Deuteronomy 1; Deuteronomy 7; Deuteronomy 9; Deuteronomy 10; Deuteronomy 14; Deuteronomy 15; Deuteronomy 16; Deuteronomy 17; Deuteronomy 18; Deuteronomy 19; Deuteronomy 20; Deuteronomy 21; Deuteronomy 22; Deuteronomy 23; Deuteronomy 24; Deuteronomy 25; Deuteronomy 30

Deuteronomy 1

1 This is the message Moses gave to all the people of Israel in the desert east of the Jordan River. They were in the desert area near Suph, between Paran and the towns of Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.

2 (The trip from Mount Sinai to Kadesh Barnea on the Mount Seir road takes eleven days.)

3 Forty years after the Israelites had left Egypt, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses told the people of Israel everything the Lord had commanded him to tell them.

4 This was after the Lord had defeated Sihon and Og. Sihon was king of the Amorite people and lived in Heshbon. Og was king of Bashan and lived in Ashteroth and Edrei.

5 Now the Israelites were east of the Jordan River in the land of Moab, and there Moses began to explain what God had commanded. He said:

6 The Lord our God spoke to us at Mount Sinai and said, "You have stayed long enough at this mountain.

7 Get ready, and go to the mountain country of the Amorites, and to all the places around there -- the Jordan Valley, the mountains, the western hills, the southern area, the seacoast, the land of Canaan, and Lebanon. Go as far as the great river, the Euphrates.

8 See, I have given you this land, so go in and take it for yourselves. The Lord promised it to your ancestors -- Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their descendants."

9 At that time I said, "I am not able to take care of you by myself.

10 The Lord your God has made you grow in number so that there are as many of you as there are stars in the sky.

11 I pray that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, will give you a thousand times more people and do all the wonderful things he promised.

12 But I cannot take care of your problems, your troubles, and your arguments by myself.

13 So choose some men from each tribe -- wise men who have understanding and experience -- and I will make them leaders over you."

14 And you said, "That's a good thing to do."

15 So I took the wise and experienced leaders of your tribes, and I made them your leaders. I appointed commanders over a thousand people, over a hundred people, over fifty people, and over ten people and made them officers over your tribes.

16 Then I told your leaders, "Listen to the arguments between your people. Judge fairly between two Israelites or between an Israelite and a foreigner.

17 When you judge, be fair to everyone; don't act as if one person is more important than another, and don't be afraid of anyone, because your decision comes from God. Bring the hard cases to me, and I will judge them."

18 At that time I told you everything you must do.

19 Then, as the Lord our God commanded us, we left Mount Sinai and went toward the mountain country of the Amorite people. We went through that large and terrible desert you saw, and then we came to Kadesh Barnea.

20 I said to you, "You have now come to the mountain country of the Amorites, to the land the Lord our God will give us.

21 Look, here it is! Go up and take it. The Lord, the God of your ancestors, told you to do this, so don't be afraid and don't worry."

22 Then all of you came to me and said, "Let's send men before us to spy out the land. They can come back and tell us about the way we should go and the cities we will find."

23 I thought that was a good idea, so I chose twelve of your men, one for each tribe.

24 They left and went up to the mountains, and when they came to the Valley of Eshcol they explored it.

25 They took some of the fruit from that land and brought it down to us, saying, "It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us."

26 But you refused to go. You would not obey the command of the Lord your God,

27 but grumbled in your tents, saying, "The Lord hates us. He brought us out of Egypt just to give us to the Amorites, who will destroy us.

28 Where can we go now? The spies we sent have made us afraid, because they said, 'The people there are stronger and taller than we are. The cities are big, with walls up to the sky. And we saw the Anakites there!'"

29 Then I said to you, "Don't be frightened; don't be afraid of those people.

30 The Lord your God will go ahead of you and fight for you as he did in Egypt; you saw him do it.

31 And in the desert you saw how the Lord your God carried you, like one carries a child. And he has brought you safely all the way to this place."

32 But you still did not trust the Lord your God, even though

33 he had always gone before you to find places for you to camp. In a fire at night and in a cloud during the day, he showed you which way to go.

34 When the Lord heard what you said, he was angry and made an oath, saying,

35 "I promised a good land to your ancestors, but none of you evil people will see it.

36 Only Caleb son of Jephunneh will see it. I will give him and his descendants the land he walked on, because he followed the Lord completely."

37 Because of you, the Lord was also angry with me and said, "You won't enter the land either,

38 but your assistant, Joshua son of Nun, will enter it. Encourage him, because he will lead Israel to take the land for their own.

39 "Your little children that you said would be captured, who do not know right from wrong at this time, will go into the land. I will give the land to them, and they will take it for their own.

40 But you must turn around and follow the desert road toward the Red Sea."

41 Then you said to me, "We have sinned against the Lord, but now we will go up and fight, as the Lord our God commanded us." Then all of you put on weapons, thinking it would be easy to go into the mountains.

42 But the Lord said to me, "Tell the people, 'You must not go up there and fight. I will not be with you, and your enemies will defeat you.'"

43 So I told you, but you would not listen. You would not obey the Lord's command. You were proud, so you went on up into the mountains,

44 and the Amorites who lived in those mountains came out and fought you. They chased you like bees and defeated you from Edom to Hormah.

45 So you came back and cried before the Lord, but the Lord did not listen to you; he refused to pay attention to you.

46 So you stayed in Kadesh a long time.

Deuteronomy 7

1 The Lord your God will bring you into the land that you are entering and that you will have as your own. As you go in, he will force out these nations: the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites -- seven nations that are stronger than you.

2 The Lord your God will hand these nations over to you, and when you defeat them, you must destroy them completely. Do not make a peace treaty with them or show them any mercy.

