Laws of the Sanctuary

12 “These are the statutes and the judgments which you shall carefully observe in the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess ^[a](A)as long as you live on the ^[b]earth. ² You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess serve their gods, on the ^(B)high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. ^3 (C)You shall tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and burn their ^[c]Asherim with fire, and you shall cut down the engraved images of their gods and ^(D)obliterate their name from that place. ⁴ You shall not act like this toward the Lord your God. ^5 (E)But you shall seek the Lord at the place which the Lord your God will choose from all your tribes, to establish His name there for His dwelling, and there you shall come. ⁶ There you shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, ^(F)your tithes, the ^[d]contribution of your hand, your votive offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. ⁷ There also you and your households shall eat before the Lord your God, and ^(G)rejoice in all ^[e]your undertakings in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

⁸ “You shall not do at all what we are doing here today, every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes; ⁹ for you have not as yet come to ^(H)the resting place and the ^(I)inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁰ When you cross the Jordan and live in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and ^(J)He gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in security, ^11 (K)then it shall come about that the place in which the Lord your God will choose for His name to dwell, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the ^[f]contribution of your hand, and all your choice votive offerings which you will vow to the Lord. ¹² And you shall ^(L)rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the ^(M)Levite who is within your gates, since ^(N)he has no portion or inheritance with you.

¹³ “^(O)Be careful that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every cultic place 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 “^(P)However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your gates, ^[g]whatever you desire, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of ^(Q)the gazelle and the deer. ^16 (R)Only you shall not eat the blood; ^(S)you are to pour it out on the ground like water. ^17 (T)You are not allowed to eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or new wine or oil, or the firstborn of your herd or flock, or any of your votive offerings which you vow, or your freewill offerings, or the ^[h]contribution of your hand. ¹⁸ But ^(U)you shall eat them before the Lord your God in ^(V)the place which the Lord your God will choose, you and your son and daughter, and your male and female servants, and the ^(W)Levite who is within your gates; and you shall ^(X)rejoice before the Lord your God in all ^[i]your undertakings. ^19 (Y)Be careful that you do not forsake the Levite ^[j]as long as you live in your land.

²⁰ “When the Lord your God extends your border ^(Z)as He has promised you, and you say, ‘I will eat meat,’ because ^[k]you desire to eat meat, then you may eat meat, ^[l]whatever you desire. ²¹ If the place which the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, then you may slaughter of your herd and flock which the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you; and you may eat within your gates ^[m]whatever you desire. ²² Just as a gazelle or a deer is eaten, so you will eat it; the unclean and the clean alike may eat of it. ²³ Only be sure ^(AA)not to eat the blood, for the blood is the ^[n]life, and you shall not eat the ^[o]life with the flesh. ²⁴ You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the ground like water. ²⁵ You shall not eat it, so that ^(AB)it may be well with you and your sons after you, for ^(AC)you will be doing what is right in the sight of the Lord. ^26 (AD)Only your holy things which you may have and your votive offerings, you shall take and go to the place which the Lord chooses. ²⁷ And ^(AE)you shall offer your burnt offerings, the flesh 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 ^(AF)you shall eat the flesh.

²⁸ “Be careful to listen to all these words which I command you, so that ^(AG)it may be well with you and your sons after you forever, for you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.

²⁹ “When ^(AH)the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations which you are going in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, ³⁰ beware that you are not ensnared ^[p]to follow them, after they are destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations serve their gods, that I also may do likewise?’ ^31 (AI)You shall not behave thus toward the Lord your God, for every abominable act which the Lord hates they have done for their gods; for ^(AJ)they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.

³² “^[q](AK)Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; ^(AL)you shall not add to nor take away from it.

Shun Idolatry

13 “^[r](AM)If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, ² and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘^(AN)Let us go after other gods (whom 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 is ^(AO)testing you to find out if ^(AP)you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. ^4 (AQ)You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and ^(AR)cling to Him. ⁵ But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be ^(AS)put to death, because he has ^[s]counseled ^[t]rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of ^[u]slavery, ^(AT)to seduce you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. ^(AU)So you shall purge the evil from among you.

⁶ “^(AV)If your brother, your mother’s son, or your son or daughter, or the wife ^[v]you cherish, or your friend who is as your own soul, entice you secretly, saying, ‘^(AW)Let us go and serve other gods’ (whom neither you nor your fathers have known, ⁷ of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near you or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other end), ^8 (AX)you shall not yield to him or listen to him; ^(AY)and your eye shall not pity him, nor shall you spare or conceal him. ^9 (AZ)But you shall surely kill him; ^(BA)your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. ¹⁰ So you shall stone him ^[w]to death because he has sought ^(BB)to seduce you from the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of ^[x]slavery. ¹¹ Then ^(BC)all Israel will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such a wicked thing among you.

