Deuteronomy 4-23

New American Standard Bible 1995

Israel Urged to Obey God’s Law

4 “Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which ^(A)I am teaching you to perform, so that ^(B)you may live and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. ^2 (C)You shall not add to the word which ^(D)I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. ^3 (E)Your eyes have seen what the Lord has done in the case of Baal-peor, for all the men who followed Baal-peor, the Lord your God has destroyed ^[a]them from among you. ⁴ But you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive today, every one of you.

⁵ “See, I have taught you statutes and judgments ^(F)just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do thus in the land where you are entering to possess it. ⁶ So keep and do them, ^(G)for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ ⁷ For ^(H)what great nation is there that has a god ^(I)so near to it as is the Lord our God ^(J)whenever we call on Him? ⁸ Or what great nation is there that has ^(K)statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today?

⁹ “Only ^(L)give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, so that you do not forget the things which your eyes have seen and they do not depart from your heart ^(M)all the days of your life; but ^(N)make them known to your sons and your grandsons. ¹⁰ Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me, ‘Assemble the people to Me, that I may let them hear My words ^(O)so they may learn to ^[b]fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may ^(P)teach their children.’ ¹¹ You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, ^(Q)and the mountain burned with fire to the very heart of the heavens: darkness, cloud and thick gloom. ¹² Then the Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but you saw no form—only a voice. ¹³ So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, that is, ^(R)the Ten ^[c]Commandments; and ^(S)He wrote them on two tablets of stone. ¹⁴ The Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might perform them in the land where you are going over to possess it.

¹⁵ “So ^(T)watch yourselves carefully, since you did not see any ^(U)form on the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, ¹⁶ so that you do not ^(V)act corruptly and ^(W)make a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, ¹⁷ the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of ^(X)any winged bird that flies in the sky, ¹⁸ the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water below the earth. ¹⁹ And beware not to lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, ^(Y)all the host of heaven, ^(Z)and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. ²⁰ But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of ^(AA)the iron furnace, from Egypt, to ^(AB)be a people for His own possession, as today.

²¹ “^(AC)Now the Lord was angry with me on your account, and swore that I would not cross the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. ²² For ^(AD)I will die in this land, I shall not cross the Jordan, but you shall cross and take possession of this ^(AE)good land. ²³ So watch yourselves, ^(AF)that you do not forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, and ^(AG)make for yourselves a graven image in the form of anything against which the Lord your God has commanded you. ²⁴ For the Lord your God is a ^(AH)consuming fire, a ^(AI)jealous God.

²⁵ “When you ^[d]become the father of children and children’s children and have remained long in the land, and ^(AJ)act corruptly, and ^(AK)make an ^[e]idol in the form of anything, and ^(AL)do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord your God so as to provoke Him to anger, ²⁶ I ^(AM)call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will ^(AN)surely perish quickly from the land where you are going over the Jordan to possess it. You shall not ^[f]live long on it, but will be utterly destroyed. ²⁷ The Lord will ^(AO)scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord drives you. ^28 (AP)There you will serve gods, the work of man’s hands, ^(AQ)wood and stone, ^(AR)which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. ^29 (AS)But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him ^(AT)with all your heart and all your soul. ³⁰ When you ^(AU)are in distress and all these things have come upon you, ^(AV)in the latter days ^(AW)you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice. ³¹ For the Lord your God is a ^(AX)compassionate God; ^(AY)He will not fail you nor ^(AZ)destroy you nor ^(BA)forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.

³² “Indeed, ^(BB)ask now concerning the former days which were before you, since the ^(BC)day that God created ^[g]man on the earth, and inquire ^(BD)from one end of the heavens to the other. ^(BE)Has anything been done like this great thing, or has anything been heard like it? ^33 (BF)Has any people heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you have heard it, and survived? ^34 (BG)Or has a god tried to go to take for himself a nation from within another nation ^(BH)by trials, by signs and wonders and by war and ^(BI)by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm and by great terrors, ^[h]as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? ³⁵ To you it was shown that you might know that the Lord, He is God; ^(BJ)there is no other besides Him. ^36 (BK)Out of the heavens He let you hear His voice ^(BL)to discipline you; and on earth He let you see His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire. ^37 [i](BM)Because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose ^[j]their descendants after them. And He ^[k](BN)personally brought you from Egypt by His great power, ³⁸ driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in and ^(BO)to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is today. ³⁹ Know therefore today, and take it to your heart, that ^(BP)the Lord, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other. ^40 (BQ)So you shall keep His statutes and His commandments which I am ^[l]giving you today, that ^(BR)it may go well with you and with your children after you, and ^(BS)that you may ^[m]live long on the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”

^41 (BT)Then Moses set apart three cities across the Jordan to the ^[n]east, ⁴² that a manslayer might flee there, who unintentionally slew his neighbor without having enmity toward him in time past; and by fleeing to one of these cities he might live: ^43 (BU)Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau for the Reubenites, and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.

