Vengeance on the Midianites

31 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ^2 (A)“Take vengeance on the Midianites for the children of Israel. Afterward you shall ^(B)be gathered to your people.”

³ So Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Arm some of yourselves for war, and let them go against the Midianites to take vengeance for the Lord on ^(C)Midian. ⁴ A thousand from each tribe of all the tribes of Israel you shall send to the war.”

⁵ So there were recruited from the divisions of Israel one thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand armed for war. ⁶ Then Moses sent them to the war, one thousand from each tribe; he sent them to the war with Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, with the holy articles and ^(D)the signal trumpets in his hand. ⁷ And they warred against the Midianites, just as the Lord commanded Moses, and ^(E)they killed all the ^(F)males. ⁸ They killed the kings of Midian with the rest of those who were killed—^(G)Evi, Rekem, ^(H)Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. ^(I)Balaam the son of Beor they also killed with the sword.

⁹ And the children of Israel took the women of Midian captive, with their little ones, and took as spoil all their cattle, all their flocks, and all their goods. ¹⁰ They also burned with fire all the cities where they dwelt, and all their forts. ¹¹ And ^(J)they took all the spoil and all the booty—of man and beast.

Return from the War

¹² Then they brought the captives, the booty, and the spoil to Moses, to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of the children of Israel, to the camp in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho. ¹³ And Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the leaders of the congregation, went to meet them outside the camp. ¹⁴ But Moses was angry with the officers of the army, with the captains over thousands and captains over hundreds, who had come from the battle.

¹⁵ And Moses said to them: “Have you kept ^(K)all the women alive? ¹⁶ Look, ^(L)these women caused the children of Israel, through the ^(M)counsel of Balaam, to trespass against the Lord in the incident of Peor, and ^(N)there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord. ¹⁷ Now therefore, ^(O)kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known a man intimately. ¹⁸ But keep alive ^(P)for yourselves all the young girls who have not known a man intimately. ¹⁹ And as for you, ^(Q)remain outside the camp seven days; whoever has killed any person, and ^(R)whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves and your captives on the third day and on the seventh day. ²⁰ Purify every garment, everything made of leather, everything woven of goats’ hair, and everything made of wood.”

²¹ Then Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who had gone to the battle, “This is the ^[a]ordinance of the law which the Lord commanded Moses: ²² Only the gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead, ²³ everything that can endure fire, you shall put through the fire, and it shall be clean; and it shall be purified ^(S)with the water of purification. But all that cannot endure fire you shall put through water. ^24 (T)And you shall wash your clothes on the seventh day and be clean, and afterward you may come into the camp.”

Division of the Plunder

²⁵ Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ²⁶ “Count up the plunder that was ^[b]taken—of man and beast—you and Eleazar the priest and the chief fathers of the congregation; ²⁷ and ^(U)divide the plunder into two parts, between those who took part in the war, who went out to battle, and all the congregation. ²⁸ And levy a ^[c]tribute for the Lord on the men of war who went out to battle: ^(V)one of every five hundred of the persons, the cattle, the donkeys, and the sheep; ²⁹ take it from their half, and ^(W)give it to Eleazar the priest as a heave offering to the Lord. ³⁰ And from the children of Israel’s half you shall take ^(X)one of every fifty, drawn from the persons, the cattle, the donkeys, and the sheep, from all the livestock, and give them to the Levites ^(Y)who ^[d]keep charge of the tabernacle of the Lord.” ³¹ So Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the Lord commanded Moses.

³² The booty remaining from the plunder, which the men of war had taken, was six hundred and seventy-five thousand sheep, ³³ seventy-two thousand cattle, ³⁴ sixty-one thousand donkeys, ³⁵ and thirty-two thousand persons in all, of women who had not known a man intimately. ³⁶ And the half, the portion for those who had gone out to war, was in number three hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep; ³⁷ and the Lord’s ^[e]tribute of the sheep was six hundred and seventy-five. ³⁸ The cattle were thirty-six thousand, of which the Lord’s tribute was seventy-two. ³⁹ The donkeys were thirty thousand five hundred, of which the Lord’s tribute was sixty-one. ⁴⁰ The persons were sixteen thousand, of which the Lord’s tribute was thirty-two persons. ⁴¹ So Moses gave the tribute which was the Lord’s heave offering to Eleazar the priest, ^(Z)as the Lord commanded Moses.

⁴² And from the children of Israel’s half, which Moses separated from the men who fought— ⁴³ now the half belonging to the congregation was three hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep, ⁴⁴ thirty-six thousand cattle, ⁴⁵ thirty thousand five hundred donkeys, ⁴⁶ and sixteen thousand persons— ⁴⁷ and ^(AA)from the children of Israel’s half Moses took one of every fifty, drawn from man and beast, and gave them to the Levites, who kept charge of the tabernacle of the Lord, as the Lord commanded Moses.

⁴⁸ Then the officers who were over thousands of the army, the captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, came near to Moses; ⁴⁹ and they said to Moses, “Your servants have taken a count of the men of war who are under our command, and not a man of us is missing. ⁵⁰ Therefore we have brought an offering for the Lord, what every man found of ornaments of gold: armlets and bracelets and signet rings and earrings and necklaces, ^(AB)to make ^[f]atonement for ourselves before the Lord.” ⁵¹ So Moses and Eleazar the priest received the gold from them, all the fashioned ornaments. ⁵² And all the gold of the offering that they offered to the Lord, from the captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, was sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels. ^53 (AC)(The men of war had taken spoil, every man for himself.) ⁵⁴ And Moses and Eleazar the priest received the gold from the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and brought it into the tabernacle of meeting ^(AD)as a memorial for the children of Israel before the Lord.

The Tribes Settling East of the Jordan^(AE)

32 Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of livestock; and when they saw the land of ^(AF)Jazer and the land of ^(AG)Gilead, that indeed the region was a place for livestock, ² the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spoke to Moses, to Eleazar the priest, and to the leaders of the congregation, saying, ³ “Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, ^(AH)Nimrah, ^(AI)Heshbon, Elealeh, ^(AJ)Shebam, Nebo, and ^(AK)Beon, ⁴ the country ^(AL)which the Lord defeated before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.” ⁵ Therefore they said, “If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants as a possession. Do not take us over the Jordan.”

⁶ And Moses said to the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben: “Shall your brethren go to war while you sit here? ⁷ Now why will you ^(AM)discourage the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the Lord has given them? ⁸ Thus your fathers did ^(AN)when I sent them away from Kadesh Barnea ^(AO)to see the land. ⁹ For ^(AP)when they went up to the Valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, so that they did not go into the land which the Lord had given them. ^10 (AQ)So the Lord’s anger was aroused on that day, and He swore an oath, saying, ¹¹ ‘Surely none of the men who came up from Egypt, ^(AR)from twenty years old and above, shall see the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because ^(AS)they have not wholly followed Me, ¹² except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun, ^(AT)for they have wholly followed the Lord.’ ¹³ So the Lord’s anger was aroused against Israel, and He made them ^(AU)wander in the wilderness forty years, until ^(AV)all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was gone. ¹⁴ And look! You have risen in your fathers’ place, a brood of sinful men, to increase still more the ^(AW)fierce anger of the Lord against Israel. ¹⁵ For if you ^(AX)turn away from following Him, He will once again leave them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all these people.”

¹⁶ Then they came near to him and said: “We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock, and cities for our little ones, ¹⁷ but ^(AY)we ourselves will be armed, ready to go before the children of Israel until we have brought them to their place; and our little ones will dwell in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land. ^18 (AZ)We will not return to our homes until every one of the children of Israel has ^[g]received his inheritance. ¹⁹ For we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond, ^(BA)because our inheritance has fallen to us on this eastern side of the Jordan.”

²⁰ Then ^(BB)Moses said to them: “If you do this thing, if you arm yourselves before the Lord for the war, ²¹ and all your armed men cross over the Jordan before the Lord until He has driven out His enemies from before Him, ²² and ^(BC)the land is subdued before the Lord, then afterward ^(BD)you may return and be blameless before the Lord and before Israel; and ^(BE)this land shall be your possession before the Lord. ²³ But if you do not do so, then take note, you have sinned against the Lord; and be sure ^(BF)your sin will find you out. ^24 (BG)Build cities for your little ones and folds for your sheep, and do ^[h]what has proceeded out of your mouth.”

²⁵ And the children of Gad and the children of Reuben spoke to Moses, saying: “Your servants will do as my lord commands. ^26 (BH)Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, and all our livestock will be there in the cities of Gilead; ^27 (BI)but your servants will cross over, every man armed for war, before the Lord to battle, just as my lord says.”