¹² “If you hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you to live in, anyone saying that ¹³ some worthless men have gone out from among you and have seduced the inhabitants of their city, saying, ‘^(BD)Let us go and serve other gods’ (whom you have not known), ¹⁴ then you shall investigate and search out and inquire thoroughly. If it is true and the matter established that this abomination has been done among you, ^15 (BE)you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, ^[y]utterly destroying it and all that is in it and its cattle with the edge of the sword. ^16 (BF)Then you shall gather all its booty into the middle of its open square and burn the city and all its booty with fire as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God; and it shall be a ^[z](BG)ruin forever. It shall never be rebuilt. ¹⁷ Nothing from that which is put under the ban shall cling to your hand, in order that the Lord may turn from ^(BH)His burning anger and ^(BI)show mercy to you, and have compassion on you and ^(BJ)make you increase, just ^(BK)as He has sworn to your fathers, ^18 [aa]if you will listen to the voice of the Lord your God, ^[ab]keeping all His commandments which I am commanding you today, ^[ac]and doing what is right in the sight of the Lord your God.

Clean and Unclean Animals

14 “You are ^(BL)the sons of the Lord your God; ^(BM)you shall not cut yourselves nor ^[ad]shave your forehead for the sake of the dead. ² For you are ^(BN)a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a ^(BO)people for His ^[ae]own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

³ “^(BP)You shall not eat any detestable thing. ^4 (BQ)These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, ^5 [af]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 split in ^[ag]two and ^[ah]chews the cud, among the animals, that you may eat. ⁷ Nevertheless, you are not to eat of these among those which ^[ai]chew the cud, or among those that divide the hoof in ^[aj]two: the camel and the ^[ak]rabbit and the ^[al]shaphan, for though they ^[am]chew the cud, they do not divide the hoof; they are unclean for you. ⁸ The pig, because it divides the hoof but does not chew the cud, it is unclean for you. You shall not eat any of their flesh nor touch their carcasses.

⁹ “These you may eat of all that are in water: anything that has fins and scales you may eat, ¹⁰ but anything that does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.

¹¹ “You may eat any clean bird. ¹² But ^(BR)these are the ones which you shall not eat: the ^[an]eagle and the vulture and the ^[ao]buzzard, ¹³ and the red kite, the falcon, and the kite in their kinds, ¹⁴ and every raven in its kind, ¹⁵ and the ostrich, the owl, the sea gull, and the hawk in their kinds, ¹⁶ the little owl, the ^[ap]great owl, the white owl, ¹⁷ the pelican, the carrion vulture, the cormorant, ¹⁸ the stork, and the heron in their kinds, and the hoopoe and the bat. ¹⁹ And all the ^[aq]teeming life with wings are unclean to you; they shall not be eaten. ²⁰ You may eat any clean bird.

²¹ “^(BS)You shall not eat anything which dies of itself. You may give it to the alien who is in your ^[ar]town, so that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner, for you are ^(BT)a holy people to the Lord your God. ^(BU)You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

²² “You ^(BV)shall surely tithe all the produce from ^[as]what you sow, which comes out of the field every year. ²³ You shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God, ^(BW)at the place where He chooses to establish His name, the tithe of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and your flock, so that you may ^(BX)learn to fear the Lord your God always. ²⁴ If the ^[at]distance is so great for you that you are not able to ^[au]bring the tithe, since the place where the Lord your God chooses ^(BY)to set His name is too far away from you when the Lord your God blesses you, ²⁵ then you shall ^[av]exchange it for money, and bind the money in your hand and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses. ²⁶ You may spend the money for whatever your ^[aw]heart desires: for oxen, or sheep, or wine, or strong drink, or whatever your ^[ax]heart ^[ay]desires; and ^(BZ)there you shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice, you and your household. ²⁷ Also you shall not neglect ^(CA)the Levite who is in your ^[az]town, ^(CB)for he has no portion or inheritance among you.

²⁸ “^(CC)At the end of every third year you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year, and shall deposit it in your ^[ba]town. ²⁹ The Levite, ^(CD)because he has no portion or inheritance among you, and ^(CE)the alien, the ^[bb]orphan and the widow who are in your ^[bc]town, shall come and ^(CF)eat and be satisfied, in order that ^(CG)the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.

The Sabbatic Year

15 “^(CH)At the end of every seven years you shall ^[bd]grant a remission of debts. ² This is the manner of remission: every creditor shall release what he has loaned to his neighbor; he shall not exact it of his neighbor and his brother, because the Lord’s remission has been proclaimed. ^3 (CI)From a foreigner you may exact it, but your hand shall release whatever of yours is with your brother. ⁴ However, there will be no poor among you, since ^(CJ)the Lord will surely bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, ⁵ if only you listen obediently to the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all this commandment which I am commanding you today. ^6 (CK)For the Lord your God will bless you as He has promised you, and you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; and you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.

⁷ “If there is ^(CL)a poor man with you, one of your brothers, in any of your ^[be]towns in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, ^(CM)you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother; ⁸ but ^(CN)you shall freely open your hand to him, and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks. ⁹ Beware that there is no base ^[bf]thought in your heart, saying, ‘^(CO)The seventh year, the year of remission, is near,’ and ^(CP)your eye is hostile toward your poor brother, and you give him nothing; then he ^(CQ)may cry to the Lord against you, and it will be a sin in you. ¹⁰ You shall generously give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because ^(CR)for this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all ^[bg]your undertakings. ^11 (CS)For the poor will never cease to be ^[bh]in the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.’

