Chapter 15

Debts and the Poor. ¹ At the end of every seven-year period^[a] you shall have a remission of debts,^{(A) 2} and this is the manner of the remission. Creditors shall remit all claims on loans made to a neighbor, not pressing the neighbor, one who is kin, because the Lord’s remission has been proclaimed. ³ You may press a foreigner, but you shall remit the claim on what your kin owes to you.^{(B) 4 (C)}However, since the Lord, your God, will bless you abundantly in the land the Lord, your God, will give you to possess as a heritage, there shall be no one of you in need ⁵ if you but listen to the voice of the Lord, your God, and carefully observe this entire commandment which I enjoin on you today. ⁶ Since the Lord, your God, will bless you as he promised, you will lend to many nations, and borrow from none;^(D) you will rule over many nations, and none will rule over you.

^7 (E)If one of your kindred is in need in any community in the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor close your hand against your kin who is in need. ⁸ Instead, you shall freely open your hand and generously lend what suffices to meet that need.^{(F) 9} Be careful not to entertain the mean thought, “The seventh year, the year of remission, is near,” so that you would begrudge your kin who is in need and give nothing, and your kin would cry to the Lord against you and you would be held guilty.^{(G) 10} When you give, give generously and not with a stingy heart; for that, the Lord, your God, will bless you in all your works and undertakings. ¹¹ The land will never lack for needy persons; that is why I command you: “Open your hand freely to your poor and to your needy kin in your land.”^(H)

Hebrew Slaves. ^12 (I)If your kin, a Hebrew man or woman, sells himself or herself to you, he or she is to serve you for six years, but in the seventh year you shall release him or her as a free person. ^13 (J)When you release a male from your service, as a free person, you shall not send him away empty-handed, ¹⁴ but shall weigh him down with gifts from your flock and threshing floor and wine press; as the Lord, your God, has blessed you, so you shall give to him. ¹⁵ For remember that you too were slaves in the land of Egypt, and the Lord, your God, redeemed you. That is why I am giving you this command today.^{(K) 16 (L)}But if he says to you, “I do not wish to leave you,” because he loves you and your household, since he is well off with you, ¹⁷ you shall take an awl and put it through his ear^[b] into the door, and he shall be your slave forever. Your female slave, also, you shall treat in the same way. ¹⁸ Do not be reluctant when you let them go free, since the service they have given you for six years was worth twice a hired laborer’s salary; and the Lord, your God, will bless you in everything you do.

Firstlings. ^19 (M)You shall consecrate to the Lord, your God, every male firstling born in your herd and in your flock. You shall not work the firstlings of your cattle, nor shear the firstlings of your flock. ²⁰ In the presence of the Lord, your God, you shall eat them year after year, you and your household, in the place that the Lord will choose.^{(N) 21 (O)}But if a firstling has any defect, lameness or blindness, any such serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord, your God, ²² but in your own communities you may eat it, the unclean and the clean eating it together, as you would a gazelle or a deer. ²³ Only, you must not eat of its blood; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.

Chapter 16

Feast of the Passover. ¹ Observe the month of Abib^[c] by keeping the Passover of the Lord, your God,^(P) since it was in the month of Abib that the Lord, your God, brought you out of Egypt by night. ² You shall offer the Passover sacrifice from your flock and your herd to the Lord, your God, in the place the Lord will choose as the dwelling place of his name.^{(Q) 3 (R)}You shall not eat leavened bread with it. For seven days you shall eat with it only unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, so that you may remember as long as you live the day you left the land of Egypt; for in hurried flight you left the land of Egypt. ⁴ No leaven is to be found with you in all your territory for seven days, and none of the meat which you sacrificed on the evening of the first day shall be kept overnight for the next day.

