Deuteronomy 1-16

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Events at Horeb Recalled

1 These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan—in the wilderness, on the plain opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Di-zahab. ² (By the way of Mount Seir it takes eleven days to reach Kadesh-barnea from Horeb.) ³ In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the Israelites just as the Lord had commanded him to speak to them.^{(A) 4} This was after he had defeated King Sihon of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, and King Og of Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth in Edrei.^{(B) 5} Beyond the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to expound this law as follows:

⁶ “The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain.^{(C) 7} Resume your journey, and go into the hill country of the Amorites as well as into the neighboring regions—the Arabah, the hill country, the Shephelah, the Negeb,^[a] and the seacoast—the land of the Canaanites and the Lebanon, as far as the great river, the River Euphrates. ⁸ See, I have set the land before you; go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them.’^(D)

Appointment of Tribal Leaders

⁹ “At that time I said to you, ‘I am unable by myself to bear you.^{(E) 10} The Lord your God has multiplied you, so that today you are as numerous as the stars of heaven.^{(F) 11} May the Lord, the God of your ancestors, increase you a thousand times more and bless you, as he has promised you!^{(G) 12} But how can I bear the heavy burden of your disputes all by myself? ¹³ Choose for each of your tribes individuals who are wise, discerning, and reputable, and I will make them your leaders.’^{(H) 14} You answered me, ‘The plan you have proposed is a good one.’ ¹⁵ So I took the leaders of your tribes, wise and reputable individuals, and installed them as leaders over you, commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of fifties, commanders of tens, and officials, throughout your tribes.^{(I) 16} I charged your judges at that time: ‘Give the members of your community a fair hearing and judge rightly between one person and another, whether kin or resident alien.^{(J) 17} You must not be partial in judging: hear out the small and the great alike; you shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God’s. Any case that is too hard for you, bring to me, and I will hear it.’^{(K) 18} So I charged you at that time with all the things that you should do.

Israel’s Refusal to Enter the Land

¹⁹ “Then, just as the Lord our God had ordered us, we set out from Horeb and went through all that great and terrible wilderness that you saw, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, until we reached Kadesh-barnea.^{(L) 20} I said to you, ‘You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. ²¹ See, the Lord your God has given the land to you; go up, take possession, as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you; do not fear or be dismayed.’^(M)

²² “All of you came to me and said, ‘Let us send men ahead of us to explore the land for us and bring back a report to us regarding the route by which we should go up and the cities we will come to.’ ²³ The plan seemed good to me, and I selected twelve of you, one from each tribe.^{(N) 24} They set out and went up into the hill country, and when they reached the Wadi Eshcol they spied it out^{(O) 25} and gathered some of the land’s produce, which they brought down to us. They brought back a report to us and said, ‘It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us.’^(P)

²⁶ “But you were unwilling to go up. You rebelled against the command of the Lord your God;^{(Q) 27} you grumbled in your tents and said, ‘It is because the Lord hates us that he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to hand us over to the Amorites to destroy us.^{(R) 28} Where are we headed? Our kindred have made our hearts melt by reporting, “The people are stronger and taller than we; the cities are large and fortified up to heaven! We actually saw there the offspring of the Anakim!” ’^{(S) 29} I said to you, ‘Have no dread or fear of them. ³⁰ The Lord your God, who goes before you, is the one who will fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your very eyes^{(T) 31} and in the wilderness, where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, just as one carries a child, all the way that you traveled until you reached this place.^{(U) 32} But in spite of this, you have no trust in the Lord your God,^{(V) 33} who goes before you on the way to seek out a place for you to camp, in fire by night, and in the cloud by day, to show you the route you should take.’^(W)

The Penalty for Israel’s Rebellion

³⁴ “When the Lord heard your words, he was wrathful and swore,^{(X) 35} ‘Not one of these—not one of this evil generation—shall see the good land that I swore to give to your ancestors, ³⁶ except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him and to his descendants I will give the land on which he set foot, because of his complete fidelity to the Lord.’ ³⁷ Even with me the Lord was angry on your account, saying, ‘You also shall not enter there.^{(Y) 38} Joshua son of Nun, your assistant, shall enter there; encourage him, for he is the one who will secure Israel’s possession of it.^{(Z) 39} And as for your little ones who you thought would become plunder, your children who today do not yet know right from wrong, they shall enter there; to them I will give it, and they shall take possession of it.^{(AA) 40} But as for you, journey back into the wilderness, in the direction of the Red Sea.’^[b](AB)

⁴¹ “You answered me, ‘We have sinned against the Lord! We are ready to go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us.’ So all of you strapped on your battle gear and thought it easy to go up into the hill country.^{(AC) 42} The Lord said to me, ‘Say to them: “Do not go up, and do not fight, for I am not in the midst of you; otherwise you will be defeated by your enemies.” ’^{(AD) 43} Although I told you, you would not listen. You rebelled against the command of the Lord and presumptuously went up into the hill country.^{(AE) 44} The Amorites who lived in that hill country then came out against you and chased you as bees do. They beat you down in Seir as far as Hormah.^{(AF) 45} When you returned and wept before the Lord, the Lord would neither heed your voice nor pay you any attention.

The Desert Years

⁴⁶ “After you had stayed at Kadesh as many days as you did, 2 ¹ “we journeyed back into the wilderness, in the direction of the Red Sea,^[c] as the Lord had told me, and skirted Mount Seir for many days.^{(AG) 2} Then the Lord said to me, ³ ‘You have been skirting this hill country long enough. Head north, ⁴ and charge the people as follows: “You are about to pass through the territory of your kindred, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, so be very careful^{(AH) 5} not to engage in battle with them, for I will not give you even so much as a foot’s length of their land, since I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession.^{(AI) 6} You shall purchase food from them for money, so that you may eat, and you shall also buy water from them for money, so that you may drink. ⁷ Surely the Lord your God has blessed you in all your undertakings; he knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.” ’^{(AJ) 8} So we passed by our kin, the descendants of Esau who live in Seir, leaving behind the route of the Arabah and leaving behind Elath and Ezion-geber.