¹² “^(CT)If your ^[bi]kinsman, a Hebrew man or woman, is sold to you, then he shall serve you six years, but in the seventh year you shall set him ^[bj]free. ¹³ When you set him ^[bk]free, you shall not send him away empty-handed. ¹⁴ You shall furnish him liberally from your flock and from your threshing floor and from your wine vat; you shall give to him as the Lord your God has blessed you. ¹⁵ You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you ^[bl]this today. ¹⁶ It shall come about ^(CU)if he says to you, ‘I will not go out from you,’ because he loves you and your household, since he fares well with you; ¹⁷ then you shall take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also you shall do likewise to your maidservant.

¹⁸ “It shall not seem hard to you when you set him ^[bm]free, for he has given you six years with ^[bn]double the service of a hired man; so the Lord your God will bless you in whatever you do.

¹⁹ “^(CV)You shall consecrate to the Lord your God all the firstborn males that are born of your herd and of your flock; you shall not work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock. ^20 (CW)You and your household shall eat it every year before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses. ^21 (CX)But if it has any ^[bo]defect, such as lameness or blindness, or any serious ^[bp]defect, you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God. ²² You shall eat it within your gates; ^(CY)the unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as ^(CZ)a gazelle or a deer. ²³ Only ^(DA)you shall not eat its blood; you are to pour it out on the ground like water.

The Feasts of Passover, of Weeks, and of Booths

16 “Observe ^(DB)the month of Abib and ^[bq](DC)celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. ² You shall sacrifice the Passover to the Lord your God from the flock and the herd, in the place where the Lord chooses to establish His name. ^3 (DD)You shall not eat leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), so that you may remember ^(DE)all the days of your life the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. ⁴ For seven days no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory, and ^(DF)none of the flesh which you sacrifice on the evening of the first day shall remain overnight until morning. ⁵ You are not allowed to sacrifice the Passover in any of your ^[br]towns which the Lord your God is giving you; ⁶ but ^(DG)at the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish His name, you shall sacrifice the Passover in the evening at sunset, at the time that you came out of Egypt. ⁷ You shall ^(DH)cook and eat it in the place which the Lord your God chooses. In the morning you are to return to your tents. ⁸ Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and ^(DI)on the seventh day there shall be ^(DJ)a solemn assembly to the Lord your God; you shall do no work on it.

⁹ “^(DK)You shall count seven weeks for yourself; you shall begin to count seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. ¹⁰ Then you shall ^[bs]celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, which you shall give just as the Lord your God blesses you; ¹¹ and you shall ^(DL)rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter and your male and female servants and ^(DM)the Levite who is in your ^[bt]town, and ^(DN)the stranger and the ^[bu]orphan and the widow who are in your midst, in the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish His name. ^12 (DO)You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.

¹³ “^(DP)You shall ^[bv]celebrate the Feast of Booths seven days after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and your wine vat; ¹⁴ and you shall ^(DQ)rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter and your male and female servants and the Levite and the stranger and the ^[bw]orphan and the widow who are in your ^[bx]towns. ¹⁵ Seven days you shall celebrate a 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 will be altogether joyful.

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

¹⁸ “You shall appoint for yourself judges and officers in all your ^[bz]towns which the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. ^19 (DT)You shall not distort justice; ^(DU)you shall not ^[ca]be partial, and ^(DV)you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous. ²⁰ Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue, that ^(DW)you may live and possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

²¹ “^(DX)You shall not plant for yourself an ^[cb]Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of the Lord your God, which you shall make for yourself. ^22 (DY)You shall not set up for yourself a sacred pillar which the Lord your God hates.

Administration of Justice

17 “^(DZ)You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep which has a blemish or any ^[cc]defect, for that is a detestable thing to the Lord your God.

² “^(EA)If there is found in your midst, in any of your ^[cd]towns, which the Lord your God is giving you, a man or a woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, by transgressing His covenant, ³ and has gone and ^(EB)served other gods and worshiped them, ^(EC)or the sun or the moon or any of the heavenly host, ^(ED)which I have not commanded, ⁴ and if it is told you and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire thoroughly. Behold, if it is true and the thing certain that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, ⁵ then you shall bring out that man or that woman who has done this evil deed to your gates, that is, the man or the woman, and ^(EE)you shall stone them to ^[ce]death. ^6 (EF)On the ^[cf]evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the ^[cg]evidence of one witness. ^7 (EG)The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. ^(EH)So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

⁸ “^(EI)If any case is too difficult for you to decide, between ^[ch]one kind of homicide or another, between ^[ci]one kind of lawsuit or another, and between ^[cj]one kind of assault or another, being cases of dispute in your ^[ck]courts, then you shall arise and go up to ^(EJ)the place which the Lord your God chooses. ⁹ So you shall come to ^(EK)the Levitical priest or the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall inquire of them and they will declare to you the verdict in the case. ¹⁰ You shall do according to the ^[cl]terms of the verdict which they declare to you from that place which the Lord chooses; and you shall be careful to observe according to all that they teach you. ^11 (EL)According to the ^[cm]terms of the law which they teach you, and according to the verdict which they tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside from the word which they declare to you, to the right or the left. ¹² The man who acts ^(EM)presumptuously by not listening to the priest who stands there to serve the Lord your God, nor to the judge, that man shall die; thus you shall purge the evil from Israel. ¹³ Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and will not act ^(EN)presumptuously again.

