Beginning

17 “You shall offer to the LORD your God no bullock or sheep in which is a blemish or any defect. For that is an abomination to the LORD your God.

² “If there is found among you in any of your cities which the LORD your God gives you, man or woman who has worked wickedness in the sight of the LORD your God in transgressing His Covenant

³ “and has gone and served other gods and worshipped them (as the Sun or the Moon or any of the host of Heaven which I have not commanded)

⁴ “and it is told to you and you have heard it, then you shall inquire diligently. And if true, the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel,

⁵ “then you shall bring forth to your gates that man or that woman who has committed that wicked thing (man or woman) and shall stone them with stones until they die.

⁶ “At the mouth of two or three witnesses shall he who is worthy of death die. At the mouth of one witness, he shall not die.

⁷ “The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him, to kill him, and then the hands of all the people. Thus you shall take the wicked away from among you.

⁸ “If there arises a matter too hard for you in judgment between blood and blood, between plea and plea, between plague and plague, in the matter of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise and go up to the place which the LORD your God shall choose.

⁹ “And you shall come to the priests of the Levites, and to the Judge that shall be in those days and ask. And they shall show you the sentence of judgment.

¹⁰ “And you shall do according to that thing which they of that place (which the LORD has chosen) show you. And you shall do according to all that they instruct you.

¹¹ “According to the Law which they shall teach you, and according to the judgment which they shall tell you, shall you do. You shall not turn away from the thing which they shall show you, to the right hand or the left.

¹² “And that man who will do presumptuously, not obeying the priest who stands before the LORD your God (to minister there) or to the judge, that man shall die. And you shall take away evil from Israel.

¹³ “So all the people shall hear and fear and do no more presumptuously.

¹⁴ “When you shall come to the land which the LORD your God gives you and shall possess it and dwell in it, if thou say, ‘I will set a king over me, just as all the nations that are around me’,

¹⁵ “you shall make him king over you whom the LORD your God shall choose. From among your brothers shall you make a king over yourselves. You shall not set a stranger over yourself who is not your brother.

¹⁶ “In any case, he shall not prepare many horses for himself, nor bring the people back to Egypt to increase the number of horses, seeing the LORD has said to you, ‘You shall never go that way again’.

¹⁷ “Nor shall he take many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away. Nor shall he gather much silver and gold for himself.

¹⁸ “And when he shall sit upon the throne of his kingdom, then he shall write himself this Law, repeated in a book by the Priest of the Levites.

¹⁹ “And it shall be with him. And he shall read it all days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this Law and to do these Ordinances,

²⁰ “so that his heart is not lifted up above his brothers’ and that he does not turn to the right hand or to the left from the Commandment, so that he may prolong his days in his kingdom (he and his sons) in the midst of Israel.”

18 “The priests of the Levites, and all the tribe of Levi, shall have no part or inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the offerings of the LORD made by fire, and His inheritance.

² “Therefore, they shall have no inheritance among their brothers. The LORD is their inheritance, as He has said to them.

³ “And this shall be the priest’s duty from the people: that those who offer sacrifice, whether bullock or sheep, shall give to the priest the shoulder, the two cheeks and the stomach.

⁴ “The firstfruits of your corn, of your wine, of your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep you shall give him.

⁵ “For the LORD your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the Name of the LORD, he and his sons forever.

⁶ “Also, when a Levite shall come out of any of your cities, out of all Israel, where he remained, and comes with all the desire of his heart to the place which the LORD shall choose,

⁷ “He shall then minister in the Name of the LORD his God, as all his brothers (the Levites) who remain there before the LORD.

⁸ “They shall have similar portions to eat besides that which comes from the sale of his inheritance.

⁹ “When you shall come into the land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations.

¹⁰ “Let no one be found among you who makes his son or his daughter into a human sacrifice, who uses witchcraft, is a soothsayer, an interpreter of omens or a sorcerer,

¹¹ “a conjurer who counsels with spirits, a medium, or one who asks counsel from the dead.

¹² “For all who do such things are an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations, the LORD your God casts them out before you.

¹³ “Therefore, you shall be upright with the LORD your God.

¹⁴ “For these nations, which you shall possess, obey soothsayers and sorcerers. As for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do so.

¹⁵ “The LORD your God will raise up to you a Prophet like me from among you, from your brothers. You shall listen to him,

¹⁶ “according to all that you desired of the LORD your God in Horeb, in the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me hear the Voice of my LORD God no more, nor see this great fire anymore, so that I do not die.’

¹⁷ “And the LORD said to me, ‘They have well spoken.

¹⁸ ‘I will raise up a Prophet for them like you, from among their brothers. And I will put My Words in his mouth. And he shall speak to all those whom I shall Command him.

¹⁹ ‘And whoever will not listen to My Words (which he shall speak in My Name), I will require it of him.

²⁰ ‘But the prophet who shall presume to speak a word in My Name whom I have not Commanded to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’

²¹ “And if you think in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?’