²⁸ So Moses gave command ^(BJ)concerning them to Eleazar the priest, to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the chief fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel. ²⁹ And Moses said to them: “If the children of Gad and the children of Reuben cross over the Jordan with you, every man armed for battle before the Lord, and the land is subdued before you, then you shall give them the land of Gilead as a possession. ³⁰ But if they do not cross over armed with you, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan.”

³¹ Then the children of Gad and the children of Reuben answered, saying: “As the Lord has said to your servants, so we will do. ³² We will cross over armed before the Lord into the land of Canaan, but the possession of our inheritance shall remain with us on this side of the Jordan.”

³³ So ^(BK)Moses gave to the children of Gad, to the children of Reuben, and to half the tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, ^(BL)the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land with its cities within the borders, the cities of the surrounding country. ³⁴ And the children of Gad built ^(BM)Dibon and Ataroth and ^(BN)Aroer, ³⁵ Atroth and Shophan and ^(BO)Jazer and Jogbehah, ^36 (BP)Beth Nimrah and Beth Haran, ^(BQ)fortified cities, and folds for sheep. ³⁷ And the children of Reuben built ^(BR)Heshbon and Elealeh and Kirjathaim, ^38 (BS)Nebo and ^(BT)Baal Meon ^(BU)(their names being changed) and Shibmah; and they gave other names to the cities which they built.

³⁹ And the children of ^(BV)Machir the son of Manasseh went to Gilead and took it, and ^[i]dispossessed the Amorites who were in it. ⁴⁰ So Moses ^(BW)gave Gilead to Machir the son of Manasseh, and he dwelt in it. ⁴¹ Also ^(BX)Jair the son of Manasseh went and took its small towns, and called them ^(BY)Havoth Jair.^{[j] 42} Then Nobah went and took Kenath and its villages, and he called it Nobah, after his own name.

Israel’s Journey from Egypt Reviewed

33 These are the journeys of the children of Israel, who went out of the land of Egypt by their armies under the ^(BZ)hand of Moses and Aaron. ² Now Moses wrote down the starting points of their journeys at the command of the Lord. And these are their journeys according to their starting points:

³ They ^(CA)departed from Rameses in ^(CB)the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the day after the Passover the children of Israel went out ^(CC)with boldness in the sight of all the Egyptians. ⁴ For the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn, ^(CD)whom the Lord had killed among them. Also ^(CE)on their gods the Lord had executed judgments.

^5 (CF)Then the children of Israel moved from Rameses and camped at Succoth. ⁶ They departed from ^(CG)Succoth and camped at Etham, which is on the edge of the wilderness. ^7 (CH)They moved from Etham and turned back to Pi Hahiroth, which is east of Baal Zephon; and they camped near Migdol. ⁸ They departed ^[k]from before Hahiroth and ^(CI)passed through the midst of the sea into the wilderness, went three days’ journey in the Wilderness of Etham, and camped at Marah. ⁹ They moved from Marah and ^(CJ)came to Elim. At Elim were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees; so they camped there.

¹⁰ They moved from Elim and camped by the Red Sea. ¹¹ They moved from the Red Sea and camped in the ^(CK)Wilderness of Sin. ¹² They journeyed from the Wilderness of Sin and camped at Dophkah. ¹³ They departed from Dophkah and camped at Alush. ¹⁴ They moved from Alush and camped at ^(CL)Rephidim, where there was no water for the people to drink.

¹⁵ They departed from Rephidim and camped in the ^(CM)Wilderness of Sinai. ¹⁶ They moved from the Wilderness of Sinai and camped ^(CN)at ^[l]Kibroth Hattaavah. ¹⁷ They departed from Kibroth Hattaavah and ^(CO)camped at Hazeroth. ¹⁸ They departed from Hazeroth and camped at ^(CP)Rithmah. ¹⁹ They departed from Rithmah and camped at Rimmon Perez. ²⁰ They departed from Rimmon Perez and camped at Libnah. ²¹ They moved from Libnah and camped at Rissah. ²² They journeyed from Rissah and camped at Kehelathah. ²³ They went from Kehelathah and camped at Mount Shepher. ²⁴ They moved from Mount Shepher and camped at Haradah. ²⁵ They moved from Haradah and camped at Makheloth. ²⁶ They moved from Makheloth and camped at Tahath. ²⁷ They departed from Tahath and camped at Terah. ²⁸ They moved from Terah and camped at Mithkah. ²⁹ They went from Mithkah and camped at Hashmonah. ³⁰ They departed from Hashmonah and ^(CQ)camped at Moseroth. ³¹ They departed from Moseroth and camped at Bene Jaakan. ³² They moved from ^(CR)Bene Jaakan and ^(CS)camped at Hor Hagidgad. ³³ They went from Hor Hagidgad and camped at Jotbathah. ³⁴ They moved from Jotbathah and camped at Abronah. ³⁵ They departed from Abronah ^(CT)and camped at Ezion Geber. ³⁶ They moved from Ezion Geber and camped in the ^(CU)Wilderness of Zin, which is Kadesh. ³⁷ They moved from ^(CV)Kadesh and camped at Mount Hor, on the boundary of the land of Edom.

³⁸ Then ^(CW)Aaron the priest went up to Mount Hor at the command of the Lord, and died there in the fortieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, on the first day of the fifth month. ³⁹ Aaron was one hundred and twenty-three years old when he died on Mount Hor.

⁴⁰ Now ^(CX)the king of Arad, the Canaanite, who dwelt in the South in the land of Canaan, heard of the coming of the children of Israel.

⁴¹ So they departed from Mount Hor and camped at Zalmonah. ⁴² They departed from Zalmonah and camped at Punon. ⁴³ They departed from Punon and ^(CY)camped at Oboth. ^44 (CZ)They departed from Oboth and camped at Ije Abarim, at the border of Moab. ⁴⁵ They departed from ^[m]Ijim and camped ^(DA)at Dibon Gad. ⁴⁶ They moved from Dibon Gad and camped at ^(DB)Almon Diblathaim. ⁴⁷ They moved from Almon Diblathaim ^(DC)and camped in the mountains of Abarim, before Nebo. ⁴⁸ They departed from the mountains of Abarim and ^(DD)camped in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho. ⁴⁹ They camped by the Jordan, from Beth Jesimoth as far as the ^(DE)Abel Acacia Grove^[n] in the plains of Moab.

Instructions for the Conquest of Canaan

⁵⁰ Now the Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho, saying, ⁵¹ “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ^(DF)‘When you have crossed the Jordan into the land of Canaan, ^52 (DG)then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their engraved stones, destroy all their molded images, and demolish all their ^[o]high places; ⁵³ you shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land and dwell in it, for I have given you the land to ^(DH)possess. ⁵⁴ And ^(DI)you shall divide the land by lot as an inheritance among your families; to the larger you shall give a larger inheritance, and to the smaller you shall give a smaller inheritance; there everyone’s inheritance shall be whatever falls to him by lot. You shall inherit according to the tribes of your fathers. ⁵⁵ But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall be that those whom you let remain shall be ^(DJ)irritants in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land where you dwell. ⁵⁶ Moreover it shall be that I will do to you as I thought to do to them.’ ”

The Appointed Boundaries of Canaan

34 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Command the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into ^(DK)the land of Canaan, this is the land that shall fall to you as an inheritance—the land of Canaan to its boundaries. ^3 (DL)Your southern border shall be from the Wilderness of Zin along the border of Edom; then your southern border shall extend eastward to the end of ^(DM)the Salt Sea; ⁴ your border shall turn from the southern side of ^(DN)the Ascent of Akrabbim, continue to Zin, and be on the south of ^(DO)Kadesh Barnea; then it shall go on to ^(DP)Hazar Addar, and continue to Azmon; ⁵ the border shall turn from Azmon ^(DQ)to the Brook of Egypt, and it shall end at the Sea.

⁶ ‘As for the ^(DR)western border, you shall have the Great Sea for a border; this shall be your western border.

⁷ ‘And this shall be your northern border: From the Great Sea you shall mark out your border line to ^(DS)Mount Hor; ⁸ from Mount Hor you shall mark out your border ^(DT)to the entrance of Hamath; then the direction of the border shall be toward ^(DU)Zedad; ⁹ the border shall proceed to Ziphron, and it shall end at ^(DV)Hazar Enan. This shall be your northern border.

