Beginning
Rules about marriage and other things
24 Perhaps a man will marry a woman and then he discovers something that brings shame on her. So she does not please him any more. He must write a letter to say that they are no longer married. He gives the letter to his wife. Then he can send her away from his house. 2 After she has left his house, she might marry another man.
3 Later, her second husband may also not like her any more. So he also gives her a letter to finish the marriage. He sends her away from his house too. Or perhaps her second husband dies. 4 If that happens, her first husband must not marry her again. That is because she has had sex with another man. To marry her again would be a sin that the Lord hates. You must not do sins like that in the land that the Lord your God is giving to you as your new home.
5 When a man has just married, do not send him away to fight in the army. Do not make him work at jobs in other places. He should stay at home for one year. Then he can make his new wife very happy.
6 When you lend money to people, you may take something from them as a guarantee. But do not take the stones that they use to make grain into flour. Do not take either of the stones. People need both those stones to make food to stay alive. So do not take away their life.
7 A man might take hold of another Israelite and make him his slave. He might try to sell him as a slave. Anyone who does that must die. You must remove evil things from among you.
8 If you have leprosy, be very careful! Do everything that the Levite priests tell you to do. You must obey everything that I have commanded them. 9 Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam after you left Egypt.[a]
10 If you lend something to your neighbour you may take something from him as a guarantee.[b] But do not go into his house to take it. 11 You must wait outside the house. Then your neighbour can bring out what he has chosen to give you. 12 If the person is poor, do not take his coat and keep it with you all night. 13 You must always give his coat back to him before sunset. Then he can sleep in it to keep himself warm. He will ask God to bless you because you have been kind. The Lord your God will know that you have done the right thing.
14 Do not be cruel to any poor or helpless person who works for you. Be kind to him, whether he is an Israelite or a foreigner who lives in one of your towns. 15 You must pay him for his work every day before sunset. Remember that he is poor. He needs the money to stay alive. If you do not pay him, he may complain against you to the Lord. The Lord would say that you are guilty of a sin.
16 You must not punish fathers with death for the sins that their children do. You must not punish children with death for the sins that their fathers do. Each person must die only because of his own sins.
17 Remember to be completely fair to foreigners and to children who have no family. If you lend money to a widow, do not take her coat as a guarantee. 18 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God rescued you from there. That is why I am commanding you to do these things.
19 At harvest time, you might forget to bring in all the crops from your fields. Do not go back to pick up all the grain. Leave it there for foreigners, widows and children who have no family. If you do that, the Lord your God will bless you in all your work.
20 When you knock the olives off your trees, shake each branch only once. Leave the olives that remain for foreigners, widows and children who have no family. 21 When you pick your grapes, pick only once from each vine. Leave the grapes that remain for foreigners, widows and children who have no family. 22 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I am commanding you to do all these things.
25 When there is an argument between two people, they must both go to the judges. Then the judges will decide which of the two people is right. They will decide the punishment for the guilty person. 2 The judge may decide that his officers should beat the guilty person as punishment. The judge will make him lie down on the ground. Then he will watch as his officers beat the guilty person. They will hit him as many times as he deserves because of his wicked act. 3 But they must not hit him more than 40 times as his punishment. If it is more than that, nobody would respect him any more.
4 Do not tie shut the mouth of your ox while it walks on your grain to prepare it for you.[c]
5 Perhaps two brothers live together in the same place. One of the brothers may die before he has any son. If that happens, his widow must not marry anyone who does not belong to the family. Instead, the other brother must marry her. That is the right thing for him to do for his dead brother. 6 The first son that the widow gives birth to will be the son of her first husband. His family's name will not disappear from Israel.
7 But the man may not want to marry his brother's widow. If so, this is what the widow must do: She must go to the leaders when they meet at the town gate. She must say, ‘My dead husband's brother refuses to do his duty for me. He does not want his brother to have any descendants so that his family's name will continue.’
8 Then the town's leaders must call the man to come to them. They must talk to him. Perhaps he will continue to say, ‘I do not want to marry her!’
9 If that happens, his brother's widow must go near him, as the leaders watch. She must pull off one of his shoes and then she must spit in his face. She must say, ‘This is what we do to a man who will not give descendants to his dead brother!’ 10 After that, people will call that man's family, ‘the family of the man who lost his shoe.’
11 Perhaps two men are fighting each other. The wife of one of them comes to help him. She tries to save him from his enemy who is attacking him. Perhaps she takes hold of the man's sex parts. 12 If she does that, you must cut off her hand as punishment. Do not be sorry for her.
13 Do not try to cheat people when you weigh or measure things. Do not carry with you two different stone weights, one light one and one heavy one. 14 Do not keep in your house two different bowls to measure things, one big one and one small one. 15 You must keep true and honest weights. You must have bowls that measure things correctly. If you do that you will live for a long time in the land that the Lord your God is giving to you. 16 The Lord your God hates anyone who cheats other people and is not honest.
The Amalekites
17 Remember what the Amalekites did to you when you came out of Egypt.[d] 18 They attacked you when you were tired and weak. They killed all the people who were walking slowly at the back of your group. They were not afraid of God. 19 But the Lord your God will chase away all your enemies. He will give you a safe place to rest in the land that he is giving to you as your new home. When he does that, do not forget to destroy all the Amalekites. Make sure that nobody in the whole world will remember them any more.
Harvest gifts
26 You will soon go into the land that the Lord your God is giving to you. It will belong to you as your home. 2 This is what you must do the first time that the land provides food for you: At harvest time, when you bring in your crops, put some in a basket. Take it to the special place that the Lord your God will choose for people to worship him. 3 Go to the priest who has authority at that time. Say to him, ‘Today, I say to the Lord our God that I am now living in the land that he promised to us. He made that promise to our ancestors.’
