Deuteronomy 24-29

Christian Standard Bible

Marriage and Divorce Laws

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

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

Safeguarding Life

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

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

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

Consideration for People in Need

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

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

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

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

Fairness and Mercy

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

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

Preserving the Family Line

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

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

Honest Weights and Measures

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

Revenge on the Amalekites

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

Giving the Firstfruits

26 “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance,^(V) and you take possession of it and live in it, ² take some of the first of all the land’s produce that you harvest from the land the Lord your God is giving you and put it in a basket. Then go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to have his name dwell.^{(W) 3} When you come before the priest who is serving at that time, say to him, ‘Today I declare to the Lord your^[d] God that I have entered the land the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.’

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

My father was a wandering Aramean.^(X) He went down to Egypt with a few people and resided there as an alien.^(Y) There he became a great, powerful, and populous nation. ⁶ But the Egyptians mistreated and oppressed us, and forced us to do hard labor. ⁷ So we called out to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, and the Lord heard our cry and saw our misery, hardship, and oppression.^{(Z) 8} Then the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, with terrifying power, and with signs and wonders. ⁹ He led us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.^{(AA) 10} I have now brought the first of the land’s produce that you, Lord, have given me.

You will then place the container before the Lord your God and bow down to him. ¹¹ You, the Levites, and the resident aliens among you will rejoice^(AB) in all the good things the Lord your God has given you and your household.

The Tenth in the Third Year

¹² “When you have finished paying all the tenth of your produce in the third year,^(AC) the year of the tenth, you are to give it to the Levites, resident aliens, fatherless children, and widows, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied. ¹³ Then you will say in the presence of the Lord your God:

I have taken the consecrated portion out of my house; I have also given it to the Levites, resident aliens, fatherless children, and widows, according to all the commands you gave me. I have not violated or forgotten your commands. ¹⁴ I have not eaten any of it while in mourning, or removed any of it while unclean, or offered any of it for the dead.^(AD) I have obeyed the Lord my God; I have done all you commanded me. ¹⁵ Look down from your holy dwelling, from heaven, and bless your people Israel and the land you have given us as you swore to our ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Covenant Summary

¹⁶ “The Lord your God is commanding you this day to follow these statutes and ordinances. Follow them carefully with all your heart and all your soul. ¹⁷ Today you have affirmed that the Lord is your God and that you will walk in his ways, keep his statutes, commands, and ordinances, and obey him. ¹⁸ And today the Lord has affirmed that you are his own possession as he promised you, that you are to keep all his commands, ¹⁹ that he will elevate you to praise, fame, and glory above all the nations he has made, and that you will be a holy people^(AE) to the Lord your God as he promised.”

The Law Written on Stones

27 Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, “Keep every command I am giving you today. ² When you cross the Jordan into the land the Lord your God is giving you, set up large stones and cover them with plaster.^{(AF) 3} Write all the words of this law on the stones after you cross to enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey,^(AG) as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you. ⁴ When you have crossed the Jordan, you are to set up these stones on Mount Ebal, as I am commanding you today, and you are to cover them with plaster. ⁵ Build an altar of stones there to the Lord your God—do not use any iron tool on them.^{(AH) 6} Use uncut stones to build the altar of the Lord your God and offer burnt offerings to the Lord your God on it. ⁷ There you are to sacrifice fellowship offerings, eat, and rejoice in the presence of the Lord your God. ⁸ Write clearly all the words of this law on the plastered stones.”

The Covenant Curses

⁹ Moses and the Levitical priests spoke to all Israel, “Be silent, Israel, and listen! This day you have become the people of the Lord your God. ¹⁰ Obey the Lord your God and follow his commands and statutes I am giving you today.”

¹¹ On that day Moses commanded the people, ¹² “When you have crossed the Jordan, these tribes will stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. ¹³ And these tribes will stand on Mount Ebal to deliver the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.^{(AI) 14} The Levites will proclaim in a loud voice to every Israelite:

Blessings for Obedience

28 “Now^(AJ) if you faithfully obey the Lord your God^(AK) and are careful to follow all his commands I am giving you today,^(AL) the Lord your God will put you far above all the nations of the earth.^{(AM) 2} All these blessings will come and overtake^(AN) you, because you obey the Lord your God:

⁷ “The Lord will cause the enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you. They will march out against you from one direction but flee from you in seven directions. ⁸ The Lord will grant you a blessing on your barns and on everything you do;^[g](AR) he will bless you in the land the Lord your God is giving you.^{(AS) 9} The Lord will establish you as his holy people,^(AT) as he swore to you, if you obey the commands of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. ¹⁰ Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you bear the Lord’s name,^(AU) and they will stand in awe of you.^{(AV) 11} The Lord will make you prosper abundantly with offspring,^[h] the offspring of your livestock, and your land’s produce in the land the Lord swore to your ancestors to give you. ¹² The Lord will open for you his abundant storehouse,^(AW) the sky, to give your land rain in its season and to bless all the work of your hands.^(AX) You will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow. ¹³ The Lord will make you the head and not the tail;^(AY) you will only move upward and never downward if you listen to the Lord your God’s commands I am giving you today and are careful to follow them. ¹⁴ Do not turn aside to the right or the left from all the things I am commanding you today,^(AZ) and do not follow other gods to worship them.

