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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.”

Notas al pie

  1. Deuteronomy 17:4 Lit the word is certain.
  2. Deuteronomy 17:6 Lit By the mouth of.
  3. Deuteronomy 17:8 Lit any words of judgment.
  4. Deuteronomy 17:8 Lit gates.
  5. Deuteronomy 17:9 Lit the word of judgment.
  6. Deuteronomy 17:16 Lit multiply for himself and so throughout.
  7. Deuteronomy 18:2 Certain towns and grazing lands were designated for the Levites’ use, as well as portions of the tithes and sacrifices of the people.
  8. Deuteronomy 18:6 Lit it pleases his soul.
  9. Deuteronomy 18:7 The literal Hebrew here is “stand before the face of,” and in this context it implies “stand ready to serve.”
  10. Deuteronomy 18:8 They were to share equally in the benefits of the priesthood.
  11. Deuteronomy 18:15 Or Prophet, if this is a prophetic reference to Jesus.
  12. Deuteronomy 19:6 The nearest male relative of the victim, known as the “kinsman-redeemer” (Heb go’el), was responsible to find the guilty party and put him to death (Num 35:19). The person who had committed the homicide was protected until his trial, so long as he remained in one of the three cities. After that, if he was judged innocent of any premeditation (like someone today judged guilty of manslaughter, but not murder), he was to remain in the city under protection from the avenger until the death of the high priest, at which time he could return to his home as a free man (Num 35:28).
  13. Deuteronomy 19:15 Lit in the mouth of.
  14. Deuteronomy 20:5 Lit people and so throughout.
  15. Deuteronomy 20:5 I.e. to the temple. The rabbis said that ownership of a house was required for dedication. Here, dedication seems to have established ownership when the original owner died.
  16. Deuteronomy 20:5 The point of the admonitions in vv 5-8 is that with the Lord’s help, Israel would have no need of a large military force, and the officers could afford to dismiss anyone who was not completely prepared for battle.
  17. Deuteronomy 20:19 Lit many days.
  18. Deuteronomy 20:20 Lit trees for eating.
  19. Deuteronomy 20:20 I.e. battering rams, ladders, towers, etc.
  20. Deuteronomy 21:14 Lit to her soul.
  21. Deuteronomy 21:15 Lit hated, the Hebrew word does not seem always to indicate a hostile attitude, but sometimes more of a sense of rejection.
  22. Deuteronomy 21:22 In the time of the Roman Empire, the rabbis insisted that the Jews were more humane than the Romans because Jews did not use crucifixion as a means of execution. They maintained that only the corpse was hanged.
  23. Deuteronomy 22:1 Lit hide yourself from them, and so throughout the chapter.
  24. Deuteronomy 22:10 As a practical matter, the two different species would not work well together, particularly pulling a plow, wagon, etc.
  25. Deuteronomy 22:14 Lit brings upon her an evil name.
  26. Deuteronomy 22:17 I.e. a blood-stained bed sheet or item of clothing from the wedding night.
  27. Deuteronomy 22:19 Lit brought an evil name upon.
  28. Deuteronomy 22:22 Lit found lying, and so throughout.
  29. Deuteronomy 22:26 Lit his soul.
  30. Deuteronomy 22:29 Lit all his days.
  31. Deuteronomy 22:30 In Hebrew this is 23:1, changing the versification throughout the following chapter.
  32. Deuteronomy 22:30 Lit uncover his father’s skirt.
  33. Deuteronomy 23:2 That is, one who was born from incest, an adulterous relationship, or a mixed marriage (a Jew or a Jewess and a Gentile).
  34. Deuteronomy 23:3 Ruth, one of the ancestors of Jesus, was a Moabitess, but she essentially became an Israelite (Ruth 1:16) and married an Israelite (Boaz). Moreover, the rabbis taught that Deut 23:3 applied only to Ammonite and Moabite men. This teaching was summarized by what became a common saying: “An Ammonite [is forbidden], but not an Ammonitess; a Moabite, but not a Moabitess!” (as quoted from the Talmud).
  35. Deuteronomy 23:20 Lit all to which your hand is put.
  36. Deuteronomy 23:21 The abuse of vows was a practice for which Jesus sternly rebuked the Pharisees. There were at least two kinds of abuse for which they were rightly held responsible: 1) their approval of vows which should have been overruled and rejected because they violated even more important commandments (see Matt 15:3-6); and 2) inappropriate or hair-splitting criteria for determining the validity of a vow (Matt 23:16-22).
  37. Deuteronomy 23:24 Lit according to your soul.
  38. Deuteronomy 23:25 When Jesus and His disciples picked some grain in this manner, they were not charged with theft by the Pharisees, but of doing work on the Sabbath, which was clearly not the case (Matt 12:1-6).
  39. Deuteronomy 24:1 Lit finds no favor in his eyes.
  40. Deuteronomy 24:3 Lit hates.
  41. Deuteronomy 24:12 A poor man might have only an outer garment to offer as a pledge of repayment.
  42. Deuteronomy 24:15 Lit sets his heart.
  43. Deuteronomy 24:19 The divine laws for harvesting give a clear picture of how Israel was to provide for the feeding of the poor and destitute, in addition to charitable contributions which were required or expected of anyone who was able. The owner of a field or farm was entitled to everything he could harvest with a reasonable effort. God reserved any leftovers for the poor, who for their part had to put in their own efforts to glean the fields. These laws are examples of charity in cooperation with fairness and the work ethic.
  44. Deuteronomy 25:6 Lit stand on.
  45. Deuteronomy 25:18 Or reverence.
  46. Deuteronomy 26:2 Some scholars believe this refers to Jerusalem, others suggest the tabernacle. This is not to be confused with the annual offering of the first fruits.
  47. Deuteronomy 26:3 So with Gr; Heb your.
  48. Deuteronomy 26:5 Lit sojourned.
  49. Deuteronomy 26:9 This phrase referred to the abundant fertility of the land of Canaan. Milk (typically that of goats and sheep) was associated with abundance; “honey” referred mainly to syrups made from dates or grapes and was the epitome of sweetness. Bees’ honey was very rare and was considered the choicest of foods.
  50. Deuteronomy 26:12 This is a reference to a benevolence offering given every three years (called the “tithe of the poor” by the ancient rabbis). This was in addition to the “Storehouse Tithe,” brought to the sanctuary and the “Pilgrimage Tithe” used for the expenses of going to Jerusalem three times each year. Together, the OT tithe amounted to a third of the total.
  51. Deuteronomy 26:15 See note v 9.
Close NLT

Deuteronomy 17-26
New Living Translation

17 “Never sacrifice sick or defective cattle, sheep, or goats to the Lord your God, for he detests such gifts.

2 “When you begin living in the towns the Lord your God is giving you, a man or woman among you might do evil in the sight of the Lord your God and violate the covenant. 3 For instance, they might serve other gods or worship the sun, the moon, or any of the stars—the forces of heaven—which I have strictly forbidden. 4 When you hear about it, investigate the matter thoroughly. If it is true that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, 5 then the man or woman who has committed such an evil act must be taken to the gates of the town and stoned to death. 6 But never put a person to death on the testimony of only one witness. There must always be two or three witnesses. 7 The witnesses must throw the first stones, and then all the people may join in. In this way, you will purge the evil from among you.

8 “Suppose a case arises in a local court that is too hard for you to decide—for instance, whether someone is guilty of murder or only of manslaughter, or a difficult lawsuit, or a case involving different kinds of assault. Take such legal cases to the place the Lord your God will choose, 9 and present them to the Levitical priests or the judge on duty at that time. They will hear the case and declare the verdict. 10 You must carry out the verdict they announce and the sentence they prescribe at the place the Lord chooses. You must do exactly what they say. 11 After they have interpreted the law and declared their verdict, the sentence they impose must be fully executed; do not modify it in any way. 12 Anyone arrogant enough to reject the verdict of the judge or of the priest who represents the Lord your God must die. In this way you will purge the evil from Israel. 13 Then everyone else will hear about it and be afraid to act so arrogantly.

Guidelines for a King

14 “You are about to enter the land the Lord your God is giving you. When you take it over and settle there, you may think, ‘We should select a king to rule over us like the other nations around us.’ 15 If this happens, be sure to select as king the man the Lord your God chooses. You must appoint a fellow Israelite; he may not be a foreigner.

16 “The king must not build up a large stable of horses for himself or send his people to Egypt to buy horses, for the Lord has told you, ‘You must never return to Egypt.’ 17 The king must not take many wives for himself, because they will turn his heart away from the Lord. And he must not accumulate large amounts of wealth in silver and gold for himself.

18 “When he sits on the throne as king, he must copy for himself this body of instruction on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. 19 He must always keep that copy with him and read it daily as long as he lives. That way he will learn to fear the Lord his God by obeying all the terms of these instructions and decrees. 20 This regular reading will prevent him from becoming proud and acting as if he is above his fellow citizens. It will also prevent him from turning away from these commands in the smallest way. And it will ensure that he and his descendants will reign for many generations in Israel.

Gifts for the Priests and Levites

18 “Remember that the Levitical priests—that is, the whole of the tribe of Levi—will receive no allotment of land among the other tribes in Israel. Instead, the priests and Levites will eat from the special gifts given to the Lord, for that is their share. 2 They will have no land of their own among the Israelites. The Lord himself is their special possession, just as he promised them.

3 “These are the parts the priests may claim as their share from the cattle, sheep, and goats that the people bring as offerings: the shoulder, the cheeks, and the stomach. 4 You must also give to the priests the first share of the grain, the new wine, the olive oil, and the wool at shearing time. 5 For the Lord your God chose the tribe of Levi out of all your tribes to minister in the Lord’s name forever.

6 “Suppose a Levite chooses to move from his town in Israel, wherever he is living, to the place the Lord chooses for worship. 7 He may minister there in the name of the Lord his God, just like all his fellow Levites who are serving the Lord there. 8 He may eat his share of the sacrifices and offerings, even if he also receives support from his family.

A Call to Holy Living

9 “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, be very careful not to imitate the detestable customs of the nations living there. 10 For example, never sacrifice your son or daughter as a burnt offering.[a] And do not let your people practice fortune-telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, 11 or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord. It is because the other nations have done these detestable things that the Lord your God will drive them out ahead of you. 13 But you must be blameless before the Lord your God. 14 The nations you are about to displace consult sorcerers and fortune-tellers, but the Lord your God forbids you to do such things.”

True and False Prophets

15 Moses continued, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. 16 For this is what you yourselves requested of the Lord your God when you were assembled at Mount Sinai.[b] You said, ‘Don’t let us hear the voice of the Lord our God anymore or see this blazing fire, for we will die.’

17 “Then the Lord said to me, ‘What they have said is right. 18 I will raise up a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell the people everything I command him. 19 I will personally deal with anyone who will not listen to the messages the prophet proclaims on my behalf. 20 But any prophet who falsely claims to speak in my name or who speaks in the name of another god must die.’

21 “But you may wonder, ‘How will we know whether or not a prophecy is from the Lord?’ 22 If the prophet speaks in the Lord’s name but his prediction does not happen or come true, you will know that the Lord did not give that message. That prophet has spoken without my authority and need not be feared.

Cities of Refuge

19 “When the Lord your God destroys the nations whose land he is giving you, you will take over their land and settle in their towns and homes. 2 Then you must set apart three cities of refuge in the land the Lord your God is giving you. 3 Survey the territory,[c] and divide the land the Lord your God is giving you into three districts, with one of these cities in each district. Then anyone who has killed someone can flee to one of the cities of refuge for safety.

4 “If someone kills another person unintentionally, without previous hostility, the slayer may flee to any of these cities to live in safety. 5 For example, suppose someone goes into the forest with a neighbor to cut wood. And suppose one of them swings an ax to chop down a tree, and the ax head flies off the handle, killing the other person. In such cases, the slayer may flee to one of the cities of refuge to live in safety.

