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Deuteronomy 16-19
English Standard Version
Deuteronomy 16-19
English Standard Version
Passover
16 “Observe the (A)month of Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for (B)in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. 2 And you shall offer the Passover sacrifice to the Lord your God, from the flock or (C)the herd, (D)at the place that the Lord will choose, to make his name dwell there. 3 You shall eat no leavened bread with it. (E)Seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction—for you came out of the land of Egypt (F)in haste—that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. 4 (G)No leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory for seven days, (H)nor shall any of the flesh that you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain all night until morning. 5 You may not offer the Passover sacrifice within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, 6 but at the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell in it, there you shall offer the Passover sacrifice, in the evening at sunset, at the time you came out of Egypt. 7 And you shall cook it and eat it at the place that the Lord your God will choose. And in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents. 8 For (I)six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be (J)a solemn assembly to the Lord your God. You shall do no work on it.
The Feast of Weeks
9 (K)“You shall count seven weeks. Begin to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain. 10 Then you shall keep (L)the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with (M)the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give (N)as the Lord your God blesses you. 11 And (O)you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your towns, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, at the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there. 12 (P)You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt; and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.
The Feast of Booths
13 (Q)“You shall keep the Feast of Booths seven days, when you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and your winepress. 14 (R)You shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns. 15 For (S)seven days you shall keep the feast to the Lord your God at the place that the Lord will choose, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.
16 (T)“Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Booths. (U)They shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed. 17 Every man (V)shall give as he is able, (W)according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you.
Justice
18 “You shall appoint (X)judges and officers in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. 19 (Y)You shall not pervert justice. (Z)You shall not show partiality, (AA)and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. 20 Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
Forbidden Forms of Worship
21 “You shall not plant any tree as (AB)an Asherah beside the altar of the Lord your God that you shall make. 22 And you shall not set up a pillar, which the Lord your God hates.
17 (AC)“You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep in which is a blemish, any defect whatever, for that is an abomination to the Lord your God.
2 (AD)“If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, (AE)in transgressing his covenant, 3 and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or (AF)the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, (AG)which I have forbidden, 4 and it is told you and you hear of it, then you shall inquire (AH)diligently, and if it is true and certain that such an abomination has been done in Israel, 5 then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you (AI)shall stone that man or woman to death with stones. 6 (AJ)On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. 7 (AK)The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So (AL)you shall purge[a] the evil[b] from your midst.
Legal Decisions by Priests and Judges
8 “If any case arises requiring decision between one kind of homicide and another, one kind of legal right and another, or one kind of assault and another, any case within your towns that is too difficult for you, then you shall arise and go up to (AM)the place that the Lord your God will choose. 9 (AN)And you shall come to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall consult them, and (AO)they shall declare to you the decision. 10 Then you shall do according to what they declare to you from that place that the Lord will choose. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they direct you. 11 According to the instructions that they give you, and according to the decision which they pronounce to you, you shall do. You shall not turn aside from the verdict that they declare to you, either to the right hand or to the left. 12 The man who (AP)acts presumptuously by not obeying the priest (AQ)who stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So (AR)you shall purge the evil from Israel. 13 And all the people (AS)shall hear and fear and not act presumptuously again.
Laws Concerning Israel's Kings
14 “When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, (AT)‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ 15 you may indeed set a king over you (AU)whom the Lord your God will choose. One (AV)from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. 16 Only he must not acquire many (AW)horses for himself or cause the people (AX)to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, (AY)‘You shall never return that way again.’ 17 And he (AZ)shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, (BA)nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.
18 “And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, (BB)he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, (BC)approved by[c] the Levitical priests. 19 And (BD)it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, (BE)that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, 20 that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he (BF)may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, (BG)so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.
Provision for Priests and Levites
18 “The Levitical priests, all the tribe of Levi, (BH)shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They (BI)shall eat the Lord's food offerings[d] as their[e] inheritance. 2 They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the Lord is their inheritance, as he promised them. 3 And this shall be the priests' due from the people, from those offering a sacrifice, whether an ox or a sheep: (BJ)they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach. 4 (BK)The firstfruits of your grain, of your wine and of your oil, and the first fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. 5 For the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes (BL)to stand and minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons for all time.
