²² “These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly, in the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and He added no more. And ^(F)He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

The People Afraid of God’s Presence^(G)

^23 (H)“So it was, when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, that you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders. ²⁴ And you said: ‘Surely the Lord our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and ^(I)we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God speaks with man; yet he ^(J)still lives. ²⁵ Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; ^(K)if we hear the voice of the Lord our God anymore, then we shall die. ^26 (L)For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? ²⁷ You go near and hear all that the Lord our God may say, and ^(M)tell us all that the Lord our God says to you, and we will hear and do it.’

²⁸ “Then the Lord heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me: ‘I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken to you. ^(N)They are right in all that they have spoken. ^29 (O)Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and ^(P)always keep all My commandments, ^(Q)that it might be well with them and with their children forever! ³⁰ Go and say to them, “Return to your tents.” ³¹ But as for you, stand here by Me, ^(R)and I will speak to you all the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments which you shall teach them, that they may observe them in the land which I am giving them to possess.’

³² “Therefore you shall ^[a]be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you; ^(S)you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. ³³ You shall walk in ^(T)all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live ^(U)and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.

The Greatest Commandment

6 “Now this is ^(V)the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, ^2 (W)that you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, ^(X)and that your days may be prolonged. ³ Therefore hear, O Israel, and ^[b]be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may ^(Y)multiply greatly ^(Z)as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you—^(AA)‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’

^4 (AB)“Hear, O Israel: ^[c]The Lord our God, the Lord is one! ^5 (AC)You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, ^(AD)with all your soul, and with all your strength.

⁶ “And ^(AE)these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. ^7 (AF)You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. ^8 (AG)You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ^9 (AH)You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Caution Against Disobedience

¹⁰ “So it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which He ^[d]swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities ^(AI)which you did not build, ¹¹ houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant—^(AJ)when you have eaten and are full— ¹² then beware, lest you forget the ^(AK)Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. ¹³ You shall ^(AL)fear the Lord your God and serve Him, and ^(AM)shall take oaths in His name. ¹⁴ You shall not go after other gods, ^(AN)the gods of the peoples who are all around you ¹⁵ (for ^(AO)the Lord your God is a jealous God ^(AP)among you), lest the anger of the Lord your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth.

^16 (AQ)“You shall not ^[e]tempt the Lord your God ^(AR)as you ^[f]tempted Him in Massah. ¹⁷ You shall ^(AS)diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, His testimonies, and His statutes which He has commanded you. ¹⁸ And you ^(AT)shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land of which the Lord swore to your fathers, ^19 (AU)to cast out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has spoken.

^20 (AV)“When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord our God has commanded you?’ ²¹ then you shall say to your son: ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt ^(AW)with a mighty hand; ²² and the Lord showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe, against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household. ²³ Then He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the land of which He ^[g]swore to our fathers. ²⁴ And the Lord commanded us to ^[h]observe all these ^[i]statutes, ^(AX)to fear the Lord our God, ^(AY)for our good always, that ^(AZ)He might preserve us alive, as it is ^[j]this day. ²⁵ Then ^(BA)it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us.’

A Chosen People^(BB)

7 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to ^(BC)possess, and has cast out many ^(BD)nations before you, ^(BE)the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, ² and when the Lord your God delivers ^(BF)them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. ^(BG)You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. ^3 (BH)Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. ⁴ For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; ^(BI)so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. ⁵ But thus you shall deal with them: you shall ^(BJ)destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their ^[k]wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire.

⁶ “For you are a ^[l]holy people to the Lord your God; ^(BK)the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. ⁷ The Lord did not set His ^(BL)love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were ^(BM)the least of all peoples; ⁸ but ^(BN)because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep ^(BO)the oath which He swore to your fathers, ^(BP)the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of ^[m]bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

⁹ “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, ^(BQ)the faithful God ^(BR)who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; ¹⁰ and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not ^[n]be ^(BS)slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face. ¹¹ Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today, to observe them.

