Deuteronomy 17-26

Amplified Bible

Administration of Justice

17 “You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or sheep with a blemish or any defect, for that is a detestable thing to the Lord your God.

² “If there is discovered among you, within any of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you, a man or a woman who does evil in the sight of the Lord your God, by transgressing (violating) His covenant, ³ and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the heavenly host, [doing these things] which I have commanded not to do, ⁴ and if it is told to you and you hear about it, then you shall investigate thoroughly [all the charges]. If it is confirmed ^[a]beyond doubt that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, ⁵ then you shall bring that man or that woman who has done this evil thing to the gates [of your city] and you shall stone the man or the woman to death. ^6 [b]On the evidence of two or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the evidence of [only] one witness. ⁷ The hand of the witnesses shall be the first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall remove the evil from among you.

⁸ “If any case is too difficult for you to judge—between one kind of homicide and another, between one kind of lawsuit and another, between one kind of assault and another, ^[c]being controversial issues in your ^[d]courts—then you shall arise and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses. ⁹ So you shall come to the Levitical priests or to the judge who is in office at that time, and you shall consult them and they will declare to you the ^[e]verdict in the case. ¹⁰ You shall act in accordance with the terms of the verdict which they declare to you from that place which the Lord chooses. You shall be careful to act in accordance with all of their instructions. ¹¹ You shall act in accordance with the law which they teach you and the judgment which they tell you. You shall not turn aside from their verdict, to the right or to the left. ¹² The man who acts presumptuously and insolently by not listening to the priest who stands there to serve the Lord your God, nor to the judge, that man shall die; so you shall remove the evil from Israel. ¹³ Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and will not act presumptuously again.

¹⁴ “When you enter the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and you take possession of it and live there, and you say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ ¹⁵ you shall most certainly set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses. You shall set a king over you from among your countrymen (brothers); you may not choose a foreigner [to rule] over you who is not your countryman. ¹⁶ Further, he shall not ^[f]acquire many [war] horses for himself, nor make the people return to Egypt in order to acquire horses [to expand his military power], since the Lord said to you, ‘You shall never return that way again.’ ¹⁷ He shall not acquire multiple wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away [from God]; nor [for the same reason] shall he acquire great amounts of silver and gold.

¹⁸ “Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. ¹⁹ And it shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear [and worship] the Lord his God [with awe-filled reverence and profound respect], by carefully obeying (keeping foremost in his thoughts and actively doing) all the words of this law and these statutes, ²⁰ so that his heart will not be lifted up above his countrymen [by a false sense of self-importance and self-reliance] and that he will not turn away (deviate) from the commandment, to the right or to the left, so that he and his sons may continue [to reign] for a long time in his kingdom in Israel.

Portion of the Levites

18 “The Levitical priests, the entire tribe of Levi, shall own [privately] no portion [of land] or inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the Lord’s offerings by fire and His portion. ² They shall have no inheritance [of land] among their countrymen (brothers, brethren); the Lord is their ^[g]inheritance, as He promised them.

³ “Now this shall be the priests’ portion from the people, from those offering a sacrifice, either an ox or a sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach. ⁴ You shall also give him the first fruits of your grain, your new wine [the first of the season], and your [olive] oil, and the first sheared fleece of your sheep. ⁵ For the Lord your God has chosen him, him and his sons from all your tribes, to stand and serve in the name of the Lord forever.

⁶ “Now if a Levite comes from any of your cities throughout Israel where he resides, and comes whenever ^[h]he wishes to [the sanctuary] 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 ^[i]stand there before the Lord. ⁸ They shall have ^[j]equal portions to eat, except what they receive from the sale of their fathers’ estates.^(A)

Spiritism Forbidden

⁹ “When you enter the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable (repulsive) practices of those nations. ¹⁰ There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire [as a sacrifice], one who uses divination and fortune-telling, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, ¹¹ or one who casts a charm or spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or a necromancer [who seeks the dead]. ¹² For everyone who does these things is utterly repulsive to the Lord; and because of these detestable practices the Lord your God is driving them out before you. ¹³ You shall be blameless (complete, perfect) before the Lord your God. ¹⁴ For these nations which you shall dispossess listen to those who practice witchcraft and to diviners and fortune-tellers, but as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do so.

