.) around. ⁵ You shall also measure outside the city on the east, south, west, and north sides two thousand cubits (3,000 ft.), with the city in the center. This shall belong to the Levites as pasture lands for the cities.

Cities of Refuge

⁶ [Among] the cities which you give to the Levites shall be the six cities of refuge, which you shall provide for the one who commits manslaughter to flee to; and in addition to them you shall give forty-two cities [to the Levites]. ⁷ So you shall give to the Levites forty-eight cities in all, together with their pasture lands. ⁸ As for the cities which you shall give from the possession of the Israelites, from the larger tribes you shall take many and from the smaller tribes few; each tribe shall give [at least some] of its cities to the Levites in proportion to [the size of] its inheritance which it possesses.”

⁹ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁰ “Tell the Israelites, ‘When you cross the Jordan [River] into the land of Canaan, ¹¹ then you shall select for yourselves cities to be cities of refuge, so that the one who kills any person unintentionally may escape there. ¹² The cities shall be to you as a refuge from the avenger, so that the one who has caused the death of another will not be killed until he has had a [fair] trial before the congregation. ¹³ The cities which you are to provide shall be your six cities of refuge. ¹⁴ You shall provide three cities on this [east] side of the Jordan [River], and three [more] cities in the land of Canaan; they are to be the cities of refuge. ¹⁵ These six cities shall be a refuge for the Israelites and for the stranger and the resident alien among them; so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may escape there.

¹⁶ ‘But if he struck ^[c]his victim down [intentionally] with an iron object so that he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall certainly be put to death. ¹⁷ If he struck his victim down [intentionally] with a stone in hand, which may cause a person to die, and he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall certainly be put to death. ¹⁸ Or if he struck his victim down [intentionally] with a wooden object in hand, which may cause a person to die, and he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall certainly be put to death. ¹⁹ The blood avenger shall himself put the murderer to death; he shall put him to death when he meets him. ²⁰ But if he pushed his victim out of hatred or threw something at him with malicious intent, and he died, ²¹ or if, in enmity, he struck the victim down with his hand, and he died, the one that struck the victim shall certainly be put to death; he is a murderer. The blood avenger shall put the murderer to death when he meets him.

²² ‘But if he pushed the victim suddenly, not in enmity, or threw anything at him without malicious intent, ²³ or without seeing him hit him [accidentally] with a stone object that could kill him, and he died, and [the offender] was not his enemy nor intending to harm him, ²⁴ then the congregation shall judge between the offender and the blood avenger according to these ordinances. ²⁵ The congregation shall rescue the offender from the hand of the blood avenger and return him to his city of refuge, [the place] to which he had escaped; and he shall live there until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the sacred oil. ²⁶ But if at any time the one guilty of manslaughter comes outside the border of his city of refuge to which he fled, ²⁷ and the blood avenger finds him outside the border of his city of refuge and kills the offender, the blood avenger will not be guilty of murder, ²⁸ because the offender should have remained in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the high priest’s death the offender shall return to the land of his possession.

²⁹ ‘These things shall be a statute for you throughout your generations wherever you may be.

³⁰ ‘If anyone kills a person [intentionally], the murderer shall be put to death on the testimony of [two or more] witnesses; but no one shall be put to death on the testimony of [only] one witness. ³¹ Moreover, you shall not accept a ransom [in exchange] for the life of a murderer guilty and sentenced to death; but he shall certainly be put to death. ³² You shall not accept a ransom for him who has escaped to his city of refuge, so that he may return to live in his [own] land before the death of the high priest. ³³ So you shall not pollute and defile the land in which you live; for [the shedding of innocent] blood pollutes and defiles the land. No atonement (expiation) can be made for the land for the [innocent] blood shed in it, except by the blood (execution) of him who shed it. ³⁴ You shall not defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I live, for I, the Lord, live among the people of Israel.’”

Inheritance by Marriage

36 The leaders of the fathers’ households of the family of the sons of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of the sons of Joseph, approached and spoke before Moses and before the leaders, the heads of the fathers’ households of the Israelites, ² and they said, “The Lord commanded my lord [Moses] to give the land by lot to the sons of Israel as an inheritance, and my lord was commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters. ³ But if the daughters marry any of the men from any of the other tribes of Israel, then their inheritance will be taken away from that of our fathers (tribal ancestors) and will be added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they belong; so it will be taken away from our allotted inheritance. ⁴ When the [year of] Jubilee of the Israelites comes, then their inheritance will be added [permanently] to that of the tribe to which they belong; so their inheritance will be taken away from that of the tribe of our fathers (tribal ancestors).”