6 “If the distance to the nearest city of refuge is too far, an enraged avenger might be able to chase down and kill the person who caused the death. Then the slayer would die unfairly, since he had never shown hostility toward the person who died. 7 That is why I am commanding you to set aside three cities of refuge.

8 “And if the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he swore to your ancestors, and gives you all the land he promised them, 9 you must designate three additional cities of refuge. (He will give you this land if you are careful to obey all the commands I have given you—if you always love the Lord your God and walk in his ways.) 10 That way you will prevent the death of innocent people in the land the Lord your God is giving you as your special possession. You will not be held responsible for the death of innocent people.

11 “But suppose someone is hostile toward a neighbor and deliberately ambushes and murders him and then flees to one of the cities of refuge. 12 In that case, the elders of the murderer’s hometown must send agents to the city of refuge to bring him back and hand him over to the dead person’s avenger to be put to death. 13 Do not feel sorry for that murderer! Purge from Israel the guilt of murdering innocent people; then all will go well with you.

Concern for Justice

14 “When you arrive in the land the Lord your God is giving you as your special possession, you must never steal anyone’s land by moving the boundary markers your ancestors set up to mark their property.

15 “You must not convict anyone of a crime on the testimony of only one witness. The facts of the case must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

16 “If a malicious witness comes forward and accuses someone of a crime, 17 then both the accuser and accused must appear before the Lord by coming to the priests and judges in office at that time. 18 The judges must investigate the case thoroughly. If the accuser has brought false charges against his fellow Israelite, 19 you must impose on the accuser the sentence he intended for the other person. In this way, you will purge such evil from among you. 20 Then the rest of the people will hear about it and be afraid to do such an evil thing. 21 You must show no pity for the guilty! Your rule should be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Regulations concerning War

20 “When you go out to fight your enemies and you face horses and chariots and an army greater than your own, do not be afraid. The Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, is with you! 2 When you prepare for battle, the priest must come forward to speak to the troops. 3 He will say to them, ‘Listen to me, all you men of Israel! Do not be afraid as you go out to fight your enemies today! Do not lose heart or panic or tremble before them. 4 For the Lord your God is going with you! He will fight for you against your enemies, and he will give you victory!’

5 “Then the officers of the army must address the troops and say, ‘Has anyone here just built a new house but not yet dedicated it? If so, you may go home! You might be killed in the battle, and someone else would dedicate your house. 6 Has anyone here just planted a vineyard but not yet eaten any of its fruit? If so, you may go home! You might die in battle, and someone else would eat the first fruit. 7 Has anyone here just become engaged to a woman but not yet married her? Well, you may go home and get married! You might die in the battle, and someone else would marry her.’

8 “Then the officers will also say, ‘Is anyone here afraid or worried? If you are, you may go home before you frighten anyone else.’ 9 When the officers have finished speaking to their troops, they will appoint the unit commanders.

10 “As you approach a town to attack it, you must first offer its people terms for peace. 11 If they accept your terms and open the gates to you, then all the people inside will serve you in forced labor. 12 But if they refuse to make peace and prepare to fight, you must attack the town. 13 When the Lord your God hands the town over to you, use your swords to kill every man in the town. 14 But you may keep for yourselves all the women, children, livestock, and other plunder. You may enjoy the plunder from your enemies that the Lord your God has given you.

15 “But these instructions apply only to distant towns, not to the towns of the nations in the land you will enter. 16 In those towns that the Lord your God is giving you as a special possession, destroy every living thing. 17 You must completely destroy[d] the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, just as the Lord your God has commanded you. 18 This will prevent the people of the land from teaching you to imitate their detestable customs in the worship of their gods, which would cause you to sin deeply against the Lord your God.

19 “When you are attacking a town and the war drags on, you must not cut down the trees with your axes. You may eat the fruit, but do not cut down the trees. Are the trees your enemies, that you should attack them? 20 You may only cut down trees that you know are not valuable for food. Use them to make the equipment you need to attack the enemy town until it falls.

Cleansing for Unsolved Murder

21 “When you are in the land the Lord your God is giving you, someone may be found murdered in a field, and you don’t know who committed the murder. 2 In such a case, your elders and judges must measure the distance from the site of the crime to the nearby towns. 3 When the nearest town has been determined, that town’s elders must select from the herd a heifer that has never been trained or yoked to a plow. 4 They must lead it down to a valley that has not been plowed or planted and that has a stream running through it. There in the valley they must break the heifer’s neck. 5 Then the Levitical priests must step forward, for the Lord your God has chosen them to minister before him and to pronounce blessings in the Lord’s name. They are to decide all legal and criminal cases.

6 “The elders of the town must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken. 7 Then they must say, ‘Our hands did not shed this person’s blood, nor did we see it happen. 8 O Lord, forgive your people Israel whom you have redeemed. Do not charge your people with the guilt of murdering an innocent person.’ Then they will be absolved of the guilt of this person’s blood. 9 By following these instructions, you will do what is right in the Lord’s sight and will cleanse the guilt of murder from your community.

Marriage to a Captive Woman

10 “Suppose you go out to war against your enemies and the Lord your God hands them over to you, and you take some of them as captives. 11 And suppose you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you are attracted to her and want to marry her. 12 If this happens, you may take her to your home, where she must shave her head, cut her nails, 13 and change the clothes she was wearing when she was captured. She will stay in your home, but let her mourn for her father and mother for a full month. Then you may marry her, and you will be her husband and she will be your wife. 14 But if you marry her and she does not please you, you must let her go free. You may not sell her or treat her as a slave, for you have humiliated her.

Rights of the Firstborn

15 “Suppose a man has two wives, but he loves one and not the other, and both have given him sons. And suppose the firstborn son is the son of the wife he does not love. 16 When the man divides his inheritance, he may not give the larger inheritance to his younger son, the son of the wife he loves, as if he were the firstborn son. 17 He must recognize the rights of his oldest son, the son of the wife he does not love, by giving him a double portion. He is the first son of his father’s virility, and the rights of the firstborn belong to him.

Dealing with a Rebellious Son

18 “Suppose a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or mother, even though they discipline him. 19 In such a case, the father and mother must take the son to the elders as they hold court at the town gate. 20 The parents must say to the elders, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious and refuses to obey. He is a glutton and a drunkard.’ 21 Then all the men of his town must stone him to death. In this way, you will purge this evil from among you, and all Israel will hear about it and be afraid.

Various Regulations

22 “If someone has committed a crime worthy of death and is executed and hung on a tree,[e] 23 the body must not remain hanging from the tree overnight. You must bury the body that same day, for anyone who is hung[f] is cursed in the sight of God. In this way, you will prevent the defilement of the land the Lord your God is giving you as your special possession.

22 “If you see your neighbor’s ox or sheep or goat wandering away, don’t ignore your responsibility.[g] Take it back to its owner. 2 If its owner does not live nearby or you don’t know who the owner is, take it to your place and keep it until the owner comes looking for it. Then you must return it. 3 Do the same if you find your neighbor’s donkey, clothing, or anything else your neighbor loses. Don’t ignore your responsibility.

4 “If you see that your neighbor’s donkey or ox has collapsed on the road, do not look the other way. Go and help your neighbor get it back on its feet!

5 “A woman must not put on men’s clothing, and a man must not wear women’s clothing. Anyone who does this is detestable in the sight of the Lord your God.

6 “If you happen to find a bird’s nest in a tree or on the ground, and there are young ones or eggs in it with the mother sitting in the nest, do not take the mother with the young. 7 You may take the young, but let the mother go, so that you may prosper and enjoy a long life.

8 “When you build a new house, you must build a railing around the edge of its flat roof. That way you will not be considered guilty of murder if someone falls from the roof.

9 “You must not plant any other crop between the rows of your vineyard. If you do, you are forbidden to use either the grapes from the vineyard or the other crop.

10 “You must not plow with an ox and a donkey harnessed together.

11 “You must not wear clothing made of wool and linen woven together.

12 “You must put four tassels on the hem of the cloak with which you cover yourself—on the front, back, and sides.

Regulations for Sexual Purity

13 “Suppose a man marries a woman, but after sleeping with her, he turns against her 14 and publicly accuses her of shameful conduct, saying, ‘When I married this woman, I discovered she was not a virgin.’ 15 Then the woman’s father and mother must bring the proof of her virginity to the elders as they hold court at the town gate. 16 Her father must say to them, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to be his wife, and now he has turned against her. 17 He has accused her of shameful conduct, saying, “I discovered that your daughter was not a virgin.” But here is the proof of my daughter’s virginity.’ Then they must spread her bed sheet before the elders. 18 The elders must then take the man and punish him. 19 They must also fine him 100 pieces of silver,[h] which he must pay to the woman’s father because he publicly accused a virgin of Israel of shameful conduct. The woman will then remain the man’s wife, and he may never divorce her.

20 “But suppose the man’s accusations are true, and he can show that she was not a virgin. 21 The woman must be taken to the door of her father’s home, and there the men of the town must stone her to death, for she has committed a disgraceful crime in Israel by being promiscuous while living in her parents’ home. In this way, you will purge this evil from among you.

22 “If a man is discovered committing adultery, both he and the woman must die. In this way, you will purge Israel of such evil.

23 “Suppose a man meets a young woman, a virgin who is engaged to be married, and he has sexual intercourse with her. If this happens within a town, 24 you must take both of them to the gates of that town and stone them to death. The woman is guilty because she did not scream for help. The man must die because he violated another man’s wife. In this way, you will purge this evil from among you.

25 “But if the man meets the engaged woman out in the country, and he rapes her, then only the man must die. 26 Do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no crime worthy of death. She is as innocent as a murder victim. 27 Since the man raped her out in the country, it must be assumed that she screamed, but there was no one to rescue her.

28 “Suppose a man has intercourse with a young woman who is a virgin but is not engaged to be married. If they are discovered, 29 he must pay her father fifty pieces of silver.[i] Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he may never divorce her as long as he lives.

30 [j]“A man must not marry his father’s former wife, for this would violate his father.

Regulations concerning Worship

23 [k]“If a man’s testicles are crushed or his penis is cut off, he may not be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.

2 “If a person is illegitimate by birth, neither he nor his descendants for ten generations may be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.

3 “No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants for ten generations may be admitted to the assembly of the Lord. 4 These nations did not welcome you with food and water when you came out of Egypt. Instead, they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in distant Aram-naharaim to curse you. 5 But the Lord your God refused to listen to Balaam. He turned the intended curse into a blessing because the Lord your God loves you. 6 As long as you live, you must never promote the welfare and prosperity of the Ammonites or Moabites.

7 “Do not detest the Edomites or the Egyptians, because the Edomites are your relatives and you lived as foreigners among the Egyptians. 8 The third generation of Edomites and Egyptians may enter the assembly of the Lord.

Miscellaneous Regulations

9 “When you go to war against your enemies, be sure to stay away from anything that is impure.

10 “Any man who becomes ceremonially defiled because of a nocturnal emission must leave the camp and stay away all day. 11 Toward evening he must bathe himself, and at sunset he may return to the camp.

12 “You must have a designated area outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. 13 Each of you must have a spade as part of your equipment. Whenever you relieve yourself, dig a hole with the spade and cover the excrement. 14 The camp must be holy, for the Lord your God moves around in your camp to protect you and to defeat your enemies. He must not see any shameful thing among you, or he will turn away from you.

15 “If slaves should escape from their masters and take refuge with you, you must not hand them over to their masters. 16 Let them live among you in any town they choose, and do not oppress them.

17 “No Israelite, whether man or woman, may become a temple prostitute. 18 When you are bringing an offering to fulfill a vow, you must not bring to the house of the Lord your God any offering from the earnings of a prostitute, whether a man[l] or a woman, for both are detestable to the Lord your God.