3 Do not marry any of them, or let your daughters marry their sons, or let your sons marry their daughters.

4 If you do, those people will turn your children away from me, to begin serving other gods. Then the Lord will be very angry with you, and he will quickly destroy you.

5 This is what you must do to those people: Tear down their altars, smash their holy stone pillars, cut down their Asherah idols, and burn their idols in the fire.

6 You are holy people who belong to the Lord your God. He has chosen you from all the people on earth to be his very own.

7 The Lord did not care for you and choose you because there were many of you -- you are the smallest nation of all.

8 But the Lord chose you because he loved you, and he kept his promise to your ancestors. So he brought you out of Egypt by his great power and freed you from the land of slavery, from the power of the king of Egypt.

9 So know that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God. He will keep his agreement of love for a thousand lifetimes for people who love him and obey his commands.

10 But he will pay back those people who hate him. He will destroy them, and he will not be slow to pay back those who hate him.

11 So be careful to obey the commands, rules, and laws I give you today.

12 If you pay attention to these laws and obey them carefully, the Lord your God will keep his agreement and show his love to you, as he promised your ancestors.

13 He will love and bless you. He will make the number of your people grow; he will bless you with children. He will bless your fields with good crops and will give you grain, new wine, and oil. He will bless your herds with calves and your flocks with lambs in the land he promised your ancestors he would give you.

14 You will be blessed more than any other people. Every husband and wife will have children, and all your cattle will have calves.

15 The Lord will take away all disease from you; you will not have the terrible diseases that were in Egypt, but he will give them to all the people who hate you.

16 You must destroy all the people the Lord your God hands over to you. Do not feel sorry for them, and do not worship their gods, or they will trap you.

17 You might say to yourselves, "Because these nations are stronger than we are, we can't force them out."

18 But don't be afraid of them. Remember what the Lord your God did to all of Egypt and its king.

19 You saw for yourselves the troubles, signs, and miracles he did, how the Lord's great power and strength brought you out of Egypt. The Lord your God will do the same thing to all the nations you now fear.

20 The Lord your God will also send terror among them so that even those who are alive and hiding from you will die.

21 Don't be afraid of them, because the Lord your God is with you; he is a great God and people are afraid of him.

22 When the Lord your God forces those nations out of the land, he will do it little by little ahead of you. You won't be able to destroy them all at once; otherwise, the wild animals will grow too many in number.

23 But the Lord your God will hand those nations over to you, confusing them until they are destroyed.

24 The Lord will help you defeat their kings, and the world will forget who they were. No one will be able to stop you; you will destroy them all.

25 Burn up their idols in the fire. Do not wish for the silver and gold they have, and don't take it for yourselves, or you will be trapped by it. The Lord your God hates it.

26 Do not bring one of those hateful things into your house, or you will be completely destroyed along with it. Hate and reject those things; they must be completely destroyed.

Deuteronomy 9

1 Listen, Israel. You will soon cross the Jordan River to go in and force out nations that are bigger and stronger than you. They have large cities with walls up to the sky.

2 The people there are Anakites, who are strong and tall. You know about them, and you have heard it said: "No one can stop the Anakites."

3 But today remember that the Lord your God goes in before you to destroy them like a fire that burns things up. He will defeat them ahead of you, and you will force them out and destroy them quickly, just as the Lord has said.

4 After the Lord your God has forced those nations out ahead of you, don't say to yourself, "The Lord brought me here to take this land because I am so good." No! It is because these nations are evil that the Lord will force them out ahead of you.

5 You are going in to take the land, not because you are good and honest, but because these nations are evil. That is why the Lord your God will force them out ahead of you, to keep his promise to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

6 The Lord your God is giving you this good land to take as your own. But know this: It is not because you are good; you are a stubborn people.

7 Remember this and do not forget it: You made the Lord your God angry in the desert. You would not obey the Lord from the day you left Egypt until you arrived here.

8 At Mount Sinai you made the Lord angry -- angry enough to destroy you.

9 When I went up on the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets with the Agreement the Lord had made with you, I stayed on the mountain for forty days and forty nights; I did not eat bread or drink water.

10 The Lord gave me two stone tablets, which God had written on with his own finger. On them were all the commands that the Lord gave to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day you were gathered there.

11 When the forty days and forty nights were over, the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets with the Agreement on them.

12 Then the Lord told me, "Get up and go down quickly from here, because the people you brought out from Egypt are ruining themselves. They have quickly turned away from what I commanded and have made an idol for themselves."

13 The Lord said to me, "I have watched these people, and they are very stubborn!

14 Get away so that I may destroy them and make the whole world forget who they are. Then I will make another nation from you that will be bigger and stronger than they are."

15 So I turned and came down the mountain that was burning with fire, and the two stone tablets with the Agreement were in my hands.

16 When I looked, I saw you had sinned against the Lord your God and had made an idol in the shape of a calf. You had quickly turned away from what the Lord had told you to do.

17 So I took the two stone tablets and threw them down, breaking them into pieces right in front of you.

18 Then I again bowed facedown on the ground before the Lord for forty days and forty nights; I did not eat bread or drink water. You had sinned by doing what the Lord said was evil, and you made him angry.

19 I was afraid of the Lord's anger and rage, because he was angry enough with you to destroy you, but the Lord listened to me again.

20 And the Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but then I prayed for Aaron, too.

21 I took that sinful calf idol you had made and burned it in the fire. I crushed it into a powder like dust and threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain.

22 You also made the Lord angry at Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth Hattaavah.

23 Then the Lord sent you away from Kadesh Barnea and said, "Go up and take the land I have given you." But you rejected the command of the Lord your God. You did not trust him or obey him.