⁵ Then Moses commanded the Israelites in accordance with the word of the Lord, saying, “The statement of the tribe of the sons of Joseph is correct. ⁶ This is what the Lord commands regarding the daughters of Zelophehad: ‘Let them marry whom they wish; only they must marry within the family of the tribe of their father.’ ⁷ So no inheritance of the Israelites shall be transferred from tribe to tribe, for every one of the Israelites shall hold to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers (tribal ancestors). ⁸ Every daughter who possesses an inheritance [of land] in any one of the tribes of the Israelites shall marry [only] a man whose family is of her father’s tribe, so that the Israelites may each possess the inheritance of his fathers (tribal ancestors). ⁹ So no inheritance shall be transferred from one tribe to another, but each of the tribes of the Israelites shall hold to its own inheritance.”

¹⁰ The daughters of Zelophehad did as the Lord commanded Moses. ¹¹ For Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to sons of their father’s brothers. ¹² They married into the families of the descendants of Manasseh the son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of the family of their father.

¹³ These are the commandments and the ordinances (judgments) which the Lord commanded through Moses to the sons of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan [across from] Jericho.

Israel’s History after the Exodus

1 These are the words which Moses spoke to all ^[d]Israel [while they were still] beyond [that is, on the east side of] the Jordan [River] in the wilderness [across from Jerusalem], in the Arabah [the long, deep valley running north and south from the eastern arm of the Red Sea to beyond the Dead Sea] opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab (place of gold). ² It is [only] eleven days’ journey from Horeb (Mount Sinai) by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea [on Canaan’s border; yet Israel ^[e]wandered in the wilderness for forty years before crossing the border and entering Canaan, the promised land]. ³ In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel in accordance with all that the Lord had commanded him to say to them, ⁴ after he had defeated Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived at Ashtaroth in Edrei. ⁵ Beyond (east of) the Jordan in the ^[f]land of Moab, Moses began to explain this law, saying,

⁶ “The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, ‘You have stayed long enough on this mountain. ⁷ Turn and resume your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland (the Shephelah), in the Negev (South country) and on the coast of the [Mediterranean] Sea, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. ⁸ Look, I have set the land before you; go in and take possession of the land which the Lord swore (solemnly promised) to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them.’

⁹ “I spoke to you at that time, saying, ‘I am not able to bear the burden of you alone. ¹⁰ The Lord your God has multiplied you, and look, today you are as numerous as the stars of heaven. ¹¹ May the Lord, the God of your fathers, add to you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, just as He has promised you! ¹² How can I alone bear the weight and pressure and burden of you and your strife (contention) and complaining? ¹³ Choose for yourselves wise, understanding, experienced, and respected men from your tribes, and I will appoint them as heads (leaders) over you.’ ¹⁴ And you answered me, ‘The thing which you have said to do is good.’ ¹⁵ So I took the leaders of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and made them leaders over you, commanders of thousands, and hundreds, and fifties, and tens, and officers (administrators) for your tribes.

¹⁶ “Then I commanded your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hear the matters between your brothers [your fellow countrymen], and judge righteously and fairly between a man and his brother, or the stranger (resident alien, foreigner) who is with him. ¹⁷ You shall not ^[g]show partiality in judgment; you shall hear and pay attention to the [cases of the] least [important] as well as the great. You shall not ^[h]fear man, for the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you [to judge], you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.’ ¹⁸ I commanded you at that time [regarding] all the things that you should do.

¹⁹ “Then we set out from Horeb (Sinai), and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw on the way to the hill country of the ^[i]Amorites, just as the Lord our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea. ²⁰ And I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites which the Lord our God is about to give us. ²¹ Behold, the Lord your God has set the land before you; go up and take possession of it, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you. Do not fear or be dismayed.’