19 “Do not charge interest on the loans you make to a fellow Israelite, whether you loan money, or food, or anything else. 20 You may charge interest to foreigners, but you may not charge interest to Israelites, so that the Lord your God may bless you in everything you do in the land you are about to enter and occupy.

21 “When you make a vow to the Lord your God, be prompt in fulfilling whatever you promised him. For the Lord your God demands that you promptly fulfill all your vows, or you will be guilty of sin. 22 However, it is not a sin to refrain from making a vow. 23 But once you have voluntarily made a vow, be careful to fulfill your promise to the Lord your God.

24 “When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, but you must not carry any away in a basket. 25 And when you enter your neighbor’s field of grain, you may pluck the heads of grain with your hand, but you must not harvest it with a sickle.

24 “Suppose a man marries a woman but she does not please him. Having discovered something wrong with her, he writes a document of divorce, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house. 2 When she leaves his house, she is free to marry another man. 3 But if the second husband also turns against her, writes a document of divorce, hands it to her, and sends her away, or if he dies, 4 the first husband may not marry her again, for she has been defiled. That would be detestable to the Lord. You must not bring guilt upon the land the Lord your God is giving you as a special possession.

5 “A newly married man must not be drafted into the army or be given any other official responsibilities. He must be free to spend one year at home, bringing happiness to the wife he has married.

6 “It is wrong to take a set of millstones, or even just the upper millstone, as security for a loan, for the owner uses it to make a living.

7 “If anyone kidnaps a fellow Israelite and treats him as a slave or sells him, the kidnapper must die. In this way, you will purge the evil from among you.

8 “In all cases involving serious skin diseases,[m] be careful to follow the instructions of the Levitical priests; obey all the commands I have given them. 9 Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam as you were coming from Egypt.

10 “If you lend anything to your neighbor, do not enter his house to pick up the item he is giving as security. 11 You must wait outside while he goes in and brings it out to you. 12 If your neighbor is poor and gives you his cloak as security for a loan, do not keep the cloak overnight. 13 Return the cloak to its owner by sunset so he can stay warm through the night and bless you, and the Lord your God will count you as righteous.

14 “Never take advantage of poor and destitute laborers, whether they are fellow Israelites or foreigners living in your towns. 15 You must pay them their wages each day before sunset because they are poor and are counting on it. If you don’t, they might cry out to the Lord against you, and it would be counted against you as sin.

16 “Parents must not be put to death for the sins of their children, nor children for the sins of their parents. Those deserving to die must be put to death for their own crimes.

17 “True justice must be given to foreigners living among you and to orphans, and you must never accept a widow’s garment as security for her debt. 18 Always remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God redeemed you from your slavery. That is why I have given you this command.

19 “When you are harvesting your crops and forget to bring in a bundle of grain from your field, don’t go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. Then the Lord your God will bless you in all you do. 20 When you beat the olives from your olive trees, don’t go over the boughs twice. Leave the remaining olives for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. 21 When you gather the grapes in your vineyard, don’t glean the vines after they are picked. Leave the remaining grapes for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. 22 Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt. That is why I am giving you this command.

25 “Suppose two people take a dispute to court, and the judges declare that one is right and the other is wrong. 2 If the person in the wrong is sentenced to be flogged, the judge must command him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of lashes appropriate to the crime. 3 But never give more than forty lashes; more than forty lashes would publicly humiliate your neighbor.

4 “You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain.

5 “If two brothers are living together on the same property and one of them dies without a son, his widow may not be married to anyone from outside the family. Instead, her husband’s brother should marry her and have intercourse with her to fulfill the duties of a brother-in-law. 6 The first son she bears to him will be considered the son of the dead brother, so that his name will not be forgotten in Israel.

7 “But if the man refuses to marry his brother’s widow, she must go to the town gate and say to the elders assembled there, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to preserve his brother’s name in Israel—he refuses to fulfill the duties of a brother-in-law by marrying me.’ 8 The elders of the town will then summon him and talk with him. If he still refuses and says, ‘I don’t want to marry her,’ 9 the widow must walk over to him in the presence of the elders, pull his sandal from his foot, and spit in his face. Then she must declare, ‘This is what happens to a man who refuses to provide his brother with children.’ 10 Ever afterward in Israel his family will be referred to as ‘the family of the man whose sandal was pulled off’!

11 “If two Israelite men get into a fight and the wife of one tries to rescue her husband by grabbing the testicles of the other man, 12 you must cut off her hand. Show her no pity.

13 “You must use accurate scales when you weigh out merchandise, 14 and you must use full and honest measures. 15 Yes, always use honest weights and measures, so that you may enjoy a long life in the land the Lord your God is giving you. 16 All who cheat with dishonest weights and measures are detestable to the Lord your God.

17 “Never forget what the Amalekites did to you as you came from Egypt. 18 They attacked you when you were exhausted and weary, and they struck down those who were straggling behind. They had no fear of God. 19 Therefore, when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies in the land he is giving you as a special possession, you must destroy the Amalekites and erase their memory from under heaven. Never forget this!

Harvest Offerings and Tithes

26 “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you as a special possession and you have conquered it and settled there, 2 put some of the first produce from each crop you harvest into a basket and bring it to the designated place of worship—the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to be honored. 3 Go to the priest in charge at that time and say to him, ‘With this gift I acknowledge to the Lord your God that I have entered the land he swore to our ancestors he would give us.’ 4 The priest will then take the basket from your hand and set it before the altar of the Lord your God.

5 “You must then say in the presence of the Lord your God, ‘My ancestor Jacob was a wandering Aramean who went to live as a foreigner in Egypt. His family arrived few in number, but in Egypt they became a large and mighty nation. 6 When the Egyptians oppressed and humiliated us by making us their slaves, 7 we cried out to the Lord, the God of our ancestors. He heard our cries and saw our hardship, toil, and oppression. 8 So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and powerful arm, with overwhelming terror, and with miraculous signs and wonders. 9 He brought us to this place and gave us this land flowing with milk and honey! 10 And now, O Lord, I have brought you the first portion of the harvest you have given me from the ground.’ Then place the produce before the Lord your God, and bow to the ground in worship before him. 11 Afterward you may go and celebrate because of all the good things the Lord your God has given to you and your household. Remember to include the Levites and the foreigners living among you in the celebration.

12 “Every third year you must offer a special tithe of your crops. In this year of the special tithe you must give your tithes to the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows, so that they will have enough to eat in your towns. 13 Then you must declare in the presence of the Lord your God, ‘I have taken the sacred gift from my house and have given it to the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows, just as you commanded me. I have not violated or forgotten any of your commands. 14 I have not eaten any of it while in mourning; I have not handled it while I was ceremonially unclean; and I have not offered any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the Lord my God and have done everything you commanded me. 15 Now look down from your holy dwelling place in heaven and bless your people Israel and the land you swore to our ancestors to give us—a land flowing with milk and honey.’

A Call to Obey the Lord’s Commands

16 “Today the Lord your God has commanded you to obey all these decrees and regulations. So be careful to obey them wholeheartedly. 17 You have declared today that the Lord is your God. And you have promised to walk in his ways, and to obey his decrees, commands, and regulations, and to do everything he tells you. 18 The Lord has declared today that you are his people, his own special treasure, just as he promised, and that you must obey all his commands. 19 And if you do, he will set you high above all the other nations he has made. Then you will receive praise, honor, and renown. You will be a nation that is holy to the Lord your God, just as he promised.”

Notas al pie

  1. 18:10 Or never make your son or daughter pass through the fire.
  2. 18:16 Hebrew Horeb, another name for Sinai.
  3. 19:3 Or Keep the roads in good repair.
  4. 20:17 The Hebrew term used here refers to the complete consecration of things or people to the Lord, either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering.
  5. 21:22 Or impaled on a pole; similarly in 21:23.
  6. 21:23 Greek version reads for everyone who is hung on a tree. Compare Gal 3:13.
  7. 22:1 Hebrew don’t hide yourself; similarly in 22:3.
  8. 22:19 Hebrew 100 [shekels] of silver, about 2.5 pounds or 1.1 kilograms in weight.
  9. 22:29 Hebrew 50 [shekels] of silver, about 1.25 pounds or 570 grams in weight.
  10. 22:30 Verse 22:30 is numbered 23:1 in Hebrew text.
  11. 23:1 Verses 23:1-25 are numbered 23:2-26 in Hebrew text.
  12. 23:18 Hebrew a dog.
  13. 24:8 Traditionally rendered leprosy. The Hebrew word used here can describe various skin diseases.
Listen to Deuteronomy 17-26
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Deuteronomy 17-26
Holman Christian Standard Bible

17 “You must not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or sheep with a defect or any serious flaw, for that is detestable to the Lord your God.(A)

The Judicial Procedure for Idolatry

2 “If(B) a man or woman among you in one of your towns that the Lord your God will give you is discovered doing evil in the sight of the Lord your God and violating His covenant(C) 3 and has gone to worship other gods by bowing down to the sun, moon, or all the stars in the sky—which I have forbidden— 4 and if you are told or hear about it, you must investigate it thoroughly. If the report turns out to be true that this detestable thing has happened in Israel, 5 you must bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing and stone them to death. 6 The one condemned to die is to be executed on the testimony of two or three witnesses. No one is to be executed on the testimony of a single witness. 7 The witnesses’ hands are to be the first in putting him to death, and after that, the hands of all the people.(D) You must purge the evil from you.(E)

Difficult Cases

8 “If a case is too difficult for you—concerning bloodshed,(F) lawsuits,(G) or assaults(H)—cases disputed at your gates,(I) you must go up to the place the Lord your God chooses. 9 You are to go to the Levitical priests and to the judge who presides at that time. Ask, and they will give you a verdict in the case. 10 You must abide by the verdict they give you at the place the Lord chooses. Be careful to do exactly as they instruct you. 11 You must abide by the instruction they give you and the verdict they announce to you. Do not turn to the right or the left from the decision they declare to you. 12 The person who acts arrogantly, refusing to listen either to the priest who stands there serving the Lord your God or to the judge, must die. You must purge the evil from Israel. 13 Then all the people will hear about it, be afraid, and no longer behave arrogantly.

Appointing a King

14 “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you,(J) take possession of it, live in it, and say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations around me,’ 15 you are to appoint over you the king the Lord your God chooses.(K) Appoint a king from your brothers. You are not to set a foreigner over you, or one who is not of your people.(L) 16 However, he must not acquire many horses for himself or send the people back to Egypt to acquire many horses, for the Lord has told you, ‘You are never to go back that way again.’(M) 17 He must not acquire many wives for himself so that his heart won’t go astray. He must not acquire very large amounts of silver and gold for himself. 18 When he is seated on his royal throne, he is to write a copy of this instruction for himself on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. 19 It is to remain with him, and he is to read from it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear(N) the Lord his God, to observe all the words of this instruction, and to do these statutes. 20 Then his heart will not be exalted above his countrymen, he will not turn from this command to the right or the left, and he and his sons will continue ruling many years[a] over Israel.

Provisions for the Levites

18 “The Levitical priests, the whole tribe of Levi, will have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They will eat the Lord’s fire offerings; that is their[b][c] inheritance. 2 Although Levi has no inheritance among his brothers, the Lord is his inheritance, as He promised him.(O) 3 This is the priests’ share from the people who offer a sacrifice, whether it is an ox, a sheep, or a goat; the priests are to be given the shoulder, jaws, and stomach. 4 You are to give him the firstfruits of your grain, new wine, and oil, and the first sheared wool of your flock. 5 For Yahweh your God has chosen him and his sons from all your tribes to stand and minister in His name from now on.[d] 6 When a Levite leaves one of your towns where he lives in Israel and wants to go to the place the Lord chooses, 7 he may serve in the name of Yahweh his God like all his fellow Levites who minister there in the presence of the Lord. 8 They will eat equal portions besides what he has received from the sale of the family estate.[e](P)

Occult Practices versus Prophetic Revelation

9 “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not imitate the detestable customs of those nations. 10 No one among you is to make his son or daughter pass through the fire,[f](Q) practice divination, tell fortunes, interpret omens, practice sorcery, 11 cast spells, consult a medium or a familiar spirit, or inquire of the dead.(R) 12 Everyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord, and the Lord your God is driving out the nations before you because of these detestable things. 13 You must be blameless before the Lord your God. 14 Though these nations you are about to drive out listen to fortune-tellers and diviners, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do this.