¹⁵ “The Lord your God will raise up for you a ^[k]prophet like me [Moses] from among you, from your countrymen (brothers, brethren). You shall listen to him.^{(B) 16} This is according to all that you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb (Mount Sinai) on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear the voice of the Lord my God again, nor see this great fire anymore, so that I will not die.’ ¹⁷ The Lord said to me, ‘They have spoken well. ¹⁸ I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. ¹⁹ It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him [and there will be consequences]. ²⁰ But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods—that prophet shall die.’ ²¹ If you say in your heart, ‘How will we know and recognize the word which the Lord has not spoken?’ ²² When a 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 presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

Cities of Refuge

19 “When the Lord your God cuts off (destroys) the nations whose land He is giving you, and you dispossess them and live in their cities and in their houses, ² you shall designate three cities for yourself in the central area of the land, which the Lord your God is giving you to possess. ³ You shall prepare and maintain for yourself the roads [to these cities], and divide the territory of your land into three parts, so that anyone who kills another unintentionally may escape there [for asylum].

⁴ “Now this is the case of the offender (manslayer) who may escape there and live [protected from vengeance]: when he kills his neighbor unintentionally, not having hated him previously— ⁵ as [for example] when a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down the tree, but the iron head slips off the wooden handle and hits his companion and he dies—the offender may escape to one of these cities and live; ⁶ otherwise the ^[l]avenger of blood might pursue the offender in the heat of anger, and overtake him, because it is a long way, and take his life, even though he did not deserve to die, since he did not hate his neighbor beforehand. ⁷ Therefore, I command you, saying, ‘You shall set aside three cities [of refuge] for yourself.’

⁸ “If the Lord your God enlarges your border, as He has sworn to your fathers to do, and gives you all the land which He promised to give to your fathers— ⁹ if you keep and carefully observe all these commandments which I am commanding you today, to love the Lord your God, and to walk [that is, to live each and every day] always in His ways—then you shall add three more cities [of refuge] for yourself, besides these three, ¹⁰ so that innocent blood will not be shed [by blood avengers] in your land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and blood guilt will not be on you [for the death of an innocent man].

¹¹ “But if there is a man who hates his neighbor and lies in wait and ambush for him and attacks him and strikes him down so that he dies, and the assailant escapes to one of these cities, ¹² then the elders of his own city shall send for him and have him taken back from there and turn him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may be put to death. ¹³ You shall not pity him [the guilty one], but you shall purge the blood of the innocent from Israel, so that it may go well with you.

Laws of Landmark and Testimony

¹⁴ “You shall not move your neighbor’s boundary mark, which the forefathers [who first divided the territory] have set, in the land which you will inherit in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess.

¹⁵ “A single witness shall not appear in a trial against a man for any wrong or any sin which he has committed; [only] ^[m]on the testimony or evidence of two or three witnesses shall a charge be confirmed. ¹⁶ If a malicious witness rises up against a man to [falsely] accuse him of wrongdoing, ¹⁷ then both parties to the controversy shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who will be in office at that time. ¹⁸ The judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness, and he has accused his brother falsely, ¹⁹ then you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. So you shall remove the evil from among you. ²⁰ Those who remain will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such an evil thing among you. ²¹ You shall not show pity [to the guilty one]: it shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Laws of Warfare

20 “When you go out to battle against your enemies and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you. ² When you approach the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people, ³ and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel: you are advancing today to battle against your enemies. Do not lack courage. Do not be afraid, or panic, or tremble [in terror] before them, ⁴ for the Lord your God is He who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.’^{(C) 5} The officers shall also speak to the ^[n]soldiers, saying, ‘What man is there who has built a new house and has not yet ^[o]dedicated it? ^[p]Let him go and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man would dedicate it. ⁶ What man has planted a vineyard and has not put it to use [harvesting its fruit]? Let him go and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man would begin to use its fruit. ⁷ And who is the man who is engaged (legally promised) to a woman and has not married her? Let him go and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man would marry her.’ ⁸ Then the officers shall speak further to the soldiers and say, ‘Who is the man who is afraid and lacks courage? Let him go and return to his house, so that he does not cause his brothers’ courage to fail like his own.’ ⁹ And it shall be when the officers have finished speaking to the soldiers, they shall appoint commanders of armies over them.