4 Then the priest will take the basket from you. He will put it down in front of the altar of the Lord your God. 5 Then you must say this, so that the Lord your God hears you: ‘My ancestor was an Aramean who moved from place to place. He went to Egypt to live there as a foreigner. At that time, his family was small. But while he lived in Egypt, his family became a great nation of many powerful people. 6 But the Egyptian people were cruel to us. They made us work very hard for them. 7 So we prayed to the Lord, the God of our ancestors. He heard our prayers. He saw that we were in trouble. He saw that we had to do very hard work for cruel people. 8 So the Lord used his great strength and power to bring us out of Egypt. He did powerful miracles which caused the Egyptians to be afraid. 9 Then he brought us to this place. He gave us this land where there is plenty of food and drink, enough for everyone. 10 So now I am bringing the first food that has grown in my fields. You, Lord, have given it to me.’
Then you must put the basket down in front of the Lord's altar. Worship him there. 11 In that way, you will enjoy a meal to say ‘thank you’ for all the good things that the Lord your God has given to you and your family. Share your meal with the Levites and the foreign people who live among you.
12 Every third year you must keep safe a tenth part of all your crops. In the third year, you must give that tithe to the Levites, the foreigners who live among you, widows and the children who have no family. Then everyone who lives in your towns can eat all the food that they need.[e]
13 Then you can say to the Lord your God, ‘None of the tithe that belongs to you remains in my house. I have done what you commanded me to do. I have given it to the Levites, foreigners, widows and the children who have no family. I have not forgotten to obey your commands. 14 I have not eaten any of this special food when I was weeping for someone who had died. I did not touched any of it while I was unclean. I have not offered any of it to give honour to a dead person. I have obeyed you completely. I have done everything that you commanded me to do. 15 Please look down from your home in heaven and bless your people, Israel. Please bless the land that you have given to us. You promised our ancestors that you would do that. It is a land where there is plenty of food and drink, enough for everyone.’
Moses warns the people
16 Today, the Lord your God commands you to obey these laws and these rules. So be careful to obey them with all your mind and with all your strength. 17 Today, you have said clearly that the Lord is your God. You have agreed to live in a way that pleases him. You have agreed that you will obey his rules, his commands and his laws. You will do everything that he has told you to do. 18 Today the Lord has accepted you to be his own special people. He already promised that he would do that. As his people, you must obey all his commands. 19 If you do that, he will make you greater than all the other nations that he has made. Other nations will see that you are great. They will praise you and give you honour. You will be a nation that belongs to the Lord your God as his own special people. He has promised to do this.
The altar on Mount Ebal
27 Moses and the leaders of Israel said to the people, ‘Obey all these commands that I am giving you today. 2 You will soon go across the Jordan River and go into the land that the Lord your God is giving to you. When you are there, you must put up some large stones on Mount Ebal. Cover them with thick white paint. 3 Then write on them all these laws and teaching. You must do that when you go across the river into the land that the Lord your God is giving to you. It is a land where there is plenty of food and drink, enough for everyone. He promised your ancestors that he would give it to you. 4 After you go across the Jordan River, you must put these stones on Mount Ebal. Cover them with white paint. Do as I am telling you today.
5 Then you must build an altar there to worship the Lord your God. Do not use iron tools to cut the stones for the altar. 6 Use whole stones that you find to build it. Then offer burnt offerings to the Lord your God on the altar. 7 You must also offer friendship offerings there. Eat them with joy as you meet with the Lord your God. 8 Write all the words of this law on the stones that you will put there. Be sure to write them very clearly.’
The messages from Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim
9 Then Moses and the Levite priests said to all the Israelites, ‘Be quiet and listen carefully! Today, you have become the people who belong to the Lord your God. 10 Obey him. Obey his commands and his rules that I am giving you today.’
11 On the same day, Moses commanded the people, 12 ‘After you have gone across the Jordan River, these tribes must stand on Mount Gerizim: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin. They will bless the people. 13 These tribes must stand on Mount Ebal: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali. They will speak aloud God's curses.’
Curses
14 The Levites will shout this with a loud voice to all the Israelites:
15 ‘God will curse anyone who makes any image of a god and who worships it secretly. The Lord hates all idols that people make with metal or with wood.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Yes, we agree!’
16 ‘God will curse anyone who does not respect his parents.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Yes, we agree!’
17 ‘God will curse anyone who moves the stones at the edge of his neighbour's land.’[f] Then all the people will say, ‘Yes, we agree!’
18 ‘God will curse anyone who leads a blind person along the wrong path.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Yes, we agree!’
19 ‘God will curse anyone who stops foreigners, widows or children who have no family from receiving justice.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Yes, we agree!’
20 ‘God will curse any man who has sex with his father's wife. That would bring shame on his father.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Yes, we agree!’
21 ‘God will curse any man who has sex with any animal.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Yes, we agree!’
22 ‘God will curse any man who has sex with his sister, whether she is his father's daughter or his mother's daughter.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Yes, we agree!’
23 ‘God will curse any man who has sex with his wife's mother.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Yes, we agree!’
24 ‘God will curse anyone who murders anyone secretly.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Yes, we agree!’
25 ‘God will curse anyone who receives a bribe to kill someone who has done nothing wrong.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Yes, we agree!’
26 ‘God will curse anyone who refuses to obey all the words of this law.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Yes, we agree!’
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