Blessings of Obedience^(BT)

¹² “Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers. ¹³ And He will ^(BU)love you and bless you and ^[o]multiply you; ^(BV)He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He ^[p]swore to your fathers to give you. ¹⁴ You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female ^(BW)barren among you or among your livestock. ¹⁵ And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the ^(BX)terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you. ¹⁶ Also you shall ^[q]destroy all the peoples whom the Lord your God delivers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that will ^(BY)be a snare to you.

¹⁷ “If you should say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?’— ¹⁸ you shall not be afraid of them, but you shall ^(BZ)remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: ^19 (CA)the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm, by which the Lord your God brought you out. So shall the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. ^20 (CB)Moreover the Lord your God will send the hornet among them until those who are left, who hide themselves from you, are destroyed. ²¹ You shall not be terrified of them; for the Lord your God, the great and awesome God, is among you. ²² And the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you ^(CC)little by little; you will be unable to ^[r]destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. ²³ But the Lord your God will deliver them over to you, and will inflict defeat upon them until they are destroyed. ²⁴ And ^(CD)He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you will destroy their name from under heaven; ^(CE)no one shall be able to stand ^[s]against you until you have destroyed them. ²⁵ You shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire; you shall not ^(CF)covet^[t] the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it; for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. ²⁶ Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, ^(CG)for it is an ^[u]accursed thing.

Remember the Lord Your God

8 “Every commandment which I command you today ^(CH)you must ^[v]be careful to observe, that you may live and ^(CI)multiply,^[w] and go in and possess the land of which the Lord ^[x]swore to your fathers. ² And you shall remember that the Lord your God ^(CJ)led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and ^(CK)test you, ^(CL)to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. ³ So He humbled you, ^(CM)allowed you to hunger, and ^(CN)fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall ^(CO)not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. ^4 (CP)Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. ^5 (CQ)You should ^[y]know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you.

⁶ “Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, ^(CR)to walk in His ways and to fear Him. ⁷ For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, ^(CS)a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; ⁸ a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; ⁹ a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. ^10 (CT)When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.

¹¹ “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, ^12 (CU)lest—when you have eaten and are ^[z]full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; ¹³ and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are ^[aa]multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; ^14 (CV)when your heart ^[ab]is lifted up, and you ^(CW)forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; ¹⁵ who ^(CX)led you through that great and terrible wilderness, ^(CY)in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; ^(CZ)who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; ¹⁶ who fed you in the wilderness with ^(DA)manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, ^(DB)to do you good in the end— ¹⁷ then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’

¹⁸ “And you shall remember the Lord your God, ^(DC)for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, ^(DD)that He may ^[ac]establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. ¹⁹ Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, ^(DE)I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. ²⁰ As the nations which the Lord destroys before you, ^(DF)so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God.

Israel’s Rebellions Reviewed^(DG)

9 “Hear, O Israel: You are to cross over the Jordan today, and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, ² a people great and tall, the ^(DH)descendants of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the descendants of Anak?’ ³ Therefore understand today that the Lord your God is He who ^(DI)goes over before you as a ^(DJ)consuming fire. ^(DK)He will destroy them and bring them down before you; ^(DL)so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the Lord has said to you.

^4 (DM)“Do not think in your heart, after the Lord your God has cast them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land’; but it is ^(DN)because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you. ^5 (DO)It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and that He may ^[ad]fulfill the ^(DP)word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ⁶ Therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a ^(DQ)stiff-necked^[ae] people.

⁷ “Remember! Do not forget how you ^(DR)provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. ^(DS)From the day that you departed from the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. ⁸ Also ^(DT)in Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, so that the Lord was angry enough with you to have destroyed you. ^9 (DU)When I went up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and ^(DV)forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. ^10 (DW)Then the Lord delivered to me two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire ^(DX)in^[af] the day of the assembly. ¹¹ And it came to pass, at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.

¹² “Then the Lord said to me, ^(DY)‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly; they have ^(DZ)quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made themselves a molded image.’