15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers.(S) You must listen to him. 16 This is what you requested from the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, ‘Let us not continue to hear the voice of the Lord our God or see this great fire any longer, so that we will not die!’(T) 17 Then the Lord said to me, ‘They have spoken well. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put My words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. 19 I will hold accountable whoever does not listen to My words that he speaks in My name.(U) 20 But the prophet who dares to speak a message in My name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods—that prophet must die.’ 21 You may say to yourself, ‘How can we recognize a message the Lord has not spoken?’ 22 When a prophet speaks in the Lord’s name, and the message does not come true or is not fulfilled, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.

Cities of Refuge

19 “When the Lord your God annihilates the nations whose land He is giving you,(V) so that you drive them out and live in their cities and houses, 2 you are to set apart three cities for yourselves within the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess.(W) 3 You are to determine the distances[g] and divide the land the Lord your God is granting you as an inheritance into three regions, so that anyone who commits manslaughter can flee to these cities.[h]

4 “Here is the law concerning a case of someone who kills a person and flees there to save his life, having killed his neighbor accidentally without previously hating him: 5 If he goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut timber, and his hand swings the ax to chop down a tree, but the blade flies off the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies, that person may flee to one of these cities and live. 6 Otherwise, the avenger of blood in the heat of his anger[i] might pursue the one who committed manslaughter, overtake him because the distance is great, and strike him dead. Yet he did not deserve to die,[j] since he did not previously hate his neighbor. 7 This is why I am commanding you to set apart three cities for yourselves. 8 If the Lord your God enlarges your territory as He swore to your fathers, and gives you all the land He promised to give them— 9 provided you keep every one of these commands I am giving you today and follow them, loving the Lord your God and walking in His ways at all times—you are to add three more cities to these three. 10 In this way, innocent blood will not be shed, and you will not become guilty of bloodshed in the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.(X) 11 But if someone hates his neighbor, lies in ambush for him, attacks him, and strikes him fatally, and flees to one of these cities, 12 the elders of his city must send for him, take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood and he will die. 13 You must not look on him with pity but purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, and you will prosper.

Boundary Markers

14 “You must not move your neighbor’s boundary marker,(Y) established at the start in the inheritance you will receive in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess.

Witnesses in Court

15 “One witness cannot establish any wrongdoing or sin against a person, whatever that person has done.(Z) A fact must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.(AA)

16 “If a malicious witness(AB) testifies against someone accusing him of a crime, 17 the two people in the dispute must stand in the presence of the Lord before the priests and judges in authority at that time. 18 The judges are to make a careful investigation, and if the witness turns out to be a liar who has falsely accused his brother, 19 you must do to him as he intended to do to his brother. You must purge the evil from you. 20 Then everyone else will hear and be afraid, and they will never again do anything evil like this among you.(AC) 21 You must not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.(AD)

Rules for War

20 “When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses, chariots, and an army larger than yours, do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt,(AE) is with you. 2 When you are about to engage in battle, the priest is to come forward and address the army. 3 He is to say to them: ‘Listen, Israel: Today you are about to engage in battle with your enemies. Do not be cowardly. Do not be afraid, alarmed, or terrified because of them. 4 For the Lord your God is the One who goes with you to fight for you(AF) against your enemies to give you victory.’

5 “The officers are to address the army, ‘Has any man built a new house and not dedicated it? Let him leave and return home. Otherwise, he may die in battle and another man dedicate it. 6 Has any man planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy its fruit?[k] Let him leave and return home. Otherwise he may die in battle and another man enjoy its fruit.[l] 7 Has any man become engaged to a woman and not married her? Let him leave and return home. Otherwise he may die in battle and another man marry her.’ 8 The officers will continue to address the army and say, ‘Is there any man who is afraid or cowardly? Let him leave and return home, so that his brothers’ hearts won’t melt like his own.’ 9 When the officers have finished addressing the army, they will appoint military commanders to lead it.

10 “When you approach a city to fight against it, you must make an offer of peace. 11 If it accepts your offer of peace and opens its gates to you, all the people found in it will become forced laborers for you and serve you. 12 However, if it does not make peace with you but wages war against you, lay siege to it. 13 When the Lord your God hands it over to you, you must strike down all its males with the sword. 14 But you may take the women, children, animals, and whatever else is in the city—all its spoil—as plunder. You may enjoy the spoil of your enemies that the Lord your God has given you. 15 This is how you are to treat all the cities that are far away from you and are not among the cities of these nations. 16 However, you must not let any living thing survive among the cities of these people the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. 17 You must completely destroy them—the Hittite, Amorite, Canaanite, Perizzite, Hivite, and Jebusite—as the Lord your God has commanded you, 18 so that they won’t teach you to do all the detestable things they do for their gods, and you sin against the Lord your God.(AG)

19 “When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it in order to capture it, you must not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can get food from them. You must not cut them down. Are trees of the field human, to come under siege by you? 20 But you may destroy the trees that you know do not produce food. You may cut them down to build siege works against the city that is waging war against you, until it falls.

Unsolved Murders

21 “If a murder victim is found lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him, 2 your elders and judges must come out and measure the distance from the victim to the nearby cities. 3 The elders of the city nearest to the victim are to get a young cow that has not been yoked or used for work. 4 The elders of that city will bring the cow down to a continually flowing stream, to a place not tilled or sown, and they will break its neck there by the stream. 5 Then the priests, the sons of Levi, will come forward, for Yahweh your God has chosen them to serve Him and pronounce blessings in His name, and they are to give a ruling in[m] every dispute and case of assault. 6 All the elders of the city nearest to the victim will wash their hands by the stream over the young cow whose neck has been broken. 7 They will declare, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood; our eyes did not see it. 8 Lord, forgive Your people Israel You redeemed, and do not hold the shedding of innocent blood against them.’ Then they will be absolved of responsibility for bloodshed. 9 You must purge from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, for you will be doing what is right in the Lord’s sight.

Fair Treatment of Captured Women

10 “When you go to war against your enemies and the Lord your God hands them over to you and you take some of them prisoner, and 11 if you see a beautiful woman among the captives, desire her, and want to take her as your wife, 12 you are to bring her into your house. She must shave her head, trim her nails, 13 remove the clothes she was wearing when she was taken prisoner, live in your house, and mourn for her father and mother a full month. After that, you may have sexual relations with her and be her husband, and she will be your wife. 14 Then if you are not satisfied with her, you are to let her go where she wants, but you must not sell her for money or treat her as merchandise,[n] because you have humiliated her.

The Right of the Firstborn

15 “If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved bear him sons, and if the unloved wife has the firstborn son, 16 when that man gives what he has to his sons as an inheritance, he is not to show favoritism to the son of the loved wife as his firstborn over the firstborn of the unloved wife. 17 He must acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved wife, by giving him two shares[o][p] of his estate, for he is the firstfruits of his virility; he has the rights of the firstborn.(AH)

A Rebellious Son

18 “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father or mother and doesn’t listen to them even after they discipline him, 19 his father and mother must take hold of him and bring him to the elders of his city, to the gate(AI) of his hometown. 20 They will say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he doesn’t obey us. He’s a glutton and a drunkard.’ 21 Then all the men of his city will stone him to death.(AJ) You must purge the evil from you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.

Display of Executed People

22 “If anyone is found guilty of an offense deserving the death penalty and is executed, and you hang his body on a tree, 23 you are not to leave his corpse on the tree overnight but are to bury him that day, for anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse.(AK) You must not defile the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.(AL)

Caring for Your Brother’s Property

22 “If you see your brother’s ox or sheep straying, you must not ignore it; make sure you return it to your brother. 2 If your brother does not live near you or you don’t know him, you are to bring the animal to your home to remain with you until your brother comes looking for it; then you can return it to him. 3 Do the same for his donkey, his garment, or anything your brother has lost and you have found. You must not ignore it.(AM) 4 If you see your brother’s donkey or ox fallen down on the road, you must not ignore it; you must help him lift it up.

Preserving Natural Distinctions

5 “A woman is not to wear male clothing, and a man is not to put on a woman’s garment, for everyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord your God.

6 “If you come across a bird’s nest with chicks or eggs, either in a tree or on the ground along the road, and the mother is sitting on the chicks or eggs, you must not take the mother along with the young. 7 You may take the young for yourself, but be sure to let the mother go free, so that you may prosper and live long. 8 If you build a new house, make a railing around your roof, so that you don’t bring bloodguilt on your house if someone falls from it. 9 Do not plant your vineyard with two types of seed; otherwise, the entire harvest, both the crop you plant and the produce of the vineyard, will be defiled. 10 Do not plow with an ox and a donkey together. 11 Do not wear clothes made of both wool and linen.(AN) 12 Make tassels on the four corners of the outer garment you wear.(AO)

Violations of Proper Sexual Conduct

13 “If a man marries a woman, has sexual relations with her, and comes to hate her, 14 and accuses her of shameful conduct, and gives her a bad name, saying, ‘I married this woman and was intimate with her, but I didn’t find any evidence of her virginity,’ 15 the young woman’s father and mother will take the evidence of her virginity and bring it to the city elders at the gate.(AP) 16 The young woman’s father will say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man as a wife, but he hates her. 17 He has accused her of shameful conduct, saying: “I didn’t find any evidence of your daughter’s virginity,” but here is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ They will spread out the cloth before the city elders. 18 Then the elders of that city will take the man and punish him.(AQ) 19 They will also fine him 100 silver shekels and give them to the young woman’s father, because that man gave an Israelite virgin a bad name. She will remain his wife; he cannot divorce her as long as he lives. 20 But if this accusation is true and no evidence of the young woman’s virginity is found, 21 they will bring the woman to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city will stone her to death. For she has committed an outrage in Israel by being promiscuous in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from you.

22 “If a man is discovered having sexual relations with another man’s wife, both the man who had sex with the woman and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel. 23 If there is a young woman who is a virgin engaged to a man, and another man encounters her in the city and has sex with her, 24 you must take the two of them out to the gate of that city and stone them to death—the young woman because she did not cry out in the city and the man because he has violated his neighbor’s fiancée. You must purge the evil from you. 25 But if the man encounters an engaged woman in the open country, and he seizes and rapes her, only the man who raped her must die. 26 Do nothing to the young woman, because she is not guilty of an offense deserving death. This case is just like one in which a man attacks his neighbor and murders him. 27 When he found her in the field, the engaged woman cried out, but there was no one to rescue her. 28 If a man encounters a young woman, a virgin who is not engaged, takes hold of her and rapes her, and they are discovered, 29 the man who raped her must give the young woman’s father 50 silver shekels, and she must become his wife because he violated her.(AR) He cannot divorce her as long as he lives.

30 “A man is not to marry his father’s wife; he must not violate his father’s marriage bed.[q][r](AS)

Exclusion and Inclusion

23 “No man whose testicles have been crushed[s] or whose penis has been cut off may enter the Lord’s assembly. 2 No one of illegitimate birth may enter the Lord’s assembly; none of his descendants, even to the tenth generation, may enter the Lord’s assembly. 3 No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the Lord’s assembly;(AT) none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, may ever enter the Lord’s assembly. 4 This is because they did not meet you with food and water on the journey after you came out of Egypt, and because Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram-naharaim was hired to curse you.(AU) 5 Yet the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam, but He turned the curse into a blessing for you because the Lord your God loves(AV) you.(AW) 6 Never seek their peace or prosperity as long as you live. 7 Do not despise an Edomite, because he is your brother. Do not despise an Egyptian, because you were a foreign resident in his land. 8 The children born to them in the third generation may enter the Lord’s assembly.