⁴⁴ Now this is the law which Moses set before the sons of Israel; ⁴⁵ these are the testimonies and the statutes and the ordinances which Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, when they came out from Egypt, ⁴⁶ across the Jordan, in the valley ^(BV)opposite Beth-peor, in the land of ^(BW)Sihon king of the Amorites who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the sons of Israel ^[o]defeated when they came out from Egypt. ⁴⁷ They took possession of his land and the land of ^(BX)Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who were across the Jordan to the ^[p]east, ⁴⁸ from ^(BY)Aroer, which is on the edge of the ^[q]valley of Arnon, even as far as ^(BZ)Mount Sion (that is, Hermon), ⁴⁹ with all the Arabah across the Jordan to the east, even as far as the sea of the Arabah, ^[r]at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah.

The Ten Commandments Repeated

5 Then Moses summoned all Israel and said to them:

“Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I am speaking today in your ^[s]hearing, that you may learn them and observe ^[t]them carefully. ² The Lord our God made ^(CA)a covenant with us at Horeb. ^3 (CB)The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, with all those of ^[u]us alive here today. ⁴ The Lord spoke to you ^(CC)face to face at the mountain ^(CD)from the midst of the fire, ⁵ while ^(CE)I was standing between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord; ^(CF)for you were afraid because of the fire and did not go up the mountain. ^[v]He said,

⁶ ‘^(CG)I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of ^[w]slavery.

⁷ ‘^(CH)You shall have no other gods ^[x]before Me.

⁸ ‘^(CI)You shall not make for yourself ^[y]an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above ^[z]or on the earth beneath ^[aa]or in the water under the earth. ⁹ You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, ^(CJ)visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, ¹⁰ but ^(CK)showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

¹¹ ‘^(CL)You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not ^[ab]leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.

¹² ‘^(CM)Observe the sabbath day to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. ¹³ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁴ but ^(CN)the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey or any of your cattle or your sojourner who ^[ac]stays with you, so that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. ^15 (CO)You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to observe the sabbath day.

¹⁶ ‘^(CP)Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, ^(CQ)that your days may be prolonged and that it may go well with you on the land which the Lord your God gives you.

¹⁷ ‘^(CR)You shall not murder.

¹⁸ ‘^(CS)You shall not commit adultery.

¹⁹ ‘^(CT)You shall not steal.

²⁰ ‘^(CU)You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

²¹ ‘^(CV)You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, and you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field or his male servant or his female servant, his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.’

Moses Interceded

²² “These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly at the mountain from the midst of the fire, of the cloud and of the thick gloom, with a great voice, and He added no more. ^(CW)He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. ²³ And when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders. ²⁴ You said, ‘Behold, the Lord our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire; we have seen today that God speaks with man, yet he lives. ^25 (CX)Now then why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer, then we will die. ²⁶ For ^(CY)who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? ^27 [ad]Go near and hear all that the Lord our God says; then speak to us all that the Lord our God speaks to you, and we will hear and do it.’

²⁸ “The Lord heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, ^(CZ)and the Lord said to me, ‘I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They have done well in all that they have spoken. ^29 (DA)Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear Me and ^(DB)keep all My commandments always, that ^(DC)it may be well with them and with their sons forever! ³⁰ Go, say to them, “Return to your tents.” ^31 (DD)But as for you, stand here by Me, that I may speak to you all the commandments and the statutes and the judgments which you shall teach them, that they may observe them in the land which I give them to possess.’ ³² So you shall observe to do just as the Lord your God has commanded you; ^(DE)you shall not turn aside to the right or to the left. ^33 (DF)You shall walk in all the way which the Lord your God has commanded you, ^(DG)that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you will possess.

Obey God and Prosper

6 “Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it, ² so that you and your son and your grandson might ^(DH)fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, ^(DI)all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. ³ O Israel, you should listen and ^[ae]be careful to do it, that ^(DJ)it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in ^(DK)a land flowing with milk and honey.

⁴ “^(DL)Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the ^(DM)Lord is one! ^5 (DN)You shall love the Lord your God ^(DO)with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ^6 (DP)These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. ^7 (DQ)You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. ^8 (DR)You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as ^[af]frontals ^[ag]on your forehead. ^9 (DS)You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

¹⁰ “Then it shall come about when the Lord your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you, ^(DT)great and splendid cities which you did not build, ¹¹ and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and ^(DU)you eat and are satisfied, ¹² then watch yourself, that ^(DV)you do not forget the Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of ^[ah]slavery. ^13 (DW)You shall ^[ai]fear only the Lord your God; and you shall ^[aj]worship Him and ^(DX)swear by His name. ^14 (DY)You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you, ¹⁵ for the Lord your God in the midst of you is a ^(DZ)jealous God; otherwise the anger of the Lord your God will be kindled against you, and He will ^[ak]wipe you off the face of the earth.

¹⁶ “^(EA)You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, ^(EB)as you tested Him at Massah. ^17 (EC)You should diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and His testimonies and His statutes which He has commanded you. ¹⁸ You shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that ^(ED)it may be well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land which the Lord swore to give your fathers, ¹⁹ by driving out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has spoken.

²⁰ “^(EE)When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which the Lord our God commanded you?’ ²¹ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us from Egypt with a mighty hand. ²² Moreover, the Lord showed great and distressing signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt, Pharaoh and all his household; ²³ He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He had sworn to our fathers.’ ²⁴ So the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, ^(EF)to fear the Lord our God for our good always and ^(EG)for our survival, as it is today. ^25 (EH)It will be righteousness for us if we ^[al]are careful to observe all this commandment before the Lord our God, just as He commanded us.

