Deuteronomy 9-14

World English Bible

9 Hear, Israel! You are to pass over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to the sky, ² a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard say, “Who can stand before the sons of Anak?” ³ Know therefore today that Yahweh your God is he who goes over before you as a devouring fire. He will destroy them and he will bring them down before you. So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as Yahweh has spoken to you.

⁴ Don’t say in your heart, after Yahweh your God has thrust them out from before you, “For my righteousness Yahweh has brought me in to possess this land;” because Yahweh drives them out before you because of the wickedness of these nations. ⁵ Not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart do you go in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations Yahweh your God does drive them out from before you, and that he may establish the word which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. ⁶ Know therefore that Yahweh your God doesn’t give you this good land to possess for your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people. ⁷ Remember, and don’t forget, how you provoked Yahweh your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you left the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against Yahweh. ⁸ Also in Horeb you provoked Yahweh to wrath, and Yahweh was angry with you to destroy you. ⁹ When I had gone up onto the mountain to receive the stone tablets, even the tablets of the covenant which Yahweh made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. ¹⁰ Yahweh delivered to me the two stone tablets written with God’s finger. On them were all the words which Yahweh spoke with you on the mountain out of the middle of the fire in the day of the assembly.

¹¹ It came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights that Yahweh gave me the two stone tablets, even the tablets of the covenant. ¹² Yahweh said to me, “Arise, get down quickly from here; for your people whom you have brought out of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned away from the way which I commanded them. They have made a molten image for themselves!”

¹³ Furthermore Yahweh spoke to me, saying, “I have seen these people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people. ¹⁴ Leave me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under the sky; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.”

¹⁵ So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire. The two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. ¹⁶ I looked, and behold, you had sinned against Yahweh your God. You had made yourselves a molded calf. You had quickly turned away from the way which Yahweh had commanded you. ¹⁷ I took hold of the two tablets, and threw them out of my two hands, and broke them before your eyes. ¹⁸ I fell down before Yahweh, as at the first, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you sinned, in doing that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, to provoke him to anger. ¹⁹ For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which Yahweh was angry against you to destroy you. But Yahweh listened to me that time also. ²⁰ Yahweh was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him. I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. ²¹ I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire, and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust. I threw its dust into the brook that descended out of the mountain. ²² At Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth Hattaavah you provoked Yahweh to wrath. ²³ When Yahweh sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, “Go up and possess the land which I have given you,” you rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh your God, and you didn’t believe him or listen to his voice. ²⁴ You have been rebellious against Yahweh from the day that I knew you. ²⁵ So I fell down before Yahweh the forty days and forty nights that I fell down, because Yahweh had said he would destroy you. ²⁶ I prayed to Yahweh, and said, “Lord Yahweh, don’t destroy your people and your inheritance that you have redeemed through your greatness, that you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²⁷ Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Don’t look at the stubbornness of this people, nor at their wickedness, nor at their sin, ²⁸ lest the land you brought us out from say, ‘Because Yahweh was not able to bring them into the land which he promised to them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.’ ²⁹ Yet they are your people and your inheritance, which you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.”

10 At that time Yahweh said to me, “Cut two stone tablets like the first, and come up to me onto the mountain, and make an ark of wood. ² I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke, and you shall put them in the ark.” ³ So I made an ark of acacia wood, and cut two stone tablets like the first, and went up onto the mountain, having the two tablets in my hand. ⁴ He wrote on the tablets, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which Yahweh spoke to you on the mountain out of the middle of the fire in the day of the assembly; and Yahweh gave them to me. ⁵ I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tablets in the ark which I had made; and there they are as Yahweh commanded me.

⁶ (The children of Israel traveled from Beeroth Bene Jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered in the priest’s office in his place. ⁷ From there they traveled to Gudgodah; and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of brooks of water. ⁸ At that time Yahweh set apart the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of Yahweh’s covenant, to stand before Yahweh to minister to him, and to bless in his name, to this day. ⁹ Therefore Levi has no portion nor inheritance with his brothers; Yahweh is his inheritance, according as Yahweh your God spoke to him.)

¹⁰ I stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights; and Yahweh listened to me that time also. Yahweh would not destroy you. ¹¹ Yahweh said to me, “Arise, take your journey before the people; and they shall go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give to them.”

¹² Now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God require of you, but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, and to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ to keep Yahweh’s commandments and statutes, which I command you today for your good? ¹⁴ Behold, to Yahweh your God belongs heaven, the heaven of heavens, and the earth, with all that is therein. ¹⁵ Only Yahweh had a delight in your fathers to love them, and he chose their offspring after them, even you above all peoples, as it is today. ¹⁶ Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked. ¹⁷ For Yahweh your God, he is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, and the awesome, who doesn’t respect persons or take bribes. ¹⁸ He executes justice for the fatherless and widow and loves the foreigner in giving him food and clothing. ¹⁹ Therefore love the foreigner, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. ²⁰ You shall fear Yahweh your God. You shall serve him. You shall cling to him, and you shall swear by his name. ²¹ He is your praise, and he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen. ²² Your fathers went down into Egypt with seventy persons; and now Yahweh your God has made you as the stars of the sky for multitude.