²² “Then all of you approached me and said, ‘Let us send men [into the land] before us, so that they may explore and search the area for us, and bring back to us word regarding the way we should go, and the cities we should enter.’ ²³ The plan pleased me and I took twelve of your men, one man from each tribe. ²⁴ They turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out. ²⁵ Then they took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they reported back to us, and said, ‘It is a good land which the Lord our God is about to give us.’

²⁶ “Yet you were not willing to go up [to take possession of it], but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. ²⁷ You murmured and were ill-tempered (discontented) in your tents, and said, ‘Because the Lord hates us He has brought us from the land of Egypt to hand us over to the Amorites to destroy us. ²⁸ Where can we go up? Our brothers (spies) have made our hearts melt [in fear] and demoralized us by saying, “The people are bigger and taller than we; the cities are large, and fortified [all the way up] to heaven. And besides, we saw the [giant-like] sons of the Anakim there.”’ ²⁹ Then I said to you, ‘Do not be shocked, nor fear them. ³⁰ The Lord your God who goes before you will fight for you Himself, just as He did for you in Egypt before your [very] eyes, ³¹ and in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried and protected you, just as a man carries his son, all along the way which you traveled until you arrived at this place.’ ³² Yet in spite of this word, you did not trust [that is, confidently rely on and believe] the Lord your God, ³³ who went before you along the way, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to seek a place for you to make camp and to show you the way in which you should go.

³⁴ “And the Lord heard the sound of your words, and He was angry and took an oath, saying, ³⁵ ‘Not one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land which I swore (solemnly promised) to give to your fathers, ³⁶ except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and to his children I will give the land on which he has walked, because he has followed the Lord completely [and remained true to Him].’ ³⁷ The Lord was angry with me also because of you, saying, ‘Not even you shall enter Canaan. ³⁸ Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter there. Encourage and strengthen him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. ³⁹ Moreover, your little ones whom you said would become prey, and your sons, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, shall enter Canaan, and I will give it to them and they shall possess it. ⁴⁰ But as for you, turn around and set out for the wilderness by way of the Red Sea (Sea of Reeds).’

⁴¹ “Then you answered and said to me, ‘We have sinned against the Lord. We will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God has commanded us.’ So you ^[j]equipped every man with weapons of war, and regarded it as easy to go up into the hill country. ⁴² But the Lord said to me, ‘Say to them, “Do not go up and do not fight, for I am not among you [because of your rebellion]; otherwise you will be [badly] defeated by your enemies.”’ ⁴³ So I spoke to you, but you would not listen. Instead you rebelled against the command of the Lord, and acted presumptuously and went up into the hill country. ⁴⁴ Then the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you as bees do, and struck you down in Seir as far as Hormah. ⁴⁵ And you returned and wept before the Lord; but the Lord would not listen to your voice nor pay attention to you. ⁴⁶ So you stayed in Kadesh; many days you stayed there.

Wanderings in the Wilderness

2 “Then we turned and set out for the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea, just as the Lord had told me; and we circled Mount Seir for many days. ² And the Lord spoke to me, saying, ³ ‘You have circled this mountain long enough; ^[k]turn northward, ⁴ and command the people, saying, “You are passing through the territory of your brothers the sons of Esau (the Edomites), who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. So be very careful; ⁵ do not provoke them, for I will not give you any of their land, not even as little as a footstep, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. ⁶ You shall buy food from them with money so that you may [have something to] eat, and you shall also buy water from them with money so that you may [have something to] drink. ⁷ For the Lord your God has blessed you in all ^[l]that you have done; He has known about your wanderings through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.”’

⁸ “So we passed beyond our brothers the sons of Esau, who lived in Seir, away from the Arabah (wilderness) road, away from Elath and from Ezion-geber. Then we turned and passed through by the way of the Wilderness of Moab. ⁹ And the Lord said to me, ‘Do not harass [the descendants of] Moab, nor provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession, because I have given Ar to the sons (Moab and Ammon) of Lot as a possession.’^{(B) 10} (The Emim lived there in times past, a people great and numerous, and as tall as the Anakim. ¹¹ These also are regarded as Rephaim [an ancient people], as are the Anakim, but the Moabites call them Emim. ¹² The Horites also used to live in Seir, but the sons of Esau dispossessed them. They destroyed them from before them and settled in their place, just as Israel did in the land which the Lord gave them as their possession.) ¹³ ‘Now ^[m]arise and cross the valley of the ^[n]Zered.’ So we crossed the Zered Valley. ¹⁴ Now thirty-eight years passed from the time we left Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the Zered Valley, until that entire generation of the men of war had died from within the camp, just as the Lord had sworn to them. ¹⁵ Moreover the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from within the camp, until they were all dead.