Warnings

7 “^(EI)When the Lord your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, ^(EJ)seven nations greater and stronger than you, ² and when the Lord your God delivers them before you and you ^[am]defeat them, ^(EK)then you shall ^[an]utterly destroy them. ^(EL)You shall make no covenant with them ^(EM)and show no favor to them. ³ Furthermore, ^(EN)you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your ^[ao]daughters to ^[ap]their sons, nor shall you take ^[aq]their daughters for your ^[ar]sons. ⁴ For ^[as]they will turn your ^[at]sons away from ^[au]following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and ^(EO)He will quickly destroy you. ⁵ But thus you shall do to them: ^(EP)you shall tear down their altars, and smash their sacred pillars, and hew down their ^[av]Asherim, and burn their graven images with fire. ⁶ For you are ^(EQ)a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be ^(ER)a people for His ^[aw]own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the ^[ax]earth.

⁷ “^(ES)The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, ⁸ but because the Lord loved you and kept the ^(ET)oath which He swore to your forefathers, ^(EU)the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of ^[ay]slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ⁹ Know therefore that the Lord your God, ^(EV)He is God, ^(EW)the faithful God, ^(EX)who keeps ^[az]His covenant and ^[ba]His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who ^(EY)love Him and keep His commandments; ¹⁰ but ^(EZ)repays those who hate Him to ^[bb]their faces, to destroy ^[bc]them; He will not delay ^[bd]with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face. ¹¹ Therefore, you shall keep the commandment and the statutes and the judgments which I am commanding you today, to do them.

Promises of God

¹² “^(FA)Then it shall come about, because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you ^[be]His covenant and ^[bf]His lovingkindness which He swore to your forefathers. ¹³ He will ^(FB)love you and bless you and ^(FC)multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock, ^[bg]in the land which He swore to your forefathers to give you. ¹⁴ You shall be blessed above all peoples; there will be no male or female ^(FD)barren among you or among your cattle. ^15 (FE)The Lord will remove from you all sickness; and He will not put on you any of the harmful diseases of Egypt which you have known, but He will lay them on all who hate you. ¹⁶ You shall consume all the peoples whom the Lord your God will deliver to you; ^(FF)your eye shall not pity them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that would be ^(FG)a snare to you.

¹⁷ “If you should say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I ^(FH)dispossess them?’ ¹⁸ you shall not be afraid of them; you shall well ^(FI)remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: ^19 (FJ)the great trials which your eyes saw and the signs and the wonders and the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out. So shall the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. ²⁰ Moreover, the Lord your God will send ^(FK)the hornet against them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you perish. ²¹ You shall not dread ^[bh]them, for ^(FL)the Lord your God is in your midst, ^(FM)a great and awesome God. ^22 (FN)The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little; you will not be able to put an end to them quickly, for the ^[bi]wild beasts would grow too numerous for you. ^23 (FO)But the Lord your God will deliver them before you, and will ^[bj]throw them into great confusion until they are destroyed. ^24 (FP)He will deliver their kings into your hand so that you will make their name perish from under heaven; ^(FQ)no man will be able to stand before you until you have destroyed them. ²⁵ The graven images of their gods you are to ^(FR)burn with fire; you shall ^(FS)not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, or you will be ^(FT)snared by it, for it is an ^(FU)abomination to the Lord your God. ²⁶ You shall not bring an abomination into your house, and like it come under the ^(FV)ban; you shall utterly detest it and you shall utterly abhor it, for it is something banned.

God’s Gracious Dealings

8 “All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, that you ^(FW)may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to give to your forefathers. ^2 (FX)You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has ^(FY)led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, ^(FZ)testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. ³ He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you ^[bk]understand that ^(GA)man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. ^4 (GB)Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. ^5 (GC)Thus you are to know in your heart that the Lord your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son. ⁶ Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to ^[bl]fear Him. ⁷ For ^(GD)the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills; ⁸ a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; ⁹ a land where you will eat food without scarcity, in which you will not lack anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. ¹⁰ When ^(GE)you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.

¹¹ “^[bm]Beware that you do not ^(GF)forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today; ¹² otherwise, ^(GG)when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, ¹³ and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, ¹⁴ then your heart will become ^[bn]proud and you will ^(GH)forget the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of ^[bo]slavery. ¹⁵ He led you through ^(GI)the great and terrible wilderness, with its ^(GJ)fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water; He ^(GK)brought water for you out of the rock of flint. ¹⁶ In the wilderness He fed you manna ^(GL)which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might ^(GM)test you, to do good for you ^[bp]in the end. ¹⁷ Otherwise, ^(GN)you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’ ¹⁸ But you shall remember the Lord your God, for ^(GO)it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. ¹⁹ It shall come about if you ever forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, ^(GP)I testify against you today that you will surely perish. ²⁰ Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so ^(GQ)you shall perish; because you would not listen to the voice of the Lord your God.