¹³ “Furthermore ^(EA)the Lord spoke to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed ^(EB)they are a ^[ag]stiff-necked people. ^14 (EC)Let Me alone, that I may destroy them and ^(ED)blot out their name from under heaven; ^(EE)and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’

^15 (EF)“So I turned and came down from the mountain, and ^(EG)the mountain burned with fire; and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. ¹⁶ And ^(EH)I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God—had made for yourselves a molded calf! You had turned aside quickly from the way which the Lord had commanded you. ¹⁷ Then I took the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and ^(EI)broke them before your eyes. ¹⁸ And I ^(EJ)fell^[ah] down before the Lord, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you committed in doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. ^19 (EK)For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the Lord was angry with you, to destroy you. ^(EL)But the Lord listened to me at that time also. ²⁰ And the Lord was very angry with Aaron and would have destroyed him; so I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. ²¹ Then I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it and ground it very small, until it was as fine as dust; and I ^(EM)threw its dust into the brook that descended from the mountain.

²² “Also at ^(EN)Taberah and ^(EO)Massah and ^(EP)Kibroth Hattaavah you ^[ai]provoked the Lord to wrath. ²³ Likewise, ^(EQ)when the Lord sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, ‘Go up and possess the land which I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God, and ^(ER)you did not believe Him nor obey His voice. ^24 (ES)You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you.

^25 (ET)“Thus I ^[aj]prostrated myself before the Lord; forty days and forty nights I kept prostrating myself, because the Lord had said He would destroy you. ²⁶ Therefore I prayed to the Lord, and said: ‘O Lord God, do not destroy Your people and ^(EU)Your inheritance whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²⁷ Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look on the stubbornness of this people, or on their wickedness or their sin, ²⁸ lest the land from which You brought us should say, “Because the Lord was not able to bring them to the land which He promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.” ²⁹ Yet they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your mighty power and by Your outstretched arm.’

The Second Pair of Tablets^(EV)

10 “At that time the Lord said to me, ^[ak]‘Hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to Me on the mountain and make yourself an ^(EW)ark of wood. ² And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke; and ^(EX)you shall put them in the ark.’

³ “So I made an ark of acacia wood, hewed two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain, having the two tablets in my hand. ⁴ And He wrote on the tablets according to the first writing, the Ten ^[al]Commandments, ^(EY)which the Lord had spoken to you in the mountain from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them to me. ⁵ Then I turned and ^(EZ)came down from the mountain, and ^(FA)put the tablets in the ark which I had made; ^(FB)and there they are, just as the Lord commanded me.”

⁶ (Now the children of Israel journeyed from the wells of Bene Jaakan to Moserah, where Aaron ^(FC)died, and where he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered as priest in his ^[am]stead. ^7 (FD)From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of ^[an]rivers of water. ⁸ At that time ^(FE)the Lord ^[ao]separated the tribe of Levi ^(FF)to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, ^(FG)to stand before the Lord to minister to Him and ^(FH)to bless in His name, to this day. ^9 (FI)Therefore Levi has no portion nor inheritance with his brethren; the Lord is his inheritance, just as the Lord your God promised him.)

¹⁰ “As at the first time, ^(FJ)I stayed in the mountain forty days and forty nights; ^(FK)the Lord also heard me at that time, and the Lord chose not to destroy you. ^11 (FL)Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, begin your journey before the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.’

The Essence of the Law

¹² “And now, Israel, ^(FM)what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to ^(FN)love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today ^(FO)for your ^[ap]good? ¹⁴ Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the ^(FP)Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it. ¹⁵ The Lord delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their ^[aq]descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day. ¹⁶ Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your ^(FQ)heart, and be ^(FR)stiff-necked^[ar] no longer. ¹⁷ For the Lord your God is ^(FS)God of gods and ^(FT)Lord of lords, the great God, ^(FU)mighty and awesome, who ^(FV)shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. ^18 (FW)He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. ¹⁹ Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. ^20 (FX)You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast, and take oaths in His name. ²¹ He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen. ²² Your fathers went down to Egypt with seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as the stars of heaven in multitude.

Love and Obedience Rewarded

11 “Therefore you shall love the Lord your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always. ² Know today that I do not speak with your children, who have not known and who have not seen the ^[as]chastening of the Lord your God, His greatness and His mighty hand and His outstretched arm— ³ His signs and His acts which He did in the midst of Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to all his land; ⁴ what He did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and their chariots: ^(FY)how He made the waters of the Red Sea overflow them as they pursued you, and how the Lord has destroyed them to this day; ⁵ what He did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place; ⁶ and ^(FZ)what He did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, their households, their tents, and all the substance that was ^[at]in their possession, in the midst of all Israel— ⁷ but your eyes have ^(GA)seen every great ^[au]act of the Lord which He did.