“When we had headed out along the route of the wilderness of Moab,^{(AK) 9} the Lord said to me, ‘Do not harass Moab or engage them in battle, for I will not give you any of its land as a possession, since I have given Ar as a possession to the descendants of Lot.’^{(AL) 10} (The Emim—a large and numerous people, as tall as the Anakim—had formerly inhabited it.^{(AM) 11} Like the Anakim, they are usually reckoned as Rephaim, though the Moabites call them Emim. ¹² Moreover, the Horim had formerly inhabited Seir, but the descendants of Esau dispossessed them, destroying them and settling in their place, as Israel has done in the land that the Lord gave them as a possession.)^{(AN) 13} ‘Now then, proceed to cross over the Wadi Zered.’

“So we crossed over the Wadi Zered. ¹⁴ And the length of time we had traveled from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the Wadi Zered was thirty-eight years, until the entire generation of warriors had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn concerning them.^{(AO) 15} Indeed, the Lord’s own hand was against them, to root them out from the camp, until all had perished.^(AP)

¹⁶ “Just as soon as all the warriors had died off from among the people, ¹⁷ the Lord spoke to me, saying, ¹⁸ ‘Today you are going to cross the boundary of Moab at Ar. ¹⁹ When you approach the frontier of the Ammonites, do not harass them or engage them in battle, for I will not give the land of the Ammonites to you as a possession, because I have given it to the descendants of Lot.’^{(AQ) 20} (It also is usually reckoned as a land of Rephaim. Rephaim formerly inhabited it, though the Ammonites call them Zamzummim, ²¹ a strong and numerous people, as tall as the Anakim. But the Lord destroyed them from before the Ammonites^[d] so that they could dispossess them and settle in their place.^{(AR) 22} He did the same for the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir, by destroying the Horites before them so that they could dispossess them and settle in their place even to this day.^{(AS) 23} As for the Avvim, who had lived in settlements in the vicinity of Gaza, the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and settled in their place.)^{(AT) 24} ‘Proceed on your journey and cross the Wadi Arnon. See, I have handed over to you King Sihon the Amorite of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to take possession by engaging him in battle.^{(AU) 25} This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the peoples everywhere under heaven; when they hear report of you, they will tremble and be in anguish because of you.’^(AV)

Defeat of King Sihon

²⁶ “So I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to King Sihon of Heshbon with the following terms of peace:^{(AW) 27} ‘If you let me pass through your land, I will travel only along the road; I will turn aside neither to the right nor to the left.^{(AX) 28} You shall sell me food for money, so that I may eat, and supply me water for money, so that I may drink. Only allow me to pass through on foot^(AY)— ²⁹ just as the descendants of Esau who live in Seir have done for me and likewise the Moabites who live in Ar—until I cross the Jordan into the land that the Lord our God is giving us.’ ³⁰ But King Sihon of Heshbon was not willing to let us pass through, for the Lord your God had hardened his spirit and made his heart defiant in order to hand him over to you, as he has now done.^(AZ)

³¹ “The Lord said to me, ‘See, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin now to take possession of his land.’^{(BA) 32} So when Sihon came out against us, he and all his people for battle at Jahaz,^{(BB) 33} the Lord our God gave him over to us, and we struck him down, along with his offspring and all his people. ³⁴ At that time we captured all his towns, and in each town we utterly destroyed men, women, and children. We left not a single survivor.^{(BC) 35} Only the livestock we kept as spoil for ourselves, as well as the plunder of the towns that we had captured. ³⁶ From Aroer on the edge of the Wadi Arnon (including the town that is in the wadi itself) as far as Gilead, there was no citadel too high for us. The Lord our God gave everything to us.^{(BD) 37} You did not encroach, however, on the land of the Ammonites, avoiding the whole upper region of the Wadi Jabbok as well as the towns of the hill country, just as^[e] the Lord our God had charged.^(BE)

Defeat of King Og

3 “When we headed up the road to Bashan, King Og of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, for battle at Edrei.^{(BF) 2} The Lord said to me, ‘Do not fear him, for I have handed him over to you, along with his people and his land. Do to him as you did to King Sihon of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon.’^{(BG) 3} So the Lord our God also handed over to us King Og of Bashan and all his people. We struck him down until not a single survivor was left.^{(BH) 4} At that time we captured all his towns; there was no citadel that we did not take from them: sixty towns, the whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.^{(BI) 5} All these were fortress towns with high walls, double gates, and bars, besides a great many villages. ⁶ And we utterly destroyed them, as we had done to King Sihon of Heshbon, in each city utterly destroying men, women, and children.^{(BJ) 7} But all the livestock and the plunder of the towns we kept as spoil for ourselves.

⁸ “So at that time we took from the two kings of the Amorites the land beyond the Jordan, from the Wadi Arnon to Mount Hermon ⁹ (the Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, while the Amorites call it Senir),^{(BK) 10} all the towns of the tableland, the whole of Gilead, and all of Bashan, as far as Salecah and Edrei, towns of Og’s kingdom in Bashan. ¹¹ (Now only King Og of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. In fact, his bed, an iron bed, can still be seen in Rabbah of the Ammonites. By the common cubit it is nine cubits long and four cubits wide.)^{(BL) 12} As for the land that we took possession of at that time, I gave to the Reubenites and Gadites the territory north of Aroer^[f] that is on the edge of the Wadi Arnon, as well as half the hill country of Gilead with its towns,^{(BM) 13} and I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh the rest of Gilead and all of Bashan, Og’s kingdom. (The whole region of Argob: all that portion of Bashan used to be called a land of Rephaim; ¹⁴ Jair the Manassite acquired the whole region of Argob as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and he named them—that is, Bashan—after himself, Havvoth-jair,^[g] as it is to this day.)^{(BN) 15} To Machir I gave Gilead.^{(BO) 16} And to the Reubenites and the Gadites I gave the territory from Gilead as far as the Wadi Arnon, with the middle of the wadi as a boundary, and up to the Jabbok, the wadi being boundary of the Ammonites; ¹⁷ the Arabah also, with the Jordan and its banks, from Chinnereth down to the sea of the Arabah, the Dead Sea,^[h] with the lower slopes of Pisgah on the east.^(BP)