Israel Provoked God

9 “Hear, O Israel! You are crossing over the Jordan today to go in to dispossess ^(GR)nations greater and mightier than you, great cities ^[bq](GS)fortified to heaven, ² a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard it said, ‘^(GT)Who can stand before the sons of Anak?’ ³ Know therefore today that ^(GU)it is the Lord your God who is crossing over before you as ^(GV)a consuming fire. He will destroy them and He will subdue them before you, so that ^(GW)you may drive them out and destroy them quickly, just as the Lord has spoken to you.

⁴ “^(GX)Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them out before ^[br]you, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ but it is ^(GY)because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you. ⁵ It is ^(GZ)not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out before you, in order to confirm ^(HA)the ^[bs]oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

⁶ “Know, then, it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are ^(HB)a ^[bt]stubborn people. ⁷ Remember, do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness; ^(HC)from the day that you left the land of Egypt until you arrived at this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. ⁸ Even ^(HD)at Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that He would have destroyed you. ⁹ When I went up to the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord had made with you, then I remained on the mountain forty days and nights; ^(HE)I neither ate bread nor drank water. ¹⁰ The Lord gave me the two tablets of stone ^(HF)written by the finger of God; and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. ¹¹ It came about ^(HG)at the end of forty days and nights that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. ^12 (HH)Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go down from here quickly, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have ^(HI)quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made a molten image for themselves.’ ¹³ The ^(HJ)Lord spoke further to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed, it is a ^[bu](HK)stubborn people. ^14 (HL)Let Me alone, that I may destroy them and ^(HM)blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’

¹⁵ “^(HN)So I turned and came down from the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. ¹⁶ And I saw that you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God. You had made for yourselves a molten calf; you had turned aside quickly from the way which the Lord had commanded you. ¹⁷ I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my hands and smashed them before your eyes. ^18 (HO)I fell down before the Lord, ^(HP)as at the first, forty days and nights; ^(HQ)I neither ate bread nor drank water, ^(HR)because of all your sin which you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke Him to anger. ¹⁹ For ^(HS)I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the Lord was wrathful against you in order to destroy you, ^(HT)but the Lord listened to me that time also. ²⁰ The Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him; so I also prayed for Aaron at the same time. ^21 (HU)I took your ^[bv]sinful thing, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it very small until it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the brook that came down from the mountain.

²² “Again at ^(HV)Taberah and at ^(HW)Massah and at ^(HX)Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the Lord to wrath. ²³ When the Lord sent you from ^(HY)Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘^(HZ)Go up and possess the land which I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the ^[bw]command of the Lord your God; ^(IA)you neither believed Him nor listened to His voice. ^24 (IB)You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day I knew you.

²⁵ “^(IC)So I fell down before the Lord the forty days and nights, which I ^[bx]did because the Lord had said He would destroy you. ^26 (ID)I prayed to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord God, do not destroy Your people, even Your inheritance, whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²⁷ Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look at the stubbornness of this people or at their wickedness or their sin. ²⁸ Otherwise the land from which You brought us may say, “^(IE)Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which He had ^[by]promised them and because He hated them He has brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.” ²⁹ Yet they are Your people, even ^(IF)Your inheritance, whom You have brought out by Your ^(IG)great power and Your outstretched arm.’

The Tablets Rewritten

10 “At that time the Lord said to me, ‘^(IH)Cut out for yourself two tablets of stone like the former ones, and come up to Me on the mountain, and ^(II)make an ark of wood for yourself. ^2 (IJ)I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you shattered, and ^(IK)you shall put them in the ark.’ ³ So ^(IL)I made an ark of acacia wood and ^(IM)cut out two tablets of stone like the former ones, and went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. ⁴ He wrote on the tablets, like the former writing, ^(IN)the Ten ^[bz]Commandments ^(IO)which the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire ^(IP)on the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them to me. ⁵ Then I turned and ^(IQ)came down from the mountain and ^(IR)put the tablets in the ark which I had made; ^(IS)and there they are, as the Lord commanded me.”

⁶ (Now the sons of Israel set out from ^[ca]Beeroth ^(IT)Bene-jaakan to Moserah. ^(IU)There Aaron died and there he was buried and Eleazar his son ministered as priest in his place. ^7 (IV)From there they set out to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of brooks of water. ^8 (IW)At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord ^(IX)to serve Him and to bless in His name until this day. ^9 (IY)Therefore, Levi does not have a portion or inheritance with his brothers; the Lord is his inheritance, just as the Lord your God spoke to him.)

¹⁰ “^(IZ)I, moreover, stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights like the first time, and the Lord listened to me that time also; the Lord was not willing to destroy you. ¹¹ Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, proceed on your journey ahead of the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.’

¹² “^(JA)Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to ^[cb]fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and ^(JB)love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with ^(JC)all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and to keep the Lord’s commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good? ¹⁴ Behold, ^(JD)to the Lord your God belong heaven and the ^[cc]highest heavens, ^(JE)the earth and all that is in it. ^15 (JF)Yet on your fathers did the Lord set His affection to love them, and He chose their ^[cd]descendants after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day. ^16 (JG)So circumcise ^[ce]your heart, and ^(JH)stiffen your neck no longer. ^17 (JI)For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the ^(JJ)Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God ^(JK)who does not show partiality nor ^(JL)take a bribe. ¹⁸ He executes justice for ^(JM)the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing. ^19 (JN)So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. ²⁰ You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him and ^(JO)cling to Him, and ^(JP)you shall swear by His name. ²¹ He is ^(JQ)your praise and He is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you which your eyes have seen. ^22 (JR)Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons in all, ^(JS)and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.