¹⁶ “So it came about when all the men of war had finally died from among the people, ¹⁷ that the Lord spoke to me, saying, ¹⁸ ‘Today you are to pass through Ar, the border of Moab. ¹⁹ When you come opposite the territory of the sons of ^[o]Ammon, do not harass them nor provoke them, for I will not give you any of the land of the sons of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to the sons of Lot as a possession.’ ²⁰ (It is also regarded as the land of the Rephaim [of giant stature], for Rephaim used to live there, but the Ammonites call them Zamzummin, ²¹ a great, numerous people, and tall as the Anakim, but the Lord destroyed them before the sons of Ammon. And they dispossessed them and settled in their place, ²² just as He did for the sons of Esau, who live in Seir, when He destroyed the Horites from before them; and the sons of Esau (the Edomites) dispossessed them and settled in their place [and remain there] even to this day. ²³ As for the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorim (Cretans, later Philistines) who came from Caphtor (Crete) destroyed them and settled in their place.) ²⁴ ‘Now arise, continue on, and go through the valley of the ^[p]Arnon. Look, I have handed over to you Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin! Take possession [of it] and fight with him in battle. ²⁵ This day I will begin to put the dread and the fear of you on the peoples (pagans) under the whole heaven, who, when they hear the reports about you, will tremble and be in anguish because of you.’

²⁶ “So I sent messengers from the Wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying, ²⁷ ‘Let me pass through your land [with my people]. I will travel [with them] only on the highway; I will not turn away to the right or to the left. ²⁸ You will sell me food for money so that I [along with my people] will eat, and you will give me water for money so that I [along with my people] will drink; only let me [and my people] travel through [the land] on foot, ²⁹ just as the sons of Esau, who live in Seir, and the Moabites, who live in Ar, ^[q]did for me, until I cross the Jordan into the land which the Lord our God is giving us.’ ³⁰ But Sihon king of Heshbon was not willing for us to travel through his land; for the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, in order to hand him over to you, as he is today. ³¹ The Lord said to me, ‘Look, I have begun to hand over to you Sihon and his land. Begin! Take possession [of it], so that you may possess his land.’

³² “Then at Jahaz, Sihon and all his people came out to meet us in battle. ³³ So the Lord our God handed him over to us [and gave us the victory], and we defeated him and his sons and all his people. ³⁴ At the same time we took all his cities and utterly destroyed every city—men, women and children. We left no survivor. ³⁵ We took only the cattle as plunder for ourselves and the spoil of the cities which we had captured. ³⁶ From Aroer, which is on the edge of the Arnon Valley, and from the city which is in the valley, as far as Gilead, there was no city [whose wall was] too high and too strong for us; the Lord our God handed over everything to us. ³⁷ Only you did not go near the land of the sons of Ammon, all along the river ^[r]Jabbok and the cities of the hill country, and wherever the Lord our God had forbidden us.

Conquests Recounted

3 “Then we turned and went up the road toward Bashan, and at Edrei, Og king of Bashan, with all his people came out to meet us in battle. ² And the Lord said to me, ‘Do not fear him, for I have handed him over to you, him and all his people and his land; and you shall do to him just as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.’ ³ So the Lord our God also handed over Og king of Bashan, and all his people, into our hand and we struck him until no survivor was left. ⁴ We captured all his cities at that time; there was not a city which we did not take from them: sixty cities, the whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. ⁵ All these cities were fortified and unassailable with their high walls, gates, and bars; in addition, [there were] a very great number of unwalled villages. ⁶ We utterly destroyed them, just as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying every city—the men, women, and children. ⁷ But we took all the cattle and the spoil of the cities as plunder for ourselves.