¹⁰ ‘You shall mark out your eastern border from Hazar Enan to Shepham; ¹¹ the border shall go down from Shepham ^(DW)to Riblah on the east side of Ain; the border shall go down and reach to the eastern ^[p]side of the Sea ^(DX)of Chinnereth; ¹² the border shall go down along the Jordan, and it shall end at ^(DY)the Salt Sea. This shall be your land with its surrounding boundaries.’ ”

¹³ Then Moses commanded the children of Israel, saying: ^(DZ)“This is the land which you shall inherit by lot, which the Lord has commanded to give to the nine tribes and to the half-tribe. ^14 (EA)For the tribe of the children of Reuben according to the house of their fathers, and the tribe of the children of Gad according to the house of their fathers, have received their inheritance; and the half-tribe of Manasseh has received its inheritance. ¹⁵ The two tribes and the half-tribe have received their inheritance on this side of the Jordan, across from Jericho eastward, toward the sunrise.”

The Leaders Appointed to Divide the Land

¹⁶ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁷ “These are the names of the men who shall divide the land among you as an inheritance: ^(EB)Eleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun. ¹⁸ And you shall take one ^(EC)leader of every tribe to divide the land for the inheritance. ¹⁹ These are the names of the men: from the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh; ²⁰ from the tribe of the children of Simeon, Shemuel the son of Ammihud; ²¹ from the tribe of Benjamin, Elidad the son of Chislon; ²² a leader from the tribe of the children of Dan, Bukki the son of Jogli; ²³ from the sons of Joseph: a leader from the tribe of the children of Manasseh, Hanniel the son of Ephod, ²⁴ and a leader from the tribe of the children of Ephraim, Kemuel the son of Shiphtan; ²⁵ a leader from the tribe of the children of Zebulun, Elizaphan the son of Parnach; ²⁶ a leader from the tribe of the children of Issachar, Paltiel the son of Azzan; ²⁷ a leader from the tribe of the children of Asher, Ahihud the son of Shelomi; ²⁸ and a leader from the tribe of the children of Naphtali, Pedahel the son of Ammihud.”

²⁹ These are the ones the Lord commanded to ^[q]divide the inheritance among the children of Israel in the land of Canaan.

Cities for the Levites

35 And the Lord spoke to Moses in ^(ED)the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho, saying: ^2 (EE)“Command the children of Israel that they give the Levites cities to dwell in from the inheritance of their possession, and you shall also give the Levites ^(EF)common-land around the cities. ³ They shall have the cities to dwell in; and their common-land shall be for their cattle, for their herds, and for all their animals. ⁴ The common-land of the cities which you will give the Levites shall extend from the wall of the city outward a thousand cubits all around. ⁵ And you shall measure outside the city on the east side two thousand cubits, on the south side two thousand cubits, on the west side two thousand cubits, and on the north side two thousand cubits. The city shall be in the middle. This shall belong to them as common-land for the cities.

⁶ “Now among the cities which you will give to the Levites you shall appoint ^(EG)six cities of refuge, to which a manslayer may flee. And to these you shall add forty-two cities. ⁷ So all the cities you will give to the Levites shall be ^(EH)forty-eight; these you shall give with their common-land. ⁸ And the cities which you will give shall be ^(EI)from the possession of the children of Israel; ^(EJ)from the larger tribe you shall give many, from the smaller you shall give few. Each shall give some of its cities to the Levites, in proportion to the inheritance that each receives.”

Cities of Refuge^(EK)

⁹ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁰ “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ^(EL)‘When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, ¹¹ then ^(EM)you shall appoint cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person accidentally may flee there. ^12 (EN)They shall be cities of refuge for you from the avenger, that the manslayer may not die until he stands before the congregation in judgment. ¹³ And of the cities which you give, you shall have ^(EO)six cities of refuge. ^14 (EP)You shall appoint three cities on this side of the Jordan, and three cities you shall appoint in the land of Canaan, which will be cities of refuge. ¹⁵ These six cities shall be for refuge for the children of Israel, ^(EQ)for the stranger, and for the sojourner among them, that anyone who kills a person accidentally may flee there.

^16 (ER)‘But if he strikes him with an iron implement, so that he dies, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death. ¹⁷ And if he strikes him with a stone in the hand, by which one could die, and he does die, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death. ¹⁸ Or if he strikes him with a wooden hand weapon, by which one could die, and he does die, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death. ^19 (ES)The^[r] avenger of blood himself shall put the murderer to death; when he meets him, he shall put him to death. ^20 (ET)If he pushes him out of hatred or, ^(EU)while lying in wait, hurls something at him so that he dies, ²¹ or in enmity he strikes him with his hand so that he dies, the one who struck him shall surely be put to death. He is a murderer. The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death when he meets him.

²² ‘However, if he pushes him suddenly ^(EV)without enmity, or throws anything at him without lying in wait, ²³ or uses a stone, by which a man could die, throwing it at him without seeing him, so that he dies, while he was not his enemy or seeking his harm, ²⁴ then ^(EW)the congregation shall judge between the manslayer and the avenger of blood according to these judgments. ²⁵ So the congregation shall deliver the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall return him to the city of refuge where he had fled, and ^(EX)he shall remain there until the death of the high priest ^(EY)who was anointed with the holy oil. ²⁶ But if the manslayer at any time goes outside the limits of the city of refuge where he fled, ²⁷ and the avenger of blood finds him outside the limits of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the manslayer, he shall not be guilty of ^[s]blood, ²⁸ because he should have remained in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest the manslayer may return to the land of his possession.

²⁹ ‘And these things shall be ^(EZ)a statute of judgment to you throughout your generations in all your dwellings. ³⁰ Whoever kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the ^(FA)testimony of witnesses; but one witness is not sufficient testimony against a person for the death penalty. ³¹ Moreover you shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death. ³² And you shall take no ransom for him who has fled to his city of refuge, that he may return to dwell in the land before the death of the priest. ³³ So you shall not pollute the land where you are; for blood ^(FB)defiles the land, and no ^[t]atonement can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed on it, except ^(FC)by the blood of him who shed it. ³⁴ Therefore ^(FD)do not defile the land which you inhabit, in the midst of which I dwell; for ^(FE)I the Lord dwell among the children of Israel.’ ”

Marriage of Female Heirs

36 Now the chief fathers of the families of the ^(FF)children of Gilead the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of the sons of Joseph, came near and ^(FG)spoke before Moses and before the leaders, the chief fathers of the children of Israel. ² And they said: ^(FH)“The Lord commanded my lord Moses to give the land as an inheritance by lot to the children of Israel, and ^(FI)my lord was commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters. ³ Now if they are married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the children of Israel, then their inheritance will be ^(FJ)taken from the inheritance of our fathers, and it will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry; so it will be taken from the lot of our inheritance. ⁴ And when ^(FK)the Jubilee of the children of Israel comes, then their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry; so their inheritance will be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.”

⁵ Then Moses commanded the children of Israel according to the word of the Lord, saying: ^(FL)“What the tribe of the sons of Joseph speaks is right. ⁶ This is what the Lord commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, ‘Let them ^[u]marry whom they think best, ^(FM)but they may marry only within the family of their father’s tribe.’ ⁷ So the inheritance of the children of Israel shall not change hands from tribe to tribe, for every one of the children of Israel shall ^(FN)keep the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. ⁸ And ^(FO)every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel shall be the wife of one of the family of her father’s tribe, so that the children of Israel each may possess the inheritance of his fathers. ⁹ Thus no inheritance shall change hands from one tribe to another, but every tribe of the children of Israel shall keep its own inheritance.”

¹⁰ Just as the Lord commanded Moses, so did the daughters of Zelophehad; ^11 (FP)for Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to the sons of their father’s brothers. ¹² They were married into the families of the children of Manasseh the son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of their father’s family.

¹³ These are the commandments and the judgments which the Lord commanded the children of Israel by the hand of Moses ^(FQ)in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho.

The Previous Command to Enter Canaan

1 These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel ^(A)on this side of the Jordan in the wilderness, in the ^[a]plain opposite ^[b]Suph, between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. ² It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir ^(B)to Kadesh Barnea. ³ Now it came to pass ^(C)in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him as commandments to them, ^4 (D)after he had killed Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who dwelt at Ashtaroth ^(E)in^[c] Edrei.

⁵ On this side of the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this law, saying, ⁶ “The Lord our God spoke to us ^(F)in Horeb, saying: ‘You have dwelt long ^(G)enough at this mountain. ⁷ Turn and take your journey, and go to the mountains of the Amorites, to all the neighboring places in the ^[d]plain, in the mountains and in the lowland, in the South and on the seacoast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the River Euphrates. ⁸ See, I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land which the Lord ^[e]swore to your fathers—to ^(H)Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—to give to them and their descendants after them.’