6 “And if a Levite comes from any of your towns out of all Israel, (BM)where he lives—and he may come when he desires[f]—(BN)to the place that the Lord will choose, 7 and ministers in the name of the Lord his God, (BO)like all his fellow Levites who stand to minister there before the Lord, 8 then he may have equal (BP)portions to eat, besides what he receives from the sale of his patrimony.[g]
Abominable Practices
9 “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, (BQ)you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone (BR)who burns his son or his daughter as an offering,[h] anyone who (BS)practices divination or (BT)tells fortunes or interprets omens, or (BU)a sorcerer 11 or a charmer or (BV)a medium or a necromancer or (BW)one who inquires of the dead, 12 (BX)for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And (BY)because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. 13 You shall be blameless before the Lord your God, 14 for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this.
A New Prophet like Moses
15 (BZ)“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— 16 just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb (CA)on the day of the assembly, when you said, (CB)‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ 17 And the Lord said to me, (CC)‘They are right in what they have spoken. 18 (CD)I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. (CE)And I will put my words in his mouth, and (CF)he shall speak to them all that I command him. 19 (CG)And whoever will (CH)not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. 20 (CI)But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or[i] who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ 21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— 22 (CJ)when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; (CK)the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.
Laws Concerning Cities of Refuge
19 “When (CL)the Lord your God cuts off the nations whose land the Lord your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses, 2 (CM)you shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess. 3 You shall measure the distances[j] and divide into three parts the area of the land that the Lord your God gives you as a possession, so that any manslayer can flee to them.
4 “This is the provision for (CN)the manslayer, who by fleeing there may save his life. If anyone kills his neighbor unintentionally without having hated him in the past— 5 as when someone goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down a tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live, 6 lest (CO)the avenger of blood in hot anger pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him fatally, though the man did not deserve to die, since he had not hated his neighbor in the past. 7 Therefore I command you, You shall set apart three cities. 8 (CP)And if the Lord your God enlarges your territory, (CQ)as he has sworn to your fathers, and (CR)gives you all the land that he promised to give to your fathers— 9 provided you are careful to keep all this commandment, which I command you today, by loving the Lord your God and by walking ever in his ways—(CS)then you shall add three other cities to these three, 10 lest innocent blood be shed in your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, and so the guilt of bloodshed be upon you.
11 “But if anyone hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and attacks him (CT)and strikes him fatally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities, 12 then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die. 13 (CU)Your eye shall not pity him, (CV)but you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood[k] from Israel, so that it may be well with you.
Property Boundaries
14 (CW)“You shall not move your neighbor's landmark, which the men of old have set, in the inheritance that you will hold in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.
Laws Concerning Witnesses
15 “A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. (CX)Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established. 16 If (CY)a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, 17 then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, (CZ)before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. 18 The judges shall (DA)inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, 19 (DB)then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil[l] from your midst. 20 And the rest (DC)shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you. 21 (DD)Your eye shall not pity. (DE)It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 17:7 Septuagint drive out; also verse 12
- Deuteronomy 17:7 Or evil person; also verse 12
- Deuteronomy 17:18 Hebrew from before
- Deuteronomy 18:1 Or the offerings by fire to the Lord
- Deuteronomy 18:1 Hebrew his
- Deuteronomy 18:6 Or lives—if he comes enthusiastically
- Deuteronomy 18:8 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain
- Deuteronomy 18:10 Hebrew makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire
- Deuteronomy 18:20 Or and
- Deuteronomy 19:3 Hebrew road
- Deuteronomy 19:13 Or the blood of the innocent
- Deuteronomy 19:19 Or evil person
Deuteronomy 16-19
New International Version
Deuteronomy 16-19
New International Version
The Passover(A)
16 Observe the month of Aviv(B) and celebrate the Passover(C) of the Lord your God, because in the month of Aviv he brought you out of Egypt by night. 2 Sacrifice as the Passover to the Lord your God an animal from your flock or herd at the place the Lord will choose as a dwelling for his Name.(D) 3 Do not eat it with bread made with yeast, but for seven days eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction,(E) because you left Egypt in haste(F)—so that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt.(G) 4 Let no yeast be found in your possession in all your land for seven days. Do not let any of the meat you sacrifice on the evening(H) of the first day remain until morning.(I)
5 You must not sacrifice the Passover in any town the Lord your God gives you 6 except in the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name. There you must sacrifice the Passover in the evening, when the sun goes down, on the anniversary[a](J) of your departure from Egypt. 7 Roast(K) it and eat it at the place the Lord your God will choose. Then in the morning return to your tents. 8 For six days eat unleavened bread and on the seventh day hold an assembly(L) to the Lord your God and do no work.(M)
The Festival of Weeks(N)
9 Count off seven weeks(O) from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain.(P) 10 Then celebrate the Festival of Weeks to the Lord your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the Lord your God has given you. 11 And rejoice(Q) before the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name(R)—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites(S) in your towns, and the foreigners,(T) the fatherless and the widows living among you.(U) 12 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt,(V) and follow carefully these decrees.