24 You have refused to obey the Lord as long as I have known you.

25 The Lord had said he would destroy you, so I threw myself down in front of him for those forty days and forty nights.

26 I prayed to the Lord and said, "Lord God, do not destroy your people, your own people, whom you freed and brought out of Egypt by your great power and strength.

27 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Don't look at how stubborn these people are, and don't look at their sin and evil.

28 Otherwise, Egypt will say, 'It was because the Lord was not able to take his people into the land he promised them, and it was because he hated them that he took them into the desert to kill them.'

29 But they are your people, Lord, your own people, whom you brought out of Egypt with your great power and strength."

Deuteronomy 10

1 At that time the Lord said to me, "Cut two stone tablets like the first ones and come up to me on the mountain. Also make a wooden Ark.

2 I will write on the tablets the same words that were on the first tablets, which you broke, and you will put the new tablets in the Ark."

3 So I made the Ark out of acacia wood, and I cut out two stone tablets like the first ones. Then I went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hands.

4 The Lord wrote the same things on these tablets he had written before -- the Ten Commandments that he had told you on the mountain from the fire, on the day you were gathered there. And the Lord gave them to me.

5 Then I turned and came down the mountain; I put the tablets in the Ark I had made, as the Lord had commanded, and they are still there.

6 (The people of Israel went from the wells of the Jaakanites to Moserah. Aaron died there and was buried; his son Eleazar became priest in his place.

7 From Moserah they went to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah they went to Jotbathah, a place with streams of water.

8 At that time the Lord chose the tribe of Levi to carry the Ark of the Agreement with the Lord. They were to serve the Lord and to bless the people in his name, which they still do today.

9 That is why the Levites did not receive any land of their own; instead, they received the Lord himself as their gift, as the Lord your God told them.)

10 I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights just like the first time, and the Lord listened to me this time also. He did not want to destroy you.

11 The Lord said to me, "Go and lead the people so that they will go in and take the land I promised their ancestors."

12 Now, Israel, this is what the Lord your God wants you to do: Respect the Lord your God, and do what he has told you to do. Love him. Serve the Lord your God with your whole being,

13 and obey the Lord's commands and laws that I am giving you today for your own good.

14 The Lord owns the world and everything in it -- the heavens, even the highest heavens, are his.

15 But the Lord cared for and loved your ancestors, and he chose you, their descendants, over all the other nations, just as it is today.

16 Give yourselves completely to serving him, and do not be stubborn any longer.

17 The Lord your God is God of all gods and Lord of all lords. He is the great God, who is strong and wonderful. He does not take sides, and he will not be talked into doing evil.

18 He helps orphans and widows, and he loves foreigners and gives them food and clothes.

19 You also must love foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt.

20 Respect the Lord your God and serve him. Be loyal to him and make your promises in his name.

21 He is the one you should praise; he is your God, who has done great and wonderful things for you, which you have seen with your own eyes.

22 There were only seventy of your ancestors when they went down to Egypt, and now the Lord your God has made you as many as the stars in the sky.

Deuteronomy 14

1 You are the children of the Lord your God. When someone dies, do not cut yourselves or shave your heads to show your sadness.

2 You are holy people, who belong to the Lord your God. He has chosen you from all the people on earth to be his very own.

3 Do not eat anything the Lord hates.

4 These are the animals you may eat: oxen, sheep, goats,

5 deer, gazelle, roe deer, wild goats, ibex, antelope, and mountain sheep.

6 You may eat any animal that has a split hoof and chews the cud,

7 but you may not eat camels, rabbits, or rock badgers. These animals chew the cud, but they do not have split hoofs, so they are unclean for you.

8 Pigs are also unclean for you; they have split hoofs, but they do not chew the cud. Do not eat their meat or touch their dead bodies.

9 There are many things that live in the water. You may eat anything that has fins and scales,

10 but do not eat anything that does not have fins and scales. It is unclean for you.

11 You may eat any clean bird.

12 But do not eat these birds: eagles, vultures, black vultures,

13 red kites, falcons, any kind of kite,

14 any kind of raven,

15 horned owls, screech owls, sea gulls, any kind of hawk,

16 little owls, great owls, white owls,

17 desert owls, ospreys, cormorants,

18 storks, any kind of heron, the hoopoes, or bats.

19 All insects with wings are unclean for you; do not eat them.

20 Other things with wings are clean, and you may eat them.

21 Do not eat anything you find that is already dead. You may give it to a foreigner living in your town, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. But you are holy people, who belong to the Lord your God. Do not cook a baby goat in its mother's milk.

22 Be sure to save one-tenth of all your crops each year.

23 Take it to the place the Lord your God will choose where he is to be worshiped. There, where you will be together with the Lord, eat the tenth of your grain, new wine, and oil, and eat the animals born first to your herds and flocks. Do this so that you will learn to respect the Lord your God always.

24 But if the place the Lord will choose to be worshiped is too far away and he has blessed you so much you cannot carry a tenth,

25 exchange your one-tenth for silver. Then take the silver with you to the place the Lord your God shall choose.

26 Use the silver to buy anything you wish -- cattle, sheep, wine, beer, or anything you wish. Then you and your family will eat and celebrate there before the Lord your God.

27 Do not forget the Levites in your town, because they have no land of their own among you.

28 At the end of every third year, everyone should bring one-tenth of that year's crop and store it in your towns.

29 This is for the Levites so they may eat and be full. (They have no land of their own among you.) It is also for strangers, orphans, and widows who live in your towns so that all of them may eat and be full. Then the Lord your God will bless you and all the work you do.