Tribal Leaders Appointed^(I)

⁹ “And ^(J)I spoke to you at that time, saying: ‘I ^[f]alone am not able to bear you. ¹⁰ The Lord your God has multiplied you, ^(K)and here you are today, as the stars of heaven in multitude. ^11 (L)May the Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times more numerous than you are, and bless you ^(M)as He has promised you! ^12 (N)How can I alone bear your problems and your burdens and your complaints? ¹³ Choose wise, understanding, and knowledgeable men from among your tribes, and I will make them ^[g]heads over you.’ ¹⁴ And you answered me and said, ‘The thing which you have told us to do is good.’ ¹⁵ So I took ^(O)the heads of your tribes, wise and knowledgeable men, and ^[h]made them heads over you, leaders of thousands, leaders of hundreds, leaders of fifties, leaders of tens, and officers for your tribes.

¹⁶ “Then I commanded your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hear the cases between your brethren, and ^(P)judge righteously between a man and his ^(Q)brother or the stranger who is with him. ^17 (R)You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small as well as the great; you shall not be afraid in any man’s presence, for ^(S)the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, ^(T)bring to me, and I will hear it.’ ¹⁸ And I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do.

Israel’s Refusal to Enter the Land^(U)

¹⁹ “So we departed from Horeb, ^(V)and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw on the way to the mountains of the Amorites, as the Lord our God had commanded us. Then ^(W)we came to Kadesh Barnea. ²⁰ And I said to you, ‘You have come to the mountains of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. ²¹ Look, the Lord your God has set the land before you; go up and possess it, as the Lord God of your fathers has spoken to you; ^(X)do not fear or be discouraged.’

²² “And every one of you came near to me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, and let them search out the land for us, and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up, and of the cities into which we shall come.’

²³ “The plan pleased me well; so ^(Y)I took twelve of your men, one man from each tribe. ^24 (Z)And they departed and went up into the mountains, and came to the Valley of Eshcol, and spied it out. ²⁵ They also took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought back word to us, saying, ‘It is a ^(AA)good land which the Lord our God is giving us.’

^26 (AB)“Nevertheless you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God; ²⁷ and you ^(AC)complained in your tents, and said, ‘Because the Lord ^(AD)hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. ²⁸ Where can we go up? Our brethren have ^[i]discouraged our hearts, saying, ^(AE)“The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to heaven; moreover we have seen the sons of the ^(AF)Anakim there.” ’

²⁹ “Then I said to you, ‘Do not be terrified, ^(AG)or afraid of them. ^30 (AH)The Lord your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you, according to all He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, ³¹ and in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a ^(AI)man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.’ ³² Yet, for all that, ^(AJ)you did not believe the Lord your God, ^33 (AK)who went in the way before you ^(AL)to search out a place for you to pitch your tents, to show you the way you should go, in the fire by night and in the cloud by day.

The Penalty for Israel’s Rebellion^(AM)

³⁴ “And the Lord heard the sound of your words, and was angry, ^(AN)and took an oath, saying, ^35 (AO)‘Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I ^[j]swore to give to your fathers, ^36 (AP)except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and his children I am giving the land on which he walked, because ^(AQ)he ^[k]wholly followed the Lord.’ ^37 (AR)The Lord was also angry with me for your sakes, saying, ‘Even you shall not go in there. ^38 (AS)Joshua the son of Nun, ^(AT)who stands before you, he shall go in there. ^(AU)Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.

^39 (AV)‘Moreover your little ones and your children, who ^(AW)you say will be victims, who today ^(AX)have no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there; to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. ^40 (AY)But as for you, turn and take your journey into the wilderness by the Way of the Red Sea.’

⁴¹ “Then you answered and said to me, ^(AZ)‘We have sinned against the Lord; we will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us.’ And when everyone of you had girded on his weapons of war, you were ready to go up into the mountain.

⁴² “And the Lord said to me, ‘Tell them, ^(BA)“Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you; lest you be defeated before your enemies.” ’ ⁴³ So I spoke to you; yet you would not listen, but ^(BB)rebelled against the command of the Lord, and ^(BC)presumptuously^[l] went up into the mountain. ⁴⁴ And the Amorites who dwelt in that mountain came out against you and chased you ^(BD)as bees do, and drove you back from Seir to Hormah. ⁴⁵ Then you returned and wept before the Lord, but the Lord would not listen to your voice nor give ear to you.

^46 (BE)“So you remained in Kadesh many days, according to the days that you spent there.

The Desert Years

2 “Then we turned and ^(BF)journeyed into the wilderness of the Way of the Red Sea, ^(BG)as the Lord spoke to me, and we ^[m]skirted Mount Seir for many days.

² “And the Lord spoke to me, saying: ³ ‘You have skirted this mountain ^(BH)long enough; turn northward. ⁴ And command the people, saying, ^(BI)“You are about to pass through the territory of ^(BJ)your brethren, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. Therefore watch yourselves carefully. ⁵ Do not meddle with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as one footstep, ^(BK)because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. ⁶ You shall buy food from them with money, that you may eat; and you shall also buy water from them with money, that you may drink.

⁷ “For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand. He knows your ^[n]trudging through this great wilderness. ^(BL)These forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.” ’

⁸ “And when we passed beyond our brethren, the descendants of Esau who dwell in Seir, away from the road of the plain, away from ^(BM)Elath and Ezion Geber, we ^(BN)turned and passed by way of the Wilderness of Moab. ⁹ Then the Lord said to me, ‘Do not harass Moab, nor contend with them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession, because I have given ^(BO)Ar to ^(BP)the descendants of Lot as a possession.’ ”

^10 (BQ)(The Emim had dwelt there in times past, a people as great and numerous and tall as ^(BR)the Anakim. ¹¹ They were also regarded as ^[o]giants, like the Anakim, but the Moabites call them Emim. ^12 (BS)The Horites formerly dwelt in Seir, but the descendants of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their ^[p]place, just as Israel did to the land of their possession which the Lord gave them.)

¹³ “ ‘Now rise and cross over ^(BT)the ^[q]Valley of the Zered.’ So we crossed over the Valley of the Zered. ¹⁴ And the time we took to come ^(BU)from Kadesh Barnea until we crossed over the Valley of the Zered was thirty-eight years, ^(BV)until all the generation of the men of war ^[r]was consumed from the midst of the camp, ^(BW)just as the Lord had sworn to them. ¹⁵ For indeed the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from the midst of the camp until they ^[s]were consumed.

¹⁶ “So it was, when all the men of war had finally perished from among the people, ¹⁷ that the Lord spoke to me, saying: ¹⁸ ‘This day you are to cross over at Ar, the boundary of Moab. ¹⁹ And when you come near the people of Ammon, do not harass them or meddle with them, for I will not give you any of the land of the people of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to ^(BX)the descendants of Lot as a possession.’ ”

²⁰ (That was also regarded as a land of ^[t]giants; giants formerly dwelt there. But the Ammonites call them ^(BY)Zamzummim, ^21 (BZ)a people as great and numerous and tall as the Anakim. But the Lord destroyed them before them, and they dispossessed them and dwelt in their place, ²² just as He had done for the descendants of Esau, ^(CA)who dwelt in Seir, when He destroyed ^(CB)the Horites from before them. They dispossessed them and dwelt in their place, even to this day. ²³ And ^(CC)the Avim, who dwelt in villages as far as Gaza—^(CD)the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and dwelt in their place.)

²⁴ “ ‘Rise, take your journey, and ^(CE)cross over the River Arnon. Look, I have given into your hand ^(CF)Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin ^[u]to possess it, and engage him in battle. ^25 (CG)This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the nations ^[v]under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you, and shall ^(CH)tremble and be in anguish because of you.’

King Sihon Defeated^(CI)

²⁶ “And I ^(CJ)sent messengers from the Wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon, ^(CK)with words of peace, saying, ^27 (CL)‘Let me pass through your land; I will keep strictly to the road, and I will turn neither to the right nor to the left. ²⁸ You shall sell me food for money, that I may eat, and give me water for money, that I may drink; ^(CM)only let me pass through on foot, ^29 (CN)just as the descendants of Esau who dwell in Seir and the Moabites who dwell in Ar did for me, until I cross the Jordan to the land which the Lord our God is giving us.’

