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 ^[a]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: ^(A)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 ^(B)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 ^[b]in their possession, in the midst of all Israel— ⁷ but your eyes have ^(C)seen every great ^[c]act of the Lord which He did.

⁸ “Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today, that you may ^(D)be strong, and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess, ⁹ and ^(E)that you may prolong your days in the land ^(F)which the Lord ^[d]swore to give your fathers, to them and their descendants, ^(G)‘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 (H)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; ^(I)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 ^[e]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 ^(J)I^[f] will give you the rain for your land in its season, ^(K)the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. ^15 (L)And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may ^(M)eat and be ^[g]filled.’ ¹⁶ Take heed to yourselves, ^(N)lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and ^(O)serve other gods and worship them, ¹⁷ lest ^(P)the Lord’s anger be aroused against you, and He ^(Q)shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and ^(R)you perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you.

¹⁸ “Therefore ^(S)you shall ^[h]lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your ^(T)soul, and ^(U)bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ^19 (V)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 (W)And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, ²¹ that ^(X)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 ^(Y)the days of the heavens above the earth.

²² “For if ^(Z)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 ^(AA)to hold fast to Him— ²³ then the Lord will ^(AB)drive out all these nations from before you, and you will ^(AC)dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves. ^24 (AD)Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: ^(AE)from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, even to the ^[i]Western Sea, shall be your territory. ²⁵ No man shall be able to ^(AF)stand ^[j]against you; the Lord your God will put the ^(AG)dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread, just as He has said to you.

^26 (AH)“Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: ^27 (AI)the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today; ²⁸ and the ^(AJ)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 ^(AK)blessing on Mount Gerizim and the ^(AL)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, ^(AM)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.

The Portion of the Priests and Levites

18 “The priests, the Levites—all the tribe of Levi—shall have ^[a]no part nor ^(A)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 ^(B)due^[b] 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 (C)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 ^(D)the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes ^(E)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 ^[c]gates, from where he ^(F)dwells among all Israel, and comes with all the desire of his mind ^(G)to the place which the Lord chooses, ⁷ then he may serve in the name of the Lord his God ^(H)as all his brethren the Levites do, who stand there before the Lord. ⁸ They shall have equal ^(I)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, ^(J)you shall not learn to follow the ^[d]abominations of those nations. ¹⁰ There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter ^(K)pass^[e] through the fire, ^(L)or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, ^11 (M)or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or ^(N)one who calls up the dead. ¹² For all who do these things are ^[f]an abomination to the Lord, and ^(O)because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you. ¹³ You shall be ^[g]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 ^[h]appointed such for you.

A New Prophet Like Moses

^15 (P)“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 ^(Q)in the day of the assembly, saying, ^(R)‘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: ^(S)‘What they have spoken is good. ^18 (T)I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and ^(U)will put My words in His mouth, ^(V)and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. ^19 (W)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 ^(X)the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or ^(Y)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 (Z)when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, ^(AA)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 ^(AB)presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

Three Cities of Refuge^(AC)

19 “When the Lord your God ^(AD)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 (AE)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 ^(AF)this is the case of the manslayer who flees there, that he may live: Whoever kills his neighbor ^[i]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 (AG)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 ^(AH)enlarges your territory, as He swore to ^(AI)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, ^(AJ)then you shall add three more cities for yourself besides these three, ^10 (AK)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 ^(AL)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 (AM)Your eye shall not pity him, ^(AN)but you shall ^[j]put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you.

Property Boundaries

^14 (AO)“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 (AP)“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 ^(AQ)rises against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing, ¹⁷ then both men in the controversy shall stand before the Lord, ^(AR)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 (AS)then you shall do to him as he thought to have done to his brother; so ^(AT)you shall put away the evil from among you. ^20 (AU)And those who remain shall hear and fear, and hereafter they shall not again commit such evil among you. ^21 (AV)Your eye shall not pity: ^(AW)life shall be for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Principles Governing Warfare

20 “When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see ^(AX)horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be ^(AY)afraid of them; for the Lord your God is ^(AZ)with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. ² So it shall be, when you are on the verge of battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people. ³ And he shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel: Today you are on the verge of battle with your enemies. Do not let your heart faint, do not be afraid, and do not tremble or be terrified because of them; ⁴ for the Lord your God is He who goes with you, ^(BA)to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.’