Deuteronomy 15

1 At the end of every seven years, you must tell those who owe you anything that they do not have to pay you back.

2 This is how you must do it: Everyone who has loaned money must cancel the loan and not make a neighbor or relative pay it back. This is the Lord's time for canceling what people owe.

3 You may make a foreigner pay what is owed to you, but you must not collect what another Israelite owes you.

4 But there should be no poor people among you, because the Lord your God will richly bless you in the land he is giving you as your own.

5 He will bless you if you obey the Lord your God completely, but you must be careful to obey all the commands I am giving you today.

6 The Lord your God will bless you as he promised, and you will lend to other nations, but you will not need to borrow from them. You will rule over many nations, but none will rule over you.

7 If there are poor among you, in one of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be selfish or greedy toward them.

8 But give freely to them, and freely lend them whatever they need.

9 Beware of evil thoughts. Don't think, "The seventh year is near, the year to cancel what people owe." You might be mean to the needy and not give them anything. Then they will complain to the Lord about you, and he will find you guilty of sin.

10 Give freely to the poor person, and do not wish that you didn't have to give. The Lord your God will bless your work and everything you touch.

11 There will always be poor people in the land, so I command you to give freely to your neighbors and to the poor and needy in your land.

12 If one of your own people sells himself to you as a slave, whether it is a Hebrew man or woman, that person will serve you for six years. But in the seventh year you must let the slave go free.

13 When you let slaves go, don't send them away without anything.

14 Give them some of your flock, your grain, and your wine, giving to them as the Lord has given to you.

15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and the Lord your God saved you. That is why I am commanding this to you today.

16 But if your slave says to you, "I don't want to leave you," because he loves you and your family and has a good life with you,

17 stick an awln through his ear into the door; he will be your slave for life. Also do this to a female slave.

18 Do not think of it as a hard thing when you let your slaves go free. After all, they served you six years and did twice the work of a hired person. The Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.

19 Save all the first male animals born to your herds and flocks. They are for the Lord your God. Do not work the first calf born to your oxen, and do not cut off the wool from the first lamb born to your sheep.

20 Each year you and your family are to eat these animals in the presence of the Lord your God, in the place he will choose to be worshiped.

21 If an animal is crippled or blind or has something else wrong, do not sacrifice it to the Lord your God.

22 But you may eat that animal in your own town. Both clean and unclean people may eat it, as they would eat a gazelle or a deer.

23 But don't eat its blood; pour it out on the ground like water.

Deuteronomy 16

1 Celebrate the Passover of the Lord your God during the month of Abib, because it was during Abib that he brought you out of Egypt at night.

2 As the sacrifice for the Passover to the Lord your God, offer an animal from your flock or herd at the place the Lord will choose to be worshiped.

3 Do not eat it with bread made with yeast. But for seven days eat bread made without yeast, the bread of suffering, because you left Egypt in a hurry. So all your life you will remember the time you left Egypt.

4 There must be no yeast anywhere in your land for seven days. Offer the sacrifice on the evening of the first day, and eat all the meat before morning; do not leave it overnight.

5 Do not offer the Passover sacrifice in just any town the Lord your God gives you,

6 but offer it in the place he will choose to be worshiped. Offer it in the evening as the sun goes down, which is when you left Egypt.

7 Roast the meat and eat it at the place the Lord your God will choose. The next morning go back to your tents.

8 Eat bread made without yeast for six days. On the seventh day have a special meeting for the Lord your God, and do not work that day.

9 Count seven weeks from the time you begin to harvest the grain,

10 and then celebrate the Feast of Weeks for the Lord your God. Bring an offering as a special gift to him, giving to him just as he has blessed you.

11 Rejoice before the Lord your God at the place he will choose to be worshiped. Everybody should rejoice: you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites in your town, the strangers, orphans, and widows living among you.

12 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and carefully obey all these laws.

13 Celebrate the Feast of Shelters for seven days, after you have gathered your harvest from the threshing floor and winepress.

14 Everybody should rejoice at your Feast: you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites, strangers, orphans, and widows who live in your towns.

15 Celebrate the Feast to the Lord your God for seven days at the place he will choose, because the Lord your God will bless all your harvest and all the work you do, and you will be completely happy.

16 All your men must come before the Lord three times a year to the place he will choose. They must come at these times: the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Shelters. No man should come before the Lord without a gift.

17 Each of you must bring a gift that will show how much the Lord your God has blessed you.

18 Appoint judges and officers for your tribes in every town the Lord your God is giving you; they must judge the people fairly.

19 Do not judge unfairly or take sides. Do not let people pay you to make wrong decisions, because that kind of payment makes wise people seem blind, and it changes the words of good people.

20 Always do what is right so that you will live and always have the land the Lord your God is giving you.

21 Do not set up a wooden Asherah idol next to the altar you build for the Lord your God,

22 and do not set up holy stone pillars. The Lord your God hates them.

Deuteronomy 17

1 If an ox or sheep has something wrong with it, do not offer it as a sacrifice to the Lord your God. He would hate that.

2 A man or woman in one of the towns the Lord gave you might be found doing something evil and breaking the Agreement.

3 That person may have served other gods and bowed down to them or to the sun or moon or stars of the sky, which I have commanded should not be done.

4 If someone has told you about it, you must look into the matter carefully. If it is true that such a hateful thing has happened in Israel,

5 take the man or woman who has done the evil thing to the city gates and throw stones at that person until he dies.

6 There must be two or three witnesses that it is true before the person is put to death; if there is only one witness, the person should not be put to death.

7 The witnesses must be the first to throw stones at the person, and then everyone else will follow. You must get rid of the evil among you.