^30 (CO)“But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass through, for ^(CP)the Lord your God ^(CQ)hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that He might deliver him into your hand, as it is this day.

³¹ “And the Lord said to me, ‘See, I have begun to ^(CR)give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to possess it, that you may inherit his land.’ ^32 (CS)Then Sihon and all his people came out against us to fight at Jahaz. ³³ And ^(CT)the Lord our God delivered him ^[w]over to us; so ^(CU)we defeated him, his sons, and all his people. ³⁴ We took all his cities at that time, and we ^(CV)utterly destroyed the men, women, and little ones of every city; we left none remaining. ³⁵ We took only the livestock as plunder for ourselves, with the spoil of the cities which we took. ^36 (CW)From Aroer, which is on the bank of the River Arnon, and from ^(CX)the city that is in the ravine, as far as Gilead, there was not one city too strong for us; ^(CY)the Lord our God delivered all to us. ³⁷ Only you did not go near the land of the people of Ammon—anywhere along the River ^(CZ)Jabbok, or to the cities of the mountains, or ^(DA)wherever the Lord our God had forbidden us.

King Og Defeated^(DB)

3 “Then we turned and went up the road to Bashan; and ^(DC)Og king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle ^(DD)at Edrei. ² And the Lord said to me, ‘Do not fear him, for I have delivered him and all his people and his land into your hand; you shall do to him as you did to ^(DE)Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon.’

³ “So the Lord our God also delivered into our hands Og king of Bashan, with all his people, and we ^[x]attacked him until he had no survivors remaining. ⁴ And we took all his cities at that time; there was not a city which we did not take from them: sixty cities, ^(DF)all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. ⁵ All these cities were fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, besides a great many rural towns. ⁶ And we utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon king ^(DG)of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men, women, and children of every city. ⁷ But all the livestock and the spoil of the cities we took as booty for ourselves.

⁸ “And at that time we took the ^(DH)land from the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were on this side of the Jordan, from the River Arnon to Mount ^(DI)Hermon ⁹ (the Sidonians call ^(DJ)Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir), ^10 (DK)all the cities of the plain, all Gilead, and ^(DL)all Bashan, as far as Salcah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.

^11 (DM)“For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of ^(DN)the ^[y]giants. Indeed his bedstead was an iron bedstead. (Is it not in ^(DO)Rabbah of the people of Ammon?) Nine cubits is its length and four cubits its width, according to the standard cubit.

The Land East of the Jordan Divided^(DP)

¹² “And this ^(DQ)land, which we possessed at that time, ^(DR)from Aroer, which is by the River Arnon, and half the mountains of Gilead and ^(DS)its cities, I gave to the Reubenites and the Gadites. ^13 (DT)The rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to half the tribe of Manasseh. (All the region of Argob, with all Bashan, was called the land of the ^[z]giants. ^14 (DU)Jair the son of Manasseh took all the region of Argob, ^(DV)as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maachathites, and ^(DW)called Bashan after his own name, ^[aa]Havoth Jair, to this day.)

¹⁵ “Also I gave ^(DX)Gilead to Machir. ¹⁶ And to the Reubenites ^(DY)and the Gadites I gave from Gilead as far as the River Arnon, the middle of the river as the border, as far as the River Jabbok, ^(DZ)the border of the people of Ammon; ¹⁷ the plain also, with the Jordan as the border, from Chinnereth ^(EA)as far as the east side of the Sea of the Arabah ^(EB)(the Salt Sea), below the slopes of Pisgah.

¹⁸ “Then I commanded you at that time, saying: ‘The Lord your God has given you this land to possess. ^(EC)All you men of valor shall cross over armed before your brethren, the children of Israel. ¹⁹ But your wives, your little ones, and your livestock (I know that you have much livestock) shall stay in your cities which I have given you, ²⁰ until the Lord has given ^(ED)rest to your brethren as to you, and they also possess the land which the Lord your God is giving them beyond the Jordan. Then each of you may ^(EE)return to his possession which I have given you.’

²¹ “And ^(EF)I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, ‘Your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings; so will the Lord do to all the kingdoms through which you pass. ²² You must not fear them, for ^(EG)the Lord your God Himself fights for you.’

Moses Forbidden to Enter the Land

²³ “Then ^(EH)I pleaded with the Lord at that time, saying: ²⁴ ‘O Lord God, You have begun to show Your servant ^(EI)Your greatness and Your ^[ab]mighty hand, for ^(EJ)what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do anything like Your works and Your mighty deeds? ²⁵ I pray, let me cross over and see ^(EK)the good land beyond the Jordan, those pleasant mountains, and Lebanon.’

²⁶ “But the Lord ^(EL)was angry with me on your account, and would not listen to me. So the Lord said to me: ‘Enough of that! Speak no more to Me of this matter. ^27 (EM)Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift your eyes toward the west, the north, the south, and the east; behold it with your eyes, for you shall not cross over this Jordan. ²⁸ But ^(EN)command^[ac] Joshua, and encourage him and strengthen him; for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you will see.’

²⁹ “So we stayed in ^(EO)the valley opposite Beth Peor.

Moses Commands Obedience

4 “Now, O Israel, listen to ^(EP)the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live, and go in and ^[ad]possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you. ^2 (EQ)You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. ³ Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at ^(ER)Baal Peor; for the Lord your God has destroyed from among you all the men who followed Baal of Peor. ⁴ But you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive today, every one of you.

⁵ “Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess. ⁶ Therefore be careful to observe them; for this is ^(ES)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 ^(ET)what great nation is there that has ^(EU)God^[ae] so near to it, as the Lord our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him? ⁸ And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day? ⁹ Only take heed to yourself, and diligently ^(EV)keep yourself, lest you ^(EW)forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And ^(EX)teach them to your children and your grandchildren, ¹⁰ especially concerning ^(EY)the day you stood before the Lord your God in Horeb, when the Lord said to me, ‘Gather the people to Me, and I will let them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.’

¹¹ “Then you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the midst of heaven, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness. ^12 (EZ)And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words, but saw no ^[af]form; ^(FA)you only heard a voice. ^13 (FB)So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, ^(FC)the Ten Commandments; and ^(FD)He wrote them on two tablets of stone. ¹⁴ And ^(FE)the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might ^[ag]observe them in the land which you cross over to possess.

Beware of Idolatry

^15 (FF)“Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no ^(FG)form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, ¹⁶ lest you ^(FH)act corruptly and ^(FI)make for yourselves a carved image in the ^[ah]form of any figure: ^(FJ)the likeness of male or female, ¹⁷ the likeness of any animal that is on the earth or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, ¹⁸ the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth. ¹⁹ And take heed, lest you ^(FK)lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, ^(FL)all the host of heaven, you feel driven to ^(FM)worship them and serve them, which the Lord your God has ^[ai]given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage. ²⁰ But the Lord has taken you and ^(FN)brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be ^(FO)His people, an inheritance, as you are this day. ²¹ Furthermore ^(FP)the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that ^(FQ)I would not cross over the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. ²² But ^(FR)I must die in this land, ^(FS)I must not cross over the Jordan; but you shall cross over and ^[aj]possess ^(FT)that good land. ²³ Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, ^(FU)and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you. ²⁴ For ^(FV)the Lord your God is a consuming fire, ^(FW)a jealous God.

²⁵ “When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and ^(FX)do evil in the sight of the Lord your God to provoke Him to anger, ^26 (FY)I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess; you will not ^[ak]prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed. ²⁷ And the Lord ^(FZ)will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. ²⁸ And ^(GA)there you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, ^(GB)which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. ^29 (GC)But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. ³⁰ When you are in ^[al]distress, and all these things come upon you in the ^(GD)latter days, when you ^(GE)turn to the Lord your God and obey His voice ³¹ (for the Lord your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor ^(GF)destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.

³² “For ^(GG)ask now concerning the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask ^(GH)from one end of heaven to the other, whether any great thing like this has happened, or anything like it has been heard. ^33 (GI)Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live? ³⁴ Or did God ever try to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, ^(GJ)by trials, ^(GK)by signs, by wonders, by war, ^(GL)by a mighty hand and ^(GM)an outstretched arm, ^(GN)and by great ^[am]terrors, according to all that 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 Himself is God; ^(GO)there is none other besides Him. ^36 (GP)Out of heaven He let you hear His voice, that He might instruct you; on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire. ³⁷ And because ^(GQ)He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their ^[an]descendants after them; and ^(GR)He brought you out of Egypt with His Presence, with His mighty power, ^38 (GS)driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day. ³⁹ Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that ^(GT)the Lord Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. ^40 (GU)You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that ^[ao]it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may ^[ap]prolong your days in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”

Cities of Refuge East of the Jordan

⁴¹ Then Moses ^(GV)set apart three cities on this side of the Jordan, toward the rising of the sun, ^42 (GW)that the manslayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without having hated him in time past, and that by fleeing to one of these cities he might live: ^43 (GX)Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau for the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.