Cleanliness of the Camp

9 “When you are encamped against your enemies, be careful to avoid anything offensive. 10 If there is a man among you who is unclean because of a bodily emission during the night, he must go outside the camp; he may not come anywhere inside the camp. 11 When evening approaches, he must wash with water, and when the sun sets he may come inside the camp.(AX) 12 You must have a place outside the camp and go there to relieve yourself. 13 You must have a digging tool in your equipment; when you relieve yourself, dig a hole with it and cover up your excrement. 14 For the Lord your God walks throughout your camp to protect you and deliver your enemies to you; so your encampments must be holy. He must not see anything improper among you or He will turn away from you.

Fugitive Slaves

15 “Do not return a slave to his master when he has escaped from his master to you. 16 Let him live among you wherever he wants within your gates. Do not mistreat him.

Cult Prostitution Forbidden

17 “No Israelite woman is to be a cult prostitute, and no Israelite man is to be a cult prostitute. 18 Do not bring a female prostitute’s wages or a male prostitute’s[t] earnings into the house of the Lord your God to fulfill any vow, because both are detestable to the Lord your God.

Interest on Loans

19 “Do not charge your brother interest on money, food, or anything that can earn interest. 20 You may charge a foreigner interest, but you must not charge your brother interest, so that the Lord your God may bless you in everything you do[u] in the land you are entering to possess.(AY)

Keeping Vows

21 “If you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not be slow to keep it, because He will require it of you, and it will be counted against you as sin. 22 But if you refrain from making a vow, it will not be counted against you as sin. 23 Be careful to do whatever comes from your lips, because you have freely vowed what you promised[v] to the Lord your God.(AZ)

Neighbor’s Crops

24 “When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as you want until you are full, but you must not put any in your container. 25 When you enter your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck heads of grain with your hand, but you must not put a sickle to your neighbor’s grain.

Marriage and Divorce Laws

24 “If a man marries a woman, but she becomes displeasing to him because he finds something improper about her, he may write her a divorce certificate, hand it to her, and send her away from his house.(BA) 2 If after leaving his house she goes and becomes another man’s wife, 3 and the second man hates her, writes her a divorce certificate, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house or if he[w] dies, 4 the first husband who sent her away may not marry her again after she has been defiled, because that would be detestable to the Lord. You must not bring guilt on the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.(BB)

5 “When a man takes a bride, he must not go out with the army or be liable for any duty. He is free to stay at home for one year, so that he can bring joy to the wife he has married.

Safeguarding Life

6 “Do not take a pair of millstones or an upper millstone as security for a debt, because that is like taking a life as security.

7 “If a man is discovered kidnapping(BC) one of his Israelite brothers, whether he treats him as a slave or sells him, the kidnapper must die. You must purge the evil from you.

8 “Be careful in a case of infectious skin disease, following carefully everything the Levitical priests instruct you to do. Be careful to do as I have commanded them. 9 Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the journey after you left Egypt.(BD)

Consideration for People in Need

10 “When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, do not enter his house to collect what he offers as security. 11 You must stand outside while the man you are making the loan to brings the security out to you. 12 If he is a poor man, you must not sleep in the garment he has given as security. 13 Be sure to return it[x] to him at sunset. Then he will sleep in it and bless you, and this will be counted as righteousness to you before the Lord your God.(BE)

14 “Do not oppress a hired hand who is poor and needy, whether one of your brothers or one of the foreigners residing within a town[y] in your land. 15 You are to pay him his wages each day before the sun sets, because he is poor and depends on them.(BF) Otherwise he will cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be held guilty.

16 “Fathers are not to be put to death for their children or children for their fathers; each person will be put to death for his own sin.(BG) 17 Do not deny justice to a foreigner or fatherless child, and do not take a widow’s garment as security. 18 Remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed(BH) you from there. Therefore I am commanding you to do this.(BI)

19 “When you reap the harvest in your field, and you forget a sheaf in the field, do not go back to get it. It is to be left for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.(BJ) 20 When you knock down the fruit from your olive tree, you must not go over the branches again. What remains will be for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow. 21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you must not glean what is left. What remains will be for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow. 22 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. Therefore I am commanding you to do this.(BK)

Fairness and Mercy

25 “If there is a dispute between men, they are to go to court, and the judges will hear their case. They will clear the innocent and condemn the guilty. 2 If the guilty party deserves to be flogged, the judge will make him lie down and be flogged in his presence with the number of lashes appropriate for his crime. 3 He may be flogged with 40 lashes, but no more. Otherwise, if he is flogged with more lashes than these, your brother will be degraded in your sight.

4 “Do not muzzle an ox while it treads out grain.(BL)

Preserving the Family Line

5 “When brothers live on the same property[z] and one of them dies without a son, the wife of the dead man may not marry a stranger outside the family. Her brother-in-law is to take her as his wife, have sexual relations with her, and perform the duty of a brother-in-law for her. 6 The first son she bears will carry on the name of the dead brother, so his name will not be blotted out from Israel.(BM) 7 But if the man doesn’t want to marry his sister-in-law, she must go to the elders at the city gate(BN) and say, ‘My brother-in-law refuses to preserve his brother’s name in Israel. He isn’t willing to perform the duty of a brother-in-law for me.’ 8 The elders of his city will summon him and speak with him. If he persists and says, ‘I don’t want to marry her,’ 9 then his sister-in-law will go up to him in the sight of the elders, remove his sandal from his foot, and spit in his face. Then she will declare, ‘This is what is done to a man who will not build up his brother’s house.’ 10 And his family name in Israel will be called ‘The house of the man whose sandal was removed.’(BO)

11 “If two men are fighting with each other, and the wife of one steps in to rescue her husband from the one striking him, and she puts out her hand and grabs his genitals, 12 you are to cut off her hand. You must not show pity.

Honest Weights and Measures

13 “You must not have two different weights[aa] in your bag, one heavy and one light.(BP) 14 You must not have two differing dry measures in your house, a larger and a smaller. 15 You must have a full and honest weight, a full and honest dry measure, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. 16 For everyone who does such things and acts unfairly is detestable to the Lord your God.(BQ)

Revenge on the Amalekites

17 “Remember what the Amalekites did to you on the journey after you left Egypt.(BR) 18 They met you along the way and attacked all your stragglers from behind when you were tired and weary. They did not fear God. 19 When the Lord your God gives you rest(BS) from all the enemies around you in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance,(BT) blot out the memory of Amalek under heaven. Do not forget.(BU)

Giving the Firstfruits

26 “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance,(BV) and you take possession of it and live in it, 2 you must take some of the first of all the land’s produce that you harvest from the land Yahweh your God is giving you and put it in a container. Then go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to have His name dwell.(BW) 3 When you come before the priest who is serving at that time, you must say to him, ‘Today I acknowledge to the Lord your[ab] God that I have entered the land the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’

4 “Then the priest will take the container from your hand and place it before the altar of the Lord your God. 5 You are to respond by saying in the presence of the Lord your God:

My father was a wandering Aramean.(BX) He went down to Egypt with a few people and lived there.(BY) There he became a great, powerful, and populous nation. 6 But the Egyptians mistreated and afflicted us, and forced us to do hard labor. 7 So we called out to Yahweh, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our cry and saw our misery, hardship, and oppression.(BZ) 8 Then the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, with terrifying power, and with signs and wonders. 9 He led us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.(CA) 10 I have now brought the first of the land’s produce that You, Lord, have given me.

You will then place the container before the Lord your God and bow down to Him. 11 You, the Levite, and the foreign resident among you will rejoice(CB) in all the good things the Lord your God has given you and your household.

The Tenth in the Third Year

12 “When you have finished paying all the tenth of your produce in the third year,(CC) the year of the tenth, you are to give it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied. 13 Then you will say in the presence of the Lord your God:

I have taken the consecrated portion out of my house; I have also given it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all the commands You gave me. I have not violated or forgotten Your commands. 14 I have not eaten any of it while in mourning, or removed any of it while unclean, or offered any of it for the dead.(CD) I have obeyed the Lord my God; I have done all You commanded me. 15 Look down from Your holy dwelling, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the land You have given us as You swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Covenant Summary

16 “The Lord your God is commanding you this day to follow these statutes and ordinances. You must be careful to follow them with all your heart and all your soul. 17 Today you have affirmed that the Lord is your God and that you will walk in His ways, keep His statutes, commands, and ordinances, and obey Him. 18 And today the Lord has affirmed that you are His special people as He promised you, that you are to keep all His commands, 19 that He will elevate you to praise, fame, and glory above all the nations He has made, and that you will be a holy people(CE) to the Lord your God as He promised.”

Notas al pie

  1. Deuteronomy 17:20 Lit will lengthen days on his kingdom
  2. Deuteronomy 18:1 LXX; MT reads his
  3. Deuteronomy 18:1 Or His
  4. Deuteronomy 18:5 Lit name all the days
  5. Deuteronomy 18:8 Hb obscure
  6. Deuteronomy 18:10 Either a Canaanite cult practice or child sacrifice
  7. Deuteronomy 19:3 Or to prepare the roads
  8. Deuteronomy 19:3 Lit flee there
  9. Deuteronomy 19:6 Lit heart
  10. Deuteronomy 19:6 Lit did not have a judgment of death
  11. Deuteronomy 20:6 Lit not put it to use
  12. Deuteronomy 20:6 Lit man put it to use
  13. Deuteronomy 21:5 Lit and according to their mouth will be
  14. Deuteronomy 21:14 Hb obscure
  15. Deuteronomy 21:17 Lit mouth of two, or two mouthfuls
  16. Deuteronomy 21:17 Or two-thirds; the two-thirds interpretation holds that the firstborn son receives two-thirds of the total estate no matter how many sons are in the family.
  17. Deuteronomy 22:30 Dt 23:1 in Hb
  18. Deuteronomy 22:30 Lit not uncover the edge of his father’s garment; Ru 3:9; Ezk 16:8
  19. Deuteronomy 23:1 Lit man bruised by crushing
  20. Deuteronomy 23:18 Lit a dog’s
  21. Deuteronomy 23:20 Lit you put your hand to
  22. Deuteronomy 23:23 Lit promised with your mouth
  23. Deuteronomy 24:3 Lit if the second man who has taken her as his wife
  24. Deuteronomy 24:13 Lit return what he has given as security
  25. Deuteronomy 24:14 Lit within the gates
  26. Deuteronomy 25:5 Lit live together
  27. Deuteronomy 25:13 Lit have a stone and a stone
  28. Deuteronomy 26:3 LXX reads my
Close VOICE

Deuteronomy 17-26
The Voice

17 Moses: Don’t sacrifice an ox or a sheep to the Eternal your God if it has any defect or problem. He would be deeply offended by such an offering!

2 What if, in one of the towns the Eternal your God is giving you, a man or a woman does what He considers wrong and breaks His covenant 3 by going and worshiping other gods, bowing down to them or the sun or moon or stars (which I’ve never commanded you to do)? 4 If you discover this, if someone tells you about it, or if you hear about it; then conduct a careful investigation. If you establish conclusively that the report is true, that such a horrible thing has been done within Israel, 5 then bring the man or woman who has done this evil thing out to the gates of your town, and stone that man or woman to death. 6 But for someone to be executed on a charge such as this, there must be testimony from at least two or three witnesses. No one is to be executed on the testimony of just one witness. 7 The witnesses must throw the first deadly stones, and then everyone else must join in. Expel the wicked from your own community.[a]

8 If one person in your town brings a complaint against another to be judged at the city gate, and it’s just too difficult for you to decide what a fair resolution would be—if you can’t determine whether a killing was premeditated, or if you can’t decide who in a dispute makes the best argument, or if you can’t tell whether someone was injured accidentally or intentionally—then adjourn your proceedings and go to the place the Eternal your God will choose. 9 Bring your case to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is serving at the time, and they will give you a verdict. 10 You must carry out their verdict exactly as they stated it because it was delivered in the place the Eternal chose, and it has His authority behind it. 11 Follow each word of the law as they interpret it for you; do everything they’ve told you to do, as they’ve explained it, without deviating from it at all. 12 If anyone is so arrogant that he won’t listen to the priest who serves right there in the presence of the Eternal your God or to the judge of the tribunal, that person must be executed to expel this kind of wickedness from Israel. 13 Everyone will hear about it, and no one will dare to be so arrogant, for they will be afraid.