¹⁴ “When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, and you ^(EO)possess it and live in it, and you say, ‘^(EP)I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ ¹⁵ you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses, one ^(EQ)from among your ^[cn]countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your ^[co]countryman. ^16 (ER)Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he ^(ES)cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since ^(ET)the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’ ^17 (EU)He shall not multiply wives for himself, ^[cp]or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.

¹⁸ “Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll ^[cq](EV)in the presence of the Levitical priests. ¹⁹ It shall be with him and he shall read it ^(EW)all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, ^[cr]by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, ²⁰ that his heart may not be lifted up above his ^[cs]countrymen ^(EX)and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.

Portion of the Levites

18 “^(EY)The Levitical priests, the whole tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the Lord’s offerings by fire and His ^[ct]portion. ^2 (EZ)They shall have no inheritance among their ^[cu]countrymen; the Lord is their inheritance, as He ^[cv]promised them.

³ “^(FA)Now this shall be the priests’ due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, either an ox or a sheep, of which they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach. ⁴ You shall give him the ^(FB)first fruits of your grain, your new wine, and your oil, and the first shearing of your sheep. ^5 (FC)For the Lord your God has chosen him and his sons from all your tribes, to ^(FD)stand ^[cw]and serve in the name of the Lord forever.

⁶ “Now if a Levite comes from any of your ^[cx]towns throughout Israel where he ^(FE)resides, and comes ^[cy]whenever he desires to the place which the Lord chooses, ⁷ then he shall serve in the name of the Lord his God, like all his fellow Levites who stand there before the Lord. ^8 (FF)They shall eat ^[cz]equal portions, except what they receive from the sale of their fathers’ estates.

Spiritism Forbidden

⁹ “When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to ^[da](FG)imitate the detestable things of those nations. ¹⁰ There shall not be found among you anyone ^(FH)who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one ^(FI)who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, ¹¹ or one who casts a spell, ^(FJ)or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. ¹² For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord; and ^(FK)because of these detestable things the Lord your God will drive them out before you. ^13 (FL)You shall be ^[db]blameless before the Lord your God. ¹⁴ For those nations, which you shall dispossess, listen to those who ^(FM)practice witchcraft and to diviners, but as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do so.

¹⁵ “^(FN)The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your ^[dc]countrymen, you shall listen to him. ¹⁶ This is ^(FO)according to all that you asked of the Lord your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, let me not see this great fire anymore, or I will die.’ ^17 (FP)The Lord said to me, ‘They have ^[dd]spoken well. ¹⁸ I will raise up a prophet from among their ^[de]countrymen like you, and ^(FQ)I will put My words in his mouth, and ^(FR)he shall speak to them all that I command him. ^19 (FS)It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him. ²⁰ But the prophet who speaks a word ^(FT)presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or ^(FU)which he speaks in the name of other gods, ^[df]that prophet shall die.’ ^21 [dg]You may say in your heart, ‘How will we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’ ^22 (FV)When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it ^(FW)presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

Cities of Refuge

19 “^(FX)When the Lord your God cuts off the nations, whose land the Lord your God gives you, and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and in their houses, ^2 (FY)you shall set aside three cities for yourself in the midst of your land, which the Lord your God gives you to ^[dh]possess. ³ You shall prepare the ^[di]roads for yourself, and divide into three parts the territory of your land which the Lord your God will give you as a possession, ^[dj]so that any manslayer may flee there.

⁴ “^(FZ)Now this is the case of the manslayer who may flee there and live: when he ^[dk]kills his friend ^[dl]unintentionally, ^[dm]not hating him previously— ⁵ as when a man goes into the forest with his friend to cut wood, and his hand ^[dn]swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron head slips off the ^[do]handle and ^[dp]strikes his friend so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live; ⁶ otherwise the avenger of blood might pursue the manslayer ^[dq]in the heat of his anger, and overtake him, because the way is long, and ^[dr]take his life, though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated him previously. ⁷ Therefore, I command you, saying, ‘You shall set aside three cities for yourself.’

⁸ “If the Lord your God ^(GA)enlarges your territory, just as He has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land which He ^[ds]promised to give your fathers— ⁹ if you ^[dt]carefully observe all this commandment which I command you today, ^(GB)to love the Lord your God, and to walk in His ways always—^(GC)then you shall add three more cities for yourself, besides these three. ¹⁰ So innocent blood will not be shed in the midst of your land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, and ^(GD)bloodguiltiness be on you.