¹⁸ “At that time, I charged you as follows: ‘Although the Lord your God has given you this land to occupy, all your troops shall cross over armed as the vanguard of your Israelite kin.^{(BQ) 19} Only your wives, your children, and your livestock—I know that you have much livestock—shall stay behind in the towns that I have given to you. ²⁰ When the Lord gives rest to your kindred, as to you, and they also have occupied the land that the Lord your God is giving them beyond the Jordan, then each of you may return to the property that I have given to you.’^{(BR) 21} And I charged Joshua as well at that time, saying: ‘Your own eyes have seen everything that the Lord your God has done to these two kings; so the Lord will do to all the kingdoms into which you are about to cross. ²² Do not fear them, for it is the Lord your God who fights for you.’^(BS)

Moses Views Canaan from Pisgah

²³ “At that time, too, I entreated the Lord, saying, ²⁴ ‘O Lord God, you have only begun to show your servant your greatness and your might. What god in heaven or on earth can perform deeds and mighty acts like yours?^{(BT) 25} Let me cross over to see the good land beyond the Jordan, that good hill country and the Lebanon.’ ²⁶ But the Lord was angry with me on your account and would not heed me. The Lord said to me, ‘Enough from you! Never speak to me of this matter again!^{(BU) 27} Go up to the top of Pisgah and look around you to the west, to the north, to the south, and to the east. Look well, for you shall not cross over this Jordan.^{(BV) 28} But charge Joshua and encourage and strengthen him, because it is he who shall cross over at the head of this people and who shall secure their possession of the land that you will see.’^{(BW) 29} So we remained in the valley opposite Beth-peor.^(BX)

Moses Commands Obedience

4 “So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.^{(BY) 2} You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the Lord your God with which I am charging you.^{(BZ) 3} You have seen for yourselves what the Lord did with regard to the Baal of Peor, how the Lord your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor,^{(CA) 4} while those of you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today.

⁵ “See, just as the Lord my God has charged me, I now teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. ⁶ You must observe them and perform them, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!’^{(CB) 7} For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him?^{(CC) 8} And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?

⁹ “But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children^(CD)— ¹⁰ how you once stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me, ‘Assemble the people for me, and I will let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me as long as they live on the earth and may teach their children so’;^{(CE) 11} you approached and stood at the foot of the mountain while the mountain was blazing up to the very heavens, shrouded in dark clouds.^{(CF) 12} Then the Lord spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice.^{(CG) 13} He declared to you his covenant, which he charged you to observe, that is, the ten commandments,^[i] and he wrote them on two stone tablets.^{(CH) 14} And the Lord charged me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy.

¹⁵ “Since you saw no form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire, watch yourselves closely, ¹⁶ so that you do not act corruptly by making an idol for yourselves in the form of any figure: the likeness of male or female,^{(CI) 17} the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, ¹⁸ the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. ¹⁹ And when you look up to the heavens and see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, do not be led astray and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples everywhere under heaven.^{(CJ) 20} But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron smelter, out of Egypt, to become a people of his very own possession, as you are now.^(CK)

²¹ “The Lord was angry with me because of you, and he vowed that I should not cross the Jordan and that I should not enter the good land that the Lord your God is giving for your possession.^{(CL) 22} For I am going to die in this land without crossing over the Jordan, but you are going to cross over to take possession of that good land.^{(CM) 23} So be careful, lest you forget the covenant that the Lord your God made with you and make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you.^{(CN) 24} For the Lord your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.^(CO)

²⁵ “When you have had children and children’s children and become complacent in the land, if you act corruptly by making an idol in the form of anything, thus doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God and provoking him to anger,^{(CP) 26} I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to occupy; you will not live long on it but will be utterly destroyed.^{(CQ) 27} The Lord will scatter you among the peoples; only a few of you will be left among the nations where the Lord will lead you.^{(CR) 28} There you will serve gods made by human hands, objects of wood and stone that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.^{(CS) 29} From there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him if you search after him with all your heart and soul.^{(CT) 30} In your distress, when all these things have happened to you in time to come, you will return to the Lord your God and heed him. ³¹ Because the Lord your God is a merciful God, he will neither abandon you nor destroy you; he will not forget the covenant with your ancestors that he swore to them.^(CU)

³² “For ask now about former ages, long before your own, ever since the day that God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of heaven to the other: Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has its like ever been heard of?^{(CV) 33} Has any people ever heard the voice of a god speaking out of a fire, as you have heard, and lived?^{(CW) 34} Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by terrifying displays of power, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?^{(CX) 35} To you it was shown so that you would acknowledge that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him.^{(CY) 36} From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, while you heard his words coming out of the fire.^{(CZ) 37} And because he loved your ancestors, he chose their descendants after them. He brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power,^{(DA) 38} driving out before you nations greater and mightier than yourselves, to bring you in, giving you their land for a possession, as it is still today.^{(DB) 39} So acknowledge today and take to heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.^{(DC) 40} Keep his statutes and his commandments, which I am commanding you today for your own well-being and that of your descendants after you, so that you may long remain in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”^(DD)

Cities of Refuge East of the Jordan

⁴¹ Then Moses set apart on the east side of the Jordan three cities^{(DE) 42} to which a homicide could flee, someone who unintentionally kills another person, the two not having been at enmity before; the homicide could flee to one of these cities and live: ⁴³ Bezer in the wilderness on the tableland belonging to the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead belonging to the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan belonging to the Manassites.