⁸ “Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today, that you may ^(GB)be strong, and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess, ⁹ and ^(GC)that you may prolong your days in the land ^(GD)which the Lord ^[av]swore to give your fathers, to them and their descendants, ^(GE)‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’ ¹⁰ For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; ^11 (GF)but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, ¹² a land for which the Lord your God cares; ^(GG)the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.

¹³ ‘And it shall be that if you earnestly ^[aw]obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹⁴ then ^(GH)I^[ax] will give you the rain for your land in its season, ^(GI)the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. ^15 (GJ)And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may ^(GK)eat and be ^[ay]filled.’ ¹⁶ Take heed to yourselves, ^(GL)lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and ^(GM)serve other gods and worship them, ¹⁷ lest ^(GN)the Lord’s anger be aroused against you, and He ^(GO)shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and ^(GP)you perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you.

¹⁸ “Therefore ^(GQ)you shall ^[az]lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your ^(GR)soul, and ^(GS)bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ^19 (GT)You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. ^20 (GU)And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, ²¹ that ^(GV)your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like ^(GW)the days of the heavens above the earth.

²² “For if ^(GX)you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do—to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and ^(GY)to hold fast to Him— ²³ then the Lord will ^(GZ)drive out all these nations from before you, and you will ^(HA)dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves. ^24 (HB)Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: ^(HC)from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, even to the ^[ba]Western Sea, shall be your territory. ²⁵ No man shall be able to ^(HD)stand ^[bb]against you; the Lord your God will put the ^(HE)dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread, just as He has said to you.

^26 (HF)“Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: ^27 (HG)the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today; ²⁸ and the ^(HH)curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known. ²⁹ Now it shall be, when the Lord your God has brought you into the land which you go to possess, that you shall put the ^(HI)blessing on Mount Gerizim and the ^(HJ)curse on Mount Ebal. ³⁰ Are they not on the other side of the Jordan, toward the setting sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the plain opposite Gilgal, ^(HK)beside the terebinth trees of Moreh? ³¹ For you will cross over the Jordan and go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and you will possess it and dwell in it. ³² And you shall be careful to observe all the statutes and judgments which I set before you today.

A Prescribed Place of Worship

12 “These ^(HL)are the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to observe in the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you to possess, ^(HM)all^[bc] the days that you live on the earth. ^2 (HN)You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, ^(HO)on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. ³ And ^(HP)you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their ^[bd]wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place. ⁴ You shall not ^(HQ)worship the Lord your God with such things.

⁵ “But you shall seek the ^(HR)place where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His ^(HS)dwelling^[be] place; and there you shall go. ^6 (HT)There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the ^(HU)firstborn of your herds and flocks. ⁷ And ^(HV)there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and ^(HW)you shall rejoice in ^[bf]all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

⁸ “You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—^(HX)every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes— ⁹ for as yet you have not come to the ^(HY)rest^[bg] and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁰ But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you ^(HZ)rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety, ¹¹ then there will be the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the Lord. ¹² And ^(IA)you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the ^(IB)Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion nor inheritance with you. ¹³ Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; ¹⁴ but in the place which the Lord chooses, in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.

¹⁵ “However, ^(IC)you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates, whatever your heart desires, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you; ^(ID)the unclean and the clean may eat of it, ^(IE)of the gazelle and the deer alike. ^16 (IF)Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it on the earth like water. ¹⁷ You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or your new wine or your oil, of the firstborn of your herd or your flock, of any of your offerings which you vow, of your freewill offerings, or of the ^[bh]heave offering of your hand. ¹⁸ But you must eat them before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord your God chooses, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in ^[bi]all to which you put your hands. ^19 [bj]Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.