¹¹ “But ^(GE)if there is a man who hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and rises up against him and strikes ^[du]him so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities, ¹² then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. ^13 [dv](GF)You shall not pity him, but ^(GG)you shall purge the blood of the innocent from Israel, that it may go well with you.

Laws of Landmark and Testimony

¹⁴ “^(GH)You shall not move your neighbor’s boundary mark, which the ancestors have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that the Lord your God gives you to ^[dw]possess.

¹⁵ “^(GI)A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin ^[dx]which he has committed; on the ^[dy]evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed. ^16 (GJ)If a malicious witness rises up against a man to ^[dz]accuse him of ^[ea]wrongdoing, ¹⁷ then both the men who have the dispute shall stand ^(GK)before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days. ¹⁸ The judges ^(GL)shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has ^[eb]accused his brother falsely, ¹⁹ then ^(GM)you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you. ^20 (GN)The rest will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such an evil thing among you. ²¹ Thus ^[ec](GO)you shall not show pity: ^(GP)life for life, ^(GQ)eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Laws of Warfare

20 “When you go out to battle against your enemies and see ^(GR)horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, ^(GS)do not be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you. ² When you are approaching the battle, the priest shall come near and speak to the people. ³ He shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, you are approaching the battle against your enemies today. Do not be fainthearted. ^(GT)Do not be afraid, or panic, or tremble before them, ⁴ for the Lord your God ^(GU)is the one who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.’ ⁵ The officers also shall speak to the people, saying, ‘Who is the man that has built a new house and has not ^(GV)dedicated it? Let him depart and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man would dedicate it. ⁶ Who is the man that has planted a vineyard and has not ^[ed]begun to use its fruit? Let him depart and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man ^[ee]would begin to use its fruit. ^7 (GW)And who is the man that is engaged to a woman and has not ^[ef]married her? Let him depart and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man ^[eg]would marry her.’ ⁸ Then the officers shall speak further to the people and say, ‘^(GX)Who is the man that is afraid and fainthearted? Let him depart and return to his house, so that ^[eh]he might not make his brothers’ hearts melt like his heart.’ ⁹ When the officers have finished speaking to the people, they shall appoint commanders of armies at the head of the people.

¹⁰ “When you approach a city to fight against it, you shall ^[ei]offer it terms of peace. ¹¹ If it ^[ej]agrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your ^(GY)forced labor and shall serve you. ¹² However, if it does not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. ¹³ When the Lord your God gives it into your hand, ^(GZ)you shall strike all the ^[ek]men in it with the edge of the sword. ¹⁴ Only the women and the children and ^(HA)the animals and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as booty for yourself; and you shall ^[el]use the spoil of your enemies which the Lord your God has given you. ¹⁵ Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations ^[em]nearby. ^16 (HB)Only in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive anything that breathes. ¹⁷ But you shall ^[en]utterly destroy them, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, as the Lord your God has commanded you, ¹⁸ so that they may not teach you to do ^(HC)according to all their detestable things which they have done for their gods, so that you would ^(HD)sin against the Lord your God.

¹⁹ “When you besiege a city a long time, to make war against it in order to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by swinging an axe against them; for you may eat from them, and you shall not cut them down. ^[eo]For is the tree of the field a man, that it should ^[ep]be besieged by you? ²⁰ Only the trees which you know ^[eq]are not fruit trees you shall destroy and cut down, that you may construct siegeworks against the city that is making war with you until it falls.

Expiation of a Crime

21 “If a slain person is found lying in the open country in the land which the Lord your God gives you to ^[er]possess, and it is not known who has struck him, ² then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the slain one. ³ It shall be that the city which is nearest to the slain man, that is, the elders of that city, shall take a heifer of the herd, which has not been worked and which has not pulled in a yoke; ⁴ and the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which has not been plowed or sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. ⁵ Then ^(HE)the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve Him and to bless in the name of the Lord; and every dispute and every ^[es]assault ^[et]shall be settled by them. ⁶ All the elders of that city ^[eu]which is nearest to the slain man shall ^(HF)wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley; ⁷ and they shall answer and say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it. ^8 [ev]Forgive Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, O Lord, and do not place the guilt of ^(HG)innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.’ And the bloodguiltiness shall be ^[ew]forgiven them. ^9 (HH)So you shall remove the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

Domestic Relations

¹⁰ “When you go out to battle against your enemies, and ^(HI)the Lord your God delivers them into your hands and you take them away captive, ¹¹ and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and have a desire for her and would take her as a wife for yourself, ¹² then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall ^(HJ)shave her head and ^[ex]trim her nails. ¹³ She shall also ^[ey]remove the clothes of her captivity and shall remain in your house, and ^(HK)mourn her father and mother a full month; and after that you may go in to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife. ¹⁴ It shall be, if you are not pleased with her, then you shall let her go ^[ez]wherever she wishes; but you shall certainly not sell her for money, you shall not ^[fa]mistreat her, because you have ^(HL)humbled her.