Curses for Disobedience

¹⁵ “But if you do not obey the Lord your God by carefully following all his commands and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overtake^(BA) you:^(BB)

²⁰ The Lord will send against you curses, confusion,^(BC) and rebuke in everything you do until you are destroyed and quickly perish,^(BD) because of the wickedness of your actions in abandoning me.^{(BE) 21} The Lord will make pestilence cling to you until he has exterminated you from the land you are entering to possess.^{(BF) 22} The Lord will afflict you with wasting disease, fever, inflammation, burning heat, drought,^[i] blight, and mildew;^(BG) these will pursue you until you perish. ²³ The sky above you will be bronze, and the earth beneath you iron. ²⁴ The Lord will turn the rain of your land into falling^[j] dust; it will descend on you from the sky until you are destroyed. ²⁵ The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will march out against them from one direction but flee from them in seven directions.^(BH) You will be an object of horror^(BI) to all the kingdoms of the earth. ²⁶ Your corpses will be food for all the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the earth, with no one to scare them away.^(BJ)

²⁷ “The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt,^(BK) tumors, a festering rash, and scabies, from which you cannot be cured. ²⁸ The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness, and mental confusion,^{(BL) 29} so that at noon you will grope as a blind person gropes in the dark.^(BM) You will not be successful in anything you do. You will only be oppressed and robbed continually, and no one will help you.^{(BN) 30} You will become engaged to a woman, but another man will rape her. You will build a house but not live in it.^(BO) You will plant a vineyard but not enjoy its fruit. ³¹ Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken away from you and not returned to you. Your flock will be given to your enemies, and no one will help you. ³² Your sons and daughters will be given to another people, while your eyes grow weary looking for them every day. But you will be powerless to do anything.^{(BP) 33} A people you don’t know will eat your land’s produce and everything you have labored for. You will only be oppressed and crushed continually.^{(BQ) 34} You will be driven mad by what you see. ³⁵ The Lord will afflict you with painful and incurable boils on your knees and thighs—from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.^(BR)

³⁶ “The Lord will bring you and your king that you have appointed to a nation neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you will worship other gods, of wood and stone.^{(BS) 37} You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the peoples where the Lord will drive you.^(BT)

³⁸ “You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because locusts will devour it. ³⁹ You will plant and cultivate vineyards but not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because worms will eat them. ⁴⁰ You will have olive trees throughout your territory but not moisten your skin with oil, because your olives will drop off. ⁴¹ You will father sons and daughters, but they will not remain yours, because they will be taken prisoner. ⁴² Buzzing insects will take possession of all your trees and your land’s produce. ⁴³ The resident alien among you will rise higher and higher above you, while you sink lower and lower. ⁴⁴ He will lend to you, but you won’t lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail.

⁴⁵ “All these curses will come, pursue, and overtake you until you are destroyed, since you did not obey the Lord your God and keep the commands and statutes he gave you. ⁴⁶ These curses will be a sign and a wonder^(BU) against you and your descendants forever. ⁴⁷ Because you didn’t serve the Lord your God with joy and a cheerful heart,^(BV) even though you had an abundance of everything, ⁴⁸ you will serve your enemies that the Lord will send against you, in famine, thirst, nakedness, and a lack of everything. He will place an iron yoke^(BW) on your neck until he has destroyed you. ⁴⁹ The Lord will bring a nation from far away, from the ends of the earth,^(BX) to swoop down on you like an eagle,^(BY) a nation whose language you won’t understand,^{(BZ) 50} a ruthless nation, showing no respect for the old and not sparing the young. ⁵¹ They will eat the offspring of your livestock and your land’s produce until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine, fresh oil, young of your herds, or newborn of your flocks until they cause you to perish. ⁵² They will besiege you within all your city gates until your high and fortified walls, that you trust in, come down throughout your land. They will besiege you within all your city gates throughout the land the Lord your God has given you.