⁸ “So we took the land at that time from the hand of the two kings [Sihon and Og] of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, from the valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon ⁹ (the Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir): ¹⁰ all the cities of the plain and all Gilead and all Bashan, as far as Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.” ¹¹ (For only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the [the giants known as the] Rephaim. Behold, his bed frame was a bed frame of iron; is it not in ^[s]Rabbah of the Ammonites? It was nine cubits (12 ft.) long and four cubits (6 ft.) wide, using the cubit of a man [the forearm to the end of the middle finger].)

¹² “So we took possession of this land at that time. I gave the territory from Aroer, which is by the valley of the Arnon, along with half of the hill country of Gilead and its cities to the Reubenites and to the Gadites. ¹³ The rest of Gilead and all of Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh, that is, all the region of Argob (concerning all Bashan, it is called the land of Rephaim. ¹⁴ Jair the son (descendant) of Manasseh took all the region of Argob as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, that is Bashan, and called it after his own name, Havvoth (the villages of) Jair, as it is called to this day.) ¹⁵ I gave Gilead to Machir [of Manasseh]. ¹⁶ To the Reubenites and Gadites I gave the territory from Gilead as far as the Valley of Arnon, with the middle of the Valley as a boundary, and as far as the Jabbok River, the boundary of the sons of Ammon; ¹⁷ the Arabah also, with the Jordan as its boundary, from Chinnereth (the Sea of Galilee) as far as the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea (Dead Sea), at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah on the east.

¹⁸ “Then I commanded you [Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh] at that time, saying, ‘The Lord your God has given you this land to possess; all you who are brave men shall cross over [the Jordan] armed before your brothers, the sons of Israel. ¹⁹ But your wives and your children and your cattle—I know that you have much livestock—shall remain in your cities which I have given you, ²⁰ until the Lord gives rest to your fellow countrymen as [He has] to you, and they also possess the land which the Lord your God has given them beyond the Jordan. Then each of you may return to the land (possession) which I have given to you.’ ²¹ I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, ‘Your eyes have seen everything that the Lord your God has done to these two kings [Sihon and Og]; so the Lord shall do the same to all the kingdoms into which you are about to cross. ²² Do not fear them, for it is the Lord your God who is fighting for you.’

²³ “Then I pleaded with the Lord at that time [for His favor], saying, ²⁴ ‘O Lord God, You have only begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your mighty hand; for what god is there in heaven or on earth that can do such works and mighty acts (miracles) as Yours? ²⁵ I pray, let me go over and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, that good hill country [with Hermon] and Lebanon.’ ²⁶ But the Lord was angry with me because of you [and your rebellion at Meribah], and would not listen to me; and the Lord said to me, ‘Enough! Speak to Me no longer about this matter.^{(C) 27} Go up to the top of [Mount] Pisgah and raise your eyes toward the west and north and south and east, and see it with your eyes, for you shall not cross this Jordan. ²⁸ But command Joshua and encourage and strengthen him, for he shall go across and lead this people, and he will give them the land which you see as an inheritance.’ ²⁹ So we stayed in the Valley opposite Beth-peor.

Israel Urged to Obey God’s Law

4 “Now, O Israel, listen and pay attention to the statutes and the judgments (God’s legal decisions) which I am teaching you to do, so that you may live and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. ² You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I am commanding you. ³ Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal-peor; for all the men who followed [and participated in the worship of] Baal of Peor, the Lord your God destroyed them from among you,^{(D) 4} but you who held tightly to the Lord your God are alive today, every one of you.

⁵ “Look, I have taught you statutes and judgments just as the Lord my God has commanded me, so that you may do them in the land which you are entering to possess. ⁶ So keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ ⁷ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God [is to us] whenever we call on Him? ⁸ Or what great nation has statutes and judgments so righteous (upright, just) as this whole law which I am ^[t]placing before you today?

⁹ “Only pay attention and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things which your eyes have seen and they do not depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your grandchildren [impressing these things on their mind and penetrating their heart with these truths]— ¹⁰ especially the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb (Mount Sinai), when the Lord said to me, ‘Assemble the people to Me and I will let them hear My words, so that they may learn to fear Me [with awe-filled reverence and profound respect] all the days they live on the land, and so that they may teach their children.’ ¹¹ You approached and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the [very] heart of the heavens: darkness, cloud and thick gloom. ¹² Then the Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of the words, but you saw no form—there was only a voice. ¹³ So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to follow, ^[u]the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone. ¹⁴ The Lord commanded me at that time to teach you the statutes and judgments, so that you might do them in the land which you are going over to possess.