11 Therefore you shall love Yahweh your God, and keep his instructions, his statutes, his ordinances, and his commandments, always. ² Know this day—for I don’t speak with your children who have not known, and who have not seen the chastisement of Yahweh your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm, ³ his signs, and his works, which he did in the middle of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and to all his land; ⁴ and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the Red Sea to overflow them as they pursued you, and how Yahweh has destroyed them to this day; ⁵ and what he did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place; ⁶ and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben—how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the middle of all Israel; ⁷ but your eyes have seen all of Yahweh’s great work which he did.

⁸ Therefore you shall keep the entire commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land that you go over to possess; ⁹ and that you may prolong your days in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰ For the land, where you go in to possess isn’t like the land of Egypt that you came out of, where you sowed your seed and watered it with your foot, as a garden of herbs; ¹¹ but the land that you go over to possess is a land of hills and valleys which drinks water from the rain of the sky, ¹² a land which Yahweh your God cares for. Yahweh your God’s eyes are always on it, from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year. ¹³ It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to my commandments which I command you today, to love Yahweh your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹⁴ that I will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. ¹⁵ I will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full. ¹⁶ Be careful, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn away to serve other gods and worship them; ¹⁷ and Yahweh’s anger be kindled against you, and he shut up the sky so that there is no rain, and the land doesn’t yield its fruit; and you perish quickly from off the good land which Yahweh gives you. ¹⁸ Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul. You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. ¹⁹ You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. ²⁰ You shall write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates; ²¹ that your days and your children’s days may be multiplied in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens above the earth. ²² For if you shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you—to do them, to love Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cling to him— ²³ then Yahweh will drive out all these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves. ²⁴ Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even to the western sea shall be your border. ²⁵ No man will be able to stand before you. Yahweh your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you tread on, as he has spoken to you. ²⁶ Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: ²⁷ the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I command you today; ²⁸ and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, but turn away out of the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known. ²⁹ It shall happen, when Yahweh your God brings you into the land that you go to possess, that you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim, and the curse on Mount Ebal. ³⁰ Aren’t they beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah near Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh? ³¹ For you are to pass over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which Yahweh your God gives you, and you shall possess it and dwell in it. ³² You shall observe to do all the statutes and the ordinances which I set before you today.

12 These are the statutes and the ordinances which you shall observe to do in the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess all the days that you live on the earth. ² You shall surely destroy all the places in which the nations that you shall dispossess served their gods: on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree. ³ You shall break down their altars, dash their pillars in pieces, and burn their Asherah poles with fire. You shall cut down the engraved images of their gods. You shall destroy their name out of that place. ⁴ You shall not do so to Yahweh your God. ⁵ But to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, you shall seek his habitation, and you shall come there. ⁶ You shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, your vows, your free will offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock there. ⁷ There you shall eat before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, in which Yahweh your God has blessed you. ⁸ You shall not do all the things that we do here today, every man whatever is right in his own eyes; ⁹ for you haven’t yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which Yahweh your God gives you. ¹⁰ But when you go over the Jordan and dwell in the land which Yahweh your God causes you to inherit, and he gives you rest from all your enemies around you, so that you dwell in safety, ¹¹ then it shall happen that to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which you vow to Yahweh. ¹² You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God—you, and your sons, your daughters, your male servants, your female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you. ¹³ Be careful that you don’t offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; ¹⁴ but in the place which Yahweh chooses in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.

¹⁵ Yet you may kill and eat meat within all your gates, after all the desire of your soul, according to Yahweh your God’s blessing which he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and the deer. ¹⁶ Only you shall not eat the blood. You shall pour it out on the earth like water. ¹⁷ You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain, or of your new wine, or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, nor any of your vows which you vow, nor your free will offerings, nor the wave offering of your hand; ¹⁸ but you shall eat them before Yahweh your God in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates. You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God in all that you put your hand to. ¹⁹ Be careful that you don’t forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.

²⁰ When Yahweh your God enlarges your border, as he has promised you, and you say, “I want to eat meat,” because your soul desires to eat meat, you may eat meat, after all the desire of your soul. ²¹ If the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to put his name is too far from you, then you shall kill of your herd and of your flock, which Yahweh has given you, as I have commanded you; and you may eat within your gates, after all the desire of your soul. ²² Even as the gazelle and as the deer is eaten, so you shall eat of it. The unclean and the clean may eat of it alike. ²³ Only be sure that you don’t eat the blood; for the blood is the life. You shall not eat the life with the meat. ²⁴ You shall not eat it. You shall pour it out on the earth like water. ²⁵ You shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, when you do that which is right in Yahweh’s eyes. ²⁶ Only your holy things which you have, and your vows, you shall take and go to the place which Yahweh shall choose. ²⁷ You shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on Yahweh your God’s altar. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on Yahweh your God’s altar, and you shall eat the meat. ²⁸ Observe and hear all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do that which is good and right in Yahweh your God’s eyes.