²⁰ “When the Lord your God ^(IG)enlarges your border as He has promised you, and you say, ‘Let me eat meat,’ because you long to eat meat, you may eat as much meat as your heart desires. ²¹ If the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from ^(IH)you, then you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock which the Lord has given you, just as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates as much as your heart desires. ²² Just as the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you may eat them; the unclean and the clean alike may eat them. ²³ Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, ^(II)for the blood is the life; you may not eat the life with the meat. ²⁴ You shall not eat it; you shall pour it on the earth like water. ²⁵ You shall not eat it, ^(IJ)that it may go well with you and your children after you, ^(IK)when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord. ²⁶ Only the ^(IL)holy things which you have, and your vowed offerings, you shall take and go to the place which the Lord chooses. ²⁷ And ^(IM)you shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, and you shall eat the meat. ²⁸ Observe and obey all these words which I command you, ^(IN)that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.

Beware of False Gods

²⁹ “When ^(IO)the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, ³⁰ take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’ ^31 (IP)You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way; for every ^[bk]abomination to the Lord which He hates they have done to their gods; for ^(IQ)they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.

³² “Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; ^(IR)you shall not add to it nor take away from it.

Punishment of Apostates

13 “If there arises among you a prophet or a ^(IS)dreamer of dreams, ^(IT)and he gives you a sign or a wonder, ² and ^(IU)the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’ ³ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God ^(IV)is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. ⁴ You shall ^(IW)walk^[bl] after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and ^(IX)hold fast to Him. ⁵ But ^(IY)that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. ^(IZ)So you shall ^[bm]put away the evil from your midst.

^6 (JA)“If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, ^(JB)the wife ^[bn]of your bosom, or your friend ^(JC)who is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, ⁷ of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, ⁸ you shall ^(JD)not ^[bo]consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him; ⁹ but you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to ^(JE)death, and afterward the hand of all the people. ¹⁰ And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. ¹¹ So all Israel shall hear and ^(JF)fear, and not again do such wickedness as this among you.

^12 (JG)“If you hear someone in one of your cities, which the Lord your God gives you to dwell in, saying, ^13 [bp]‘Corrupt men have gone out from among you and enticed the inhabitants of their city, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods” ’—which you have not known— ¹⁴ then you shall inquire, search out, and ask diligently. And if it is indeed true and certain that such an ^[bq]abomination was committed among you, ¹⁵ you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it, all that is in it and its livestock—with the edge of the sword. ¹⁶ And you shall gather all its plunder into the middle of the street, and ^[br]completely ^(JH)burn with fire the city and all its plunder, for the Lord your God. It shall be ^(JI)a ^[bs]heap forever; it shall not be built again. ^17 (JJ)So none of the accursed things shall remain in your hand, that the Lord may ^(JK)turn from the fierceness of His anger and show you mercy, have compassion on you and ^[bt]multiply you, just as He swore to your fathers, ¹⁸ because you have listened to the voice of the Lord your God, ^(JL)to keep all His commandments which I command you today, to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord your God.

Improper Mourning

14 “You are ^(JM)the children of the Lord your God; ^(JN)you shall not cut yourselves nor ^[bu]shave the front of your head for the dead. ^2 (JO)For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

Clean and Unclean Meat^(JP)

^3 (JQ)“You shall not eat any ^[bv]detestable thing. ^4 (JR)These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, ⁵ the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the ^[bw]mountain goat, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. ⁶ And you may eat every animal with cloven hooves, having the hoof split into two parts, and that chews the cud, among the animals. ⁷ Nevertheless, of those that chew the cud or have cloven hooves, you shall not eat, such as these: the camel, the hare, and the rock hyrax; for they chew the cud but do not have cloven hooves; they are unclean for you. ⁸ Also the swine is unclean for you, because it has cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud; you shall not eat their flesh ^(JS)or touch their dead carcasses.

^9 (JT)“These you may eat of all that are in the waters: you may eat all that have fins and scales. ¹⁰ And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.

¹¹ “All clean birds you may eat. ^12 (JU)But these you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, ¹³ the red kite, the falcon, and the kite after their kinds; ¹⁴ every raven after its kind; ¹⁵ the ostrich, the short-eared owl, the sea gull, and the hawk after their kinds; ¹⁶ the little owl, the screech owl, the white owl, ¹⁷ the jackdaw, the carrion vulture, the fisher owl, ¹⁸ the stork, the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe and the bat.