⁵³ “You will eat your offspring,^[k] the flesh of your sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you^(CA) during the siege and hardship your enemy imposes on you. ⁵⁴ The most sensitive and refined man among you will look grudgingly at his brother, the wife he embraces, and the rest of his children, ⁵⁵ refusing to share with any of them his children’s flesh that he will eat because he has nothing left during the siege and hardship your enemy imposes on you in all your towns. ⁵⁶ The most sensitive and refined woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her refinement and sensitivity, will begrudge the husband she embraces, her son, and her daughter, ⁵⁷ the afterbirth that comes out from between her legs and the children she bears, because she will secretly eat them for lack of anything else during the siege and hardship your enemy imposes on you within your city gates.

⁵⁸ “If you are not careful to obey all the words of this law, which are written in this scroll, by fearing this glorious and awe-inspiring name—the Lord, your God— ⁵⁹ he will bring wondrous plagues on you and your descendants, severe and lasting plagues, and terrible and chronic sicknesses. ⁶⁰ He will afflict you again with all the diseases of Egypt,^(CB) which you dreaded, and they will cling to you. ⁶¹ The Lord will also afflict you with every sickness and plague not recorded in the book of this law, until you are destroyed. ⁶² Though you were as numerous as the stars of the sky, you will be left with only a few people, because you did not obey the Lord your God. ⁶³ Just as the Lord was glad to cause you to prosper and to multiply you, so he will also be glad to cause you to perish and to destroy you. You will be ripped out of the land you are entering to possess. ⁶⁴ Then the Lord will scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other,^(CC) and there you will worship other gods, of wood and stone,^(CD) which neither you nor your ancestors have known.^{(CE) 65} You will find no peace among those nations, and there will be no resting place^(CF) for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a despondent spirit. ⁶⁶ Your life will hang in doubt before you. You will be in dread night and day, never certain of survival. ⁶⁷ In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and in the evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’—because of the dread you will have in your heart and because of what you will see. ⁶⁸ The Lord will take you back in ships to Egypt by a route that I said you would never see again.^(CG) There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

Renewing the Covenant

29 These are the words of the covenant^(CH) that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Horeb.^{(CI) 2} Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “You have seen with your own eyes^(CJ) everything the Lord did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials, and to his entire land. ³ You saw with your own eyes the great trials and those great signs and wonders.^{(CK) 4} Yet to this day the Lord has not given you a mind to understand, eyes to see, or ears to hear.^{(CL) 5} I led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes and the sandals on your feet did not wear out;^{(CM) 6} you did not eat food or drink wine or beer—so that you might know that I am the Lord your God.^{(CN) 7} When you reached this place, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan came out against us in battle, but we defeated them.^{(CO) 8} We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh.^{(CP) 9} Therefore, observe the words of this covenant^(CQ) and follow them, so that you will succeed in everything you do.^(CR)

¹⁰ “All of you are standing today before the Lord your God—your leaders, tribes, elders, officials, all the men of Israel, ¹¹ your dependents, your wives, and the resident aliens in your camps who cut your wood and draw your water— ¹² so that you may enter into the covenant of the Lord your God, which he is making with you today, so that you may enter into his oath ¹³ and so that he may establish you today as his people and he may be your God as he promised you and as he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.^{(CS) 14} I am making this covenant and this oath not only with you, ¹⁵ but also with those who are standing here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God and with those who are not here today.

Abandoning the Covenant

¹⁶ “Indeed, you know how we lived in the land of Egypt and passed through the nations where you traveled. ¹⁷ You saw their abhorrent images and idols made of wood, stone, silver, and gold, which were among them.^{(CT) 18} Be sure there is no man, woman, clan, or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations. Be sure there is no root among you bearing poisonous and bitter fruit.^{(CU) 19} When someone hears the words of this oath, he may consider himself exempt,^[l] thinking, ‘I will have peace even though I follow my own stubborn heart.’ This will lead to the destruction of the well-watered land as well as the dry land. ²⁰ The Lord will not be willing to forgive him. Instead, his anger and jealousy will burn against that person, and every curse written in this scroll will descend on him. The Lord will blot out his name under heaven,^{(CV) 21} and single him out for harm from all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the law.

²² “Future generations of your children who follow you and the foreigner who comes from a distant country will see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses the Lord has inflicted on it. ²³ All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown, producing nothing, with no plant growing on it, just like the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord demolished in his fierce anger.^{(CW) 24} All the nations will ask, ‘Why has the Lord done this to this land? Why this intense outburst of anger?’ ²⁵ Then people will answer, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, which he had made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. ²⁶ They began to serve other gods, bowing in worship to gods they had not known^(CX)—gods that the Lord had not permitted them to worship.^{(CY) 27} Therefore the Lord’s anger burned against this land, and he brought every curse written in this book on it. ²⁸ The Lord uprooted them from their land in his anger, rage, and intense wrath, and threw them into another land where they are today.’ ²⁹ The hidden things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.