Chronological
Animals for sacrifice
17 When you offer an animal as a sacrifice to the Lord your God, it must be perfect. Do not bring any sheep or bull that has something wrong with it. The Lord hates any gift like that.
Justice
2 The Lord your God will give you towns to live in. You may hear that a man or a woman who lives in one of your towns has done a bad thing. He has done a sin that is against the covenant of the Lord your God. 3 He may have started to worship false gods that I have commanded you not to worship. Perhaps he worships the sun, the moon or the stars. 4 If you hear news like that, you must check the report carefully. If it is true that a wicked thing like that has happened in Israel, 5 you must punish that person. Take the man or woman who has done that wicked thing to the gate of the town. Then you must throw stones at that person to kill them. 6 But two or three people must agree about what the person has done. You must never kill anyone because of the words of only one person. 7 The people who saw the wicked act must throw the first stones to kill the person. Then everyone else must also throw stones. In that way, you must remove evil acts from among you.
8 It may be difficult for the judges in your towns to decide what is true. This may happen when one person has attacked or killed another person. It may happen when people cannot agree about some land. It may be anything that people in your towns are arguing about. If you do not know who is right, you must take those people to the place that the Lord your God will choose. 9 You must go to the Levite priests and to the judge who has authority at that time. Ask them to decide what is right and true. 10 When they decide, you must do what they tell you to do. 11 Accept their teaching. Agree with what they have decided is right. Obey their words completely. Do not try to do anything that is different. 12 Someone might be too proud to obey the priest who has authority as the Lord's servant. He may not agree with what the judge says is right. You must punish any proud person like that with death. In that way you will remove evil things from Israel. 13 Then all the people will hear what has happened. They will be afraid. They will no longer be too proud to obey the judge.
Rules for a king
14 You are going into the land that the Lord your God is giving to you. You will take it for yourselves to be your home. Then you may say, ‘The other nations around us have kings. We must also have a king to rule us.’ 15 If that happens, you must only accept a king that the Lord your God chooses. Choose a king from among your own people. Do not choose anyone who is not an Israelite.
16 A king must not get a lot of horses for himself. He must not send his people back to Egypt to buy more horses. The Lord has said to you, ‘Never return to Egypt for any reason!’
17 A king must not marry many wives. They may turn his thoughts away from the Lord. He must not store a lot of silver and gold for himself.
18 When anyone starts to rule as king, he must copy this Law of God on a scroll. The scroll will be a copy of the one that belongs to the Levite priests. 19 He must keep this scroll with him all the time. He must continue to read it every day of his life. If he does that, he will learn to respect the Lord his God. He will learn to obey all the rules and commands of this Law. 20 If he does that, he will not become proud. He will not think that he is better than other Israelites. He will continue to obey the Lord's commands. Then he and his descendants will rule Israel as kings for many years.
Priests and Levites[a]
18 The priests and the whole tribe of Levi will have no land for themselves, as the other Israelite tribes do. Instead, they may eat the meat from the sacrifices that belong to the Lord. 2 They will receive no land among the other Israelites. The Lord himself is the one who gives them everything that they need. He has promised to do that for them.
3 When you bring a bull or a sheep as a sacrifice to the Lord, give the priests their part. You must give them the animal's shoulder, the meat from its face, and its stomach. 4 You must also give them the first part of your grain, your wine and your olive oil. Give them the first wool that you cut from your sheep. 5 Do this because the Lord your God has chosen the Levites to serve him from among all your tribes. He wants them and their descendants to be ready to serve him at all times, for ever.
6 Any Levite may choose to go to the place that the Lord will choose. He can leave the town where he lives, wherever it is in Israel. 7 He may go to serve the Lord his God. He may join the other Levites who are ready to serve the Lord at his special place. 8 A Levite may have sold some of his family's valuable things. He may keep that money and he may receive the same amount of food as the other Levites.
Evil acts
9 When you go into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, be careful! Do not learn to do the evil things that the nations who live there are doing. 10 Nobody among you must ever burn your child in a fire, as an offering. Nobody must use magic or other things to learn about future times. There must not be any magicians or diviners. 11 Never use magic to curse anyone. Never try to speak to the spirits of dead people or other spirits. 12 The Lord hates anyone who does these things. It is because of those evil things that the Lord will chase the other nations out of the land as you move in. 13 You must live in a completely right way that pleases the Lord your God. 14 The people of the nations that you will chase away get help from magicians and diviners. But the Lord your God has commanded you not to do those things.
Moses speaks about a future prophet
15 One day, the Lord your God will send to you a prophet like me. He will come from among your own people. You must listen to him. 16 Remember what happened when you all met together at Sinai mountain. You said to the Lord your God, ‘Please do not let us hear your voice again. Do not let us see this great fire again. If we do, we will die!’
17 Then the Lord said to me, ‘The people have said the right thing. 18 I will send them a prophet who will be like you. He will be an Israelite. I will tell him what to say. Then he will tell the people everything that I command him to say. 19 He will speak on my behalf, so I myself will punish anyone who does not listen to his message.
20 A false prophet may say that he speaks with my authority when that is not true. Or he may say that he has a message from another god. You must punish a false prophet with death.’
21 You may say to yourselves, ‘How can we know when a message has not come from the Lord?’ 22 A prophet may say that he speaks with my authority, and he may say what will happen. But if it does not happen, you will know that his message has not come from me. He has not spoken my message. That prophet has spoken his own ideas. So do not be afraid of him!