¹⁵ “So pay attention and watch ^[v]yourselves carefully—for you did not see any form [of God] on the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire— ¹⁶ so that you do not act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved or sculpted image [to worship] in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, ¹⁷ the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, or of any winged bird that flies in the ^[w]sky, ¹⁸ the likeness of anything that crawls on the ground, or of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth. ¹⁹ And beware that you do not raise your eyes toward heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and let yourselves be led astray and worship them and serve them, [mere created bodies] which the Lord your God has allotted to [serve and benefit] all the peoples under the whole heaven. ²⁰ But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron [smelting] furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people for His own possession, as [you are] this day.

²¹ “Now the Lord was angry with me [at the waters of Meribah] because of you, and He swore [an oath] that I would not cross the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. ²² For I am going to die in this land, I am not going to cross the Jordan, but you shall cross over and take possession of this good land. ²³ So be on your guard and watch yourselves, so that you do not forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He has made with you, and make for yourselves a carved or sculpted image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you. ²⁴ For the Lord your God is a consuming fire; He is a ^[x]jealous (impassioned) God [demanding what is rightfully and uniquely His].

²⁵ “When you become the father of children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, then if you corrupt yourselves by making a carved or sculpted image in the form of anything [for the purpose of worship], and do evil [things] in the sight of the Lord your God, provoking Him to anger, ²⁶ I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You shall not live long on it, but will be utterly destroyed. ²⁷ The Lord will scatter and disperse you among the peoples (pagan nations), and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord drives you. ²⁸ And there you will serve [false and foreign] gods, the work of human hands, [lifeless images of] wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell [the offerings of food given to them]. ²⁹ But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul. ³⁰ When you are in distress and tribulation and all these things come on you, in the latter days you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice. ³¹ For the Lord your God is a merciful and compassionate God; He will not fail you, nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.

³² “Indeed, ask now about the days that are past, [those days] which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything been done like this great thing, or has anything been heard like it? ³³ Did [any] people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you heard, and [still] live? ³⁴ Or has any [man-made] god ever tried to go and take for himself a nation from within another nation by trials, by signs and wonders and by war and by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm and by great terrors, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your [very] eyes? ³⁵ It was shown to you so that you might have [personal] knowledge and comprehend that the Lord is God; there is no other besides Him. ³⁶ Out of the heavens He let you hear His voice to discipline and admonish you; and on earth He let you see His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire. ³⁷ And because He loved your fathers, He chose their descendants who followed them, and brought you from Egypt with His Presence, with His great and awesome power, ³⁸ dispossessing and driving out from before you nations, [nations that were] greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day. ³⁹ Therefore know and understand today, and take it to your heart, that the Lord is God in the heavens above and on the earth below; there is no other. ⁴⁰ So you shall keep His statutes and His commandments which I am commanding you today, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and so that you may live long on the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”

⁴¹ Then Moses set apart three cities [of refuge] beyond the Jordan toward the rising of the sun (eastward), ⁴² so that someone who committed manslaughter could flee there, [that is, a person] who killed his neighbor unintentionally and without previously having hostility toward him, and that by escaping to one of these cities he might [claim the right of asylum and] save his life: ⁴³ Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau for the Reubenites, and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.

⁴⁴ This is the law which Moses placed before the sons of Israel; ⁴⁵ these are the testimonies (legal provisions) and the statutes and the judgments which Moses spoke to the sons of Israel when they came out of Egypt, ⁴⁶ beyond the Jordan in the Valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the sons of Israel defeated when they came out from Egypt. ⁴⁷ They took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who reigned across the Jordan to the east, ⁴⁸ from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the [river] Arnon, as far as Mount Sion (that is, Hermon), ⁴⁹ with all the Arabah (desert lowlands) across the Jordan to the east, even as far as the sea of the Arabah (the Dead Sea), at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah.

The Ten Commandments Repeated

5 Then Moses summoned all Israel and said to them:

“Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments (legal decisions) which I am speaking today in your hearing, so that you may learn them and observe them carefully. ² The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. ³ The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, all of us who are alive here today. ⁴ The Lord spoke with you face to face at the mountain from the midst of the fire. ⁵ I was standing between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord; for you were afraid because of the fire and did not go up the mountain. He said,

⁶ ‘I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

⁷ ‘You shall have no other gods ^[y]before Me.