Rewards of Obedience

11 “You shall therefore ^(JT)love the Lord your God, and always ^(JU)keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments. ² Know this day ^(JV)that I am not speaking with your sons who have not known and who have not seen the ^[cf]discipline of the Lord your God—His greatness, His mighty hand and His outstretched arm, ³ and ^(JW)His signs and His works which He did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land; ⁴ and what He did to Egypt’s army, to its horses and its chariots, ^(JX)when He made the water of the ^[cg]Red Sea to ^[ch]engulf them while they were pursuing you, and the Lord ^[ci]completely destroyed them; ⁵ and what He did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place; ⁶ and ^(JY)what He did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and ^(JZ)every living thing that ^[cj]followed them, among all Israel— ⁷ but your own eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord which He did.

⁸ “You shall therefore keep every commandment which I am commanding you today, ^(KA)so that you may be strong and go in and possess the land into which you are about to cross to possess it; ^9 (KB)so that you may prolong your days on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their ^[ck]descendants, ^(KC)a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰ For the land, into which you are entering to possess it, is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you used to sow your seed and water it with your ^[cl]foot like a vegetable garden. ¹¹ But ^(KD)the land into which you are about to cross to possess it, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven, ¹² a land for which the Lord your God cares; ^(KE)the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the ^[cm]beginning even to the end of the year.

¹³ “It shall come about, ^(KF)if you listen obediently to my commandments which I am commanding you today, ^(KG)to love the Lord your God and to serve Him ^(KH)with all your heart and all your soul, ¹⁴ that ^[cn](KI)He will give the rain for your land in its season, the ^[co](KJ)early and ^[cp]late rain, that you may gather in your grain and your new wine and your oil. ^15 [cq](KK)He will give grass in your fields for your cattle, and ^(KL)you will eat and be satisfied. ^16 [cr](KM)Beware that your hearts are not deceived, and that you do not turn away and serve other gods and worship them. ¹⁷ Or ^(KN)the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and He will ^(KO)shut up the heavens ^(KP)so that there will be no rain and the ground will not yield its fruit; and ^(KQ)you will perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you.

¹⁸ “^(KR)You shall therefore ^[cs]impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as ^[ct]frontals ^[cu]on your forehead. ^19 (KS)You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up. ^20 (KT)You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, ²¹ so that ^(KU)your days and the days of your sons may be multiplied on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as ^[cv](KV)long as the heavens remain above the earth. ²² For if you are ^(KW)careful to keep all this commandment which I am commanding you to do, ^(KX)to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and ^(KY)hold fast to Him, ²³ then the Lord will ^(KZ)drive out all these nations from before you, and you will ^(LA)dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. ^24 (LB)Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours; ^(LC)your border will be from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as ^[cw]the western sea. ^25 (LD)No man will be able to stand before you; the Lord your God will lay the dread of you and the fear of you on all the land on which you set foot, as He has spoken to you.

²⁶ “^(LE)See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: ²⁷ the ^(LF)blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today; ²⁸ and the ^(LG)curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, ^[cx]by following other gods which you have not known.

²⁹ “It shall come about, when the Lord your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, ^(LH)that you shall place the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. ³⁰ Are they not across the Jordan, west of the way toward the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite ^(LI)Gilgal, beside ^(LJ)the ^[cy]oaks of Moreh? ³¹ For you are about to cross the Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and ^(LK)you shall possess it and live in it, ³² and you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the judgments which I am setting before you today.

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 ^[cz](LL)as long as you live on the ^[da]earth. ² You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess serve their gods, on the ^(LM)high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. ^3 (LN)You shall tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and burn their ^[db]Asherim with fire, and you shall cut down the engraved images of their gods and ^(LO)obliterate their name from that place. ⁴ You shall not act like this toward the Lord your God. ^5 (LP)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, ^(LQ)your tithes, the ^[dc]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 ^(LR)rejoice in all ^[dd]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 ^(LS)the resting place and the ^(LT)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 ^(LU)He gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in security, ^11 (LV)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 ^[de]contribution of your hand, and all your choice votive offerings which you will vow to the Lord. ¹² And you shall ^(LW)rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the ^(LX)Levite who is within your gates, since ^(LY)he has no portion or inheritance with you.

¹³ “^(LZ)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 “^(MA)However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your gates, ^[df]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 ^(MB)the gazelle and the deer. ^16 (MC)Only you shall not eat the blood; ^(MD)you are to pour it out on the ground like water. ^17 (ME)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 ^[dg]contribution of your hand. ¹⁸ But ^(MF)you shall eat them before the Lord your God in ^(MG)the place which the Lord your God will choose, you and your son and daughter, and your male and female servants, and the ^(MH)Levite who is within your gates; and you shall ^(MI)rejoice before the Lord your God in all ^[dh]your undertakings. ^19 (MJ)Be careful that you do not forsake the Levite ^[di]as long as you live in your land.