¹⁵ “If a man has two wives, the one loved and ^(HM)the other ^[fb]unloved, and both the loved and the ^[fc]unloved have borne him sons, if the firstborn son belongs to the ^[fd]unloved, ¹⁶ then it shall be in the day he ^[fe]wills what he has to his sons, he cannot make the son of the loved the firstborn before the son of the ^[ff]unloved, who is the firstborn. ¹⁷ But he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the ^[fg]unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that ^[fh]he has, for he is the ^(HN)beginning of his strength; ^(HO)to him belongs the right of the firstborn.

¹⁸ “If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will ^(HP)not obey his father or his mother, and when they chastise him, he will not even listen to them, ¹⁹ then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city ^[fi]at the gateway of his hometown. ²⁰ They shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey us, he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ ^21 (HQ)Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so ^(HR)you shall remove the evil from your midst, and ^(HS)all Israel will hear of it and fear.

²² “If a man has committed a sin ^(HT)worthy of death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, ^23 (HU)his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day (for ^(HV)he who is hanged is ^[fj]accursed of God), so that you ^(HW)do not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance.

Sundry Laws

22 “^(HX)You shall not see your ^[fk]countryman’s ox or his sheep straying away, and ^[fl]pay no attention to them; you shall certainly bring them back to your countryman. ² If your countryman is not near you, or if you do not know him, then you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall remain with you until your countryman looks for it; then you shall restore it to him. ³ Thus you shall do with his donkey, and you shall do the same with his garment, and you shall do likewise with anything lost by your countryman, which he has lost and you have found. You are not allowed to ^[fm]neglect them. ⁴ You shall not see your countryman’s donkey or his ox fallen down on the way, and ^[fn]pay no attention to them; you shall certainly help him to raise them up.

⁵ “A woman shall not wear man’s clothing, nor shall a man put on a woman’s clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.

⁶ “If you happen to come upon a bird’s nest along the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, ^(HY)you shall not take the mother with the young; ⁷ you shall certainly let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, ^(HZ)in order that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days.

⁸ “When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, so that you will not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone falls from it.

⁹ “^(IA)You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, or ^[fo]all the produce of the seed which you have sown and the increase of the vineyard will become defiled.

¹⁰ “^(IB)You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.

¹¹ “^(IC)You shall not wear a material mixed of wool and linen together.

¹² “^(ID)You shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of your garment with which you cover yourself.

Laws on Morality

¹³ “^(IE)If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then ^[fp]turns against her, ¹⁴ and charges her with shameful deeds and ^[fq]publicly defames her, and says, ‘I took this woman, but when I came near her, I did not find her a virgin,’ ¹⁵ then the girl’s father and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of the girl’s virginity to the elders of the city at the gate. ¹⁶ The girl’s father shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man for a wife, but he ^[fr]turned against her; ¹⁷ and behold, he has charged her with shameful deeds, saying, “I did not find your daughter a virgin.” But ^[fs]this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the garment before the elders of the city. ¹⁸ So ^(IF)the elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him, ¹⁹ and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give it to the girl’s father, because he ^[ft]publicly defamed a virgin of Israel. And she shall remain his wife; he cannot ^[fu]divorce her all his days.

²⁰ “But if this ^[fv](IG)charge is true, that the girl was not found a virgin, ²¹ then they shall bring out the girl to the doorway of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her ^[fw]to death because she has ^(IH)committed an act of folly in Israel by playing the harlot in her father’s house; thus ^(II)you shall purge the evil from among you.

²² “^(IJ)If a man is found lying with a married woman, then both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman; thus you shall purge the evil from Israel.

²³ “^(IK)If there is a girl who is a virgin engaged to a man, and another man finds her in the city and lies with her, ²⁴ then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and you shall stone them ^[fx]to death; the girl, because she did not cry out in the city, and the man, because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.

²⁵ “But if in the field the man finds the girl who is engaged, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lies with her shall die. ²⁶ But you shall do nothing to the girl; there is no sin in the girl worthy of death, for just as a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, so is this case. ²⁷ When he found her in the field, the engaged girl cried out, but there was no one to save her.

²⁸ “^(IL)If a man finds a girl who is a virgin, who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with her and they are discovered, ²⁹ then the man who lay with her shall give to the girl’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall become his wife because he has violated her; he cannot divorce her all his days.

³⁰ “^[fy](IM)A man shall not take his father’s wife so that he will not uncover his father’s skirt.

Persons Excluded from the Assembly

23 “^(IN)No one who is ^[fz]emasculated or has his male organ cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord. ² No one of illegitimate birth shall enter the assembly of the Lord; none of his descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall enter the assembly of the Lord. ^3 (IO)No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the Lord; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the Lord, ^4 (IP)because they did not meet you with ^[ga]food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you ^(IQ)Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of ^[gb]Mesopotamia, to curse you. ⁵ Nevertheless, the Lord your God was not willing to listen to Balaam, but the Lord your God ^(IR)turned the curse into a blessing for you because the Lord your God ^(IS)loves you. ^6 (IT)You shall never seek their peace or their prosperity all your days.