Rules about safe cities
19 The Lord your God will destroy the nations who now live in the land that he is giving to you. You will chase them out and you will live in their cities and in their houses. 2-3 Make the land into three separate regions. Then choose three special cities, one city in each region.[b] Build good roads to each city so that people can easily travel to them. Then anyone who kills a person can run to one of these cities to be safe.
4 This is the rule when anyone has killed another person: If it was a mistake, he can run to a safe city. He can do that if he has killed someone that he did not already hate. 5 For example, two men may go to the forest to cut wood. As one man cuts wood with his axe, the metal part of the axe flies off. It hits the other man and it kills him. Then the killer can run to the nearest of the three cities. He will be safe there.
6 If there was no safe city near enough, the killer might not escape safely. The dead person's relative might chase him, catch him and kill him.[c] But the killer did not deserve to die. He had made a mistake. He had killed someone that he did not already hate. 7 So I command you to choose three cities to be safe cities for yourselves.[d]
8 The Lord your God promised your ancestors to give you more land to live in. When all that land belongs to you, 9 you must continue to obey all the commands that I am giving you today. You must continue to love the Lord your God and live in a way that pleases him. Then, when your land becomes bigger, you must choose three more cities to be safe cities. 10 You must not punish with death people who are not guilty. That would make you guilty yourselves. That must not happen in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
11 But perhaps somebody does hate another person. He may hide himself so that he can catch his enemy. Then he may attack him and kill him. After that, he may run to one of the safe cities. 12 If he does that, the leaders of his own town must fetch him back. They must bring him to the dead person's relative. He must die as his punishment. 13 Do not be sorry for him. You must punish murderers with death. Then Israel will not be guilty of evil acts. If you do that, everything will be well for you.
More rules
14 When you go to live in the land that the Lord your God is giving to you, each family will receive their piece of land. You must never move the stones that show the edge of your neighbour's land. It has always belonged to them.
15 If only one person says that he has seen someone do something wrong, that is not enough. There must be at least two or three people who saw the sin. Then the judge may say that the person is guilty.
16 Somebody may accuse another person because he wants to hurt him. He tells lies against him. 17 Then both of them must stand in front of the judges that the Lord has chosen. Those are the priests and the judges who have authority at that time. 18 The judges must be careful to discover who is telling the truth. The person may be speaking lies against another Israelite to accuse him. 19 If he is telling lies, you must punish him in the same way that he wanted to punish the other Israelite. You must remove evil things like this from among yourselves. 20 Then everyone else will hear what has happened. They will be afraid to do any more evil things like that. 21 Do not be sorry for people who are guilty. Punish people as they deserve: a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot.[e]
Rules for war
20 Do not be afraid when you go out to fight a war against your enemies. You may see that their armies have more horses, chariots and soldiers than you have. Do not be afraid of them! Remember that the Lord your God is with you. He rescued you from Egypt. 2 As you prepare to fight a battle, the priest must come to speak to your soldiers. 3 He must say, ‘Israelites, listen to me! Today you will fight against your enemies. Do not be afraid. Be brave! Do not shake with fear because your enemy is so strong. 4 The Lord your God is going into battle with you. He will fight for you against your enemies. He will cause you to win.’
5 Then the officers must say to the soldiers, ‘Has any of you built a new house but he has not yet asked God to bless it? If so, he may go home. If he does not, he may die in the battle. Then someone else will ask God to bless his home. 6 Has anyone planted a field with grapes but he has not yet picked any fruit? He also may go home. If he does not, he may die in the battle. Then someone else will enjoy the fruit. 7 Has anyone promised to marry a woman? If he has not married her yet, he may go home too. If not, he may die in the battle. Then another man will marry her.’
8 Then the officers must also say to the soldiers, ‘Is any of you afraid? Does anyone not feel brave? He may go home. Then he will not cause other men to be afraid like him.’
9 When the officers have finished speaking to the army, they must choose other officers to lead the groups of soldiers.
10 Before you start to attack a city, you must offer peace to the people who live there. Tell them what they must do to stop you attacking them. 11 If they agree, they will open the city's gates to let you go in. Then all the people in the city will become your slaves, to do hard work for you. 12 But they may refuse to agree. They may start to fight against you. If they do that, you must put your soldiers all around the city. 13 The Lord your God will give the city to you. Then you must kill all the men there. 14 But you can take for yourselves the women, the children, the animals and other valuable things in the city. You can take all these things from your enemies that God gives to you. 15 You must do this to all the cities that are far away from you. But it is different for the cities that belong to the nations of Canaan where you will live.
16 You will take for yourselves the cities in the land that the Lord your God is giving to you as your home. In those cities, you must kill everything that is alive, people and animals. 17 You must completely destroy all the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites. The Lord your God has commanded you to do this to the people of those nations.[f] 18 If not, they would teach you all the evil things that they do to worship their gods. They would cause you to do bad things against the Lord your God.
19 Perhaps you are preparing to attack a city. Your soldiers may have their camp around the city for a long time. If so, you must not cut down the fruit trees. Then you can eat the fruit from them. These trees are not people, like your enemies! So do not attack them! 20 But you can cut down the other trees that do not provide any food. You can use the wood to make things that will help you to attack the city. You can do this until you go into the city and you take it for yourselves.
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