¹⁹ “Also ^(JV)every ^[bx]creeping thing that flies is unclean for you; ^(JW)they shall not be eaten.

²⁰ “You may eat all clean birds.

^21 (JX)“You shall not eat anything that dies of itself; you may give it to the alien who is within your gates, that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner; ^(JY)for you are a holy people to the Lord your God.

“^(JZ)You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

Tithing Principles

^22 (KA)“You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year. ^23 (KB)And you shall eat before the Lord your God, in the place where He chooses to make His name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of ^(KC)the firstborn of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. ²⁴ But if the journey is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, or ^(KD)if the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, when the Lord your God has blessed you, ²⁵ then you shall exchange it for money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses. ²⁶ And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires; you shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall ^(KE)rejoice, you and your household. ²⁷ You shall not ^[by]forsake the ^(KF)Levite who is within your gates, for he has no part nor inheritance with you.

^28 (KG)“At the end of every third year you shall bring out the ^(KH)tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. ²⁹ And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.

Debts Canceled Every Seven Years^(KI)

15 “At the end of ^(KJ)every seven years you shall grant a ^[bz]release of debts. ² And this is the form of the release: Every creditor who has lent anything to his neighbor shall ^[ca]release it; he shall not ^[cb]require it of his neighbor or his brother, because it is called the Lord’s release. ³ Of a foreigner you may require it; but you shall give up your claim to what is owed by your brother, ⁴ except when there may be no poor among you; for the Lord will greatly ^(KK)bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance— ⁵ only if you carefully obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe with care all these commandments which I command you today. ⁶ For the Lord your God will bless you just as He promised you; ^(KL)you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; you shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you.

Generosity to the Poor

⁷ “If there is among you a poor man of your brethren, within any of the ^[cc]gates in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, ^(KM)you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother, ⁸ but ^(KN)you shall ^[cd]open your hand wide to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs. ⁹ Beware lest there be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand,’ and your ^(KO)eye be evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing, and ^(KP)he cry out to the Lord against you, and ^(KQ)it become sin among you. ¹⁰ You shall surely give to him, and ^(KR)your heart should not be grieved when you give to him, because ^(KS)for this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all your works and in all to which you put your hand. ¹¹ For ^(KT)the poor will never cease from the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall ^[ce]open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, in your land.’

The Law Concerning Bondservants

^12 (KU)“If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is ^(KV)sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. ¹³ And when you ^[cf]send him away free from you, you shall not let him go away empty-handed; ¹⁴ you shall supply him liberally from your flock, from your threshing floor, and from your winepress. From what the Lord your God has ^(KW)blessed you with, you shall give to him. ^15 (KX)You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this thing today. ¹⁶ And ^(KY)if it happens that he says to you, ‘I will not go away from you,’ because he loves you and your house, since he prospers with you, ¹⁷ then you shall take an awl and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also to your female servant you shall do likewise. ¹⁸ It shall not seem hard to you when you send him away free from you; for he has been worth ^(KZ)a double hired servant in serving you six years. Then the Lord your God will bless you in all that you do.

The Law Concerning Firstborn Animals

^19 (LA)“All the firstborn males that come from your herd and your flock you shall ^[cg]sanctify to the Lord your God; you shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock. ^20 (LB)You and your household shall eat it before the Lord your God year by year in the place which the Lord chooses. ^21 (LC)But if there is a defect in it, if it is lame or blind or has any serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God. ²² You may eat it within your gates; ^(LD)the unclean and the clean person alike may eat it, as if it were a gazelle or a deer. ²³ Only you shall not eat its blood; you shall pour it on the ground like water.

The Passover Reviewed^(LE)

16 “Observe the ^(LF)month of Abib, and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for ^(LG)in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. ² Therefore you shall sacrifice the Passover to the Lord your God, from the flock and ^(LH)the herd, in the ^(LI)place where the Lord chooses to put His name. ³ You shall eat no leavened bread with it; ^(LJ)seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, that is, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), that you may ^(LK)remember the day in which you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life. ^4 (LL)And no leaven shall be seen among you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the meat which you sacrifice the first day at twilight remain overnight until ^(LM)morning.