The Festival of Tabernacles(W)
13 Celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor(X) and your winepress.(Y) 14 Be joyful(Z) at your festival—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. 15 For seven days celebrate the festival to the Lord your God at the place the Lord will choose. For the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy(AA) will be complete.
16 Three times a year all your men must appear(AB) before the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread,(AC) the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles.(AD) No one should appear before the Lord empty-handed:(AE) 17 Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the Lord your God has blessed you.
Judges
18 Appoint judges(AF) and officials for each of your tribes in every town the Lord your God is giving you, and they shall judge the people fairly.(AG) 19 Do not pervert justice(AH) or show partiality.(AI) Do not accept a bribe,(AJ) for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the innocent. 20 Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the Lord your God is giving you.
Worshiping Other Gods
21 Do not set up any wooden Asherah pole(AK) beside the altar you build to the Lord your God,(AL) 22 and do not erect a sacred stone,(AM) for these the Lord your God hates.
17 Do not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep that has any defect(AN) or flaw in it, for that would be detestable(AO) to him.(AP)
2 If a man or woman living among you in one of the towns the Lord gives you is found doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God in violation of his covenant,(AQ) 3 and contrary to my command(AR) has worshiped other gods,(AS) bowing down to them or to the sun(AT) or the moon or the stars in the sky,(AU) 4 and this has been brought to your attention, then you must investigate it thoroughly. If it is true(AV) and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done in Israel,(AW) 5 take the man or woman who has done this evil deed to your city gate and stone that person to death.(AX) 6 On the testimony of two or three witnesses a person is to be put to death, but no one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness.(AY) 7 The hands of the witnesses must be the first in putting that person to death,(AZ) and then the hands of all the people.(BA) You must purge the evil(BB) from among you.
Law Courts
8 If cases come before your courts that are too difficult for you to judge(BC)—whether bloodshed, lawsuits or assaults(BD)—take them to the place the Lord your God will choose.(BE) 9 Go to the Levitical(BF) priests and to the judge(BG) who is in office at that time. Inquire of them and they will give you the verdict.(BH) 10 You must act according to the decisions they give you at the place the Lord will choose. Be careful to do everything they instruct you to do. 11 Act according to whatever they teach you and the decisions they give you. Do not turn aside from what they tell you, to the right or to the left.(BI) 12 Anyone who shows contempt(BJ) for the judge or for the priest who stands ministering(BK) there to the Lord your God is to be put to death.(BL) You must purge the evil from Israel.(BM) 13 All the people will hear and be afraid, and will not be contemptuous again.(BN)
The King
14 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession(BO) of it and settled in it,(BP) and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,”(BQ) 15 be sure to appoint(BR) over you a king the Lord your God chooses. He must be from among your fellow Israelites.(BS) Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not an Israelite. 16 The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses(BT) for himself(BU) or make the people return to Egypt(BV) to get more of them,(BW) for the Lord has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.”(BX) 17 He must not take many wives,(BY) or his heart will be led astray.(BZ) He must not accumulate(CA) large amounts of silver and gold.(CB)
18 When he takes the throne(CC) of his kingdom, he is to write(CD) for himself on a scroll a copy(CE) of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. 19 It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life(CF) so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees(CG) 20 and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law(CH) to the right or to the left.(CI) Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.(CJ)
Offerings for Priests and Levites
18 The Levitical(CK) priests—indeed, the whole tribe of Levi—are to have no allotment or inheritance with Israel. They shall live on the food offerings(CL) presented to the Lord, for that is their inheritance.(CM) 2 They shall have no inheritance among their fellow Israelites; the Lord is their inheritance,(CN) as he promised them.(CO)
3 This is the share due the priests(CP) from the people who sacrifice a bull(CQ) or a sheep: the shoulder, the internal organs and the meat from the head.(CR) 4 You are to give them the firstfruits of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the first wool from the shearing of your sheep,(CS) 5 for the Lord your God has chosen them(CT) and their descendants out of all your tribes to stand and minister(CU) in the Lord’s name always.(CV)