⁸ ‘You shall not make for yourself an idol [as an object to worship], or any likeness (form, manifestation) of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. ⁹ You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a ^[z]jealous (impassioned) God [demanding what is rightfully and uniquely mine], visiting (avenging) the iniquity (sin, guilt) of the fathers on the children [that is, calling the children to account for the sins of their fathers], to the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,^{(E) 10} but ^[aa]showing graciousness and lovingkindness to thousands [of generations] of those who love Me and keep My commandments.

¹¹ ‘You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain [that is, irreverently, in false affirmations or in ways that impugn the character of God]; for the Lord will not hold guiltless nor leave unpunished the one who ^[ab]takes His name in vain [disregarding its reverence and its power].

¹² ‘Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy (set apart, dedicated to God), as the Lord your God commanded you. ¹³ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁴ but the seventh day is a Sabbath [a day of rest dedicated] to the Lord your God; on that day you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock or the stranger who stays inside your [city] gates, so that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. ¹⁵ You shall remember [with thoughtful concern] that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

¹⁶ ‘Honor (respect, obey, care for) your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that your days [on the earth] may be prolonged and so that it may go well with you in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

¹⁷ ‘You shall not ^[ac]murder.

¹⁸ ‘You shall not commit ^[ad]adultery.^(F)

¹⁹ ‘You shall not steal.^(G)

²⁰ ‘You shall not give false testimony [that is, lie, withhold, or manipulate the truth] against your neighbor (any person).^(H)

²¹ ‘You shall not covet [that is, desire and seek to acquire] your neighbor’s wife, nor desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his male servant or his female servant, his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.’^(I)

Moses Interceded

²² “The Lord spoke these words with a great voice to all your assembly at the mountain out of the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, and He added no more. He wrote these commandments on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. ²³ And when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you approached me, all the leaders (heads) of your tribes and your elders; ²⁴ and you said, ‘Behold, the Lord our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire; we have seen today that God speaks with man, yet he [still] lives. ²⁵ Now then why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer, then we will die. ²⁶ For who is there of all flesh (mankind) who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? ²⁷ You, Moses, go near and listen to everything that the Lord our God says; then speak to us everything that the Lord our God speaks to you, and we will listen and do it.’

²⁸ “The Lord heard your words when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me, ‘I have heard the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They have done well in all that they have spoken. ²⁹ Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear [and worship Me with awe-filled reverence and profound respect] and keep all My commandments always, so that it may go well with them and with their children forever! ³⁰ Go and say to them, “Return to your tents.” ³¹ But as for you, stand here by Me, and I will tell you all the commandments and the statutes and the judgments which you shall teach them, so that they may obey them in the land which I give them to possess.’ ³² Therefore you shall pay attention and be careful to do just as the Lord your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right or to the left [deviating from My commandments]. ³³ You shall walk [that is, live each and every day] in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long in the land which you will possess.

Obey God and Prosper

6 “Now this is the command; the statutes and the judgments (precepts) which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, so that you might do (follow, obey) them in the land which you are crossing over [the Jordan] to possess, ² so that you and your son and your grandson may fear and worship the Lord your God [with awe-filled reverence and profound respect], to keep [and actively do] all His statutes and His commandments which I am commanding you, all the days of your life, so that your days may be prolonged. ³ Therefore listen, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly [in numbers], as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land ^[ae]flowing with milk and honey.

⁴ “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one [the only God]! ⁵ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and with all your soul and with all your strength [your entire being]. ⁶ These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be [written] on your heart and mind. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your ^[af]children [impressing God’s precepts on their minds and penetrating their hearts with His truths] and shall speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road and when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand (forearm), and they shall be used as ^[ag]bands (frontals, frontlets) on your forehead. ⁹ You shall write them on the ^[ah]doorposts of your house and on your gates.