8 Some cases that come before you, such as murder, quarreling, or attack, may be too difficult to judge. Take these cases to the place the Lord your God will choose.

9 Go to the priests who are Levites and to the judge who is on duty at that time. Ask them about the case, and they will decide.

10 You must follow the decision they give you at the place the Lord your God will choose. Be careful to do everything they tell you.

11 Follow the teachings they give you, and do whatever they decide, exactly as they tell you.

12 The person who does not show respect for the judge or priest who is there serving the Lord your God must be put to death. You must get rid of that evil from Israel.

13 Then everyone will hear about this and will be afraid, and they will not show disrespect anymore.

14 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, taking it as your own and living in it, you will say, "Let's appoint a king over us like the nations all around us."

15 Be sure to appoint over you the king the Lord your God chooses. He must be one of your own people. Do not appoint as your king a foreigner who is not a fellow Israelite.

16 The king must not have too many horses for himself, and he must not send people to Egypt to get more horses, because the Lord has told you, "Don't return that way again."

17 The king must not have many wives, or his heart will be led away from God. He must not have too much silver and gold.

18 When he becomes king, he should write a copy of the teachings on a scroll for himself, a copy taken from the priests and Levites.

19 He should keep it with him all the time and read from it every day of his life. Then he will learn to respect the Lord his God, and he will obey all the teach- ings and commands.

20 He should not think he is better than his fellow Israelites, and he must not stop obeying the law in any way so that he and his descendants may rule the kingdom for a long time.

Deuteronomy 18

1 The priests are from the tribe of Levi, and that tribe will not receive a share of the land with the Israelites. They will eat the offerings made to the Lord by fire, which is their share.

2 They will not inherit any of the land like their brothers, but they will inherit the Lord himself, as he has promised them.

3 When you offer a bull or sheep as a sacrifice, you must share with the priests, giving them the shoulder, the cheeks, and the inner organs.

4 Give them the first of your grain, new wine, and oil, as well as the first wool you cut from your sheep.

5 The Lord your God has chosen the priests and their descendants out of all your tribes to stand and serve the Lord always.

6 If a Levite moves from one of your towns anywhere in Israel where he lives and comes to the place the Lord will choose, because he wants to serve the Lord there,

7 he may serve the Lord his God. He will be like his fellow Levites who serve there before the Lord.

8 They all will have an equal share of the food. That is separate from what he has received from the sale of family possessions.

9 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, don't learn to do the hateful things the other nations do.

10 Don't let anyone among you offer a son or daughter as a sacrifice in the fire. Don't let anyone use magic or witchcraft, or try to explain the meaning of signs.

11 Don't let anyone try to control others with magic, and don't let them be mediums or try to talk with the spirits of dead people.

12 The Lord hates anyone who does these things. Because the other nations do these things, the Lord your God will force them out of the land ahead of you.

13 But you must be innocent in the presence of the Lord your God.

14 The nations you will force out listen to people who use magic and witchcraft, but the Lord your God will not let you do those things.

15 The Lord your God will give you a prophet like me, who is one of your own people. Listen to him.

16 This is what you asked the Lord your God to do when you were gathered at Mount Sinai. You said, "Don't make us listen to the voice of the Lord our God again, and don't make us look at this terrible fire anymore, or we will die."

17 So the Lord said to me, "What they have said is good.

18 So I will give them a prophet like you, who is one of their own people. I will tell him what to say, and he will tell them everything I command.

19 This prophet will speak for me; anyone who does not listen when he speaks will answer to me.

20 But if a prophet says something I did not tell him to say as though he were speaking for me, or if a prophet speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must be killed."

21 You might be thinking, "How can we know if a message is not from the Lord?"

22 If what a prophet says in the name of the Lord does not happen, it is not the Lord's message. That prophet was speaking his own ideas. Don't be afraid of him.

Deuteronomy 19

1 When the Lord your God gives you land that belongs to the other nations, nations that he will destroy, you will force them out and live in their cities and houses.

2 Then choose three cities in the middle of the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own.

3 Build roads to these cities, and divide the land the Lord is giving you into three parts so that someone who kills another person may run to these cities.

4 This is the rule for someone who kills another person and runs to one of these cities in order to save his life. But the person must have killed a neighbor without meaning to, not out of hatred.

5 For example, suppose someone goes into the forest with a neighbor to cut wood and swings an ax to cut down a tree. If the ax head flies off the handle, hitting and killing the neighbor, the one who killed him may run to one of these cities to save his life.

6 Otherwise, the dead person's relative who has the duty of punishing a murderer might be angry and chase him. If the city is far away, the relative might catch and kill the person, even though he should not be killed because there was no intent to kill his neighbor.

7 This is why I command you to choose these three cities.

8

9 Carefully obey all these laws I'm giving you today. Love the Lord your God, and always do what he wants you to do. Then the Lord your God will enlarge your land as he promised your ancestors, giving you the whole land he promised to them. After that, choose three more cities of safety

10 so that innocent people will not be killed in your land, the land that the Lord your God is giving you as your own. By doing this you will not be guilty of allowing the death of innocent people.

11 But if a person hates his neighbor and, after hiding and waiting, attacks and kills him and then runs to one of these cities for safety,

12 the older leaders of his own city should send for the murderer. They should bring the person back from the city of safety and hand him over to the relative who has the duty of punishing the murderer.

13 Show no mercy. You must remove from Israel the guilt of murdering innocent people so that things will go well for you.

14 Do not move the stone that marks the border of your neighbor's land, which people long ago set in place. It marks what you inherit in the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own.