Having a king is part of God’s plan for Israel. This king is supposed to be someone who depends faithfully on the Lord, not on wealth or power, and who would study God’s laws and follow them. A king like that will be a blessing to everyone in the country. But when the people ask for this king around 1000 b.c., their motives are wrong. They want to depend on this king instead of on God (1 Samuel 8:7). In the years that follow, many ungodly kings bring trouble to the nation and oppress the people. Their political maneuvering and policies of appeasement even lead them to set up altars to foreign gods. The people are ultimately punished for deserting the Lord by being taken into exile away from the promised land.

Moses: 14 Once you’ve gotten into the land the Eternal your God is giving you, and you’ve conquered it and settled there, you may say to yourselves, “Let’s appoint a king to rule our country, just as all the nations around us have!” 15 If you do have a king, remember you must enthrone the king He chooses. It must be a fellow Israelite whom you enthrone; you must not enthrone a foreigner who is not a fellow Israelite. 16 Although an Israelite, he must not try to build a strong army by collecting large herds of horses for his cavalry troops and a chariot corps. The king must certainly not send people back to Egypt to get large herds of horses, because the Lord has commanded you, “Don’t ever go back that way again!” 17 This king must not have many wives. If he takes foreign wives in marriage alliances, they could turn his heart away from the Lord and lead him to worship foreign gods. And the king must not accumulate great quantities of silver and gold for himself.

18 As soon as this king takes the royal throne, he must write out a copy of this law for himself on a scroll with the Levitical priests looking on. 19 He must keep this copy with him and read it every day, so that he will learn to fear the Eternal his God and to obey everything in the law and remember all these regulations very carefully in order to do them. 20 That way he won’t think he’s privileged and oppress and exploit his fellow Israelites. He won’t deviate at all from what the Eternal has commanded, and he and his descendants will rule over Israel in a long dynasty.

18 Moses: The Levitical priests and the whole tribe of Levi will not have any inherited property within Israel. They will be supported by the sacrifices and other offerings that are burnt and set aside for the Eternal. 2 They won’t have any share in the land, as the other Israelites do, but the Eternal Himself will be their share as He promised.

This is a special arrangement between God and the Levites; He’ll provide for them and give them their distinct identity so they can focus on serving Him instead of serving their families.

3 Whenever someone sacrifices an ox or a sheep, the priests are entitled to these portions: one shank (a thigh and shoulder), the cheeks (those tender delicacies), and the fourth compartment of the stomach so they can have rennet to make cheese curds. 4 You must also give the priests the first grain, wine, and olive oil you produce each year, and the first wool you shear from your sheep 5 because the Eternal your God chose Levi and his descendants, out of all of your tribes, to stand in His presence and to serve in His name at all times.

6 If a Levite who’s living in one of your cities anywhere in Israel decides he really wants to go and live in the place the Eternal will choose, 7 he must be allowed to serve in the name of the Eternal his God, like all of the other Levites who are already serving there in the Eternal’s presence. 8 He must be given an equal share of the contributions to eat, apart from anything he earns for performing priestly services.[b]

9 When you’ve settled in the land the Eternal your God is giving you, don’t imitate the horrible practices of the other nations. 10 Don’t ever burn any of your sons or daughters alive as a sacrifice! And don’t ever get involved in any divining, such as predicting fortunes, interpreting omens, sorcery, 11 casting spells, or trying to contact ghosts, spirits, or the dead. 12 The Eternal is horrified when anyone does these things. It’s because of these horrible practices that the Eternal your God is driving those nations out ahead of you. 13 You shall be complete in your obedience and devotion to Him.

The pagan nations around them share the belief that absolute immanent power comes from within creation. They engage in many activities designed to tap into that power so that they can gain knowledge of the future or have influence over others. “Drawing lots” is often done by writing possibilities on pottery shards, putting them in a bag, and then drawing out an answer. Other ways of trying to predict the future or choose the best course include watching the shapes of clouds or listening for natural omens such as bird cries. It is commonly believed that spirits and the dead can also provide guidance and special information. Whatever specific practices are being described here, however, the general principle is once again that the people should trust the Lord, transcendent above creation, as their source of guidance and protection.

Moses: 14 The nations you’re going to displace seek guidance from people who practice divination and predicting. But the Eternal your God doesn’t want you to do that. 15 He will raise up from among your own people a prophet who will be like me.[c] Listen to him. 16 This is just what you asked Him for on the day you gathered at Mount Horeb: “Don’t make me listen to the voice of the Eternal my God anymore! And don’t make me look at that blazing fire! I’ll die!”[d] 17 The Eternal told me, “They’re right. 18 I’ll send them another prophet like you from among their own people. I’ll put My words in the mouth of this prophet who will tell them everything I command him to say. 19 I, Myself, will punish whoever doesn’t listen to his words[e] when the prophet speaks in My name. 20 But a prophet who dares to say anything in My name that I haven’t commanded, or who says anything in the name of another god, will die.” 21 Now you may be wondering, “How will we recognize something He hasn’t commanded a prophet to say?” 22 If a prophet speaks in the Eternal One’s name, but the words turn out not to be true or the prediction doesn’t happen, then He wasn’t actually speaking. That prophet arrogantly spoke in the Lord’s name, but he didn’t really have a message from Him. And so you don’t need to be afraid of what the prophet said.

The next group of laws in Deuteronomy is concerned with making sure people in Israel treat one another honestly and fairly. Safeguards are to be put in place to protect the lives and property of the innocent and to make sure the guilty are caught and punished. These will include the cities of refuge, property markers, and the court system. Each law in this group seeks specifically to prevent people from abusing or manipulating one these safeguards.

19 Moses: When the Eternal your God has destroyed the nations whose land He’s going to give you, when you’ve driven them out and have settled in their cities and are living in their houses, 2-3 then designate three cities of refuge for yourselves in the land He is giving you to live in. Divide your territory into three parts, locate one city centrally in each part, and measure the roads to each of them. That way a person who kills someone accidentally can escape to one of these cities and be safe from revenge.

4 This is the kind of person I’m talking about: someone who kills a friend unintentionally, when there was no grudge between them, 5 such as when two friends go into the forest together to chop wood, and one of them swings an ax to cut a tree, and the ax head slips off the handle, hits his friend, and kills him. A person such as he can flee to one of these cities and be safe from revenge. 6 Otherwise, if the distance to the nearest city of refuge is too great, one of the relatives of the friend who was killed is going to feel honor-bound to avenge the dead man’s blood, and he’ll catch up with him and kill him while he’s still furious about his relative’s death. This wouldn’t be right because the man slaughterer didn’t deserve the death sentence. There was no grudge between these friends—the death was accidental. 7 That’s why I’m commanding you to designate these three cities for yourselves. 8-9 Now if you carefully obey the command I’m giving you today, to love the Eternal your God and always do as He wishes, then He will expand your territory as He promised your ancestors; He’ll give you all the land He told your ancestors He’d give them. If that happens, then designate three more cities for yourselves, besides the first three. 10 That way no innocent blood will be shed in the land He is giving you to live in, and as a nation you won’t have any bloodguilt just because a city of refuge was too far away.

11 But someone who does hate another person, who ambushes and kills that person can’t escape revenge by fleeing to one of these cities. 12 The elders of his city must send representatives to bring the killer back and turn him over to the blood-avenger, the relative of the murder victim who will kill him. 13 Don’t show any pity! You must remove the stain of innocent blood from Israel, so that everything will go well for you.

14 Don’t steal land from your neighbor by moving the boundary marker your ancestors put in place. Each person’s property is an inheritance from the Eternal, who’s giving you this land to live in.

These potential “property disputes” are a divine reflection. When you steal land from another person, you’re taking away what God has given—that’s like stealing from the Lord Himself!

15 The testimony of a single witness is not sufficient to convict a person of a crime or to find someone guilty of doing something wrong. Every charge must be confirmed by two or three witnesses.[f] 16 If one person accuses another of some crime, and you suspect it’s being done out of malice, 17 bring the two people involved into the Eternal’s presence at the sanctuary. Present their case to the priests and the judges who are serving on the tribunal at the time. 18 The judges will conduct a careful investigation. If it turns out that the witness was lying and accused the other Israelite maliciously, 19-21 then do to the witness exactly what he wanted done to the other person. Don’t show any pity! If he wanted the other person killed, then kill him; if he wanted his eye put out or a tooth knocked out or a hand or foot cut off, then do that to him.[g] This will expel the wicked from your own community. Everyone else will hear what happens and be afraid to do the same thing themselves, so none of you will ever do such an evil thing to each other again.

20 Moses: This is how you should act during wartime: When you go to battle against your enemies, if you see their army is larger than yours and they have horses and chariots, don’t be afraid of them! The Eternal your God is with you—the same God who defeated Pharaoh and brought you out of Egypt. 2 As you are approaching the battlefield, your priest will come over to you and address you: 3 “Listen, Israel! Today you’re going to fight a battle against your enemies. Don’t be intimidated by them! Don’t be afraid! Don’t run away! Don’t let them terrify you! 4 The Eternal, your True God, has come out here with you, and He’ll fight for you against your enemies and save you.” 5 Then the officials will say to the people who are eligible for a deferment, “Has anyone just built a new house but hasn’t begun to use it yet? Go back to your house, because if you died in this battle, someone else would dedicate it. 6 Has anyone planted a vineyard but hasn’t enjoyed its fruit yet? Go back to your house, because if you died in this battle, someone else would be the first to enjoy its fruit. 7 Has anyone become engaged to a woman but hasn’t consummated the marriage? Go back to your house, because if you died in this battle, someone else would take her.” 8 They’ll continue, “Is anyone here afraid or intimidated? You can go back home too! We don’t want you to make everyone else as scared as you are!” 9 When the officials have finished speaking to the troops, they’ll appoint commanders to lead each section of the army.

10 When you first approach a city you’re going to fight against, shout out, “Peace!” 11 If they shout back, “Peace!” and open their gates to you, then you must let them surrender. Make everyone in the city your slaves, and put them to work for you. 12 But if the city doesn’t surrender, if it resists you instead, then lay siege to it. 13 When the Eternal your God enables you to capture the city, kill all the men who are left in it with your swords. 14 But you can take the women, children, livestock, all the other goods in the city, and all of its spoils as your plunder for your use. The Eternal your God has given you these spoils from your enemies.

15 This is what you’re to do with cities that are a great distance from you that don’t belong to the nations living here. 16 But when you conquer one of the cities the Eternal, your True God, is giving you to live in and pass on to your children, don’t spare anything that breathes! 17 If it’s a city that belongs to the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, or the Jebusites, then completely destroy the inhabitants as He has commanded you. 18 If you don’t, they’ll teach you to do all the horrible things they do for their gods, and you’ll sin against Him.

19 When you’re fighting against a city, and it hasn’t fallen to you even after a long siege, don’t chop down all the trees around it. You can eat the fruit and nuts they produce, so don’t cut them down. Are these trees humans who are resisting your siege? Of course not! 20 Only cut down the trees you know don’t produce any food. You can use them to build siege machines against the city you’re fighting with until it falls.