¹⁰ “When you advance to a city to fight against it, you shall [first] offer it terms of peace. ¹¹ If that city accepts your terms of peace and opens its gates to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your forced labor and shall serve you. ¹² However, if it does not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall lay siege to it. ¹³ When the Lord your God gives it into your hand, you shall strike down all the men in it with the edge of the sword. ¹⁴ Only the women and the children and the animals and everything that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as plunder for yourself; and you shall use the spoil of your enemies which the Lord your God has given you. ¹⁵ That is what you shall do to all the cities that are very far away from you, which are not among the cities of these nations nearby [which you are to dispossess]. ¹⁶ Only in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive anything that breathes. ¹⁷ But you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you, ¹⁸ so that they will not teach you to act in accordance with all the detestable practices which they have done [in worship and service] for their gods, and in this way cause you to sin against the Lord your God.

¹⁹ “When you besiege a city for ^[q]a long time, making war against it in order to capture it, you shall not destroy its [fruit-bearing] trees by swinging an axe against them; for you may eat from them, and you shall not cut them down. For is the tree of the field a man, that it should be besieged (destroyed) by you? ²⁰ Only the trees which you know are not ^[r]fruit trees shall you destroy and cut down, so that you may build ^[s]siegeworks against the city that is making war with you until it falls.

Expiation of a Crime

21 “If someone is found slain, lying in the field, in the land which the Lord your God gives you to possess, and it is not known who has killed him, ² then your elders and judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the dead person. ³ It shall be that the elders of the city which is nearest to the dead man shall take a heifer of the herd, one which has not been worked and which has not pulled in a yoke; ⁴ and the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a [river] valley with running water, which has not been plowed or planted, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. ⁵ Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall approach, for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve Him and to bless in the Name (Presence) of the Lord; and every dispute and every assault (violent crime) shall be settled by them. ⁶ All the elders of that city nearest to the dead man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley; ⁷ and they shall respond, and say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it. ⁸ Forgive Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, O Lord, and do not put the guilt of innocent blood among Your people Israel.’ And the guilt of blood shall be forgiven them. ⁹ So shall you remove the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.

Domestic Relations

¹⁰ “When you go out to battle against your enemies, and the Lord your God hands them over to you and you lead them away captive, ¹¹ and you see a beautiful woman among the captives, and desire her and would take her as your wife, ¹² then you shall bring her [home] to your house, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails [in preparation for mourning]. ¹³ She shall take off the clothes of her captivity and remain in your house, and weep (mourn) for her father and her mother a full month. After that you may go in to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife. ¹⁴ But it shall be that if you have no delight and take no pleasure in her, then you shall let her go ^[t]wherever she wishes. You certainly shall not sell her for money; you shall not deal with her as a slave or mistreat her, because you have humbled her [by forced marriage].

¹⁵ “If a man has two wives, one loved and the other ^[u]unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have born him sons, and the firstborn son belongs to the unloved wife, ¹⁶ then on the day when he wills his possessions to his sons, he cannot treat the son of his loved wife as firstborn in place of the son of the unloved wife—the [actual] firstborn. ¹⁷ Instead he shall acknowledge the son of the unloved as the firstborn, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he was the beginning of his strength (generative power); to him belongs the right of the firstborn.

¹⁸ “If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or of his mother, and when they reprimand and discipline him, he will not listen to them, ¹⁹ then his father and mother shall take hold of him, and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gateway of his hometown. ²⁰ They shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey us, he is a glutton and a drunkard.’^{(D) 21} Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so you shall remove the evil from among you, and all Israel will hear of it and be afraid.

²² “And if a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death and [^[v]afterward] you hang him on a tree [as a public example],^{(E) 23} his body shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall most certainly bury him on the same day (for he who is hanged is cursed by God), so that you do not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance.^(F)

Various Laws

22 “You shall not see your countryman’s ox or his sheep straying away or being stolen, and ^[w]ignore [your duty to help] them; you shall certainly take them back to him.^{(G) 2} If your countryman is not nearby or you do not know him, you shall bring the animal to your house, and it shall stay with you until he searches for it; then you shall return it to him. ³ You shall do this with his donkey or with his garment or with anything that your countryman has lost and you have found. You are not allowed to ignore [your duty to help] them. ⁴ You shall not see your countryman’s donkey or his ox fall down along the road, and ignore [your duty to help] them; you shall certainly help him lift it up.

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

⁶ “If you happen to come upon a bird’s nest along the road, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the mother [bird] is sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young. ⁷ You shall certainly let the mother go, but you may take the young for yourself, so that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days.

⁸ “When you build a new house, you shall make a railing (parapet) around your [flat] roof, so that you do not bring the guilt of [innocent] blood on your house if someone falls from it.