Introduction to God’s Law

⁴⁴ Now this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel. ⁴⁵ These are the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which Moses spoke to the children of Israel after they came out of Egypt, ⁴⁶ on this side of the Jordan, ^(GY)in the valley opposite Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel ^(GZ)defeated^[aq] after they came out of Egypt. ⁴⁷ And they took possession of his land and the land ^(HA)of Og king of Bashan, two kings of the Amorites, who were on this side of the Jordan, toward the ^[ar]rising of the sun, ^48 (HB)from Aroer, which is on the bank of the River Arnon, even to Mount ^[as]Sion (that is, ^(HC)Hermon), ⁴⁹ and all the plain on the east side of the Jordan as far as the Sea of the Arabah, below the ^(HD)slopes of Pisgah.

The Ten Commandments Reviewed^(HE)

5 And Moses called all Israel, and said to them: “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your hearing today, that you may learn them and be careful to observe them. ^2 (HF)The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. ³ The Lord ^(HG)did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those who are here today, all of us who are alive. ^4 (HH)The Lord talked with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire. ^5 (HI)I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord; for ^(HJ)you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up the mountain. He said:

²² “These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly, in the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and He added no more. And ^(ID)He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

The People Afraid of God’s Presence^(IE)

^23 (IF)“So it was, when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, that you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders. ²⁴ And you said: ‘Surely the Lord our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and ^(IG)we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God speaks with man; yet he ^(IH)still lives. ²⁵ Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; ^(II)if we hear the voice of the Lord our God anymore, then we shall die. ^26 (IJ)For 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 You go near and hear all that the Lord our God may say, and ^(IK)tell us all that the Lord our God says to you, and we will hear and do it.’

²⁸ “Then the Lord heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me: ‘I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken to you. ^(IL)They are right in all that they have spoken. ^29 (IM)Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and ^(IN)always keep all My commandments, ^(IO)that it might be well with them and with their children forever! ³⁰ Go and say to them, “Return to your tents.” ³¹ But as for you, stand here by Me, ^(IP)and I will speak to you all the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments which you shall teach them, that they may observe them in the land which I am giving them to possess.’

³² “Therefore you shall ^[ba]be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you; ^(IQ)you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. ³³ You shall walk in ^(IR)all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live ^(IS)and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.

The Greatest Commandment

6 “Now this is ^(IT)the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, ^2 (IU)that you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, ^(IV)and that your days may be prolonged. ³ Therefore hear, O Israel, and ^[bb]be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may ^(IW)multiply greatly ^(IX)as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you—^(IY)‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’

^4 (IZ)“Hear, O Israel: ^[bc]The Lord our God, the Lord is one! ^5 (JA)You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, ^(JB)with all your soul, and with all your strength.

⁶ “And ^(JC)these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. ^7 (JD)You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. ^8 (JE)You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ^9 (JF)You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Caution Against Disobedience

¹⁰ “So it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which He ^[bd]swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities ^(JG)which you did not build, ¹¹ houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant—^(JH)when you have eaten and are full— ¹² then beware, lest you forget the ^(JI)Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. ¹³ You shall ^(JJ)fear the Lord your God and serve Him, and ^(JK)shall take oaths in His name. ¹⁴ You shall not go after other gods, ^(JL)the gods of the peoples who are all around you ¹⁵ (for ^(JM)the Lord your God is a jealous God ^(JN)among you), lest the anger of the Lord your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth.

^16 (JO)“You shall not ^[be]tempt the Lord your God ^(JP)as you ^[bf]tempted Him in Massah. ¹⁷ You shall ^(JQ)diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, His testimonies, and His statutes which He has commanded you. ¹⁸ And you ^(JR)shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land of which the Lord swore to your fathers, ^19 (JS)to cast out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has spoken.

^20 (JT)“When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord our God has commanded you?’ ²¹ then you shall say to your son: ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt ^(JU)with a mighty hand; ²² and the Lord showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe, against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household. ²³ Then He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the land of which He ^[bg]swore to our fathers. ²⁴ And the Lord commanded us to ^[bh]observe all these ^[bi]statutes, ^(JV)to fear the Lord our God, ^(JW)for our good always, that ^(JX)He might preserve us alive, as it is ^[bj]this day. ²⁵ Then ^(JY)it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us.’

A Chosen People^(JZ)

7 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to ^(KA)possess, and has cast out many ^(KB)nations before you, ^(KC)the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, ² and when the Lord your God delivers ^(KD)them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. ^(KE)You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. ^3 (KF)Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. ⁴ For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; ^(KG)so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. ⁵ But thus you shall deal with them: you shall ^(KH)destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their ^[bk]wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire.

⁶ “For you are a ^[bl]holy people to the Lord your God; ^(KI)the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. ⁷ The Lord did not set His ^(KJ)love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were ^(KK)the least of all peoples; ⁸ but ^(KL)because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep ^(KM)the oath which He swore to your fathers, ^(KN)the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of ^[bm]bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

⁹ “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, ^(KO)the faithful God ^(KP)who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; ¹⁰ and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not ^[bn]be ^(KQ)slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face. ¹¹ Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today, to observe them.

Blessings of Obedience^(KR)

¹² “Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers. ¹³ And He will ^(KS)love you and bless you and ^[bo]multiply you; ^(KT)He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He ^[bp]swore to your fathers to give you. ¹⁴ You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female ^(KU)barren among you or among your livestock. ¹⁵ And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the ^(KV)terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you. ¹⁶ Also you shall ^[bq]destroy all the peoples whom the Lord your God delivers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that will ^(KW)be a snare to you.

¹⁷ “If you should say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?’— ¹⁸ you shall not be afraid of them, but you shall ^(KX)remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: ^19 (KY)the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders, 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 (KZ)Moreover the Lord your God will send the hornet among them until those who are left, who hide themselves from you, are destroyed. ²¹ You shall not be terrified of them; for the Lord your God, the great and awesome God, is among you. ²² And the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you ^(LA)little by little; you will be unable to ^[br]destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. ²³ But the Lord your God will deliver them over to you, and will inflict defeat upon them until they are destroyed. ²⁴ And ^(LB)He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you will destroy their name from under heaven; ^(LC)no one shall be able to stand ^[bs]against you until you have destroyed them. ²⁵ You shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire; you shall not ^(LD)covet^[bt] the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it; for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. ²⁶ Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, ^(LE)for it is an ^[bu]accursed thing.

Remember the Lord Your God

8 “Every commandment which I command you today ^(LF)you must ^[bv]be careful to observe, that you may live and ^(LG)multiply,^[bw] and go in and possess the land of which the Lord ^[bx]swore to your fathers. ² And you shall remember that the Lord your God ^(LH)led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and ^(LI)test you, ^(LJ)to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. ³ So He humbled you, ^(LK)allowed you to hunger, and ^(LL)fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall ^(LM)not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. ^4 (LN)Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. ^5 (LO)You should ^[by]know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you.

⁶ “Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, ^(LP)to walk in His ways and to fear Him. ⁷ For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, ^(LQ)a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of 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 in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. ^10 (LR)When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.

¹¹ “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, ^12 (LS)lest—when you have eaten and are ^[bz]full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; ¹³ and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are ^[ca]multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; ^14 (LT)when your heart ^[cb]is lifted up, and you ^(LU)forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; ¹⁵ who ^(LV)led you through that great and terrible wilderness, ^(LW)in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; ^(LX)who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; ¹⁶ who fed you in the wilderness with ^(LY)manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, ^(LZ)to do you good in the end— ¹⁷ then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’

¹⁸ “And you shall remember the Lord your God, ^(MA)for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, ^(MB)that He may ^[cc]establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. ¹⁹ Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, ^(MC)I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. ²⁰ As the nations which the Lord destroys before you, ^(MD)so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God.

Israel’s Rebellions Reviewed^(ME)

9 “Hear, O Israel: You are to cross over the Jordan today, and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, ² a people great and tall, the ^(MF)descendants of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the descendants of Anak?’ ³ Therefore understand today that the Lord your God is He who ^(MG)goes over before you as a ^(MH)consuming fire. ^(MI)He will destroy them and bring them down before you; ^(MJ)so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the Lord has said to you.