²⁰ “When the Lord your God extends your border ^(MK)as He has promised you, and you say, ‘I will eat meat,’ because ^[dj]you desire to eat meat, then you may eat meat, ^[dk]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 ^[dl]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 ^(ML)not to eat the blood, for the blood is the ^[dm]life, and you shall not eat the ^[dn]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 ^(MM)it may be well with you and your sons after you, for ^(MN)you will be doing what is right in the sight of the Lord. ^26 (MO)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 ^(MP)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 ^(MQ)you shall eat the flesh.

²⁸ “Be careful to listen to all these words which I command you, so that ^(MR)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 ^(MS)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 ^[do]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 (MT)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 ^(MU)they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.

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

Shun Idolatry

13 “^[dq](MX)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, ‘^(MY)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 ^(MZ)testing you to find out if ^(NA)you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. ^4 (NB)You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and ^(NC)cling to Him. ⁵ But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be ^(ND)put to death, because he has ^[dr]counseled ^[ds]rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of ^[dt]slavery, ^(NE)to seduce you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. ^(NF)So you shall purge the evil from among you.

⁶ “^(NG)If your brother, your mother’s son, or your son or daughter, or the wife ^[du]you cherish, or your friend who is as your own soul, entice you secretly, saying, ‘^(NH)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 (NI)you shall not yield to him or listen to him; ^(NJ)and your eye shall not pity him, nor shall you spare or conceal him. ^9 (NK)But you shall surely kill him; ^(NL)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 ^[dv]to death because he has sought ^(NM)to seduce you from the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of ^[dw]slavery. ¹¹ Then ^(NN)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, ‘^(NO)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 (NP)you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, ^[dx]utterly destroying it and all that is in it and its cattle with the edge of the sword. ^16 (NQ)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 ^[dy](NR)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 ^(NS)His burning anger and ^(NT)show mercy to you, and have compassion on you and ^(NU)make you increase, just ^(NV)as He has sworn to your fathers, ^18 [dz]if you will listen to the voice of the Lord your God, ^[ea]keeping all His commandments which I am commanding you today, ^[eb]and doing what is right in the sight of the Lord your God.

Clean and Unclean Animals

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

³ “^(OA)You shall not eat any detestable thing. ^4 (OB)These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, ^5 [ee]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 ^[ef]two and ^[eg]chews the cud, among the animals, that you may eat. ⁷ Nevertheless, you are not to eat of these among those which ^[eh]chew the cud, or among those that divide the hoof in ^[ei]two: the camel and the ^[ej]rabbit and the ^[ek]shaphan, for though they ^[el]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 ^(OC)these are the ones which you shall not eat: the ^[em]eagle and the vulture and the ^[en]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 ^[eo]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 ^[ep]teeming life with wings are unclean to you; they shall not be eaten. ²⁰ You may eat any clean bird.

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

²² “You ^(OG)shall surely tithe all the produce from ^[er]what you sow, which comes out of the field every year. ²³ You shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God, ^(OH)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 ^(OI)learn to fear the Lord your God always. ²⁴ If the ^[es]distance is so great for you that you are not able to ^[et]bring the tithe, since the place where the Lord your God chooses ^(OJ)to set His name is too far away from you when the Lord your God blesses you, ²⁵ then you shall ^[eu]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 ^[ev]heart desires: for oxen, or sheep, or wine, or strong drink, or whatever your ^[ew]heart ^[ex]desires; and ^(OK)there you shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice, you and your household. ²⁷ Also you shall not neglect ^(OL)the Levite who is in your ^[ey]town, ^(OM)for he has no portion or inheritance among you.

²⁸ “^(ON)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 ^[ez]town. ²⁹ The Levite, ^(OO)because he has no portion or inheritance among you, and ^(OP)the alien, the ^[fa]orphan and the widow who are in your ^[fb]town, shall come and ^(OQ)eat and be satisfied, in order that ^(OR)the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.

The Sabbatic Year

15 “^(OS)At the end of every seven years you shall ^[fc]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 (OT)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 ^(OU)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 (OV)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 ^(OW)a poor man with you, one of your brothers, in any of your ^[fd]towns in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, ^(OX)you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother; ⁸ but ^(OY)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 ^[fe]thought in your heart, saying, ‘^(OZ)The seventh year, the year of remission, is near,’ and ^(PA)your eye is hostile toward your poor brother, and you give him nothing; then he ^(PB)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 ^(PC)for this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all ^[ff]your undertakings. ^11 (PD)For the poor will never cease to be ^[fg]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 “^(PE)If your ^[fh]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 ^[fi]free. ¹³ When you set him ^[fj]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 ^[fk]this today. ¹⁶ It shall come about ^(PF)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 ^[fl]free, for he has given you six years with ^[fm]double the service of a hired man; so the Lord your God will bless you in whatever you do.