Transition to the Second Address

⁴⁴ This is the law that Moses set before the Israelites. ⁴⁵ These are the decrees and the statutes and ordinances that Moses spoke to the Israelites when they had come out of Egypt, ⁴⁶ beyond the Jordan in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of King Sihon of the Amorites, who reigned at Heshbon, whom Moses and the Israelites defeated when they came out of Egypt.^{(DF) 47} They occupied his land and the land of King Og of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites on the eastern side of the Jordan: ⁴⁸ from Aroer, which is on the edge of the Wadi Arnon, as far as Mount Sirion^[j] (that is, Hermon),^{(DG) 49} together with all the Arabah on the east side of the Jordan as far as the Sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.

The Ten Commandments

5 Moses convened all Israel and said to them:

“Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances that I am addressing to you today; you shall learn them and observe them diligently. ² The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.^{(DH) 3} Not with our ancestors did the Lord make this covenant but with us, who are all of us here alive today. ⁴ The Lord spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the fire.^{(DI) 5} (At that time I was standing between the Lord and you to declare to you the word of the Lord, for you were afraid because of the fire and did not go up the mountain.) And he said:^(DJ)

⁶ “ ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;^{(DK) 7} you shall have no other gods before^[k] me.

⁸ “ ‘You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. ⁹ You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me^{(DL) 10} but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation^[l] of those who love me and keep my commandments.^(DM)

¹¹ “ ‘You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

¹² “ ‘Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. ¹³ Six days you shall labor and do all your work. ¹⁴ But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you.^{(DN) 15} Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.^(DO)

¹⁶ “ ‘Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

¹⁷ “ ‘You shall not murder.^[m]

¹⁸ “ ‘Neither shall you commit adultery.

¹⁹ “ ‘Neither shall you steal.

²⁰ “ ‘Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor.

²¹ “ ‘Neither shall you covet your neighbor’s wife.

“ ‘Neither shall you desire your neighbor’s house, or field, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.’ ”^(DP)

Moses the Mediator of God’s Will

²² “These words the Lord spoke with a loud voice to your whole assembly at the mountain, out of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, and he added no more. He wrote them on two stone tablets and gave them to me.^{(DQ) 23} When you heard the voice out of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you approached me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders, ²⁴ and you said, ‘Look, the Lord our God has shown us his glory and greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the fire. We have seen this day that God may speak to someone and the person may still live.^{(DR) 25} But now why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer, we shall die.^{(DS) 26} For who is there of all flesh that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the fire, as we have, and lived?^{(DT) 27} Go near, you yourself, and hear all that the Lord our God will say. Then tell us everything that the Lord our God tells you, and we will listen and do it.’

²⁸ “The Lord heard your words when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me, ‘I have heard the words of this people, which they have spoken to you; they are right in all that they have spoken.^{(DU) 29} If only they had such a mind as this, to fear me and to keep all my commandments always, so that it might go well with them and with their children forever!^{(DV) 30} Go say to them, “Return to your tents.” ³¹ But you, stand here by me, and I will tell you all the commandments, the statutes and the ordinances, that you shall teach them, so that they may do them in the land that I am giving them to possess.’^{(DW) 32} You must therefore be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you; you shall not turn to the right or to the left.^{(DX) 33} You must follow exactly the path that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land that you are to possess.^(DY)

The Great Commandment

6 “Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the ordinances—that the Lord your God charged me to teach you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy, ² so that you and your children and your children’s children may fear the Lord your God all the days of your life and keep all his decrees and his commandments that I am commanding you, so that your days may be long.^{(DZ) 3} Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe them diligently, so that it may go well with you and so that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you.^(EA)

⁴ “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.^{[n](EB) 5} You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.^{(EC) 6} Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. ⁷ Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.^{(ED) 8} Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem^[o] on your forehead,^{(EE) 9} and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.^(EF)

Caution against Disobedience

¹⁰ “When the Lord your God has brought you into the land that he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—a land with fine, large cities that you did not build,^{(EG) 11} houses filled with all sorts of goods that you did not fill, hewn cisterns that you did not hew, vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant—and when you have eaten your fill,^{(EH) 12} take care that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ¹³ The Lord your God you shall fear, him you shall serve, and by his name alone you shall swear.^{(EI) 14} Do not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who are all around you, ¹⁵ because the Lord your God, who is present with you, is a jealous God. The anger of the Lord your God would be kindled against you and he would destroy you from the face of the earth.^(EJ)

¹⁶ “Do not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah.^{(EK) 17} You must diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his decrees and his statutes that he has commanded you.^{(EL) 18} Do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, so that it may go well with you and so that you may go in and occupy the good land that the Lord swore to your ancestors,^{(EM) 19} thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has promised.

²⁰ “When your children ask you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the decrees and the statutes and the ordinances that the Lord our God has commanded you?’^{(EN) 21} then you shall say to your children, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²² The Lord displayed before our eyes great and awesome signs and wonders against Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his household. ²³ He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land that he promised on oath to our ancestors. ²⁴ Then the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our lasting good, so as to keep us alive, as is now the case.^{(EO) 25} If we diligently observe this entire commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, we will be in the right.’^(EP)

A Chosen People

7 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are about to enter and occupy and he clears away many nations before you—the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you^(EQ)— ² and when the Lord your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you must utterly destroy them. Make no covenant with them and show them no mercy.^{(ER) 3} Do not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons,^{(ES) 4} for that would turn away your children from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.^{(ET) 5} But this is how you must deal with them: break down their altars, smash their pillars, cut down their sacred poles,^[p] and burn their idols with fire.^{(EU) 6} For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession.^(EV)

⁷ “It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples.^{(EW) 8} It was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your ancestors that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.^{(EX) 9} Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who maintains covenant loyalty with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,^{(EY) 10} and who repays in their own person those who reject him. He does not delay but repays in their own person those who reject him. ¹¹ Therefore, observe diligently the commandment—the statutes and the ordinances—that I am commanding you today.