^4 (MK)“Do not think in your heart, after the Lord your God has cast them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land’; but it is ^(ML)because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you. ^5 (MM)It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and that He may ^[cd]fulfill the ^(MN)word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ⁶ Therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a ^(MO)stiff-necked^[ce] people.

⁷ “Remember! Do not forget how you ^(MP)provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. ^(MQ)From the day that you departed from the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. ⁸ Also ^(MR)in Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, so that the Lord was angry enough with you to have destroyed you. ^9 (MS)When I went up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and ^(MT)forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. ^10 (MU)Then the Lord delivered to me two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire ^(MV)in^[cf] the day of the assembly. ¹¹ And it came to pass, at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.

¹² “Then the Lord said to me, ^(MW)‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly; they have ^(MX)quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made themselves a molded image.’

¹³ “Furthermore ^(MY)the Lord spoke to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed ^(MZ)they are a ^[cg]stiff-necked people. ^14 (NA)Let Me alone, that I may destroy them and ^(NB)blot out their name from under heaven; ^(NC)and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’

^15 (ND)“So I turned and came down from the mountain, and ^(NE)the mountain burned with fire; and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. ¹⁶ And ^(NF)I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God—had made for yourselves a molded calf! You had turned aside quickly from the way which the Lord had commanded you. ¹⁷ Then I took the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and ^(NG)broke them before your eyes. ¹⁸ And I ^(NH)fell^[ch] down before the Lord, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you committed in doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. ^19 (NI)For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the Lord was angry with you, to destroy you. ^(NJ)But the Lord listened to me at that time also. ²⁰ And the Lord was very angry with Aaron and would have destroyed him; so I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. ²¹ Then I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it and ground it very small, until it was as fine as dust; and I ^(NK)threw its dust into the brook that descended from the mountain.

²² “Also at ^(NL)Taberah and ^(NM)Massah and ^(NN)Kibroth Hattaavah you ^[ci]provoked the Lord to wrath. ²³ Likewise, ^(NO)when the Lord sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, ‘Go up and possess the land which I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God, and ^(NP)you did not believe Him nor obey His voice. ^24 (NQ)You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you.

^25 (NR)“Thus I ^[cj]prostrated myself before the Lord; forty days and forty nights I kept prostrating myself, because the Lord had said He would destroy you. ²⁶ Therefore I prayed to the Lord, and said: ‘O Lord God, do not destroy Your people and ^(NS)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 on the stubbornness of this people, or on their wickedness or their sin, ²⁸ lest the land from which You brought us should say, “Because the Lord was not able to bring them to the land which He promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.” ²⁹ Yet they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your mighty power and by Your outstretched arm.’

The Second Pair of Tablets^(NT)

10 “At that time the Lord said to me, ^[ck]‘Hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to Me on the mountain and make yourself an ^(NU)ark of wood. ² And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke; and ^(NV)you shall put them in the ark.’

³ “So I made an ark of acacia wood, hewed two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain, having the two tablets in my hand. ⁴ And He wrote on the tablets according to the first writing, the Ten ^[cl]Commandments, ^(NW)which the Lord had spoken to you in the mountain from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them to me. ⁵ Then I turned and ^(NX)came down from the mountain, and ^(NY)put the tablets in the ark which I had made; ^(NZ)and there they are, just as the Lord commanded me.”

⁶ (Now the children of Israel journeyed from the wells of Bene Jaakan to Moserah, where Aaron ^(OA)died, and where he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered as priest in his ^[cm]stead. ^7 (OB)From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of ^[cn]rivers of water. ⁸ At that time ^(OC)the Lord ^[co]separated the tribe of Levi ^(OD)to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, ^(OE)to stand before the Lord to minister to Him and ^(OF)to bless in His name, to this day. ^9 (OG)Therefore Levi has no portion nor inheritance with his brethren; the Lord is his inheritance, just as the Lord your God promised him.)

¹⁰ “As at the first time, ^(OH)I stayed in the mountain forty days and forty nights; ^(OI)the Lord also heard me at that time, and the Lord chose not to destroy you. ^11 (OJ)Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, begin your journey before the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.’

The Essence of the Law

¹² “And now, Israel, ^(OK)what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to ^(OL)love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today ^(OM)for your ^[cp]good? ¹⁴ Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the ^(ON)Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it. ¹⁵ The Lord delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their ^[cq]descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day. ¹⁶ Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your ^(OO)heart, and be ^(OP)stiff-necked^[cr] no longer. ¹⁷ For the Lord your God is ^(OQ)God of gods and ^(OR)Lord of lords, the great God, ^(OS)mighty and awesome, who ^(OT)shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. ^18 (OU)He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. ¹⁹ Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. ^20 (OV)You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast, and take oaths in His name. ²¹ He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen. ²² Your fathers went down to Egypt with seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as the stars of heaven in multitude.

Love and Obedience Rewarded

11 “Therefore you shall love the Lord your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always. ² Know today that I do not speak with your children, who have not known and who have not seen the ^[cs]chastening of the Lord your God, His greatness and His mighty hand and His outstretched arm— ³ His signs and His acts which He did in the midst of Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to all his land; ⁴ what He did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and their chariots: ^(OW)how He made the waters of the Red Sea overflow them as they pursued you, and how the Lord has destroyed them to this day; ⁵ what He did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place; ⁶ and ^(OX)what He did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, their households, their tents, and all the substance that was ^[ct]in their possession, in the midst of all Israel— ⁷ but your eyes have ^(OY)seen every great ^[cu]act of the Lord which He did.

⁸ “Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today, that you may ^(OZ)be strong, and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess, ⁹ and ^(PA)that you may prolong your days in the land ^(PB)which the Lord ^[cv]swore to give your fathers, to them and their descendants, ^(PC)‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’ ¹⁰ For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; ^11 (PD)but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, ¹² a land for which the Lord your God cares; ^(PE)the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.

¹³ ‘And it shall be that if you earnestly ^[cw]obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹⁴ then ^(PF)I^[cx] will give you the rain for your land in its season, ^(PG)the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. ^15 (PH)And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may ^(PI)eat and be ^[cy]filled.’ ¹⁶ Take heed to yourselves, ^(PJ)lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and ^(PK)serve other gods and worship them, ¹⁷ lest ^(PL)the Lord’s anger be aroused against you, and He ^(PM)shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and ^(PN)you perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you.

¹⁸ “Therefore ^(PO)you shall ^[cz]lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your ^(PP)soul, and ^(PQ)bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ^19 (PR)You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. ^20 (PS)And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, ²¹ that ^(PT)your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like ^(PU)the days of the heavens above the earth.

²² “For if ^(PV)you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do—to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and ^(PW)to hold fast to Him— ²³ then the Lord will ^(PX)drive out all these nations from before you, and you will ^(PY)dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves. ^24 (PZ)Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: ^(QA)from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, even to the ^[da]Western Sea, shall be your territory. ²⁵ No man shall be able to ^(QB)stand ^[db]against you; the Lord your God will put the ^(QC)dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread, just as He has said to you.

^26 (QD)“Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: ^27 (QE)the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today; ²⁸ and the ^(QF)curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known. ²⁹ Now it shall be, when the Lord your God has brought you into the land which you go to possess, that you shall put the ^(QG)blessing on Mount Gerizim and the ^(QH)curse on Mount Ebal. ³⁰ Are they not on the other side of the Jordan, toward the setting sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the plain opposite Gilgal, ^(QI)beside the terebinth trees of Moreh? ³¹ For you will cross over the Jordan and go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and you will possess it and dwell in it. ³² And you shall be careful to observe all the statutes and judgments which I set before you today.

A Prescribed Place of Worship

12 “These ^(QJ)are the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to observe in the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you to possess, ^(QK)all^[dc] the days that you live on the earth. ^2 (QL)You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, ^(QM)on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. ³ And ^(QN)you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their ^[dd]wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place. ⁴ You shall not ^(QO)worship the Lord your God with such things.