⁷ “You shall not detest an Edomite, for ^(IU)he is your brother; you shall not detest an Egyptian, ^(IV)because you were an alien in his land. ⁸ The sons of the third generation who are born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord.

⁹ “When you go out as ^[gc]an army against your enemies, you shall keep yourself from every evil thing.

¹⁰ “^(IW)If there is among you any man who is unclean because of a nocturnal emission, then he must go outside the camp; he may not ^[gd]reenter the camp. ¹¹ But it shall be when evening approaches, he shall bathe himself with water, and at sundown he may ^[ge]reenter the camp.

¹² “You shall also have a place outside the camp and go out there, ¹³ and you shall have a ^[gf]spade among your tools, and it shall be when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and shall turn ^[gg]to cover up your excrement. ¹⁴ Since ^(IX)the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to ^[gh]defeat your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be ^(IY)holy; and He must not see ^[gi]anything indecent among you ^[gj]or He will turn away from you.

¹⁵ “^(IZ)You shall not hand over to his master a slave who has ^[gk]escaped from his master to you. ¹⁶ He shall live with you in your midst, in the place which he shall choose in one of your ^[gl]towns where it pleases him; ^(JA)you shall not mistreat him.

¹⁷ “^(JB)None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, ^(JC)nor shall any of the sons of Israel be a cult prostitute. ¹⁸ You shall not bring the hire of a harlot or the wages of a ^[gm](JD)dog into the house of the Lord your God for any votive offering, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God.

¹⁹ “^(JE)You shall not charge interest to your ^[gn]countrymen: interest on money, food, or anything that may be loaned at interest. ^20 (JF)You may charge interest to a foreigner, but to your ^[go]countrymen you shall not charge interest, so that ^(JG)the Lord your God may bless you in all ^[gp]that you undertake in the land which you are about to enter to ^[gq]possess.

²¹ “^(JH)When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for it would be sin in you, ^[gr]and the Lord your God will surely require it of you. ²² However, if you refrain from vowing, it would not be sin in you. ²³ You shall be careful to perform what goes out from your lips, just as you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God, what you have ^[gs]promised.

²⁴ “When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, then you may eat grapes ^[gt]until you are fully satisfied, but you shall not put any in your ^[gu]basket.

²⁵ “^(JI)When you enter your neighbor’s standing grain, then you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not wield a sickle in your neighbor’s standing grain.

Law of Divorce

24 “When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens ^[gv]that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some ^(JJ)indecency in her, and ^(JK)he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house, ² and she leaves his house and goes and becomes another man’s wife, ³ and if the latter husband ^[gw]turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife, ⁴ then her ^(JL)former husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife, since she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the Lord, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance.

⁵ “^(JM)When a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out with the army nor be charged with any duty; he shall be free at home one year and shall ^(JN)give happiness to his wife whom he has taken.

Sundry Laws

⁶ “No one shall take a handmill or an upper millstone in pledge, for he would be taking a life in pledge.

⁷ “^(JO)If a man is ^[gx]caught kidnapping any of his ^[gy]countrymen of the sons of Israel, and he deals with him violently or sells him, then that thief shall die; so you shall purge the evil from among you.

⁸ “^(JP)Be careful against ^[gz]an infection of leprosy, that you diligently observe and do according to all that the Levitical priests teach you; as I have commanded them, so you shall be careful to do. ⁹ Remember what the Lord your God did ^(JQ)to Miriam on the way as you came out of Egypt.

¹⁰ “^(JR)When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not enter his house to take his pledge. ¹¹ You shall remain outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you. ¹² If he is a poor man, you shall not sleep with his pledge. ^13 (JS)When the sun goes down you shall surely return the pledge to him, that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you; and ^(JT)it will be righteousness for you before the Lord your God.

¹⁴ “^(JU)You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your ^[ha]countrymen or one of your aliens who is in your land in your ^[hb]towns. ^15 (JV)You shall give him his wages on his day ^[hc]before the sun sets, for he is poor and sets his ^[hd]heart on it; so that ^(JW)he will not cry against you to the Lord and it become sin in you.

¹⁶ “^(JX)Fathers shall not be put to death ^[he]for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death ^[hf]for their fathers; everyone shall be put to death for his own sin.

¹⁷ “^(JY)You shall not pervert the justice ^[hg]due an alien or ^[hh]an orphan, nor ^(JZ)take a widow’s garment in pledge. ¹⁸ But you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and that the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing.

¹⁹ “^(KA)When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be ^(KB)for the alien, for the ^[hi]orphan, and for the widow, in order that the Lord your God ^(KC)may bless you in all the work of your hands. ^20 (KD)When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs ^[hj]again; it shall be ^(KE)for the alien, for the ^[hk]orphan, and for the widow.