15 One witness is not enough to accuse a person of a crime or sin. A case must be proved by two or three witnesses.

16 If a witness lies and accuses a person of a crime,

17 the two people who are arguing must stand in the presence of the Lord before the priests and judges who are on duty.

18 The judges must check the matter carefully. The witness who is a liar, lying about a fellow Israelite,

19 must be punished. He must be punished in the same way the other person would have been punished. You must get rid of the evil among you.

20 The rest of the people will hear about this and be afraid, and no one among you will ever do such an evil thing again.

21 Show no mercy. A life must be paid for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot.

Deuteronomy 20

1 When you go to war against your enemies and you see horses and chariots and an army that is bigger than yours, don't be afraid of them. The Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, will be with you.

2 The priest must come and speak to the army before you go into battle.

3 He will say, "Listen, Israel! Today you are going into battle against your enemies. Don't lose your courage or be afraid. Don't panic or be frightened,

4 because the Lord your God goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies and to save you."

5 The officers should say to the army, "Has anyone built a new house but not given it to God? He may go home, because he might die in battle and someone else would get to give his house to God.

6 Has anyone planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy it? He may go home, because he might die in battle and someone else would enjoy his vineyard.

7 Is any man engaged to a woman and not yet married to her? He may go home, because he might die in battle and someone else would marry her."

8 Then the officers should also say, "Is anyone here afraid? Has anyone lost his courage? He may go home so that he will not cause others to lose their courage, too."

9 When the officers finish speaking to the army, they should appoint commanders to lead it.

10 When you march up to attack a city, first make them an offer of peace.

11 If they accept your offer and open their gates to you, all the people of that city will become your slaves and work for you.

12 But if they do not make peace with you and fight you in battle, you should surround that city.

13 The Lord your God will give it to you. Then kill all the men with your swords,

14 and you may take everything else in the city for yourselves. Take the women, children, and animals, and you may use these things the Lord your God gives you from your enemies.

15 Do this to all the cities that are far away, that do not belong to the nations nearby.

16 But leave nothing alive in the cities of the land the Lord your God is giving you.

17 Completely destroy these people: the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded.

18 Otherwise, they will teach you what they do for their gods, and if you do these hateful things, you will sin against the Lord your God.

19 If you surround and attack a city for a long time, trying to capture it, do not destroy its trees with an ax. You can eat the fruit from the trees, but do not cut them down. These trees are not the enemy, so don't make war against them.

20 But you may cut down trees that you know are not fruit trees and use them to build devices to attack the city walls, until the city is captured.

Deuteronomy 21

1 Suppose someone is found murdered, lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own, and no one knows who killed the person.

2 Your older leaders and judges should go to where the body was found, and they should measure how far it is to the nearby cities.

3 The older leaders of the city nearest the body must take a young cow that has never worked or worn a yoke,

4 and they must lead her down to a valley that has never been plowed or planted, with a stream flowing through it. There they must break the young cow's neck.

5 The priests, the sons of Levi, should come forward, because they have been chosen by the Lord your God to serve him and to give blessings in the Lord's name. They are the ones who decide cases of quarreling and attacks.

6 Then all the older leaders of the city nearest the murdered person should wash their hands over the young cow whose neck was broken in the valley.

7 They should declare: "We did not kill this person, and we did not see it happen.

8 Lord, remove this sin from your people Israel, whom you have saved. Don't blame your people, the Israelites, for the murder of this innocent person." And so the murder will be paid for.

9 Then you will have removed from yourselves the guilt of murdering an innocent person, because you will be doing what the Lord says is right.

10 When you go to war against your enemies, the Lord will help you defeat them so that you will take them captive.

11 If you see a beautiful woman among the captives and are attracted to her, you may take her as your wife.

12 Bring her into your home, where she must shave her head and cut her nails

13 and change the clothes she was wearing when you captured her. After she has lived in your house and cried for her parents for a month, you may marry her. You will be her husband, and she will be your wife.

14 But if you are not pleased with her, you must let her go anywhere she wants. You must not sell her for money or make her a slave, because you have taken away her honor.

15 A man might have two wives, one he loves and one he doesn't. Both wives might have sons by him. If the older son belongs to the wife he does not love,

16 when that man wills his property to his sons he must not give the son of the wife he loves what belongs to the older son, the son of the wife he does not love.

17 He must agree to give the older son two shares of everything he owns, even though the older son is from the wife he does not love. That son was the first to prove his father could have children, so he has the rights that belong to the older son.

18 If someone has a son who is stubborn, who turns against his father and mother and doesn't obey them or listen when they correct him,

19 his parents must take him to the older leaders at the city gate.

20 They will say to the leaders, "Our son is stubborn and turns against us. He will not obey us. He eats too much, and he is always drunk."

21 Then all the men in his town must throw stones at him until he dies. Get rid of the evil among you, because then all the people of Israel will hear about this and be afraid.

22 If someone is guilty of a sin worthy of death, he must be put to death and his body displayed on a tree.

23 But don't leave his body hanging on the tree overnight; be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone whose body is displayed on a tree is cursed by God. You must not ruin the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own.

Deuteronomy 22

1 If you see your fellow Israelite's ox or sheep wandering away, don't ignore it. Take it back to its owner.

2 If the owner does not live close to you, or if you do not know who the owner is, take the animal home with you. Keep it until the owner comes looking for it; then give it back.

3 Do the same thing if you find a donkey or coat or anything someone lost. Don't just ignore it.

4 If you see your fellow Israelite's donkey or ox fallen on the road, don't ignore it. Help the owner get it up.

5 A woman must not wear men's clothes, and a man must not wear women's clothes. The Lord your God hates anyone who does that.

6 If you find a bird's nest by the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother bird is sitting on the young birds or eggs, do not take the mother bird with the young birds.