Blessings for Obedience

¹² “If you heed these ordinances by diligently observing them, the Lord your God will maintain with you the covenant loyalty that he swore to your ancestors;^{(EZ) 13} he will love you, bless you, and multiply you; he will bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock, in the land that he swore to your ancestors to give you.^{(FA) 14} You shall be the most blessed of peoples, with neither sterility nor barrenness among you or your livestock.^{(FB) 15} The Lord will turn away from you every illness; all the dread diseases of Egypt that you experienced, he will not inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you.^{(FC) 16} You shall devour all the peoples that the Lord your God is giving over to you, showing them no pity; you shall not serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.^(FD)

¹⁷ “If you say to yourself, ‘These nations are more numerous than I; how can I dispossess them?’ ¹⁸ do not be afraid of them. Just remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt,^{(FE) 19} the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.^{(FF) 20} Moreover, the Lord your God will send swarms of hornets^[q] against them until even the survivors and the fugitives are destroyed.^{(FG) 21} Have no dread of them, for the Lord your God, who is present with you, is a great and awesome God.^{(FH) 22} The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little; you will not be able to make a quick end of them, otherwise the wild animals would become too numerous for you.^{(FI) 23} But the Lord your God will give them over to you and throw them into great panic until they are destroyed. ²⁴ He will hand their kings over to you, and you shall blot out their name from under heaven; no one will be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them.^{(FJ) 25} The images of their gods you shall burn with fire. Do not covet the silver or the gold that is on them and take it for yourself, because you could be ensnared by it, for it is abhorrent to the Lord your God.^{(FK) 26} Do not bring an abhorrent thing into your house, or you will be set apart for destruction like it. You must utterly detest and abhor it, for it is set apart for destruction.

A Warning Not to Forget God in Prosperity

8 “The entire commandment that I command you today you must diligently observe, so that you may live and increase and go in and occupy the land that the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors.^{(FL) 2} Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments.^{(FM) 3} He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.^{(FN) 4} The clothes on your back did not wear out, and your feet did not swell these forty years.^{(FO) 5} Know, then, in your heart that, as a parent disciplines a child, so the Lord your God disciplines you.^{(FP) 6} Therefore keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him.^{(FQ) 7} For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills,^{(FR) 8} a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey, ⁹ a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. ¹⁰ You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you.^(FS)

¹¹ “Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes that I am commanding you today. ¹² When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them ¹³ and when your herds and flocks have multiplied and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, ¹⁴ then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery,^{(FT) 15} who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland with poisonous^[r] snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock.^{(FU) 16} He fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you and in the end to do you good.^{(FV) 17} Do not say to yourself, ‘My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.’ ¹⁸ But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today.^{(FW) 19} If you do forget the Lord your God and follow other gods to serve and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish.^{(FX) 20} Like the nations that the Lord is destroying before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.

The Consequences of Rebelling against God

9 “Hear, O Israel! You are about to cross the Jordan today, to go in and dispossess nations larger and mightier than you, great cities, fortified to the heavens,^{(FY) 2} a strong and tall people, the offspring of the Anakim, whom you know. You have heard it said, ‘Who can stand up to the Anakim?’^{(FZ) 3} Know, then, today that the Lord your God is the one who crosses over before you as a devouring fire; he will defeat them and subdue them before you, so that you may dispossess and destroy them quickly, as the Lord has promised you.^(GA)

⁴ “When the Lord your God thrusts them out before you, do not say to yourself, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to occupy this land’; it is rather because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you.^{(GB) 5} It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to occupy their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is dispossessing them before you, in order to fulfill the promise that the Lord made on oath to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.^(GC)

⁶ “Know, then, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to occupy because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people.^{(GD) 7} Remember; do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness; you have been rebellious against the Lord from the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place.

⁸ “Even at Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you.^{(GE) 9} When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water.^{(GF) 10} And the Lord gave me the two stone tablets written with the finger of God; on them were all the words that the Lord had spoken to you at the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly.^{(GG) 11} At the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. ¹² Then the Lord said to me, ‘Get up; go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have been quick to turn from the way that I commanded them; they have cast an image for themselves.’^{(GH) 13} Furthermore, the Lord said to me, ‘I have seen that this people is indeed a stubborn people.^{(GI) 14} Let me alone that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven, and I will make of you a nation mightier and more numerous than they.’^(GJ)

¹⁵ “So I turned and went down from the mountain, while the mountain was ablaze; the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands.^{(GK) 16} Then I saw that you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God, by casting for yourselves an image;^[s] you had been quick to turn from the way that the Lord had commanded you.^{(GL) 17} So I took hold of the two tablets and flung them from my two hands, smashing them before your eyes. ¹⁸ Then I lay prostrate before the Lord as before, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water because of all the sin you had committed, provoking the Lord by doing what was evil in his sight.^{(GM) 19} For I was afraid that the anger that the Lord bore against you was so fierce that he would destroy you. But the Lord listened to me that time also.^{(GN) 20} The Lord was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him, but I interceded also on behalf of Aaron at that same time. ²¹ Then I took the sinful thing you had made, the calf, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it thoroughly, until it was reduced to dust, and I threw the dust into the stream that runs down the mountain.^(GO)

²² “At Taberah also, and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah, you provoked the Lord to wrath.^{(GP) 23} And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and occupy the land that I have given you,’ you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God, neither trusting him nor obeying him. ²⁴ You have been rebellious against the Lord as long as he has^[t] known you.^(GQ)

²⁵ “Throughout the forty days and forty nights that I lay prostrate before the Lord when the Lord intended to destroy you,^{(GR) 26} I prayed to the Lord and said, ‘Lord God, do not destroy your people, your very own possession, whom you redeemed in your greatness, whom you brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.^{(GS) 27} Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; pay no attention to the stubbornness of this people, their wickedness and their sin, ²⁸ lest the land from which you have brought us say, “Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them and because he hated them, he has brought them out to let them die in the wilderness.” ²⁹ For they are your people, your very own possession, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.’^(GT)