⁵ You may not sacrifice the Passover in any of the communities which the Lord, your God, gives you; ⁶ only at the place which the Lord, your God, will choose as the dwelling place of his name, and in the evening at sunset, at the very time when you left Egypt, shall you sacrifice the Passover.^{(S) 7} You shall cook and eat it at the place the Lord, your God, will choose; then in the morning you may return to your tents. ⁸ For six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly for the Lord, your God; on that day you shall do no work.^(T)

Feast of Weeks. ^9 (U)You shall count off seven weeks; begin to count the seven weeks from the day when the sickle is first put to the standing grain. ¹⁰ You shall then keep the feast of Weeks^[d] for the Lord, your God, and the measure of your own voluntary offering which you will give shall be in proportion to the blessing the Lord, your God, has given you. ¹¹ You shall rejoice in the presence of the Lord, your God, together with your son and daughter, your male and female slave, and the Levite within your gates, as well as the resident alien, the orphan, and the widow among you, in the place which the Lord, your God, will choose as the dwelling place of his name.^{(V) 12} Remember that you too were slaves in Egypt, so carry out these statutes carefully.

Feast of Booths. ^13 (W)You shall celebrate the feast of Booths^[e] for seven days, when you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and wine press. ¹⁴ You shall rejoice at your feast,^(X) together with your son and daughter, your male and female slave, and also the Levite, the resident alien, the orphan and the widow within your gates. ¹⁵ For seven days you shall celebrate this feast for the Lord, your God, in the place which the Lord will choose; since the Lord, your God, has blessed you in all your crops and in all your undertakings, you will be full of joy.

¹⁶ Three times a year,^(Y) then, all your males shall appear before the Lord, your God, in the place which he will choose: at the feast of Unleavened Bread, at the feast of Weeks, and at the feast of Booths. They shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed, ¹⁷ but each with his own gift, in proportion to the blessing which the Lord, your God, has given to you.

Justice. ^18 (Z)In all the communities which the Lord, your God, is giving you, you shall appoint judges and officials throughout your tribes to administer true justice for the people. ¹⁹ You must not distort justice: you shall not show partiality;^(AA) you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes even of the wise and twists the words even of the just. ²⁰ Justice, justice alone shall you pursue, so that you may live and possess the land the Lord, your God, is giving you.

Illicit Worship. ^21 (AB)You shall not plant an asherah^[f] of any kind of wood next to the altar of the Lord, your God, which you will build;^{(AC) 22} nor shall you erect a sacred pillar, such as the Lord, your God, hates.

Chapter 17

¹ You shall not sacrifice to the Lord, your God, an ox or a sheep with any serious defect;^(AD) that would be an abomination to the Lord, your God.

^2 (AE)If there is found in your midst, in any one of the communities which the Lord, your God, gives you, a man or a woman who does evil in the sight of the Lord, your God, and transgresses his covenant,^{(AF) 3} by going to serve other gods, by bowing down to them, to the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, contrary to my command;^{(AG) 4} and if you are told or hear of it, you must investigate it thoroughly. If the truth of the matter is established that this abomination has been committed in Israel, ⁵ you shall bring the man or the woman who has done this evil deed out to your gates^[g] and stone the man or the woman to death. ⁶ Only on the testimony of two or three witnesses shall a person be put to death;^(AH) no one shall be put to death on the testimony of only one witness. ⁷ The hands of the witnesses shall be the first raised to put the person to death, and afterward the hands of all the people.^(AI) Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst.

Judges. ^8 (AJ)If there is a case for judgment which proves too baffling for you to decide, in a matter of bloodshed or of law or of injury, matters of dispute within your gates, you shall then go up to the place which the Lord, your God, will choose, ⁹ to the levitical priests or to the judge who is in office at that time. They shall investigate the case and then announce to you the decision.^{(AK) 10} You shall act according to the decision they announce to you in the place which the Lord will choose, carefully observing everything as they instruct you. ¹¹ You shall carry out the instruction they give you and the judgment they pronounce, without turning aside either to the right or left from the decision they announce to you. ¹² Anyone who acts presumptuously and does not obey the priest^[h] who officiates there in the ministry of the Lord, your God, or the judge, shall die. Thus shall you purge the evil from Israel. ¹³ And all the people, on hearing of it, shall fear, and will never again act presumptuously.^(AL)