7 You may take the young birds, but you must let the mother bird go free. Then things will go well for you, and you will live a long time.

8 When you build a new house, build a low wall around the edge of the roofn so you will not be guilty if someone falls off the roof.

9 Don't plant two different kinds of seeds in your vineyard. Otherwise, both crops will be ruined.

10 Don't plow with an ox and a donkey tied together.

11 Don't wear clothes made of wool and linen woven together.

12 Tie several pieces of thread together; then put these tassels on the four corners of your coat.

13 If a man marries a girl and has sexual relations with her but then decides he does not like her,

14 he might talk badly about her and give her a bad name. He might say, "I married this woman, but when I had sexual relations with her, I did not find that she was a virgin."

15 Then the girl's parents must bring proof that she was a virgin to the older leaders at the city gate.

16 The girl's father will say to the leaders, "I gave my daughter to this man to be his wife, but now he does not want her.

17 This man has told lies about my daughter. He has said, 'I did not find your daughter to be a virgin,' but here is the proof that my daughter was a virgin." Then her parents are to show the sheet to the city leaders,

18 and the leaders must take the man and punish him.

19 They must make him pay about two and one-half pounds of silver to the girl's father, because the man has given an Israelite virgin a bad name. The girl will continue to be the man's wife, and he may not divorce her as long as he lives.

20 But if the things the husband said about his wife are true, and there is no proof that she was a virgin,

21 the girl must be brought to the door of her father's house. Then the men of the town must put her to death by throwing stones at her. She has done a disgraceful thing in Israel by having sexual relations before she was married. You must get rid of the evil among you.

22 If a man is found having sexual relations with another man's wife, both the woman and the man who had sexual relations with her must die. Get rid of this evil from Israel.

23 If a man meets a virgin in a city and has sexual relations with her, but she is engaged to another man,

24 you must take both of them to the city gate and put them to death by throwing stones at them. Kill the girl, because she was in a city and did not scream for help. And kill the man for having sexual relations with another man's wife. You must get rid of the evil among you.

25 But if a man meets an engaged girl out in the country and forces her to have sexual relations with him, only the man who had sexual relations with her must be put to death.

26 Don't do anything to the girl, because she has not done a sin worthy of death. This is like the person who attacks and murders a neighbor;

27 the man found the engaged girl in the country and she screamed, but no one was there to save her.

28 If a man meets a virgin who is not engaged to be married and forces her to have sexual relations with him and people find out about it,

29 the man must pay the girl's father about one and one-fourth pounds of silver. He must also marry the girl, because he has dishonored her, and he may never divorce her for as long as he lives.

30 A man must not marry his father's wife; he must not dishonor his father in this way.

Deuteronomy 23

1 No man who has had part of his sex organ cut off may come into the meeting to worship the Lord.

2 No one born to parents who were forbidden by law to marry may come into the meeting to worship the Lord. The descendants for ten generations may not come in either.

3 No Ammonite or Moabite may come into the meeting to worship the Lord, and none of their descendants for ten generations may come in.

4 This is because the Ammonites and Moabites did not give you bread and water when you came out of Egypt. And they hired Balaam son of Beor, from Pethor in Northwest Mesopotamia, to put a curse on you

5 But the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam. He turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you.

6 Don't wish for their peace or success as long as you live.

7 Don't hate Edomites; they are your close relatives. Don't hate Egyptians, because you were foreigners in their country.

8 The great-grandchildren of these two peoples may come into the meeting to worship the Lord.

9 When you are camped in time of war, keep away from unclean things.

10 If a man becomes unclean during the night, he must go outside the camp and not come back.

11 But when evening comes, he must wash himself, and at sunset he may come back into the camp.

12 Choose a place outside the camp where people may go to relieve themselves.

13 Carry a tent peg with you, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your dung.

14 The Lord your God moves around through your camp to protect you and to defeat your enemies for you, so the camp must be holy. He must not see anything unclean among you so that he will not leave you

15 If an escaped slave comes to you, do not hand over the slave to his master.

16 Let the slave live with you anywhere he likes, in any town he chooses. Do not mistreat him.

17 No Israelite man or woman must ever become a temple prostitute.

18 Do not bring a male or female prostitute's pay to the Temple of the Lord your God to pay what you have promised to the Lord, because the Lord your God hates prostitution.

19 If you loan your fellow Israelites money or food or anything else, don't make them pay back more than you loaned them

20 You may charge foreigners, but not fellow Israelites. Then the Lord your God will bless everything you do in the land you are entering to take as your own.

21 If you make a promise to give something to the Lord your God, do not be slow to pay it, because the Lord your God demands it from you. Do not be guilty of sin

22 But if you do not make the promise, you will not be guilty.

23 You must do whatever you say you will do, because you chose to make the promise to the Lord your God.

24 If you go into your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as you wish, but do not put any grapes into your basket.

25 If you go into your neighbor's grainfield, you may pick grain with your hands, but you must not cut down your neighbor's grain with your sickle.

Deuteronomy 24

1 A man might marry a woman but later decide she doesn't please him because he has found something bad about her. He writes out divorce papers for her, gives them to her, and sends her away from his house.

2 After she leaves his house, she goes and marries another man,

3 but her second husband does not like her either. So he writes out divorce papers for her, gives them to her, and sends her away from his house. Or the second husband might die.

4 In either case, her first husband who divorced her must not marry her again, because she has become unclean. The Lord would hate this. Don't bring this sin into the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own.

5 A man who has just married must not be sent to war or be given any other duty. He should be free to stay home for a year to make his new wife happy.