The Second Pair of Tablets

10 “At that time the Lord said to me, ‘Carve out two tablets of stone like the former ones, and come up to me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood.^{(GU) 2} I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets, which you smashed, and you shall put them in the ark.’^{(GV) 3} So I made an ark of acacia wood, cut two tablets of stone like the former ones, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand.^{(GW) 4} Then he wrote on the tablets the same words as before, the ten commandments^[u] that the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly, and the Lord gave them to me.^{(GX) 5} So I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tablets in the ark that I had made, and there they are, as the Lord commanded me.”^(GY)

⁶ (The Israelites journeyed from Beeroth-bene-jaakan^[v] to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried; his son Eleazar succeeded him as priest.^{(GZ) 7} From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with flowing streams.^{(HA) 8} At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister to him and to bless in his name, to this day.^{(HB) 9} Therefore Levi has no allotment or inheritance with his kindred; the Lord is his inheritance, as the Lord your God promised him.)^(HC)

¹⁰ “I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. And once again the Lord listened to me. The Lord was unwilling to destroy you.^{(HD) 11} The Lord said to me, ‘Get up, go on your journey at the head of the people, that they may go in and occupy the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them.’

The Essence of the Law

¹² “So now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,^{(HE) 13} and to keep the commandments of the Lord and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being. ¹⁴ Although heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to the Lord your God, the earth with all that is in it,^{(HF) 15} yet the Lord set his heart in love on your ancestors alone and chose you, their descendants after them, out of all the peoples, as it is today.^{(HG) 16} Circumcise, then, the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stubborn any longer.^{(HH) 17} For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe,^{(HI) 18} who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing.^{(HJ) 19} You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.^{(HK) 20} You shall fear the Lord your God; him you shall serve; to him you shall hold fast; and by his name you shall swear.^{(HL) 21} He is your praise; he is your God who has done for you these great and awesome things that your own eyes have seen.^{(HM) 22} Your ancestors went down to Egypt seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in heaven.^(HN)

Rewards for Obedience

11 “You shall love the Lord your God, therefore, and keep his charge, his decrees, his ordinances, and his commandments always.^{(HO) 2} Remember today that it was not your children (who have not known or seen the discipline of the Lord your God), but it is you who must acknowledge his greatness, his mighty hand, and his outstretched arm,^{(HP) 3} his signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to all his land; ⁴ what he did to the Egyptian army, to their horses and chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea^[w] flow over them as they pursued you, so that the Lord has destroyed them to this day;^{(HQ) 5} what he did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place; ⁶ and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab son of Reuben, how in the midst of all Israel the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, along with their households, their tents, and every living being in their company;^{(HR) 7} for it is your own eyes that have seen every great deed that the Lord did.

⁸ “Keep, then, the entire commandment that I am commanding you today, so that you may have strength to go in and occupy the land that you are crossing over to occupy^{(HS) 9} and so that you may live long in the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give them and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.^{(HT) 10} For the land that you are about to enter to occupy is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sow your seed and irrigate by foot like a vegetable garden. ¹¹ But the land that you are crossing over to occupy is a land of hills and valleys watered by rain from the sky,^{(HU) 12} a land that the Lord your God looks after. The eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

¹³ “If you will only heed his every commandment^[x] that I am commanding you today—loving the Lord your God and serving him with all your heart and with all your soul^(HV)— ¹⁴ then he^[y] will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, and you will gather in your grain, your wine, and your oil,^{(HW) 15} and he^[z] will give grass in your field for your livestock, and you will eat your fill.^{(HX) 16} Take care, or you will be seduced into turning away, serving other gods and worshiping them,^{(HY) 17} for then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will not yield its produce; then you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you.^(HZ)

¹⁸ “You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and fix them as an emblem on your forehead.^{(IA) 19} Teach them to your children, talking about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise up.^{(IB) 20} Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,^{(IC) 21} so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.

²² “If you will diligently observe this entire commandment that I am commanding you, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him,^{(ID) 23} then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and mightier than you.^{(IE) 24} Every place on which you set foot shall be yours; your territory shall extend from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the River, the River Euphrates, to the Western Sea.^{(IF) 25} No one will be able to stand against you; the Lord your God will put the fear and dread of you on all the land on which you set foot, as he promised you.^(IG)

²⁶ “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse:^{(IH) 27} the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today;^{(II) 28} and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God but turn from the way that I am commanding you today, to follow other gods that you have not known.^(IJ)

²⁹ “When the Lord your God has brought you into the land that you are entering to occupy, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.^{(IK) 30} As you know, they are beyond the Jordan, some distance to the west, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oak^[aa] of Moreh.^(IL)

³¹ “When you cross the Jordan to go in to occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you and when you occupy it and live in it,^{(IM) 32} you must diligently observe all the statutes and ordinances that I am setting before you today.

Pagan Shrines to Be Destroyed

12 “These are the statutes and ordinances that you must diligently observe in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you to occupy all the days that you live on the earth.^(IN)

² “You must demolish completely all the places where the nations whom you are about to dispossess served their gods, on the mountain heights, on the hills, and under every leafy tree. ³ Break down their altars, smash their pillars, burn their sacred poles^[ab] with fire, and cut down the idols of their gods, and thus blot out their name from their places.^{(IO) 4} You shall not serve the Lord your God in such ways. ⁵ But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes as his habitation to put his name there. You shall go there,^{(IP) 6} bringing there your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your donations, your votive gifts, your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks. ⁷ And you shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your households together, rejoicing in all the undertakings in which the Lord your God has blessed you.^(IQ)

⁸ “You shall not act as we are acting here today, all of us according to our own desires, ⁹ for you have not yet come into the rest and the possession that the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁰ When you cross over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is allotting to you, and when he gives you rest from your enemies all around so that you live in safety,^{(IR) 11} then you shall bring everything that I command you to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your donations, and all your choice votive gifts that you vow to the Lord.^{(IS) 12} And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you together with your sons and your daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levites who reside in your towns (since they have no allotment or inheritance with you).^(IT)

A Prescribed Place of Worship

¹³ “Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place you happen to see. ¹⁴ But only at the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes—there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do everything I command you.^(IU)