The King. ^14 (AM)When you have come into the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you, and have taken possession of it and settled in it, should you then decide, “I will set a king over me, like all the surrounding nations,”^{(AN) 15} you may indeed set over you a king whom the Lord, your God, will choose.^(AO) Someone from among your own kindred you may set over you as king; you may not set over you a foreigner, who is no kin of yours. ^16 [i]But he shall not have a great number of horses; nor shall he make his people go back again to Egypt to acquire many horses, for the Lord said to you, Do not go back that way again.^{(AP) 17} Neither shall he have a great number of wives, lest his heart turn away,^(AQ) nor shall he accumulate a vast amount of silver and gold. ¹⁸ When he is sitting upon his royal throne, he shall write a copy of this law^[j] upon a scroll from the one that is in the custody of the levitical priests.^{(AR) 19 [k](AS)}It shall remain with him and he shall read it as long as he lives, so that he may learn to fear the Lord, his God, and to observe carefully all the words of this law and these statutes, ²⁰ so that he does not exalt himself over his kindred or turn aside from this commandment to the right or to the left, and so that he and his descendants may reign long in Israel.

Chapter 18

Priests. ¹ The levitical priests, the whole tribe of Levi, shall have no hereditary portion with Israel; they shall eat the fire offerings of the Lord and the portions due to him.^{(AT) 2} They shall have no heritage among their kindred; the Lord himself is their heritage, as he has told them.^{(AU) 3} This shall be the due of the priests from the people: those who are offering a sacrifice, whether an ox or a sheep, shall give the priest the shoulder, the jowls and the stomach. ⁴ The first fruits of your grain, your wine, and your oil,^(AV) as well as the first shearing of your flock, you shall also give him. ⁵ For the Lord, your God, has chosen him out of all your tribes to be in attendance to minister in the name of the Lord, him and his descendants for all time.^(AW)

⁶ When a Levite goes from one of your communities anywhere in Israel in which he has been residing, to visit, as his heart may desire, the place which the Lord will choose, ⁷ and ministers there in the name of the Lord, his God, like all his fellow Levites who stand before the Lord there, ⁸ he shall receive the same portions to eat, along with his stipends and patrimony.^[l]

Prophets. ⁹ When you come into the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you, you shall not learn to imitate the abominations of the nations there.^{(AX) 10 (AY)}Let there not be found among you anyone who causes their son or daughter to pass through the fire,^[m] or practices divination, or is a soothsayer, augur, or sorcerer, ¹¹ or who casts spells, consults ghosts and spirits, or seeks oracles from the dead. ¹² Anyone who does such things is an abomination to the Lord, and because of such abominations the Lord, your God, is dispossessing them before you.^{(AZ) 13} You must be altogether sincere with the Lord, your God. ¹⁴ Although these nations whom you are about to dispossess listen to their soothsayers and diviners, the Lord, your God, will not permit you to do so.

¹⁵ A prophet like me^[n] will the Lord, your God, raise up for you from among your own kindred; that is the one to whom you shall listen.^{(BA) 16} This is exactly what you requested of the Lord, your God, at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, “Let me not again hear the voice of the Lord, my God, nor see this great fire any more, or I will die.”^{(BB) 17} And the Lord said to me, What they have said is good. ¹⁸ I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kindred, and will put my words into the mouth of the prophet; the prophet shall tell them all that I command.^{(BC) 19} Anyone who will not listen to my words which the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will hold accountable for it.^{(BD) 20} But if a prophet presumes to speak a word in my name^(BE) that I have not commanded, or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.

²¹ Should you say to yourselves, “How can we recognize that a word is one the Lord has not spoken?”, ²² if a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord but the word does not come true, it is a word the Lord did not speak. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; do not fear him.

Chapter 19

Cities of Refuge. ^1 (BF)When the Lord, your God, cuts down the nations whose land the Lord, your God, is giving you, and you have dispossessed them and settled in their cities and houses,^{(BG) 2} you shall set apart three cities^[o] in the land the Lord, your God, is giving you to possess. ³ You shall measure the distances and divide into three regions the land of which the Lord, your God, is giving you possession, so that every homicide will be able to find a refuge.

⁴ This is the case of a homicide who may take refuge there and live: when someone strikes down a neighbor unintentionally and not out of previous hatred. ⁵ For example, if someone goes with a neighbor to a forest to cut wood, wielding an ax to cut down a tree, and its head flies off the handle and hits the neighbor a mortal blow, such a person may take refuge in one of these cities and live. ⁶ Should the distance be too great, the avenger of blood^[p] might in hot anger pursue, overtake, and strike the killer dead, even though that one does not deserve the death penalty since there had been no previous hatred; ⁷ for this reason I command you: Set apart three cities.