⁹ “You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, or everything produced by the seed which you have sown and the yield of the vineyard will become defiled [and banned for use].

¹⁰ “You shall not plow with an ox [a clean animal] and a donkey [an unclean animal] ^[x]together.^(H)

¹¹ “You shall not wear a fabric made of wool and linen blended together [a fabric pagans believed to be magical].^(I)

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

Laws on Morality

¹³ “If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then scorns and hates her, ¹⁴ and charges her [without cause] with shameful behavior and ^[y]publicly defames her, and says, ‘I took this woman, but when I approached her, I did not find in her evidence of virginity,’ ¹⁵ then the young woman’s father and her mother shall get and bring out the evidence of her virginity to the elders of the city at the gate [where court is held]. ¹⁶ The father of the young woman shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man as a wife, but he hates her and has turned against her; ¹⁷ and behold, he has made baseless charges against her, saying, “I did not find in your daughter the evidence of her virginity.” But this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread out the ^[z]garment before the elders of the city. ¹⁸ Then the elders of that city shall take the man and reprimand him, ¹⁹ and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give it to the father of the young woman, because he ^[aa]publicly defamed a virgin of Israel. And she shall remain his wife; he is not allowed to divorce her as long as he lives.

²⁰ “But if this charge is true that the evidence of virginity was not found in the young woman, ²¹ then they shall bring her out to the doorway of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death because she has committed a deliberate sin in Israel by playing the prostitute in her father’s house. So you shall remove the evil from among you.

²² “If a man is ^[ab]intimate with a woman who is another man’s wife, they shall both be put to death, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall remove the evil from Israel.

²³ “If a young woman who is a virgin is engaged (legally betrothed) to a man, and another man finds her in the city and is intimate with her, ²⁴ then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and stone them to death—the young woman because she did not cry out for help [though she was] in the city, and the man because he has violated his neighbor’s [promised] wife. So you shall remove the evil from among you.

²⁵ “However, if the man finds the girl who is engaged (legally betrothed) in the [open] field, and seizes her and is intimate with her [by force], then only the man who lies with her shall be put to death. ²⁶ But you shall do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no sin worthy of death, for this is the same as when a man attacks his neighbor and murders ^[ac]him. ²⁷ When he found her in the [open] field, the engaged girl [may have] cried out for help, but there was no one to [hear and] save her.

²⁸ “If a man finds a girl who is a virgin, who is not engaged, and seizes her and is intimate with her and they are discovered, ²⁹ then the man who was intimate with her shall give fifty shekels of silver to the girl’s father, and she shall become his wife because he has violated her; he can ^[ad]never divorce her.

³⁰ “^[ae]A man shall not take his father’s [former] wife, so that he will not ^[af]expose his father’s wife.

Persons Excluded from the Assembly

23 “He who has been castrated by having his testicles crushed or his male organ cut off shall not enter the congregation of the Lord. ² A person of ^[ag]illegitimate birth shall not enter the assembly of the Lord; none of his descendants, even to the tenth generation. ³ An Ammonite or ^[ah]Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the Lord; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the Lord, ⁴ because they did not meet you with bread (food) and water on the road as you came out of Egypt, and because they hired [to act] against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. ⁵ Nevertheless, the Lord your God was not willing to listen to Balaam, but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you because the Lord your God has loved you. ⁶ You shall never seek their peace nor their prosperity all your days.

⁷ “You shall not detest an Edomite, for he is your brother [Esau’s descendant]. You shall not detest an Egyptian, because you were a stranger (resident alien, foreigner) in his land. ⁸ Their children of the third generation who are born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord.

⁹ “When you go out as an army [to fight] against your enemies, you shall keep yourselves from every evil [thing].

¹⁰ “If there is any man among you who is [ceremonially] unclean because of nocturnal emission, then he must go outside the camp; he shall not come back to the camp. ¹¹ But when evening comes, he shall bathe in water, and at sundown he may return to the camp.

¹² “You shall also have a place outside the camp to which you may go, ¹³ and you shall have a spade among your tools, and when you [prepare to] sit down outside [to relieve yourself], you shall dig a hole with it and shall turn and cover up your waste. ¹⁴ Since the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to rescue you and to defeat your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy (undefiled); and He must not see anything indecent among you or He will turn away from you.