⁵ “You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates which the Lord your God gives you; ⁶ but at the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide, there you shall sacrifice the Passover ^(LN)at twilight, at the going down of the sun, at the time you came out of Egypt. ⁷ And you shall roast and eat it ^(LO)in the place which the Lord your God chooses, and in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents. ⁸ Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and ^(LP)on the seventh day there shall be a ^[ch]sacred assembly to the Lord your God. You shall do no work on it.

The Feast of Weeks Reviewed^(LQ)

⁹ “You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain. ¹⁰ Then you shall keep the ^(LR)Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give ^(LS)as the Lord your God blesses you. ^11 (LT)You shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are among you, at the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. ^12 (LU)And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.

The Feast of Tabernacles Reviewed^(LV)

^13 (LW)“You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days, when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress. ¹⁴ And ^(LX)you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your ^[ci]gates. ^15 (LY)Seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you surely rejoice.

^16 (LZ)“Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; and ^(MA)they shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed. ¹⁷ Every man shall give as he is able, ^(MB)according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you.

Justice Must Be Administered

¹⁸ “You shall appoint ^(MC)judges and officers in all your ^[cj]gates, which the Lord your God gives you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with just judgment. ^19 (MD)You shall not pervert justice; ^(ME)you shall not ^[ck]show partiality, ^(MF)nor take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and ^[cl]twists the words of the righteous. ²⁰ You shall follow what is altogether just, that you may ^(MG)live and inherit the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

^21 (MH)“You shall not plant for yourself any tree, as a ^[cm]wooden image, near the altar which you build for yourself to the Lord your God. ^22 (MI)You shall not set up a sacred pillar, which the Lord your God hates.

Various Instructions

17 “You ^(MJ)shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God a bull or sheep which has any ^[cn]blemish or defect, for that is an ^[co]abomination to the Lord your God.

^2 (MK)“If there is found among you, within any of your ^[cp]gates which the Lord your God gives you, a man or a woman who has been wicked in the sight of the Lord your God, ^(ML)in transgressing His covenant, ³ who has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, either ^(MM)the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven, ^(MN)which I have not commanded, ^4 (MO)and it is told you, and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently. And if it is indeed true and certain that such an ^[cq]abomination has been committed in Israel, ⁵ then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has committed that wicked thing, and ^(MP)shall stone ^(MQ)to death that man or woman with stones. ⁶ Whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three ^(MR)witnesses; he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness. ⁷ The hands of the witnesses shall be the first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall put away the evil from among ^(MS)you.

^8 (MT)“If a matter arises which is too hard for you to judge, between degrees of guilt for bloodshed, between one judgment or another, or between one punishment or another, matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise and go up to the ^(MU)place which the Lord your God chooses. ⁹ And ^(MV)you shall come to the priests, the Levites, and ^(MW)to the judge there in those days, and inquire of them; ^(MX)they shall pronounce upon you the sentence of judgment. ¹⁰ You shall do according to the sentence which they pronounce upon you in that place which the Lord chooses. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they order you. ¹¹ According to the sentence of the law in which they instruct you, according to the judgment which they tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left from the sentence which they pronounce upon you. ¹² Now ^(MY)the man who acts presumptuously and will not heed the priest who stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So you shall put away the evil from Israel. ^13 (MZ)And all the people shall hear and fear, and no longer act presumptuously.

Principles Governing Kings

¹⁴ “When you come to the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say, ^(NA)‘I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me,’ ¹⁵ you shall surely set a king over you ^(NB)whom the Lord your God chooses; one ^(NC)from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. ¹⁶ But he shall not multiply ^(ND)horses for himself, nor cause the people ^(NE)to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for ^(NF)the Lord has said to you, ^(NG)‘You shall not return that way again.’ ¹⁷ Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and ^(NH)gold for himself.

¹⁸ “Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one ^(NI)before the priests, the Levites. ¹⁹ And ^(NJ)it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes, ²⁰ that his heart may not ^[cr]be lifted above his brethren, that he ^(NK)may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may ^[cs]prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.