¹⁹ “^(PG)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 (PH)You and your household shall eat it every year before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses. ^21 (PI)But if it has any ^[fn]defect, such as lameness or blindness, or any serious ^[fo]defect, you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God. ²² You shall eat it within your gates; ^(PJ)the unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as ^(PK)a gazelle or a deer. ²³ Only ^(PL)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 ^(PM)the month of Abib and ^[fp](PN)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 (PO)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 ^(PP)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 ^(PQ)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 ^[fq]towns which the Lord your God is giving you; ⁶ but ^(PR)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 ^(PS)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 ^(PT)on the seventh day there shall be ^(PU)a solemn assembly to the Lord your God; you shall do no work on it.

⁹ “^(PV)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 ^[fr]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 ^(PW)rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter and your male and female servants and ^(PX)the Levite who is in your ^[fs]town, and ^(PY)the stranger and the ^[ft]orphan and the widow who are in your midst, in the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish His name. ^12 (PZ)You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.

¹³ “^(QA)You shall ^[fu]celebrate the Feast of Booths seven days after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and your wine vat; ¹⁴ and you shall ^(QB)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 ^[fv]orphan and the widow who are in your ^[fw]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 “^(QC)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 ^(QD)they shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed. ¹⁷ Every man ^[fx]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 ^[fy]towns which the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. ^19 (QE)You shall not distort justice; ^(QF)you shall not ^[fz]be partial, and ^(QG)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 ^(QH)you may live and possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

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

Administration of Justice

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

² “^(QL)If there is found in your midst, in any of your ^[gc]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 ^(QM)served other gods and worshiped them, ^(QN)or the sun or the moon or any of the heavenly host, ^(QO)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 ^(QP)you shall stone them to ^[gd]death. ^6 (QQ)On the ^[ge]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 ^[gf]evidence of one witness. ^7 (QR)The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. ^(QS)So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

⁸ “^(QT)If any case is too difficult for you to decide, between ^[gg]one kind of homicide or another, between ^[gh]one kind of lawsuit or another, and between ^[gi]one kind of assault or another, being cases of dispute in your ^[gj]courts, then you shall arise and go up to ^(QU)the place which the Lord your God chooses. ⁹ So you shall come to ^(QV)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 ^[gk]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 (QW)According to the ^[gl]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 ^(QX)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 ^(QY)presumptuously again.

¹⁴ “When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, and you ^(QZ)possess it and live in it, and you say, ‘^(RA)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 ^(RB)from among your ^[gm]countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your ^[gn]countryman. ^16 (RC)Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he ^(RD)cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since ^(RE)the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’ ^17 (RF)He shall not multiply wives for himself, ^[go]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 ^[gp](RG)in the presence of the Levitical priests. ¹⁹ It shall be with him and he shall read it ^(RH)all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, ^[gq]by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, ²⁰ that his heart may not be lifted up above his ^[gr]countrymen ^(RI)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 “^(RJ)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 ^[gs]portion. ^2 (RK)They shall have no inheritance among their ^[gt]countrymen; the Lord is their inheritance, as He ^[gu]promised them.

³ “^(RL)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 ^(RM)first fruits of your grain, your new wine, and your oil, and the first shearing of your sheep. ^5 (RN)For the Lord your God has chosen him and his sons from all your tribes, to ^(RO)stand ^[gv]and serve in the name of the Lord forever.

⁶ “Now if a Levite comes from any of your ^[gw]towns throughout Israel where he ^(RP)resides, and comes ^[gx]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 (RQ)They shall eat ^[gy]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 ^[gz](RR)imitate the detestable things of those nations. ¹⁰ There shall not be found among you anyone ^(RS)who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one ^(RT)who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, ¹¹ or one who casts a spell, ^(RU)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 ^(RV)because of these detestable things the Lord your God will drive them out before you. ^13 (RW)You shall be ^[ha]blameless before the Lord your God. ¹⁴ For those nations, which you shall dispossess, listen to those who ^(RX)practice witchcraft and to diviners, but as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do so.

¹⁵ “^(RY)The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your ^[hb]countrymen, you shall listen to him. ¹⁶ This is ^(RZ)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 (SA)The Lord said to me, ‘They have ^[hc]spoken well. ¹⁸ I will raise up a prophet from among their ^[hd]countrymen like you, and ^(SB)I will put My words in his mouth, and ^(SC)he shall speak to them all that I command him. ^19 (SD)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 ^(SE)presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or ^(SF)which he speaks in the name of other gods, ^[he]that prophet shall die.’ ^21 [hf]You may say in your heart, ‘How will we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’ ^22 (SG)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 ^(SH)presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

Cities of Refuge

19 “^(SI)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 (SJ)you shall set aside three cities for yourself in the midst of your land, which the Lord your God gives you to ^[hg]possess. ³ You shall prepare the ^[hh]roads for yourself, and divide into three parts the territory of your land which the Lord your God will give you as a possession, ^[hi]so that any manslayer may flee there.

⁴ “^(SK)Now this is the case of the manslayer who may flee there and live: when he ^[hj]kills his friend ^[hk]unintentionally, ^[hl]not hating him previously— ⁵ as when a man goes into the forest with his friend to cut wood, and his hand ^[hm]swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron head slips off the ^[hn]handle and ^[ho]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 ^[hp]in the heat of his anger, and overtake him, because the way is long, and ^[hq]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 ^(SL)enlarges your territory, just as He has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land which He ^[hr]promised to give your fathers— ⁹ if you ^[hs]carefully observe all this commandment which I command you today, ^(SM)to love the Lord your God, and to walk in His ways always—^(SN)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 ^(SO)bloodguiltiness be on you.

