4 Then Jesus, full of and controlled by the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led in [by] the [Holy] Spirit

² For (during) forty days in the wilderness (desert), where He was tempted (^[a]tried, tested exceedingly) by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they were completed, He was hungry.^(A)

³ Then the devil said to Him, If You are the Son of God, order this stone to turn into a loaf [of bread].

⁴ And Jesus replied to him, It is written, Man shall not live and be sustained by (on) bread alone ^[b]but by every word and expression of God.^(B)

⁵ Then the devil took Him up to a high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the habitable world in a moment of time [^[c]in the twinkling of an eye].

⁶ And he said to Him, To You I will give all this power and authority and their glory (all their magnificence, excellence, preeminence, dignity, and grace), for it has been turned over to me, and I give it to whomever I will.

⁷ Therefore if You will do homage to and worship me [^[d]just once], it shall all be Yours.

⁸ And Jesus replied to him, ^[e]Get behind Me, Satan! It is written, You shall do homage to and worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.^(C)

⁹ Then he took Him to Jerusalem and set Him on ^[f]a gable of the temple, and said to Him, If You are the Son of God, cast Yourself down from here;

¹⁰ For it is written, He will give His angels charge over you to guard and watch over you closely and carefully;

¹¹ And on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.^(D)

¹² And Jesus replied to him, [The Scripture] says, You shall not tempt (try, ^[g]test exceedingly) the Lord your God.^(E)

¹³ And when the devil had ended every [the complete cycle of] temptation, he [temporarily] left Him [that is, ^[h]stood off from Him] until another more opportune and favorable time.

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18 The Levitical priests and all the tribe of Levi shall have no part or inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the offerings made by fire to the Lord, and His rightful dues.

² They shall have no inheritance among their brethren; the Lord is their inheritance, as He promised them.

³ And this shall be the priest’s due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach.

⁴ The firstfruits of your grain, of your new wine, and of your oil, and the first or best of the fleece of your sheep you shall give the priest.

⁵ For the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand to minister in the name [and presence] of the Lord, him and his sons forever.

⁶ And if a Levite comes from any of your towns out of all Israel where he is a temporary resident, he may come whenever he desires to [the sanctuary] the place the Lord will choose;

⁷ Then he may minister in the name [and presence of] the Lord his God like all his brethren the Levites who stand to minister there before the Lord.

⁸ They shall have equal portions to eat, besides what may come of the sale of his patrimony.^(A)

⁹ When you come into the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of these nations.

¹⁰ There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, or who uses divination, or is a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer,

¹¹ Or a charmer, or a medium, or a wizard, or a necromancer.

¹² For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and it is because of these abominable practices that the Lord your God is driving them out before you.

¹³ You shall be blameless [and absolutely true] to the Lord your God.

¹⁴ For these nations whom you shall dispossess listen to soothsayers and diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do so.

¹⁵ The Lord your God will raise up for you ^[a]a prophet (Prophet) from the midst of your brethren like me [Moses]; to him you shall listen.^(B)

¹⁶ This is what you desired [and asked] of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.

¹⁷ And the Lord said to me, They have well said all that they have spoken.

¹⁸ I will raise up for them a prophet (Prophet) from among their brethren like you, and will put My words in his mouth; and he shall speak to them all that I command him.

¹⁹ And whoever will not hearken to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him.

²⁰ But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.

²¹ And if you say in your [minds and] hearts, How shall we know which words the Lord has not spoken?

²² When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or prove true, that is a word which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

19 When the Lord your God has cut off the nations whose land the Lord your God gives you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses,

² You shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the land which the Lord your God gives you to possess.

³ You shall prepare the road and divide into three parts the territory of your land which the Lord your God gives you to possess, so that any manslayer can flee to them.

⁴ And this is the case of the slayer who shall flee there in order that he may live. Whoever kills his neighbor unintentionally, for whom he had no enmity in time past—

⁵ As when a man goes into the wood with his neighbor to hew wood, and his hand strikes with the ax to cut down the tree, and the head slips off the handle and lights on his neighbor and kills him—he may flee to one of those cities and live;

⁶ Lest the avenger of the blood pursue the slayer while his [mind and] heart are hot with anger and overtake him, because the way is long, and slay him even though the slayer was not worthy of death, since he had not been at enmity with him previously.

⁷ Therefore I command you, You shall set apart three [refuge] cities.

⁸ And if the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as He has sworn to your fathers to do, and gives you all the land which He promised to your fathers to give,

⁹ If you keep all these commandments to do them, which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God and to walk always in His ways, then you shall add three other cities to these three,

¹⁰ Lest innocent blood be shed in your land, which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, and so blood guilt be upon you.

¹¹ But if any man hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him, and attacks him and wounds him mortally so that he dies, and the assailant flees into one of these cities,

¹² Then the elders of his own city shall send for him and fetch him from there and give him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die.