6 If a Levite moves from one of your towns anywhere in Israel where he is living, and comes in all earnestness to the place the Lord will choose,(CW) 7 he may minister in the name(CX) of the Lord his God like all his fellow Levites who serve there in the presence of the Lord. 8 He is to share equally in their benefits, even though he has received money from the sale of family possessions.(CY)
Occult Practices
9 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate(CZ) the detestable ways(DA) of the nations there. 10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire,(DB) who practices divination(DC) or sorcery,(DD) interprets omens, engages in witchcraft,(DE) 11 or casts spells,(DF) or who is a medium or spiritist(DG) or who consults the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you.(DH) 13 You must be blameless(DI) before the Lord your God.(DJ)
The Prophet
14 The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination.(DK) But as for you, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do so. 15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites.(DL) You must listen to him. 16 For this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.”(DM)
17 The Lord said to me: “What they say is good. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet(DN) like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words(DO) in his mouth.(DP) He will tell them everything I command him.(DQ) 19 I myself will call to account(DR) anyone who does not listen(DS) to my words that the prophet speaks in my name.(DT) 20 But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods,(DU) is to be put to death.”(DV)
21 You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?” 22 If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true,(DW) that is a message the Lord has not spoken.(DX) That prophet has spoken presumptuously,(DY) so do not be alarmed.
Cities of Refuge(DZ)
19 When the Lord your God has destroyed the nations whose land he is giving you, and when you have driven them out and settled in their towns and houses,(EA) 2 then set aside for yourselves three cities in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess. 3 Determine the distances involved and divide into three parts the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, so that a person who kills someone may flee for refuge to one of these cities.
4 This is the rule concerning anyone who kills a person and flees there for safety—anyone who kills a neighbor unintentionally, without malice aforethought. 5 For instance, a man may go into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and as he swings his ax to fell a tree, the head may fly off and hit his neighbor and kill him. That man may flee to one of these cities and save his life. 6 Otherwise, the avenger of blood(EB) might pursue him in a rage, overtake him if the distance is too great, and kill him even though he is not deserving of death, since he did it to his neighbor without malice aforethought. 7 This is why I command you to set aside for yourselves three cities.
8 If the Lord your God enlarges your territory,(EC) as he promised(ED) on oath to your ancestors, and gives you the whole land he promised them, 9 because you carefully follow all these laws I command you today—to love the Lord your God and to walk always in obedience to him(EE)—then you are to set aside three more cities. 10 Do this so that innocent blood(EF) will not be shed in your land, which the Lord your God is giving you as your inheritance, and so that you will not be guilty of bloodshed.(EG)
11 But if out of hate someone lies in wait, assaults and kills a neighbor,(EH) and then flees to one of these cities, 12 the killer shall be sent for by the town elders, be brought back from the city, and be handed over to the avenger of blood to die. 13 Show no pity.(EI) You must purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood,(EJ) so that it may go well with you.
14 Do not move your neighbor’s boundary stone set up by your predecessors in the inheritance you receive in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess.(EK)
Witnesses
15 One witness is not enough to convict anyone accused of any crime or offense they may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.(EL)
16 If a malicious witness(EM) takes the stand to accuse someone of a crime, 17 the two people involved in the dispute must stand in the presence of the Lord before the priests and the judges(EN) who are in office at the time. 18 The judges must make a thorough investigation,(EO) and if the witness proves to be a liar, giving false testimony against a fellow Israelite, 19 then do to the false witness as that witness intended to do to the other party.(EP) You must purge the evil from among you. 20 The rest of the people will hear of this and be afraid,(EQ) and never again will such an evil thing be done among you. 21 Show no pity:(ER) life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.(ES)
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 16:6 Or down, at the time of day
English Standard Version (ESV) 
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New International Version (NIV) 
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