²² “When a prophet speaks in the Name of the LORD, if the thing does not follow or happen, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him.”

19 “When the LORD your God shall root out the nations whose land the LORD your God gives you, and you shall possess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses,

² “you shall separate three cities for yourself in the midst of your land which the LORD your God gives you to possess.

³ “You shall prepare the way for yourself and divide the coasts of the land which the LORD your God gives you to inherit into three parts, so that every manslayer may flee there.

⁴ “This also is the cause for which the manslayer shall flee there and live: whoever kills his neighbor ignorantly and did not hate him in time past —

⁵ “as he who goes to the forest with his neighbor to cut wood and his hand strikes with the axe to cut down the tree, if the head slips from the helve and hits his neighbor so that he dies—the same shall flee to one of the cities and live;

⁶ “lest the avenger of the blood follows after the manslayer while his heart is hot and overtakes him (because the way is long) and kills him, although he is not worthy of death because he did not hate him in time past.

⁷ “Therefore I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall separate three cities for yourself.’

⁸ “And when the LORD your God enlarges your coasts (as He has sworn to your fathers) and gives you all the land which He promised to give to your fathers

⁹ “(if you keep all these Commandments, to do them, which I command you this day: that you love the LORD your God and walk in His ways forever), then you shall add three more cities for yourselves besides those three,

¹⁰ “so that no innocent blood is shed within your land which the LORD your God gives you to inherit (lest blood be upon you).

¹¹ “But, if a man hates his neighbor and lays in wait for him and rises up against him and strikes any man so that he dies and flee to any of these cities,

¹² “then the elders of his city shall send and fetch him from there and deliver him to the hands of the avenger of the blood, so that he may die.

¹³ “Your eye shall not spare him, but you shall put away the cry of innocent blood from Israel, so that it may go well with you.

¹⁴ “You shall not remove your neighbor’s border, which those of old time have set in your inheritance, so that you shall inherit in the land which the LORD your God gives you to possess.

¹⁵ “One witness shall not rise against a man for any trespass, or for any sin, or for any fault in which he offends. At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.

¹⁶ “If a false witness rises up against a man to accuse him of trespass,

¹⁷ “then both men who strive together shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who shall be in those days.

¹⁸ “And the judges shall make diligent inquisition. And if the witness is found false (has given false witness against his brother),

¹⁹ “then you shall do to him as he had thought to do to his brother. So you shall take away evil from among you.

²⁰ “And the rest shall hear and fear and shall no longer commit any such wickedness among you.

²¹ “Therefore, your eye shall have no compassion: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.”

20 “When you shall go forth to war against your enemies and shall see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them. For the LORD your God is with you, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

² “And when you have come near the battle, then the Priest shall come forth to speak to the people,

³ “and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel. You have come this day to battle against your enemies. Do not let your hearts faint or fear or tremble or dread them.

⁴ ‘For the LORD your God goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.’

⁵ “And let the officers speak to the people, saying, ‘Whatever man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it, let him go and return to his house, lest he dies in the battle and another man dedicates it.

⁶ ‘And whatever man who has planted a vineyard and has not eaten of the fruit, let him go back to his house, lest he dies in the battle and another eats the fruit.

⁷ ‘And whatever man who has betrothed a wife and has not yet married her, let him go back to his house, lest he die in battle and another man marries her.’

⁸ “And let the officers speak further to the people, and say, ‘Whoever is afraid and faint-hearted, let him go and return to his house, lest his brother’s heart faints like his heart.’

⁹ “And after the officers have made an end of speaking to the people, they shall make captains of the army to govern the people.

¹⁰ “When you come near to a city, to fight against it, you shall offer it peace.

¹¹ “And if it answers you peaceably, and opens to you, then let all the people who are found in it be tributaries to you and serve you.

¹² “But if it will make no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it.

¹³ “And the LORD your God shall deliver it into your hands. And you shall strike all its males with the edge of the sword.

¹⁴ “But the women and the children and the cattle and all that is in the city, all its spoil you shall take for yourself. And you shall eat the spoil of your enemies which the LORD your God has given you.

¹⁵ “Thus shall you do to all the cities which are far away from you, which are not of the cities of these nations here.

¹⁶ “But of the cities of this people, which the LORD your God shall give you to inherit, you shall save no person alive.

¹⁷ “But you shall utterly destroy them—the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites—as the LORD your God has Commanded you,

¹⁸ “so that they do not teach you to follow after all their abominations which they have done for their gods, that you should sin against the LORD your God.

¹⁹ “When you have besieged a city for a long time, and made war against it, to take it, do not destroy its trees by striking them with an axe. If you may eat from them, then you shall not cut them down to further yourself in the siege, (for the tree of the field is man’s sustenance).

²⁰ “Only those trees which you know are not for food shall you destroy and cut down and make forts against the city that makes war with you, until you subdue it.”