¹³ Your eyes shall not pity him, but you shall clear Israel of the guilt of innocent blood, that it may go well with you.

¹⁴ You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark in the land which the Lord your God gives you to possess, which the men of old [the first dividers of the land] set.

¹⁵ One witness shall not prevail against a man for any crime or any wrong in connection with any sin he commits; only on the testimony of two or three witnesses shall a charge be established.

¹⁶ If a false witness rises up against any man to accuse him of wrongdoing,

¹⁷ Then both parties to the controversy shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days.

¹⁸ The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely,

¹⁹ Then you shall do to him as he had intended to do to his brother. So you shall put away the evil from among you.

²⁰ And those who remain shall hear and [reverently] fear, and shall henceforth commit no such evil among you.

²¹ Your eyes shall not pity: it shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

20 When you go forth to battle against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than your own, do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, is with you.

² And when you come near to the battle, the priest shall approach and speak to the men,

³ And shall say to them, Hear, O Israel, you draw near this day to battle against your enemies. Let not your [minds and] hearts faint; fear not, and do not tremble or be terrified [and in dread] because of them.

⁴ For the Lord your God is He Who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to save you.^(C)

⁵ And the officers shall speak to the people, saying, What man is there who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it.

⁶ And what man has planted a vineyard and has not used the fruit of it? Let him also return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man use the fruit of it.

⁷ And what man has betrothed a wife and has not taken her? Let him return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her.

⁸ And the officers shall speak further to the people, and say, What man is fearful and fainthearted? Let him return to his house, lest [because of him] his brethren’s [minds and] hearts faint as does his own.

⁹ And when the officers finish speaking to the people, they shall appoint commanders at the head of the people.

¹⁰ When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace to it.

¹¹ And if that city makes an answer of peace to you and opens to you, then all the people found in it shall be tributary to you and they shall serve you.

¹² But if it refuses to make peace with you and fights against you, then you shall besiege it.

¹³ And when the Lord your God has given it into your hands, you shall smite every male there with the edge of the sword.

¹⁴ But the women, the little ones, the beasts, and all that is in the city, all the spoil in it, you shall take for yourselves; and you shall use the spoil of your enemies which the Lord your God has given you.

¹⁵ So shall you treat all the cities that are very far off from you, that do not belong to the cities of these nations.

¹⁶ But in the cities of these people which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes.

¹⁷ But you shall utterly exterminate them, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded you,

¹⁸ So that they may not teach you all the abominable practices they have carried on for their gods, and so cause you to sin against the Lord your God.

¹⁹ When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by using an ax on them, for you can eat their fruit; you must not cut them down, for is the tree of the field a man, that it should be besieged by you?

²⁰ Only the trees which you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, that you may build siege works against the city that makes war with you until it falls.

21 If one is found slain in the land which the Lord your God gives you to possess, lying in the field, and it is not known who has killed him,

² Then your elders and judges shall come forth and measure the distance to the cities around him who is slain.

³ And the city which is nearest to the slain man, the elders of that city shall take a heifer which has never been worked, never pulled in the yoke,

⁴ And the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley.

⁵ And the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for the Lord your God has chosen them to minister to Him and to bless in the name [and presence] of the Lord, and by their word shall every controversy and every assault be settled.

⁶ And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley,

⁷ And they shall testify, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.

⁸ Forgive, O Lord, Your people Israel, whom You have redeemed, and do not allow the shedding of innocent blood to be charged to Your people Israel. And the guilt of blood shall be forgiven them.

⁹ So shall you purge the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.

¹⁰ When you go forth to battle against your enemies and the Lord your God has given them into your hands and you carry them away captive,

¹¹ And you see among the captives a beautiful woman and desire her, that you may have her as your wife,

¹² Then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head and pare her nails [in purification from heathenism]

¹³ And put off her prisoner’s garb, and shall remain in your house and bewail her father and her mother a full month. After that you may go in to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife.

¹⁴ And if you have no delight in her, then you shall let her go absolutely free. You shall not sell her at all for money; you shall not deal with her as a slave or a servant, because you have humbled her.

¹⁵ If a man has two wives, one loved and the other disliked, and they both have borne him children, and if the firstborn son is the son of the one who is disliked,

¹⁶ Then on the day when he wills his possessions to his sons, he shall not put the firstborn of his loved wife in place of the [actual] firstborn of the disliked wife—her firstborn being older.

¹⁷ But he shall acknowledge the son of the disliked as the firstborn by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he was the first issue of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.

¹⁸ If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or his mother and though they chasten him will not listen to them,

¹⁹ Then his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives,

²⁰ And they shall say to the elders of his city, This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard.^(D)

²¹ Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so you shall cleanse out the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear and [reverently] fear.

²² And if a man has committed a sin worthy of death and he is put to death and [afterward] you hang him on a tree,^(E)

²³ His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day, for a hanged man is accursed by God. Thus you shall not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance.^(F)