¹¹ “But ^(SP)if there is a man who hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and rises up against him and strikes ^[ht]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 [hu](SQ)You shall not pity him, but ^(SR)you shall purge the blood of the innocent from Israel, that it may go well with you.

Laws of Landmark and Testimony

¹⁴ “^(SS)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 ^[hv]possess.

¹⁵ “^(ST)A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin ^[hw]which he has committed; on the ^[hx]evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed. ^16 (SU)If a malicious witness rises up against a man to ^[hy]accuse him of ^[hz]wrongdoing, ¹⁷ then both the men who have the dispute shall stand ^(SV)before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days. ¹⁸ The judges ^(SW)shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has ^[ia]accused his brother falsely, ¹⁹ then ^(SX)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 (SY)The rest will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such an evil thing among you. ²¹ Thus ^[ib](SZ)you shall not show pity: ^(TA)life for life, ^(TB)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 ^(TC)horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, ^(TD)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. ^(TE)Do not be afraid, or panic, or tremble before them, ⁴ for the Lord your God ^(TF)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 ^(TG)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 ^[ic]begun to use its fruit? Let him depart and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man ^[id]would begin to use its fruit. ^7 (TH)And who is the man that is engaged to a woman and has not ^[ie]married her? Let him depart and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man ^[if]would marry her.’ ⁸ Then the officers shall speak further to the people and say, ‘^(TI)Who is the man that is afraid and fainthearted? Let him depart and return to his house, so that ^[ig]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 ^[ih]offer it terms of peace. ¹¹ If it ^[ii]agrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your ^(TJ)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, ^(TK)you shall strike all the ^[ij]men in it with the edge of the sword. ¹⁴ Only the women and the children and ^(TL)the animals and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as booty for yourself; and you shall ^[ik]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 ^[il]nearby. ^16 (TM)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 ^[im]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 ^(TN)according to all their detestable things which they have done for their gods, so that you would ^(TO)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. ^[in]For is the tree of the field a man, that it should ^[io]be besieged by you? ²⁰ Only the trees which you know ^[ip]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 ^[iq]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 ^(TP)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 ^[ir]assault ^[is]shall be settled by them. ⁶ All the elders of that city ^[it]which is nearest to the slain man shall ^(TQ)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 [iu]Forgive Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, O Lord, and do not place the guilt of ^(TR)innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.’ And the bloodguiltiness shall be ^[iv]forgiven them. ^9 (TS)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 ^(TT)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 ^(TU)shave her head and ^[iw]trim her nails. ¹³ She shall also ^[ix]remove the clothes of her captivity and shall remain in your house, and ^(TV)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 ^[iy]wherever she wishes; but you shall certainly not sell her for money, you shall not ^[iz]mistreat her, because you have ^(TW)humbled her.

¹⁵ “If a man has two wives, the one loved and ^(TX)the other ^[ja]unloved, and both the loved and the ^[jb]unloved have borne him sons, if the firstborn son belongs to the ^[jc]unloved, ¹⁶ then it shall be in the day he ^[jd]wills what he has to his sons, he cannot make the son of the loved the firstborn before the son of the ^[je]unloved, who is the firstborn. ¹⁷ But he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the ^[jf]unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that ^[jg]he has, for he is the ^(TY)beginning of his strength; ^(TZ)to him belongs the right of the firstborn.

¹⁸ “If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will ^(UA)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 ^[jh]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 (UB)Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so ^(UC)you shall remove the evil from your midst, and ^(UD)all Israel will hear of it and fear.

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

Sundry Laws

22 “^(UI)You shall not see your ^[jj]countryman’s ox or his sheep straying away, and ^[jk]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 ^[jl]neglect them. ⁴ You shall not see your countryman’s donkey or his ox fallen down on the way, and ^[jm]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, ^(UJ)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, ^(UK)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 “^(UL)You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, or ^[jn]all the produce of the seed which you have sown and the increase of the vineyard will become defiled.

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

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

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

Laws on Morality

¹³ “^(UP)If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then ^[jo]turns against her, ¹⁴ and charges her with shameful deeds and ^[jp]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 ^[jq]turned against her; ¹⁷ and behold, he has charged her with shameful deeds, saying, “I did not find your daughter a virgin.” But ^[jr]this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the garment before the elders of the city. ¹⁸ So ^(UQ)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 ^[js]publicly defamed a virgin of Israel. And she shall remain his wife; he cannot ^[jt]divorce her all his days.

²⁰ “But if this ^[ju](UR)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 ^[jv]to death because she has ^(US)committed an act of folly in Israel by playing the harlot in her father’s house; thus ^(UT)you shall purge the evil from among you.

²² “^(UU)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 “^(UV)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 ^[jw]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 “^(UW)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 “^[jx](UX)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 “^(UY)No one who is ^[jy]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 (UZ)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 (VA)because they did not meet you with ^[jz]food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you ^(VB)Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of ^[ka]Mesopotamia, to curse you.