¹⁵ “You shall not hand over to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you. ¹⁶ He shall live among you, in the place he chooses in one of your cities where it pleases him; you shall not mistreat or oppress him.

¹⁷ “There shall be no cult prostitute among the daughters of Israel, nor shall there be a cult prostitute (a sodomite) among the sons of Israel. ¹⁸ You shall not bring the wages of a prostitute or the price of a dog [that is, a male prostitute] into the house of the Lord your God as payment for any vow, for both of these [the gift and the giver] are utterly repulsive to the Lord your God.

¹⁹ “You shall not charge interest to your fellow Israelite—interest on money, food or anything that may be loaned for interest. ²⁰ You may charge interest to a foreigner, but to your fellow Israelite you shall not charge interest, so that the Lord your God may bless you in ^[ai]all that you undertake in the land which you are about to enter to possess.

²¹ “When you make a ^[aj]vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for He will most certainly require it of you, and a delay would cause you to sin. ²² But if you refrain from making a vow, that would not be [counted as] sin in you. ²³ You shall be careful to perform that [vow] which passes your lips, just as you have made a voluntary vow to the Lord your God, just as you have promised with your own words (mouth).

²⁴ “When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, ^[ak]as many as you please, but you shall not put any in your basket [to take with you].

²⁵ “When you come into the standing grain of your neighbor, you may ^[al]pluck the ears of grain with your hand, but you shall not wield a sickle in your neighbor’s standing grain [to harvest it].

Law of Divorce

24 “When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she ^[am]loses his favor because he has found something indecent or unacceptable about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, ² and after she leaves his house, she goes and becomes another man’s wife, ³ and if the latter husband ^[an]turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her as his wife, ⁴ then her former husband who [first] sent her away may not take her again as his wife, since she has been defiled; for that is an outrage before the Lord, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance.

⁵ “When a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out [to fight] with the army nor be charged with any duty; he shall be free at home for one year and shall bring happiness to his wife whom he has taken.

Various Laws

⁶ “No one shall take a handmill or an upper millstone [used to grind grain into bread] as security [for a debt], for he would be taking a [person’s] life in pledge.

⁷ “If a man is caught kidnapping any of his countrymen from the sons of Israel, and he treats him violently or sells him [as a slave], then that thief shall die. So you shall remove the evil from among you.

⁸ “Be careful during an outbreak of leprosy, that you diligently observe and do according to all that the Levitical priests teach you; just as I have commanded them, so you shall be careful to do.^{(K) 9} Remember [with thoughtful concern] what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the road as you came out of Egypt.^(L)

¹⁰ “When you lend your neighbor anything, you shall not go into his house to get his pledge (security deposit). ¹¹ You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you lend shall bring the pledge out to you. ¹² If the man is poor, you shall not keep his ^[ao]pledge overnight. ¹³ You shall certainly restore the pledge (security deposit) to him at sunset, so that he may sleep in his garment and bless you; and it will be credited to you as righteousness (right standing) before the Lord your God.

¹⁴ “You shall not take advantage of a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether [he is] one of your countrymen or one of the strangers (resident aliens, foreigners) who is in your land inside your cities. ¹⁵ You shall give him his wages on the day that he earns them before the sun sets—for he is poor and is ^[ap]counting on it—so that he does not cry out to the Lord against you, and it becomes a sin for you.

¹⁶ “The fathers shall not be put to death for [the sins of] their children, nor shall the children be put to death for their fathers; [only] for his own sin shall anyone be put to death.

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

¹⁹ “^[aq]When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf [of grain] in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the stranger, for the orphan, and for the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. ²⁰ When you beat [the olives off of] your olive tree, do not search through the branches again; [whatever is left] shall be for the stranger, for the orphan, and for the widow.

²¹ “When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it afterward; it shall be for the stranger, for the orphan, and for the widow. ²² You shall [thoughtfully] remember [the fact] that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing.

Various Laws

25 “If there is a controversy between men, and they go to court, and the judges decide [the issue] between them, and they judge in favor of the innocent and condemn the guilty, ² then it shall be that if the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall make him lie down and be beaten in his presence with a [certain] number of stripes in proportion to his offense. ³ He may have him beaten forty times, but no more. He is not to be beaten with more stripes than these and he is not to be degraded [that is, treated like an animal] in your sight.