²⁹ When Yahweh your God cuts off the nations from before you where you go in to dispossess them, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, ³⁰ be careful that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you, and that you not inquire after their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.” ³¹ You shall not do so to Yahweh your God; for every abomination to Yahweh, which he hates, they have done to their gods; for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. ³² Whatever thing I command you, that you shall observe to do. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it.

13 If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, ² and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, “Let’s go after other gods” (which you have not known) “and let’s serve them,” ³ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet, or to that dreamer of dreams; for Yahweh your God is testing you, to know whether you love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul. ⁴ You shall walk after Yahweh your God, fear him, keep his commandments, and obey his voice. You shall serve him, and cling to him. ⁵ That prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death, because he has spoken rebellion against Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to draw you aside out of the way which Yahweh your God commanded you to walk in. So you shall remove the evil from among you.

⁶ If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, entices you secretly, saying, “Let’s go and serve other gods”—which you have not known, you, nor your fathers; ⁷ of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near to you, or far off from you, from the one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth— ⁸ you shall not consent to him nor listen to him; neither shall your eye pity him, neither shall you spare, neither shall you conceal him; ⁹ but you shall surely kill him. Your hand shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterwards the hands of all the people. ¹⁰ You shall stone him to death with stones, because he has sought to draw you away from Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. ¹¹ All Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall not do any more wickedness like this among you.

¹² If you hear about one of your cities, which Yahweh your God gives you to dwell there, that ¹³ certain wicked fellows have gone out from among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, “Let’s go and serve other gods,” which you have not known, ¹⁴ then you shall inquire, investigate, and ask diligently. Behold, if it is true, and the thing certain, that such abomination was done among you, ¹⁵ you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, with all that is therein and its livestock, with the edge of the sword. ¹⁶ You shall gather all its plunder into the middle of its street, and shall burn with fire the city, with all of its plunder, to Yahweh your God. It shall be a heap forever. It shall not be built again. ¹⁷ Nothing of the devoted thing shall cling to your hand, that Yahweh may turn from the fierceness of his anger and show you mercy, and have compassion on you and multiply you, as he has sworn to your fathers, ¹⁸ when you listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, to keep all his commandments which I command you today, to do that which is right in Yahweh your God’s eyes.

14 You are the children of Yahweh your God. You shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. ² For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God, and Yahweh has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth.

³ You shall not eat any abominable thing. ⁴ These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, ⁵ the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the chamois. ⁶ Every animal that parts the hoof, and has the hoof split in two and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat. ⁷ Nevertheless these you shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of those who have the hoof split: the camel, the hare, and the rabbit. Because they chew the cud but don’t part the hoof, they are unclean to you. ⁸ The pig, because it has a split hoof but doesn’t chew the cud, is unclean to you. You shall not eat their meat. You shall not touch their carcasses. ⁹ These you may eat of all that are in the waters: you may eat whatever has fins and scales. ¹⁰ You shall not eat whatever doesn’t have fins and scales. It is unclean to you. ¹¹ Of all clean birds you may eat. ¹² But these are they of which you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the osprey, ¹³ the red kite, the falcon, the kite of any kind, ¹⁴ every raven of any kind, ¹⁵ the ostrich, the owl, the seagull, the hawk of any kind, ¹⁶ the little owl, the great owl, the horned owl, ¹⁷ the pelican, the vulture, the cormorant, ¹⁸ the stork, the heron after its kind, the hoopoe, and the bat. ¹⁹ All winged creeping things are unclean to you. They shall not be eaten. ²⁰ Of all clean birds you may eat.

²¹ You shall not eat of anything that dies of itself. You may give it to the foreigner living among you who is within your gates, that he may eat it; or you may sell it to a foreigner; for you are a holy people to Yahweh your God.

You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

²² You shall surely tithe all the increase of your seed, that which comes out of the field year by year. ²³ You shall eat before Yahweh your God, in the place which he chooses to cause his name to dwell, the tithe of your grain, of your new wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock; that you may learn to fear Yahweh your God always. ²⁴ If the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry it because the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to set his name there is too far from you, when Yahweh your God blesses you, ²⁵ then you shall turn it into money, bind up the money in your hand, and shall go to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose. ²⁶ You shall trade the money for whatever your soul desires: for cattle, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatever your soul asks of you. You shall eat there before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household. ²⁷ You shall not forsake the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no portion nor inheritance with you. ²⁸ At the end of every three years you shall bring all the tithe of your increase in the same year, and shall store it within your gates. ²⁹ The Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, as well as the foreigner living among you, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your gates shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.