⁵ “Then the officers shall speak to the people, saying: ‘What man is there who has built a new house and has not ^(BB)dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it. ⁶ Also what man is there who has planted a vineyard and has not eaten of it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man eat of it. ^7 (BC)And what man is there who is betrothed to a woman and has not married her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man marry her.’

⁸ “The officers shall speak further to the people, and say, ^(BD)‘What man is there who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go and return to his house, ^[k]lest the heart of his brethren faint like his heart.’ ⁹ And so it shall be, when the officers have finished speaking to the people, that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people.

¹⁰ “When you go near a city to fight against it, ^(BE)then proclaim an offer of peace to it. ¹¹ And it shall be that if they accept your offer of peace, and open to you, then all the people who are found in it shall be placed under tribute to you, and serve you. ¹² Now if the city will not make peace with you, but war against you, then you shall besiege it. ¹³ And when the Lord your God delivers it into your hands, ^(BF)you shall strike every male in it with the edge of the sword. ¹⁴ But the women, the little ones, ^(BG)the livestock, and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall plunder for yourself; and ^(BH)you shall eat the enemies’ plunder which the Lord your God gives you. ¹⁵ Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations.

¹⁶ “But ^(BI)of the cities of these peoples which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive, ¹⁷ but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you, ¹⁸ lest ^(BJ)they teach you to do according to all their ^[l]abominations which they have done for their gods, and you ^(BK)sin against the Lord your God.

¹⁹ “When you besiege a city for a long time, while making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them; if you can eat of them, do not cut them down to use in the siege, for the tree of the field is man’s food. ²⁰ Only the trees which you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, to build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you, until it is subdued.

The Law Concerning Unsolved Murder

21 “If anyone is found slain, lying in the field in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him, ² then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance from the slain man to the surrounding cities. ³ And it shall be that the elders of the city nearest to the slain man will take a heifer which has not been worked and which has not pulled with a ^(BL)yoke. ⁴ The elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with flowing water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and they shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. ⁵ Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for ^(BM)the Lord your God has chosen them to minister to Him and to bless in the name of the Lord; ^(BN)by their word every controversy and every ^[m]assault shall be settled. ⁶ And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man ^(BO)shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. ⁷ Then they shall answer and say, ‘Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it. ⁸ Provide atonement, O Lord, for Your people Israel, whom You have redeemed, ^(BP)and do not lay innocent blood to the charge of Your people Israel.’ And atonement shall be provided on their behalf for the blood. ⁹ So ^(BQ)you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.

Female Captives

¹⁰ “When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God delivers them into your hand, and you take them captive, ¹¹ and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and desire her and would take her for your ^(BR)wife, ¹² then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall ^(BS)shave her head and trim her nails. ¹³ She shall put off the clothes of her captivity, remain in your house, and ^(BT)mourn her father and her mother a full month; after that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. ¹⁴ And it shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall set her free, but you certainly shall not sell her for money; you shall not treat her brutally, because you have ^(BU)humbled her.

Firstborn Inheritance Rights

¹⁵ “If a man has two wives, one loved ^(BV)and the other unloved, and they have borne him children, both the loved and the unloved, and if the firstborn son is of her who is unloved, ¹⁶ then it shall be, ^(BW)on the day he bequeaths his possessions to his sons, that he must not bestow firstborn status on the son of the loved wife in preference to the son of the unloved, the true firstborn. ¹⁷ But he shall acknowledge the son of the unloved wife as the firstborn ^(BX)by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he ^(BY)is the beginning of his strength; ^(BZ)the right of the firstborn is his.

The Rebellious Son

¹⁸ “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them, ¹⁹ then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city. ²⁰ And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ ²¹ Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; ^(CA)so you shall put away the evil from among you, ^(CB)and all Israel shall hear and fear.

Miscellaneous Laws

²² “If a man has committed a sin ^(CC)deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, ^23 (CD)his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that ^(CE)you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance; for ^(CF)he who is hanged is accursed of God.