⁴ “You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing [to prevent him from eating any of the grain].^(M)

⁵ “If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, the widow of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall be intimate with her after taking her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. ⁶ It shall be that her firstborn [son] will ^[ar]be given the name of the dead brother, so that his name will not be blotted out of Israel. ⁷ But if the man does not want to marry his brother’s [widowed] wife, then she shall go up to the gate [of the city, where court is held] to the elders, and say, ‘My brother-in-law refuses to continue his brother’s name in Israel; he is not willing to perform the duty of a husband’s brother.’ ⁸ Then the elders of his city will summon him and speak to him. And if he stands firm and says, ‘I do not want to marry her,’ ⁹ then his brother’s widow shall approach him in the presence of the elders, and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face; and she shall answer and say, ‘So it is done to that man who does not build up his brother’s household.’ ¹⁰ In Israel his [family] name shall be, ‘The house of him whose sandal was removed.’

¹¹ “If [two] men, a man and his countryman, are fighting and the wife of one approaches to rescue her husband from the man who is striking him, and she reaches out with her hand and grabs the aggressor’s genitals, ¹² then you shall cut off her hand; you shall not show pity [for her].

¹³ “You shall not have in your bag inaccurate weights, a heavy and a light [so you can cheat others]. ¹⁴ You shall not have in your house inaccurate measures, a large and a small. ¹⁵ You shall have a perfect (full) and just weight, and a perfect and just measure, so that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you. ¹⁶ For everyone who does such things, everyone who acts unjustly [without personal integrity] is utterly repulsive to the Lord your God.

¹⁷ “Remember what Amalek did to you along the road when you came from Egypt, ¹⁸ how he met you along the road and attacked all the stragglers at your rear when you were tired and weary; and he did not ^[as]fear God.^{(N) 19} Therefore when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your surrounding enemies, in the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance to possess, you shall wipe out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you must not forget.

Offering First Fruits

26 “Then it shall be, when you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, and you take possession of it and live in it, ² that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground which you harvest from the land that the Lord your God gives you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the ^[at]place where the Lord your God chooses to establish His Name (Presence). ³ You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare this day to the Lord ^[au]my God that I have entered the land which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ ⁴ Then the priest will take the basket from you and place it before the altar of the Lord your God. ⁵ And you shall say before the Lord your God, ‘My father [Jacob] was a wandering Aramean, and he [along with his family] went down to Egypt and ^[av]lived there [as strangers], few in number; but while there he became a great, mighty and populous nation. ⁶ And the Egyptians treated us badly and oppressed us, and imposed hard labor on us. ⁷ Then we cried out to the Lord, the God of our fathers for help, and He heard our voice and saw our suffering and our labor and our [cruel] oppression; ⁸ and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with great terror [suffered by the Egyptians] and with signs and with wonders; ⁹ and He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, a land ^[aw]flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰ And now, look, I have brought the first of the produce of the ground which You, O Lord, have given me.’ And you shall place it before the Lord your God, and shall worship before the Lord your God; ¹¹ and you and the Levite and the stranger (resident alien, foreigner) among you shall rejoice in all the good which the Lord your God has given you and your household.

¹² “When you have finished ^[ax]paying all the tithe of your produce the third year, [which is] the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the stranger, to the orphan, and to the widow, so that they may eat within the gates of your cities and be satisfied. ¹³ You shall say before the Lord your God, ‘I have removed the sacred portion (the tithe) from my house and also have given it to the Levite, to the stranger, to the orphan, and to the widow, in accordance with all that You have commanded me. I have not transgressed or forgotten any of Your commandments. ¹⁴ I have not eaten from the tithe while mourning, nor have I removed any of it when I was [ceremonially] unclean [making the tithe ceremonially unclean], nor offered any of it to the dead. I have listened to the voice of the Lord my God; I have done everything in accordance with all that You have commanded me. ¹⁵ Look down from Your holy dwelling above, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel, and the land which You have given us, as You have sworn to our fathers, a land [of plenty] ^[ay]flowing with milk and honey.’

¹⁶ “This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and judgments (precepts). Therefore, you shall be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul (your entire being). ¹⁷ Today you have [openly] declared the Lord to be your God, and that you will walk [that is, live each and every day] in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments, and His judgments (precepts), and listen to His voice. ¹⁸ Today the Lord has declared that you are His people, His treasured possession, just as He promised you, and that you are to keep all His commandments; ¹⁹ and that He will set you high above all the nations which He has made, for praise, fame, and honor: and that you shall be a holy people [set apart and consecrated] to the Lord your God, just as He has spoken.”