^8 (BH)But if the Lord, your God, enlarges your territory, as he swore to your ancestors, and gives you all the land he promised your ancestors he would give, ⁹ because you carefully observe this whole commandment which I give you today, loving the Lord, your God, and ever walking in his ways, then add three more cities to these three. ¹⁰ Thus, in the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you as a heritage, innocent blood will not be shed and you will not become guilty of bloodshed.^(BI)

¹¹ However, if someone, hating a neighbor, lies in wait, attacks, and strikes the neighbor dead, and then flees to one of these cities, ¹² the elders of the killer’s own city shall send and have the killer taken from there, to be handed over to the avenger of blood and slain. ¹³ Do not show pity, but purge from Israel the innocent blood, so that it may go well with you.^(BJ)

Removal of Landmarks. ¹⁴ You shall not move your neighbor’s boundary markers^[q] erected by your forebears in the heritage that will be allotted to you in the land the Lord, your God, is giving you to possess.^(BK)

False Witnesses. ^15 (BL)One witness alone shall not stand against someone in regard to any crime or any offense that may have been committed; a charge shall stand only on the testimony of two or three witnesses.^(BM)

¹⁶ If a hostile witness rises against someone to accuse that person of wrongdoing, ¹⁷ the two parties in the dispute shall appear in the presence of the Lord, in the presence of the priests and judges in office at that time,^{(BN) 18 (BO)}and the judges must investigate it thoroughly. If the witness is a false witness and has falsely accused the other,^{(BP) 19} you shall do to the false witness just as that false witness planned to do to the other. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst. ²⁰ The rest shall hear and be afraid, and never again do such an evil thing as this in your midst.^{(BQ) 21} Do not show pity. Life for life,^[r] eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot!^(BR)

Chapter 20

Courage in War. ¹ When you go out to war against your enemies and you see horses and chariots and an army greater than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord, your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, will be with you.

² When you are drawing near to battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the army, ³ and say to them, “Hear, O Israel! Today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies. Do not be weakhearted or afraid, alarmed or frightened by them. ⁴ For it is the Lord, your God, who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies and give you victory.”^(BS)

⁵ Then the officials shall speak to the army:^(BT) “Is there anyone who has built a new house and not yet dedicated it? Let him return home, lest he die in battle and another dedicate it. ⁶ Is there anyone who has planted a vineyard and not yet plucked its fruit? Let him return home, lest he die in battle and another pluck its fruit. ⁷ Is there anyone who has betrothed a woman and not yet married her? Let him return home, lest he die in battle and another marry her.”^{(BU) 8} The officials shall continue to speak to the army: “Is there anyone who is afraid and weakhearted?^(BV) Let him return home, or else he might make the hearts of his fellows melt as his does.”

⁹ When the officials have finished speaking to the army, military commanders shall be appointed over them.

Cities of the Enemy. ^10 (BW)When you draw near a city to attack it, offer it terms of peace. ¹¹ If it agrees to your terms of peace and lets you in, all the people to be found in it shall serve you in forced labor. ^12 (BX)But if it refuses to make peace with you and instead joins battle with you, lay siege to it, ¹³ and when the Lord, your God, delivers it into your power, put every male in it to the sword; ¹⁴ but the women and children and livestock and anything else in the city—all its spoil—you may take as plunder for yourselves, and you may enjoy this spoil of your enemies, which the Lord, your God, has given you.

^15 [s]That is how you shall deal with any city at a considerable distance from you, which does not belong to these nations here. ^16 (BY)But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord, your God, is giving you as a heritage, you shall not leave a single soul alive. ¹⁷ You must put them all under the ban—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—just as the Lord, your God, has commanded you, ¹⁸ so that they do not teach you to do all the abominations that they do for their gods, and you thus sin against the Lord, your God.

Trees of a Besieged City. ^19 (BZ)When you are at war with a city and have to lay siege to it for a long time before you capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them. You may eat of them, but you must not cut them down. Are the trees of the field human beings, that they should be included in your siege? ²⁰ However, those trees which you know are not fruit trees you may destroy. You may cut them down to build siegeworks against the city that is waging war with you, until it falls.