The Portion of the Priests and Levites

18 “The priests, the Levites—all the tribe of Levi—shall have ^[ct]no part nor ^(NL)inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and His portion. ² Therefore they shall have no inheritance among their brethren; the Lord is their inheritance, as He said to them.

³ “And this shall be the priest’s ^(NM)due^[cu] from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it is bull or sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder, the cheeks, and the stomach. ^4 (NN)The firstfruits of your grain and your new wine and your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. ⁵ For ^(NO)the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes ^(NP)to stand to minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons forever.

⁶ “So if a Levite comes from any of your ^[cv]gates, from where he ^(NQ)dwells among all Israel, and comes with all the desire of his mind ^(NR)to the place which the Lord chooses, ⁷ then he may serve in the name of the Lord his God ^(NS)as all his brethren the Levites do, who stand there before the Lord. ⁸ They shall have equal ^(NT)portions to eat, besides what comes from the sale of his inheritance.

Avoid Wicked Customs

⁹ “When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, ^(NU)you shall not learn to follow the ^[cw]abominations of those nations. ¹⁰ There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter ^(NV)pass^[cx] through the fire, ^(NW)or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, ^11 (NX)or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or ^(NY)one who calls up the dead. ¹² For all who do these things are ^[cy]an abomination to the Lord, and ^(NZ)because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you. ¹³ You shall be ^[cz]blameless before the Lord your God. ¹⁴ For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not ^[da]appointed such for you.

A New Prophet Like Moses

^15 (OA)“The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear, ¹⁶ according to all you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb ^(OB)in the day of the assembly, saying, ^(OC)‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.’

¹⁷ “And the Lord said to me: ^(OD)‘What they have spoken is good. ^18 (OE)I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and ^(OF)will put My words in His mouth, ^(OG)and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. ^19 (OH)And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. ²⁰ But ^(OI)the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or ^(OJ)who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ ²¹ And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’— ^22 (OK)when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, ^(OL)if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it ^(OM)presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

Three Cities of Refuge^(ON)

19 “When the Lord your God ^(OO)has cut off the nations whose land the Lord your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses, ^2 (OP)you shall separate three cities for yourself in the midst of your land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess. ³ You shall prepare roads for yourself, and divide into three parts the territory of your land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, that any manslayer may flee there.

⁴ “And ^(OQ)this is the case of the manslayer who flees there, that he may live: Whoever kills his neighbor ^[db]unintentionally, not having hated him in time past— ⁵ as when a man goes to the woods with his neighbor to cut timber, and his hand swings a stroke with the ax to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies—he shall flee to one of these cities and live; ^6 (OR)lest the avenger of blood, while his anger is hot, pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and kill him, though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated the victim in time past. ⁷ Therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall separate three cities for yourself.’

⁸ “Now if the Lord your God ^(OS)enlarges your territory, as He swore to ^(OT)your fathers, and gives you the land which He promised to give to your fathers, ⁹ and if you keep all these commandments and do them, which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and to walk always in His ways, ^(OU)then you shall add three more cities for yourself besides these three, ^10 (OV)lest innocent blood be shed in the midst of your land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and thus guilt of bloodshed be upon you.

¹¹ “But ^(OW)if anyone hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises against him and strikes him mortally, so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities, ¹² then the elders of his city shall send and bring him from there, and deliver him over to the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. ^13 (OX)Your eye shall not pity him, ^(OY)but you shall ^[dc]put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you.

Property Boundaries

^14 (OZ)“You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark, which the men of old have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.

The Law Concerning Witnesses

^15 (PA)“One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established. ¹⁶ If a false witness ^(PB)rises against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing, ¹⁷ then both men in the controversy shall stand before the Lord, ^(PC)before the priests and the judges who serve in those days. ¹⁸ And the judges shall make careful inquiry, and indeed, if the witness is a false witness, who has testified falsely against his brother, ^19 (PD)then you shall do to him as he thought to have done to his brother; so ^(PE)you shall put away the evil from among you. ^20 (PF)And those who remain shall hear and fear, and hereafter they shall not again commit such evil among you. ^21 (PG)Your eye shall not pity: ^(PH)life shall be for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.