6 If someone owes you something, do not take his two stones for grinding grain -- not even the upper one -- in place of what he owes, because this is how the person makes a living.

7 If someone kidnaps a fellow Israelite, either to make him a slave or sell him, the kidnapper must be killed. You must get rid of the evil among you.

8 Be careful when someone has a skin disease. Do exactly what the priests, the Levites, teach you, being careful to do what I have commanded them.

9 Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on your way out of Egypt.

10 When you make a loan to your neighbors, don't go into their homes to get something in place of it.

11 Stay outside and let them go in and get what they promised you.

12 If a poor person gives you a coat to show he will pay the loan back, don't keep it overnight.

13 Give the coat back at sunset, because your neighbor needs that coat to sleep in, and he will be grateful to you. And the Lord your God will see that you have done a good thing.

14 Don't cheat hired servants who are poor and needy, whether they are fellow Israelites or foreigners living in one of your towns.

15 Pay them each day before sunset, because they are poor and need the money. Otherwise,they may complain to the Lord about you, and you will be guilty of sin.

16 Parents must not be put to death if their children do wrong, and children must not be put to death if their parents do wrong. Each person must die for his own sin.

17 Do not be unfair to a foreigner or an orphan. Don't take a widow's coat to make sure she pays you back.

18 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and the Lord your God saved you from there. That is why I am commanding you to do this.

19 When you are gathering your harvest in the field and leave behind a bundle of grain, don't go back and get it. Leave it there for foreigners, orphans, and widows so that the Lord your God can bless everything you do.

20 When you beat your olive trees to knock the olives off, don't beat the trees a second time. Leave what is left for foreigners, orphans, and widows.

21 When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, don't pick the vines a second time. Leave what is left for foreigners, orphans, and widows.

22 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt; that is why I am commanding you to do this.

Deuteronomy 25

1 If two people have an argument and go to court, the judges will decide the case. They will declare one person right and the other guilty.

2 If the guilty person has to be punished with a beating, the judge will make that person lie down and be beaten in front of him. The number of lashes should match the crime.

3 But don't hit a person more than forty times, because more than that would disgrace him before others.

4 When an ox is working in the grain, do not cover its mouth to keep it from eating.

5 If two brothers are living together, and one of them dies without having a son, his widow must not marry someone outside her husband's family. Her husband's brother must marry her, which is his duty to her as a brother-in-law.

6 The first son she has counts as the son of the dead brother so that his name will not be forgotten in Israel.

7 But if a man does not want to marry his brother's widow, she should go to the older leaders at the town gate. She should say, "My brother-in-law will not carry on his brother's name in Israel. He refuses to do his duty for me."

8 Then the older leaders of the town must call for the man and talk to him. But if he is stubborn and says, "I don't want to marry her,"

9 the woman must go up to him in front of the leaders. She must take off one of his sandals and spit in his face and say, "This is for the man who won't continue his brother's family!"

10 Then that man's family shall be known in Israel as the Family of the Unsandaled.

11 If two men are fighting and one man's wife comes to save her husband from his attacker, grabbing the attacker by his sex organs,

12 you must cut off her hand. Show her no mercy.

13 Don't carry two sets of weights with you, one heavy and one light.

14 Don't have two different sets of measures in your house, one large and one small.

15 You must have true and honest weights and measures so that you will live a long time in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

16 The Lord your God hates anyone who is dishonest and uses dishonest measures.

17 Remember what the Amalekites did to you when you came out of Egypt.

18 When you were tired and worn out, they met you on the road and attacked all those lagging behind. They were not afraid of God.

19 When the Lord your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you as your own, you shall destroy any memory of the Amalekites on the earth. Do not forget!

Deuteronomy 30

1 When all these blessings and curses I have described happen to you, and the Lord your God has sent you away to other nations, think about these things.

2 Then you and your children will return to the Lord your God, and you will obey him with your whole being in everything I am commanding you today.

3 Then the Lord your God will give you back your freedom. He will feel sorry for you, and he will bring you back again from the nations where he scattered you.

4 He may send you to the ends of the earth, but he will gather you and bring you back from there,

5 back to the land that belonged to your ancestors. It will be yours. He will give you success, and there will be more of you than there were of your ancestors.

6 The Lord your God will prepare you and your descendants to love him with your whole being so that you will live.

7 The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies, who hate you and are cruel to you.

8 And you will again obey the Lord, keeping all his commands that I give you today.

9 The Lord your God will make you successful in everything you do. You will have many children, your cattle will have many calves, and your fields will produce good crops, because the Lord will again be happy with you, just as he was with your ancestors.

10 But you must obey the Lord your God by keeping all his commands and rules that are written in this Book of the Teachings. You must return to the Lord your God with your whole being.

11 This command I give you today is not too hard for you; it is not beyond what you can do.

12 It is not up in heaven. You do not have to ask, "Who will go up to heaven and get it for us so we can obey it and keep it?"

13 It is not on the other side of the sea. You do not have to ask, "Who will go across the sea and get it? Who will tell it to us so we can keep it?"

14 No, the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

15 Look, today I offer you life and success, death and destruction.

16 I command you today to love the Lord your God, to do what he wants you to do, and to keep his commands, his rules, and his laws. Then you will live and grow in number, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to take as your own.

17 But if you turn away from the Lord and do not obey him, if you are led to bow and serve other gods,

18 I tell you today that you will surely be destroyed. And you will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan River to enter and take as your own.

19 Today I ask heaven and earth to be witnesses. I am offering you life or death, blessings or curses. Now, choose life! Then you and your children may live.

20 To choose life is to love the Lord your God, obey him, and stay close to him. He is your life, and he will let you live many years in the land, the land he promised to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.