Israelite teachers and scribes are fond of organizing material using mnemonic devices. If two writings share a key word, phrase, or idea, it is considered clever and attractive to put them next to one another. This principle is applied often as the first law in Deuteronomy 21:1 begins by using some Hebrew words similar to those at the end of the last law in the previous group. Even though the second law in 21:10 is really about marriage, it begins, “When you go to battle against your enemies,” transitioning from the warfare laws. The third law follows because it starts by talking about marriage, even though it’s really about the inheritance rights of sons. And the next law also talks about sons—except that they’re so disobedient, they need to be executed. So the final law in the group is about executions. These language techniques are intended to help the Israelites memorize the laws.

21 Moses: If a murder victim is found lying on the ground in the open field, anywhere in the territory the Eternal your God is giving you to live in, and no one knows who the killer was, then perform a special ceremony to remove the bloodguilt from your land. 5 Send for the priests, the descendants of Levi, the ones the Eternal your God chose to serve Him and to bless His name, because they’re the ones who settle disputes and handle cases of injury like this.[h] 2 Have your elders and judges measure the distance from the body to the nearby cities. 3 The elders of the city that’s closest to the body will have jurisdiction and offer a special sacrifice. Have them take a heifer that has never been put to work pulling a yoke, 4 bring it down by a flowing stream onto land where no crops have ever been planted or grown, and break its neck in that stream. 6 Then in the presence of the priests, have those city elders wash their hands over the heifer’s corpse and take an oath: 7 “Our hands didn’t shed this blood, and our eyes never saw who did. 8 Eternal, please cover the wickedness of Your people Israel, the ones You delivered from slavery. Please don’t consider your people Israel guilty of shedding innocent blood!” If this ceremony is performed, that city will be forgiven for the blood that was shed near it. 9 You will remove the bloodguilt from your nation because you’ve done what the Eternal considers right.

The Hebrew practice of kipper is when one party makes a gift to another in order to reestablish a good relationship between two parties and remove bloodguilt. The emphasis is not so much on the gift itself (although it should be a worthy one), but on the first party’s desire for reconciliation. When the kipper is a sacrificial animal resolving an offense that would otherwise be settled according to the principle of “a life for a life,” the death of the animal is a substitution for what should have been the death of the murderer. This situation helps Christians understand what the sacrificial system provides for Israel before the Lord and what Jesus does for us on the cross. His death is a substitutionary sacrifice, but it is also a kipper, a gift that reestablishes our relationship with God.

Moses: 10 When you go to battle against your enemies and the Eternal, your True God, enables you to defeat them and take them captive, 11 you may see a beautiful woman among the captives and be attracted to her and want to marry her. 12 Bring her back to your house, and then have her shave her head and cut her nails 13 and exchange her old clothes she was wearing when she was captured for new ones. Let her stay in your house and mourn for her father and mother for a month. Only after that may you, as her husband, have sexual relations with her. She will be your fully legal wife and you her husband. 14 If you are ever displeased with her and divorce her, you must give her freedom and send her anywhere she wants to go. You’re not allowed to sell her into slavery, and you can’t turn her into your own slave because you humiliated her.

15 Suppose a man has two wives, and he favors one over the other, loving one and not loving the other. If they’ve both borne him sons, but the firstborn doesn’t belong to his favorite wife, 16-17 he can’t designate the eldest son of his favorite wife as the firstborn instead. When he divides his property and gives his sons their inheritances, he must recognize his true firstborn, the eldest son of the other wife, and give him a double portion of all his property as is customary for all men. That son was the first one created by the man’s generative power, so the rights of the firstborn belong to him.

18 If anyone has a stubborn and rebellious son who refuses to obey his father and mother, who won’t even listen to them when they discipline him, 19 his parents may bring him to the city gate and formally accuse him in court, 20 telling the city elders what wicked things he has done. For example, “This is our son. He’s stubborn and rebellious! He won’t obey us. He’s a glutton and a drunk!” 21 Then all the people of the city will stone him to death. You must expel the wicked from your own community.[i] Everyone else in Israel will hear about it and fear the consequences of such rebellion.

22 If someone does something so wicked that it’s punishable by death, and if you execute that person and then hang the body on a pole, 23 don’t leave the body up there overnight. Bury it that same day because everyone who hangs is cursed by God.[j] Otherwise you will defile the ground the Eternal your God is giving you to live on.

The next group of laws deals generally with the theme of property: what to do with livestock (whether it’s yours or someone else’s), what kind of clothes to make and wear, how to build a house, how to grow crops. But this theme is defined so broadly to embrace all these laws that they are likely also gathered together by the same mnemonic principle as the previous group.

22 Moses: If you see your neighbor’s ox or sheep wandering away, don’t ignore it. Bring the animal back to its owner. 2 If the owner lives far from you, or if you don’t know whose animal it is, bring it back to your house and take care of it until the owner comes looking for it, and then return it to the Israelite. 3 Do the same thing with a donkey or a garment or anything else a neighbor might lose. If you find it, don’t ignore it; take care of it until the owner comes looking for it. 4 If you see your neighbor’s donkey or ox has fallen down in the roadway, don’t ignore it. Help that person get the animal back on its feet.

5 A woman must not wear men’s clothing, and men must not put on women’s garments. The Eternal your God is horrified when anyone does this.

6 If you come across a bird’s nest by the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and there are baby chicks or eggs in the nest and the mother bird is keeping them warm, don’t take the mother with them. 7 You must let the mother go, but you may take the chicks or eggs for yourself. If you do this, God will bless you; everything will go well with you, and you’ll live a long time.

8 When you build a new house, make sure you put a low wall around the edge of the roof so that no one will fall off and be killed. That way there will be no bloodguilt on your house as a result of your negligence.

Whether it be home construction, dietary practices and food preparation, or farming and livestock, Israelite customs should reflect the correct order and division of humans, animals, and plants. Further, all practice should encourage life, and not death.

Moses: 9 Don’t plant your vineyard with two kinds of seed. If you do, everything that grows there will not be pure, both what grows from the seeds and what grows on the vines. 10 Don’t plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together. 11 Don’t wear any material made of both wool and linen.

12 Make tassels for the four corners of the cloak you wear, as a reminder of God’s instructions.

The laws in the next group all address cases where sexual relations may have taken place outside of lawful marriage. This is considered not just immoral but also a threat to a foundational institution of Israelite society—the family. Sexual indiscretion is therefore punished with execution, in order to remove the threat from the midst of the community. In a context where a rival pagan value system exerts a constant push away from the pattern of life God outlined, such bold consequences are necessary to keep the nation on track while forming this new type of society.

Moses: 13 What if a man marries a woman and has sexual relations with her, but he ends up hating her, 14 falsely accuses her of shameful things, and slanders her publicly, saying, “I married this woman, but then I discovered she wasn’t a virgin”? 15 If this happens, the girl’s father and mother can clear her name by providing evidence of her virginity to the elders in a legal proceeding at the city gate. 16 The girl’s father may tell the elders, “I gave my daughter to this man as his wife. But now he dislikes her 17 and has falsely accused her, telling me, ‘I found out your daughter wasn’t a virgin!’ But here is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.” If the parents can provide the evidence by spreading out the cloth for the elders to see, 18 the city elders must punish the husband. He is to be beaten 19 and then fined two and a half pounds of silver, twice the amount of the bride price he paid before the marriage, which will be given to the girl’s father because this man publicly slandered one of Israel’s virgins. He can’t ever divorce her after this; he has to keep her as his wife. 20 But if the charge is true, and the girl wasn’t a virgin, 21 then bring her to the door of her father’s house. There the people of her city will stone her to death because she did something no Israelite should ever do: she was a fornicator while she was living in her father’s house! Expel the wicked from your own community.[k]

22 If it’s discovered that a man has been having sexual relations with a married woman, both the man and the woman must be put to death. Expel the wicked from Israel this way.

23 What if a man meets a girl who’s a virgin but who’s engaged to someone else, and he has sexual relations with her? If this happens in the city, 24 bring them both out to the gate of that city where the public will stone them to death: the girl, because she was in the city and could have cried for help but didn’t, meaning she consented; and the man, because he violated another man’s wife. Expel the wicked from your community this way. 25 But if this happens out in the country—if a man finds an engaged girl out there and overpowers and rapes her—then only the man must die. 26-27 But don’t do anything to the girl; she did nothing wrong and doesn’t deserve to die. When this man came after her, she cried for help, but no one was there to respond. She’s as innocent as the victim of a sudden murderous attack—there was nothing she could do.

28 If a man meets a girl who’s a virgin and who isn’t engaged to someone else, and he forces himself on her, when what he’s done is discovered, 29 he must pay 20 ounces of silver to her father as a bride price, and she will become his wife. He can’t ever divorce her after this because he’s dishonored her.

By marrying her, the rapist ensures she will be cared for during her lifetime because no other man would marry a woman who isn’t a virgin—even under such circumstances.

30 A man is not allowed to marry a woman who was once married to his father. He must respect the privacy and dignity of his father’s intimate relations with his wife.

The next group of laws describes certain people who may not come into the holy place to worship the Lord. This is the defining right of a member in good standing of the community, so the people described here are, in effect, being excluded from community membership itself. The reasons for exclusion reflect Deuteronomy’s ongoing concerns: rejecting pagan practices, upholding lawful marriage, maintaining wholeness and purity, and showing compassion to those in need.

23 Moses: No emasculated man, either by crushing or severing his male organs, may come and worship the Eternal. 2 No one born from an illegal or incestuous union may come and worship the Eternal. This prohibition stays in effect for 10 generations. 3 No Ammonite or Moabite may join the Israelite community and come and worship the Eternal. This prohibition stays in effect for 10 generations. 4 This is because they wouldn’t give you any food or water when you came out of Egypt and because they hired someone to curse you instead—Balaam (Beor’s son) from Pethor in northwest Mesopotamia.[l] 5 But the Eternal your God wouldn’t listen to Balaam, and He turned his curse into a blessing for you because the Eternal your God loves you. 6 Don’t ever make peace with them, and don’t align with them, for as long as you live.

These ordinances seem unduly harsh, but two ideas are at play. First, Lot’s sexual relations with his daughters bring forth the Ammonite and Moabite peoples, so this command is a commentary reflecting on that event. Second, these restrictions are only temporary. God requires a ritually pure and completely devoted people (both internal and external) in order to bring forth the “messianic seed of woman.” One day the physically maimed and social outcasts will be fully integrated into the people of God. Although Isaiah 56:3–5 models this expectation, Jesus makes it a reality.

Moses: 7 Don’t be hostile toward the Edomites because they’re related to you. And don’t be hostile toward the Egyptians because you were once foreign residents in their land. 8 The great-grandchildren of an Edomite or Egyptian may join the Israelite community and come and worship the Eternal.

9 When you go to fight your enemies, maintain strict standards of moral and ritual decency in your camp. 10 If a man becomes ritually impure because of a nocturnal emission, he can’t remain in the camp. He has to stay outside that day. 11 But when evening comes, once he’s washed himself in water, he may come back into the camp at sunset which begins the new day. 12 Designate an area outside the camp as a latrine. 13 When you go there to relieve yourself, bring the spade you carry with your equipment and turn the soil to cover your excrement. 14 Treat your camp as a sacred place because the Eternal your God will be walking around in it. He travels with your army to bring you victory and defeat your enemies. If He saw something indecent, He’d leave the camp.

15 Don’t send back any slaves who escape from their masters and come to you. 16 Let them live with you in any of your cities, anywhere they choose, wherever seems good to them. And don’t take advantage of them!

17 Neither the women nor the men of Israel shall become cult prostitutes. 18 The Eternal, your True God, will not accept income from male or female prostitution in payment of a vow in His house. Both kinds of cult prostitution are horrifying to Him! 19 You may not charge interest to a fellow Israelite who borrows money or food or anything else you could charge interest for. 20 You may charge foreigners interest, but you may not charge interest to your fellow Israelites. If you follow these instructions, the Eternal your God will bless you in everything you do in the land where you’re going to live when you cross the Jordan.