⁵ “But you shall seek the ^(QP)place where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His ^(QQ)dwelling^[de] place; and there you shall go. ^6 (QR)There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the ^(QS)firstborn of your herds and flocks. ⁷ And ^(QT)there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and ^(QU)you shall rejoice in ^[df]all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

⁸ “You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—^(QV)every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes— ⁹ for as yet you have not come to the ^(QW)rest^[dg] and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁰ But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you ^(QX)rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety, ¹¹ then there will be the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the Lord. ¹² And ^(QY)you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the ^(QZ)Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion nor inheritance with you. ¹³ Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that 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 “However, ^(RA)you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates, whatever your heart desires, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you; ^(RB)the unclean and the clean may eat of it, ^(RC)of the gazelle and the deer alike. ^16 (RD)Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it on the earth like water. ¹⁷ You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or your new wine or your oil, of the firstborn of your herd or your flock, of any of your offerings which you vow, of your freewill offerings, or of the ^[dh]heave offering of your hand. ¹⁸ But you must eat them before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord your God chooses, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in ^[di]all to which you put your hands. ^19 [dj]Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.

²⁰ “When the Lord your God ^(RE)enlarges your border as He has promised you, and you say, ‘Let me eat meat,’ because you long to eat meat, you may eat as much meat as your heart desires. ²¹ If the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from ^(RF)you, then you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock which the Lord has given you, just as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates as much as your heart desires. ²² Just as the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you may eat them; the unclean and the clean alike may eat them. ²³ Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, ^(RG)for the blood is the life; you may not eat the life with the meat. ²⁴ You shall not eat it; you shall pour it on the earth like water. ²⁵ You shall not eat it, ^(RH)that it may go well with you and your children after you, ^(RI)when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord. ²⁶ Only the ^(RJ)holy things which you have, and your vowed offerings, you shall take and go to the place which the Lord chooses. ²⁷ And ^(RK)you shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat 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 you shall eat the meat. ²⁸ Observe and obey all these words which I command you, ^(RL)that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.

Beware of False Gods

²⁹ “When ^(RM)the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, ³⁰ take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’ ^31 (RN)You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way; for every ^[dk]abomination to the Lord which He hates they have done to their gods; for ^(RO)they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.

³² “Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; ^(RP)you shall not add to it nor take away from it.

Punishment of Apostates

13 “If there arises among you a prophet or a ^(RQ)dreamer of dreams, ^(RR)and he gives you a sign or a wonder, ² and ^(RS)the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which 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 ^(RT)is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. ⁴ You shall ^(RU)walk^[dl] after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and ^(RV)hold fast to Him. ⁵ But ^(RW)that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. ^(RX)So you shall ^[dm]put away the evil from your midst.

^6 (RY)“If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, ^(RZ)the wife ^[dn]of your bosom, or your friend ^(SA)who is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, ⁷ of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, ⁸ you shall ^(SB)not ^[do]consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him; ⁹ but you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to ^(SC)death, and afterward the hand of all the people. ¹⁰ And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. ¹¹ So all Israel shall hear and ^(SD)fear, and not again do such wickedness as this among you.

^12 (SE)“If you hear someone in one of your cities, which the Lord your God gives you to dwell in, saying, ^13 [dp]‘Corrupt men have gone out from among you and enticed the inhabitants of their city, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods” ’—which you have not known— ¹⁴ then you shall inquire, search out, and ask diligently. And if it is indeed true and certain that such an ^[dq]abomination was committed among you, ¹⁵ you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it, all that is in it and its livestock—with the edge of the sword. ¹⁶ And you shall gather all its plunder into the middle of the street, and ^[dr]completely ^(SF)burn with fire the city and all its plunder, for the Lord your God. It shall be ^(SG)a ^[ds]heap forever; it shall not be built again. ^17 (SH)So none of the accursed things shall remain in your hand, that the Lord may ^(SI)turn from the fierceness of His anger and show you mercy, have compassion on you and ^[dt]multiply you, just as He swore to your fathers, ¹⁸ because you have listened to the voice of the Lord your God, ^(SJ)to keep all His commandments which I command you today, to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord your God.

Improper Mourning

14 “You are ^(SK)the children of the Lord your God; ^(SL)you shall not cut yourselves nor ^[du]shave the front of your head for the dead. ^2 (SM)For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

Clean and Unclean Meat^(SN)

^3 (SO)“You shall not eat any ^[dv]detestable thing. ^4 (SP)These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, ⁵ the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the ^[dw]mountain goat, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. ⁶ And you may eat every animal with cloven hooves, having the hoof split into two parts, and that chews the cud, among the animals. ⁷ Nevertheless, of those that chew the cud or have cloven hooves, you shall not eat, such as these: the camel, the hare, and the rock hyrax; for they chew the cud but do not have cloven hooves; they are unclean for you. ⁸ Also the swine is unclean for you, because it has cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud; you shall not eat their flesh ^(SQ)or touch their dead carcasses.

^9 (SR)“These you may eat of all that are in the waters: you may eat all that have fins and scales. ¹⁰ And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.

¹¹ “All clean birds you may eat. ^12 (SS)But these you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, ¹³ the red kite, the falcon, and the kite after their kinds; ¹⁴ every raven after its kind; ¹⁵ the ostrich, the short-eared owl, the sea gull, and the hawk after their kinds; ¹⁶ the little owl, the screech owl, the white owl, ¹⁷ the jackdaw, the carrion vulture, the fisher owl, ¹⁸ the stork, the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe and the bat.

¹⁹ “Also ^(ST)every ^[dx]creeping thing that flies is unclean for you; ^(SU)they shall not be eaten.

²⁰ “You may eat all clean birds.

^21 (SV)“You shall not eat anything that dies of itself; you may give it to the alien who is within your gates, that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner; ^(SW)for you are a holy people to the Lord your God.

“^(SX)You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

Tithing Principles

^22 (SY)“You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year. ^23 (SZ)And you shall eat before the Lord your God, in the place where He chooses to make His name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of ^(TA)the firstborn of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. ²⁴ But if the journey is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, or ^(TB)if the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, when the Lord your God has blessed you, ²⁵ then you shall exchange it for money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses. ²⁶ And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires; you shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall ^(TC)rejoice, you and your household. ²⁷ You shall not ^[dy]forsake the ^(TD)Levite who is within your gates, for he has no part nor inheritance with you.

^28 (TE)“At the end of every third year you shall bring out the ^(TF)tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. ²⁹ And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.

Debts Canceled Every Seven Years^(TG)

15 “At the end of ^(TH)every seven years you shall grant a ^[dz]release of debts. ² And this is the form of the release: Every creditor who has lent anything to his neighbor shall ^[ea]release it; he shall not ^[eb]require it of his neighbor or his brother, because it is called the Lord’s release. ³ Of a foreigner you may require it; but you shall give up your claim to what is owed by your brother, ⁴ except when there may be no poor among you; for the Lord will greatly ^(TI)bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance— ⁵ only if you carefully obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe with care all these commandments which I command you today. ⁶ For the Lord your God will bless you just as He promised you; ^(TJ)you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; you shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you.

Generosity to the Poor

⁷ “If there is among you a poor man of your brethren, within any of the ^[ec]gates in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, ^(TK)you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother, ⁸ but ^(TL)you shall ^[ed]open your hand wide to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs. ⁹ Beware lest there be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand,’ and your ^(TM)eye be evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing, and ^(TN)he cry out to the Lord against you, and ^(TO)it become sin among you. ¹⁰ You shall surely give to him, and ^(TP)your heart should not be grieved when you give to him, because ^(TQ)for this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all your works and in all to which you put your hand. ¹¹ For ^(TR)the poor will never cease from the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall ^[ee]open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, in your land.’

The Law Concerning Bondservants

^12 (TS)“If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is ^(TT)sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. ¹³ And when you ^[ef]send him away free from you, you shall not let him go away empty-handed; ¹⁴ you shall supply him liberally from your flock, from your threshing floor, and from your winepress. From what the Lord your God has ^(TU)blessed you with, you shall give to him. ^15 (TV)You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this thing today. ¹⁶ And ^(TW)if it happens that he says to you, ‘I will not go away from you,’ because he loves you and your house, since he prospers with you, ¹⁷ then you shall take an awl and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also to your female servant you shall do likewise. ¹⁸ It shall not seem hard to you when you send him away free from you; for he has been worth ^(TX)a double hired servant in serving you six years. Then the Lord your God will bless you in all that you do.

The Law Concerning Firstborn Animals

^19 (TY)“All the firstborn males that come from your herd and your flock you shall ^[eg]sanctify to the Lord your God; you shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock. ^20 (TZ)You and your household shall eat it before the Lord your God year by year in the place which the Lord chooses. ^21 (UA)But if there is a defect in it, if it is lame or blind or has any serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God. ²² You may eat it within your gates; ^(UB)the unclean and the clean person alike may eat it, as if it were a gazelle or a deer. ²³ Only you shall not eat its blood; you shall pour it on the ground like water.