¹⁵ “Yet whenever you desire you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, according to the blessing that the Lord your God has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, as they would of gazelle or deer.^{(IV) 16} The blood, however, you must not eat; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.^{(IW) 17} Nor may you eat within your towns the tithe of your grain, your wine, and your oil, the firstlings of your herds and your flocks, any of your votive gifts that you vow, your freewill offerings, or your donations; ¹⁸ these you shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God at the place that the Lord your God will choose, you together with your son and your daughter, your male and female slaves, and the Levites resident in your towns, rejoicing in the presence of the Lord your God in all your undertakings.^{(IX) 19} Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.^(IY)

²⁰ “When the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he has promised you, and you say, ‘I am going to eat some meat,’ because you wish to eat meat, you may eat meat whenever you have the desire.^{(IZ) 21} If the place where the Lord your God will choose to put his name is too far from you, and you slaughter as I have commanded you any of your herd or flock that the Lord has given you, then you may eat within your towns whenever you desire. ²² Indeed, just as gazelle or deer is eaten, so you may eat it; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it.^{(JA) 23} Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the meat.^{(JB) 24} Do not eat it; you shall pour it out on the ground like water. ²⁵ Do not eat it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, because you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.^{(JC) 26} But the sacred donations that are due from you and your votive gifts you shall bring to the place that the Lord will choose.^{(JD) 27} You shall present your burnt offerings, both the meat and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God; the blood of your other sacrifices shall be poured out beside^[ac] the altar of the Lord your God, but the meat you may eat.

²⁸ “Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, because you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.^(JE)

Warning against Idolatry

²⁹ “When the Lord your God has cut off before you the nations whom you are about to enter to dispossess them, when you have dispossessed them and live in their land, ³⁰ take care that you are not snared into imitating them, after they have been destroyed before you; do not inquire concerning their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also want to do the same.’ ³¹ You must not do the same for the Lord your God, because every abhorrent thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods. They would even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.^{(JF) 32 [ad]}You must diligently observe everything that I command you; do not add to it or take anything from it.^(JG)

13 ^[ae]“If prophets or those who divine by dreams appear among you and show you omens or portents,^{(JH) 2} and the omens or the portents declared by them take place, and they say, ‘Let us follow other gods’ (whom you have not known) ‘and let us serve them,’^{(JI) 3} you must not heed the words of those prophets or those who divine by dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you indeed love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul.^{(JJ) 4} The Lord your God you shall follow, him alone you shall fear, his commandments you shall keep, his voice you shall obey, him you shall serve, and to him you shall hold fast.^{(JK) 5} But those prophets or those who divine by dreams shall be put to death for having spoken treason against the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, to turn you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.^(JL)

⁶ “If anyone secretly entices you—even if it is your brother, your father’s son or^[af] your mother’s son, or your own son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your most intimate friend—saying, ‘Let us go serve other gods,’ whom neither you nor your ancestors have known,^{(JM) 7} any of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far away from you, from one end of the earth to the other, ⁸ you must not yield to or heed any such persons. Show them no pity or compassion, and do not shield them. ⁹ But you shall surely kill them; your own hand shall be first against them to execute them and afterward the hand of all the people.^{(JN) 10} Stone them to death for trying to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ¹¹ Then all Israel shall hear and be afraid and never again do any such wickedness.^(JO)

¹² “If you hear it said about one of the towns that the Lord your God is giving you to live in, ¹³ that scoundrels from among you have gone out and led the inhabitants of the town astray, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ whom you have not known,^{(JP) 14} then you shall inquire and make a thorough investigation. If the charge is established that such an abhorrent thing has been done among you, ¹⁵ you shall put the inhabitants of that town to the sword, utterly destroying it and everything in it, even putting its livestock to the sword.^{(JQ) 16} All of its spoil you shall gather into its public square, then burn the town and all its spoil with fire as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. It shall remain a perpetual ruin, never to be rebuilt.^{(JR) 17} Do not let anything devoted to destruction stick to your hand, so that the Lord may turn from his fierce anger and show you compassion, and in his compassion multiply you, as he swore to your ancestors,^{(JS) 18} if you obey the voice of the Lord your God by keeping all his commandments that I am commanding you today, doing what is right in the sight of the Lord your God.^(JT)

Pagan Practices Forbidden

14 “You are children of the Lord your God. You must not lacerate yourselves or shave your forelocks for the dead.^{(JU) 2} For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; it is you the Lord has chosen out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession.^(JV)

Clean and Unclean Foods

³ “You shall not eat any abhorrent thing. ⁴ These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat,^{(JW) 5} the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. ⁶ Any animal that divides the hoof and has the hoof cleft in two and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat. ⁷ Yet of those that chew the cud or have the hoof cleft you shall not eat these: the camel, the hare, and the rock badger because they chew the cud but do not divide the hoof; they are unclean for you. ⁸ And the pig, because it divides the hoof but does not chew the cud, is unclean for you. You shall not eat their meat, and you shall not touch their carcasses.^(JX)

⁹ “Of all that live in water you may eat these: whatever has fins and scales you may eat.^{(JY) 10} And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.

¹¹ “You may eat any clean birds. ¹² But these are the ones that you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the osprey,^{(JZ) 13} the buzzard, the kite of any kind; ¹⁴ every raven of any kind; ¹⁵ the ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull, the hawk of any kind; ¹⁶ the little owl and the great owl, the water hen ¹⁷ and the desert owl,^[ag] the carrion vulture and the cormorant, ¹⁸ the stork, the heron of any kind, the hoopoe, and the bat.^{[ah] 19} And all winged insects are unclean for you; they shall not be eaten.^{(KA) 20} You may eat any clean winged creature.

²¹ “You shall not eat anything that dies of itself; you may give it to aliens residing in your towns for them to eat, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.