¹⁰ “Then it shall come about when the Lord your God brings you into the land which He swore (solemnly promised) to [give] your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—to give you, [a land with] great and splendid cities which you did not build, ¹¹ and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn (excavated) cisterns (wells) which you did not dig out, and vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat and are full and satisfied, ¹² then ^[ai]beware that you do not forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ¹³ You shall fear [only] the Lord your God; and you shall serve Him [with awe-filled reverence and profound respect] and swear [oaths] by His name [alone]. ¹⁴ You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you, ¹⁵ for the Lord your God who is among you is a ^[aj]jealous (impassioned) God [demanding what is rightfully and uniquely His]—otherwise the anger of the Lord your God will be kindled and burn against you, and He will destroy you from the face of the earth.

¹⁶ “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested Him at Massah.^{(J) 17} You shall diligently keep [foremost in your thoughts and actively do] the commandments of the Lord your God, and His testimonies and His statutes which He has commanded you. ¹⁸ You shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, so that it may be well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land which the Lord swore to [give] your fathers, ¹⁹ by driving out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has spoken.

²⁰ “When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and statutes and judgments (precepts) which the Lord our God has commanded you?’ ²¹ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²² Moreover, the Lord showed great and terrible signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt, Pharaoh and all his household; ²³ He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He had sworn to [give] our fathers.’ ²⁴ So the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear [and worship] the Lord our God [with awe-filled reverence and profound respect] for our good always and so that He might preserve us alive, as it is today. ²⁵ It will be [considered] righteousness for us [that is, right standing with God] if we are careful to observe all this commandment before the Lord our God—just as He has commanded us.

Warnings

7 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you are entering to possess, and has cleared away many nations before you, the Hittite and the Girgashite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, seven nations greater and mightier than you, ² and when the Lord your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall not make a covenant (treaty) with them nor show mercy and compassion to them. ³ You shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughter to his son, nor shall you take his daughter for your son; ⁴ for they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled and burn against you and He will quickly destroy you. ⁵ But this is how you shall deal with them: you shall tear down their altars and smash to pieces their sacred pillars, and cut down their Asherim (symbols of the goddess Asherah), and burn their carved or sculpted images in the fire. ⁶ For you are a holy people [set apart] to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be a people for His own possession [that is, His very special treasure].

⁷ “The Lord did not love you and choose you because you were greater in number than any of the other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. ⁸ But because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed (bought) you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ⁹ Therefore know [without any doubt] and understand that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who is keeping His covenant and His [steadfast] lovingkindness to a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; ¹⁰ but repays those who hate Him to their faces, by destroying them; He will not hesitate with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face. ¹¹ Therefore, you shall keep (follow, obey) the commandment and the statutes and judgments (precepts) which I am commanding you today.

Promises of God

¹² “Then it shall come about, because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the [steadfast] lovingkindness which He swore to your fathers. ¹³ He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your [olive] oil, the offspring of your cattle and the young of your flock, in the land which He swore to your fathers to give you. ¹⁴ You shall be blessed above all peoples; there will be no male or female barren (childless, infertile) among you or among your cattle. ¹⁵ The Lord will take away from you all sickness; and He will not subject you to any of the harmful diseases of Egypt which you have known, but He will impose them on all [those] who hate you. ¹⁶ And you shall consume all the peoples whom the Lord your God will give over to you; your eye shall not pity them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that would be a [deadly] trap to you.

¹⁷ “If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I am; how can I dispossess them?’ ¹⁸ you shall not be afraid of them; you shall remember [with confidence] what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt— ¹⁹ the great trials which you saw with your own eyes, and the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out. So shall the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. ²⁰ Moreover, the Lord your God will send the hornet (His terror) against them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you perish. ²¹ You shall not dread them, for the Lord your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God. ²² The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little; you will not be able to put an end to them quickly, for [if you did] the ^[ak]wild animals would become too numerous for you. ²³ But the Lord your God will hand them over to you, and will confuse them with a great panic until they are destroyed. ²⁴ And He will hand over their kings to you, and you will make their name perish from under heaven; no man will be able to stand before you until you have destroyed them. ²⁵ You shall burn the carved and sculpted images of their gods in the fire. You shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, so that you will not be ensnared by it [in a deadly trap], for it is an abomination (repulsive) to the Lord your God. ²⁶ You shall not bring an abomination (idol) into your house, and like it come under the ban (doomed to destruction); you shall utterly detest and you shall utterly hate it, for it is something banned.