²¹ “When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not ^[hl]go over it again; it shall be for the alien, for the ^[hm]orphan, and for the widow. ²² You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing.

Sundry Laws

25 “^(KF)If there is a dispute between men and they go to ^[hn]court, and ^[ho]the judges decide their case, ^(KG)and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked, ² then it shall be if the wicked man ^[hp](KH)deserves to be beaten, the judge shall then make him lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of stripes according to his ^[hq]guilt. ^3 (KI)He may beat him forty times but no more, so that he does not beat him with many more stripes than these and your brother is not ^(KJ)degraded in your eyes.

⁴ “^(KK)You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing.

⁵ “When brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a strange man. ^(KL)Her husband’s brother shall go in to her and take her to himself as wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. ⁶ It shall be that the firstborn whom she bears shall ^[hr]assume the name of his dead brother, so that ^(KM)his name will not be blotted out from Israel. ^7 (KN)But if the man does not desire to take his brother’s wife, then his brother’s wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to establish a name for his brother in Israel; he is not willing to perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me.’ ⁸ Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak to him. And if he persists and says, ‘I do not desire to take her,’ ^9 (KO)then his brother’s wife shall come to him in the sight of the elders, and pull his sandal off his foot and ^(KP)spit in his face; and she shall ^[hs]declare, ‘Thus it is done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.’ ¹⁰ In Israel his name shall be called, ‘The house of him whose sandal is removed.’

¹¹ “If two men, a man and his ^[ht]countryman, are struggling together, and the wife of one comes near to deliver her husband from the hand of the one who is striking him, and puts out her hand and seizes his genitals, ¹² then you shall cut off her ^[hu]hand; ^[hv](KQ)you shall not show pity.

¹³ “^(KR)You shall not have in your bag ^[hw]differing weights, a large and a small. ¹⁴ You shall not have in your house ^[hx]differing measures, a large and a small. ¹⁵ You shall have a full and just weight; you shall have a full and just ^[hy]measure, ^(KS)that your days may be prolonged in the ^[hz]land which the Lord your God gives you. ¹⁶ For ^(KT)everyone who does these things, everyone who acts unjustly is an abomination to the Lord your God.

¹⁷ “^(KU)Remember what Amalek did to you along the way when you came out from Egypt, ¹⁸ how he met you along the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear when you were faint and weary; and he ^(KV)did not ^[ia]fear God. ¹⁹ Therefore it shall come about when the Lord your God has given you ^(KW)rest from all your surrounding enemies, in the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance to ^[ib]possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you must not forget.

Offering First Fruits

26 “Then it shall be, when you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, and you possess it and live in it, ² that you shall take some of ^(KX)the first of all the produce of the ground which you bring in from your land that the Lord your God gives you, and you shall put it in a basket and ^(KY)go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish His name. ³ You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare this day to the Lord ^[ic]my God that I have entered the land which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ ⁴ Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God. ⁵ You shall answer and say before the Lord your God, ‘^(KZ)My father was a ^[id]wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt and ^[ie]sojourned there, ^(LA)few in number; but there he became a ^(LB)great, mighty and populous nation. ⁶ And the ^(LC)Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, and imposed hard labor on us. ⁷ Then ^(LD)we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction and our toil and our oppression; ^8 (LE)and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with great terror and with signs and wonders; ⁹ and He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, ^(LF)a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰ Now behold, I have brought the first of the produce of the ground ^(LG)which You, O Lord have given me.’ And you shall set it down before the Lord your God, and worship before the Lord your God; ¹¹ and you and ^(LH)the Levite and the alien who is among you shall ^(LI)rejoice in all the good which the Lord your God has given you and your household.

¹² “^(LJ)When you have finished ^[if]paying all the tithe of your increase in the third year, the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the stranger, to the ^[ig]orphan and to the widow, that they may eat in your ^[ih]towns and be satisfied. ¹³ You shall say before the Lord your God, ‘I have removed the sacred portion from my house, and also have given it to the Levite and the alien, the ^[ii]orphan and the widow, according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me; ^(LK)I have not transgressed or forgotten any of Your commandments. ¹⁴ I have not eaten of it ^[ij]while mourning, nor have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor offered any of it to the dead. I have listened to the voice of the Lord my God; I have done according to all that You have commanded me. ^15 (LL)Look down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel, and the ground which You have given us, ^(LM)a land flowing with milk and honey, as You swore to our fathers.’

¹⁶ “This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You shall therefore be careful to do them ^(LN)with all your heart and with all your soul. ^17 (LO)You have today declared the Lord to be your God, and ^[ik]that you would walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments and His ordinances, and listen to His voice. ¹⁸ The Lord has today declared you to be ^(LP)His people, a treasured possession, as He promised you, and ^[il]that you should keep all His commandments; ¹⁹ and ^[im]that He will ^(LQ)set you high above all nations which He has made, for praise, fame, and honor; and that you shall be ^(LR)a consecrated people to the Lord your God, as He has spoken.”