21 When you make a vow to the Eternal, your True God, pay it promptly. He will be looking for you to fulfill your promise; and if you don’t, it will be a sin. 22 It isn’t a sin to make a vow in the first place. 23 But whatever you do say, you must fulfill completely: you made a vow of your own free will to the Eternal your God, and you must keep your word.

The law in verses 9-14 is loosely connected with those in the preceding group by the theme of someone being excluded from a community that is defined by the Eternal One’s presence. In this case, however, both the exclusion and the community are temporary.

The concern for “decency” in this law doesn’t relate to moral or immoral acts, but rather to personal bodily functions that should be kept private and discrete. Otherwise, they expose too much of the person to community view. They’re described literally as a form of “nakedness.” In this context, being “unclean” means needing to deal with a private matter before being able to reengage the community.

An essential principle in the Old Testament is that what is unclean must never come into contact with what is holy. The Eternal One’s presence is supremely holy, thus the concern for decency in the camp where the Eternal One travels with the army.

24 When you’re passing through another Israelite’s vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as you want there, but don’t carry any away in a container. 25 When you’re passing through another Israelite’s field, you may pluck the grain with your hand and eat it, but you’re not allowed to bring a sickle to cut down the grain and carry it away.

24 Moses: Suppose a man marries a woman but then isn’t happy with her because he discovers she is sexually indecent,[m] and he writes a certificate of divorce, gives it to her, and sends her away from his house. 2 Suppose she leaves his house and becomes another man’s wife, 3 and that second man also isn’t happy with her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her, and sends her away; or suppose that second man who married her dies. 4 In either case, the first man who divorced her isn’t allowed to take her back as his wife because the intimacy of the second marriage defiled her for her first husband. The Eternal would be horrified if anyone did this. It would bring sin on the land the Eternal your God is giving you to live in and pass down to your children.

5 When a man first gets married, he’s free from military service and any other civic duty for one year. He and his wife may spend that year happily together in their home.

6 A creditor is not allowed to take a pair of millstones for grinding grain, or to take even a single millstone (which would leave the other one useless) as security for a debt.

How can debtors stay alive if they can’t prepare food? When a person’s debt is due, God has instructions for Israelite life and ethic, and He always considers both parties.

7 If someone is caught kidnapping and enslaving other Israelites or selling them into slavery, the penalty is death. Expel the wicked from your own community.[n]

8 Do everything you can to prevent an outbreak of any infectious skin disease. I’ve commanded the Levitical priests what to do in these cases. Follow all of their instructions very carefully! 9 Remember what the Eternal your God did to Miriam as you were on your way out of Egypt.[o]

As the Israelites are traveling through the wilderness, the prophetess Miriam, Moses’ sister, is struck with an infectious skin disease for questioning her brother’s authority as the Lord’s representative (Numbers 12:1–15). Moses prays for her, and she is healed after a week. The allusion to this event seems intended to stress that God has complete power over diseases that cause impurity—both to strike people and to heal them—and that the Israelites therefore need to respect the authority of the Lord’s representatives, the priests, as they treat cases.

Moses: 10 If you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, don’t go into his house to collect the security. 11 Wait outside, and let him bring it out to you. 12 If the borrower is poor and gives a cloak as security, don’t keep it overnight. 13 Give the cloak back at sunset so he can sleep in it and stay warm. He’ll bless you, and the Eternal your God will recognize your good deed.

14 Don’t exploit the poor and needy people whom you hire to work for you, whether they’re fellow Israelites or some of the foreigners who live in your cities. 15 Pay them on the same day they work for you, before the sun goes down, because they’re poor and they’re really counting on the money. If you don’t, they’ll cry out to the Eternal, and He’ll find you guilty of wicked actions.

16 Don’t put parents to death for anything their children have done, and don’t put children to death for anything their parents have done. People are only to be executed for their own crimes.

17 Don’t deny justice to someone just because he or she is defenseless, such as a foreigner or an orphan, and don’t take a widow’s garment as security for a debt. 18 Remember you were helpless slaves in Egypt, and the Eternal your God rescued you from there. That’s why I’m commanding you to do this and protect defenseless people yourselves.

19 When you’re harvesting your field, if you forget a sheaf, don’t go back out into the field to get it. Let the foreigners, orphans, and widows take it. If you do this, the Eternal your God will bless everything you do. 20 When you beat your olive tree to knock the olives onto the ground where you can harvest them, don’t shake each branch again and again to strip the tree clean. Leave some for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. 21 When you cut the grapes off your vines, don’t go around a second time and get all the ones you missed. Leave them for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. 22 Remember you, too, were destitute slaves in Egypt. That’s why I’m commanding you to do this and provide for the needy people around you.

Gleaning is a right given by God to pick up anything left in the fields at harvest time, and this is a special gift for those with real need.

25 Moses: If two people have a dispute and bring it to court, the judges there will decide the case and declare which one is innocent and which one is guilty. 2 If the judges decide the guilty party should be punished with a beating, the judge will make him lie down and be beaten in front of the judge with the number of strokes appropriate to the evil offense— 3 but it can never be more than 40. This limit is to prevent excessive beatings, which would be publicly degrading.

4 Don’t muzzle the ox while it is treading out your grain.[p]

5 When two brothers are living together, sharing family property that hasn’t been divided, if one of them dies leaving a widow without sons, his widow must not be married to a man outside the family. The brother should marry his sister-in-law and try to have children with her in his brother’s name.[q]

The widow and any children she has by her second husband, by custom, lose their share in his property. When a widow and her children become the family of her brother-in-law, this is a Levirate marriage.

Moses: 6 Her firstborn son will be named after the brother who died, so that the first husband’s name will not disappear from Israel and that son will receive his share of the family inheritance. 7 If a man doesn’t want to marry his brother’s widow, she should go to the elders at the city gate and make a formal complaint: “My husband died, and his brother refuses to keep his name alive in Israel. He won’t marry me and give me children!” 8 The elders of his city will send for him and try to persuade him. He may resist and say, “I don’t want to marry her!” 9 In that case, the widow will come up to him, with the elders looking on, and pull one of his sandals off his foot, spit in his face, and then say, “If a man won’t make sure his brother’s family line continues, he deserves this kind of disgrace for not continuing his brother’s house!” 10 From then on, throughout Israel, his family will be known as “the house with the missing sandal,” and they’ll all be disgraced.

11 If two Israelites are fighting, and one man’s wife comes to help her husband because he’s getting beaten, if she grabs the other man by the genitals, she has disrespected his source of procreative power. 12 Cut her hand off; don’t show any pity!

13 Don’t keep two different weighing stones in your bag, a heavy one for when you want to weigh out full value and a light one for when you want to try to cheat someone. 14 Don’t keep two different measuring containers in your house, a large one for when you want to measure out full value and a small one for when you want to try to cheat someone. 15 Your weighing stone must be a full and fair weight, and your measuring container must be a full and fair size. That way you will live a long time on the ground the Eternal your God is giving to you, 16 because the Eternal your God is horrified by anyone who is so unjust as to cheat other people in weights or measures.

17 Remember what the Amalekites did to you as you were coming out of Egypt? 18 They found you on the road when you were all worn out, and they attacked those who had fallen behind and were isolated and defenseless. They showed no fear of God. 19 When you’re in a position to punish them for this, when all of your other enemies are defeated and you’re living peacefully in the land that the Eternal your God is giving you to live in, then wipe out every trace of the Amalekites under the sky. Don’t forget!

The Old Testament places a very high value on plans being brought to fruition. “Futility curses,” in which plans fail to reach fruition, are among the worst imagined in the ancient world. To prevent futility from happening, men are exempt from military service if they have not yet married their fiancées, if they have not enjoyed the fruit of a vineyard they have planted, or if they have not lived in a house they have built. Plans reaching fruition are cause for formal celebration and public acknowledgment of the Lord’s help. The fulfillment of His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob takes tangible form in the first crops from the new land, and this fulfillment calls for a ceremony of celebration and acknowledgment by each Israelite.

26 Moses: When you go into the land the Eternal your God is giving you to live in, when you’ve taken possession of it and are living there, 2 then take some of the very first produce you harvest from the land He is giving you, put it in a basket, and go to the place He will choose for His name. 3 Go to the priest who is serving at the time and say, “The Eternal promised our ancestors He’d give us this land, and I’m here today to acknowledge to the Eternal, my True God—I’ve officially settled in!” 4 Then the priest will take the basket from you and set it in front of the altar of the Eternal your God. 5 You will then testify in the presence of Him, “I’m descended from an Aramean nomad. The Lord watched over him everywhere he went. When he and his family moved to Egypt, there were only a few of them. But as they lived there as foreigners, they grew into a large, great, and powerful nation. 6 The Egyptians mistreated us and oppressed us. They made us their slaves and worked us mercilessly. 7 Then we cried out to the Eternal, the God of our ancestors, and He heard us. He saw that we were oppressed and exploited and mistreated. 8 He delivered us with overwhelming power, totally terrifying the Egyptians by testing them with plagues and showing He was the true God by doing amazing things to them. 9 He brought us to this place and gave us this land flowing with milk and honey. 10 And now I’ve brought the very first produce from the ground that You, the Eternal, have given to me.” Then present the basket to the Eternal your God, and bow down before Him, 11 and celebrate all the good things He has given to you and your household. Be sure to invite the Levites and the foreigners who live in your town to the feast.

12 When you’ve gathered a tenth of your produce at the end of the third year, the year for local tithing, give it to the Levites, the foreigners, the orphans, and the widows who live in your town. Let them come and take as much as they want to eat for as long as these supplies last. 13 And then pray this prayer to the Eternal, your True God: “I haven’t kept this sacred tithe for myself in my own house. I’ve given it to the Levites, the foreigners, the orphans, and the widows, just as You commanded me. I haven’t broken or forgotten any of Your commands. 14 I haven’t eaten any of it while in mourning. I didn’t bring any of it here while I was ritually impure, and I haven’t offered any of it to the dead. I’ve listened to the voice of the Eternal, my God. I’ve done everything You commanded me to do. 15 Look down from heaven, from the holy place where You live, and bless Your people Israel and this land flowing with milk and honey, this ground You’ve given us just as You promised our ancestors.”

16 Today the Eternal your God commands you to follow all these regulations and decrees. Obey them carefully and devotedly with your whole heart and soul. 17 You’ve declared today that the Eternal will be your God, that you’ll live as He wants you to, that you’ll obey His regulations, commands and decrees, and that you’ll listen to His voice. 18 And today the Eternal has declared that you are His people—His own special possession, just as He said—and He’s acknowledged your promise to keep all His commands. 19 He’s declared that He’ll lift you up high above all the other nations He’s made. You’ll be praised, renowned, and honored. You also will be a people who are set apart for the Eternal your God, just as He said.

Notas al pie

  1. 17:7 1 Corinthians 5:13
  2. 18:8 Meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain; also translated “father’s estate.”
  3. 18:15 Acts 7:37; 3:22
  4. 18:16 Deuteronomy 5:22–27
  5. 18:19 Acts 3:23
  6. 19:15 2 Corinthians 13:1
  7. 19:19–21 Matthew 5:38
  8. 21:5 Verse 5 has been moved forward to aid in comprehension.
  9. 21:21 1 Corinthians 5:13
  10. 21:23 Galatians 3:13
  11. 22:21 1 Corinthians 5:13
  12. 23:4 Hebrew, Aram Naharaim
  13. 24:1 Literally, a naked thing
  14. 24:7 1 Corinthians 5:13
  15. 24:9 Numbers 12:10
  16. 25:4 1 Corinthians 9:9; 1 Timothy 5:18
  17. 25:5 Mark 12:19
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