“You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.^(KB)

Regulations concerning Tithes

²² “Set apart a tithe of all the yield of your seed that is brought in yearly from the field.^{(KC) 23} In the presence of the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose as a dwelling for his name, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, your wine, and your oil, as well as the firstlings of your herd and flock, so that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always.^{(KD) 24} But if, when the Lord your God has blessed you, the distance is so great that you are unable to transport it, because the place where the Lord your God will choose to set his name is too far away from you,^{(KE) 25} then you may turn it into money. With the money secure in hand, go to the place that the Lord your God will choose; ²⁶ spend the money for whatever you wish: oxen, sheep, wine, strong drink, or whatever you desire. And you shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your household rejoicing together.^{(KF) 27} As for the Levites resident in your towns, do not neglect them, because they have no allotment or inheritance with you.^(KG)

²⁸ “Every third year you shall bring out the full tithe of your produce for that year and store it within your towns;^{(KH) 29} the Levites, because they have no allotment or inheritance with you, as well as the resident aliens, the orphans, and the widows in your towns, may come and eat their fill so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work that you undertake.^(KI)

Laws concerning the Sabbatical Year

15 “Every seventh year you shall grant a remission of debts.^{(KJ) 2} And this is the manner of the remission: every creditor shall remit the claim that is held against a neighbor, not exacting it,^[ai] because the Lord’s remission has been proclaimed. ³ Of a foreigner you may exact it, but you must remit your claim on whatever any member of your community owes you. ⁴ There will, however, be no one in need among you, because the Lord is sure to bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a possession to occupy, ⁵ if only you will obey the Lord your God by diligently observing this entire commandment that I command you today.^{(KK) 6} When the Lord your God has blessed you, as he promised you, you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.^(KL)

⁷ “If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor.^{(KM) 8} You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be.^{(KN) 9} Be careful that you do not entertain a mean thought, thinking, ‘The seventh year, the year of remission, is near,’ and therefore view your needy neighbor with hostility and give nothing; your neighbor^[aj] might cry to the Lord against you, and you would incur guilt.^{(KO) 10} Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so, for on this account the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake.^{(KP) 11} Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.’^(KQ)

¹² “If a member of your community, whether a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold^[ak] to you and works for you six years, in the seventh year you shall set that person free.^{(KR) 13} And when you send a male slave^[al] out from you a free person, you shall not send him out empty-handed. ¹⁴ Provide for him liberally out of your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress, thus giving to him some of the bounty with which the Lord your God has blessed you. ¹⁵ Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; for this reason I lay this command upon you today.^{(KS) 16} But if he says to you, ‘I will not go out from you,’ because he loves you and your household, since he is well off with you,^{(KT) 17} then you shall take an awl and thrust it through his earlobe into the door, and he shall be your slave forever.

“You shall do the same with regard to your female slave.

¹⁸ “Do not consider it a hardship when you send them out from you free persons, because for six years they have given you services worth the wages of hired laborers, and the Lord your God will bless you in all that you do.

The Firstborn of Livestock

¹⁹ “Every firstling male born of your herd and flock you shall consecrate to the Lord your God; you shall not do work with your firstling ox nor shear the firstling of your flock.^{(KU) 20} You shall eat it, you together with your household, in the presence of the Lord your God year by year at the place that the Lord will choose.^{(KV) 21} But if it has any defect—any serious defect, such as lameness or blindness—you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God;^{(KW) 22} within your towns you may eat it, the unclean and the clean alike, as you would a gazelle or deer.^{(KX) 23} Its blood, however, you must not eat; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.^(KY)

The Passover Reviewed

16 “Observe the month^[am] of Abib by keeping the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night.^{(KZ) 2} You shall offer the Passover sacrifice to the Lord your God from the flock and the herd, at the place that the Lord will choose as a dwelling for his name.^{(LA) 3} You must not eat with it anything leavened. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it—the bread of affliction—because you came out of the land of Egypt in great haste, so that all the days of your life you may remember the day of your departure from the land of Egypt.^{(LB) 4} No leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory for seven days, and none of the meat of what you slaughter on the evening of the first day shall remain until morning.^{(LC) 5} You are not permitted to offer the Passover sacrifice within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you. ⁶ But at the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name, only there shall you offer the Passover sacrifice, in the evening at sunset, the time of day when you departed from Egypt.^{(LD) 7} You shall cook it and eat it at the place that the Lord your God will choose; the next morning you may go back to your tents.^{(LE) 8} For six days you shall continue to eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly for the Lord your God, when you shall do no work.^(LF)

The Festival of Weeks Reviewed

⁹ “You shall count seven weeks; begin to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain.^{(LG) 10} Then you shall keep the Festival of Weeks to the Lord your God, contributing a freewill offering in proportion to the blessing that you have received from the Lord your God. ¹¹ Rejoice before the Lord your God—you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female slaves, the Levites resident in your towns, as well as the strangers, the orphans, and the widows who are among you—at the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name.^{(LH) 12} Remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and diligently observe these statutes.^(LI)

The Festival of Booths Reviewed

¹³ “You shall keep the Festival of Booths^[an] for seven days, when you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and your winepress.^{(LJ) 14} Rejoice during your festival, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female slaves, as well as the Levites, the strangers, the orphans, and the widows resident in your towns.^{(LK) 15} Seven days you shall keep the festival to the Lord your God at the place that the Lord will choose, for the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all your undertakings, and you shall surely celebrate.^(LL)

¹⁶ “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, at the Festival of Weeks, and at the Festival of Booths.^[ao] They shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed;^{(LM) 17} all shall give as they are able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you.

Municipal Judges and Officers

¹⁸ “You shall appoint judges and officials throughout your tribes, in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, and they shall render just decisions for the people.^{(LN) 19} You must not distort justice; you must not show partiality; and you must not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.^{(LO) 20} Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue, so that you may live and occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

Forbidden Forms of Worship

²¹ “You shall not plant any tree as a sacred pole^[ap] beside the altar that you make for the Lord your God,^{(LP) 22} nor shall you set up a stone pillar—things that the Lord your God hates.