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 These are the words which Moses said to all Israel on the far side of Jordan, in the waste land in the Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran on the one side, and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab on the other.

2 It is eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea.

3 Now in the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses gave to the children of Israel all the orders which the Lord had given him for them;

4 After he had overcome Sihon, king of the Amorites, ruling in Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan, ruling in Ashtaroth, at Edrei:

5 On the far side of Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses gave the people this law, saying,

6 The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, You have been long enough in this mountain:

7 Make a move now, and go on your way into the hill-country of the Amorites and the places near it, in the Arabah and the hill-country and in the lowlands and in the South and by the seaside, all the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.

8 See, all the land is before you: go in and take for yourselves the land which the Lord gave by an oath to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their seed after them.

9 At that time I said to you, I am not able to undertake the care of you by myself;

10 The Lord your God has given you increase, and now you are like the stars of heaven in number.

11 May the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times greater in number than you are, and give you his blessing as he has said!

12 How is it possible for me by myself to be responsible for you, and undertake the weight of all your troubles and your arguments?

13 Take for yourselves men who are wise, far-seeing, and respected among you, from your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you.

14 And you made answer and said to me, It is good for us to do as you say.

15 So I took the heads of your tribes, wise men and respected, and made them rulers over you, captains of thousands and captains of hundreds and captains of fifties and captains of tens, and overseers of your tribes.

16 And at that time I gave orders to your judges, saying, Let all questions between your brothers come before you for hearing, and give decisions uprightly between a man and his brother or one from another nation who is with him.

17 In judging, do not let a man's position have any weight with you; give hearing equally to small and great; have no fear of any man, for it is God who is judge: and any cause in which you are not able to give a decision, you are to put before me and I will give it a hearing.

18 And at that time I gave you all the orders which you were to do.

19 Then we went on from Horeb, through all that great and cruel waste which you saw, on our way to the hill-country of the Amorites, as the Lord gave us orders; and we came to Kadesh-barnea.

20 And I said to you, You have come to the hill-country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us.

21 See now, the Lord your God has put the land into your hands: go up and take it, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has said to you; have no fear and do not be troubled.

22 And you came near to me, every one of you, and said, Let us send men before us to go through the land with care and give us an account of the way we are to go and the towns to which we will come.

23 And what you said seemed good to me, and I took twelve men from among you, one from every tribe;

24 And they went up into the hill-country and came to the valley of Eshcol, and saw what was there.

25 And taking in their hands some of the fruit of the land, they came down again to us, and gave us their account, saying, It is a good land which the Lord our God is giving us.

26 But going against the order of the Lord your God, you would not go up:

27 And you made an angry outcry in your tents, and said, In his hate for us the Lord has taken us out of the land of Egypt, to give us up into the hands of the Amorites for our destruction.

28 Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our hearts feeble with fear by saying, The people are greater and taller than we are, and the towns are great and walled up to heaven; and more than this, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.

29 Then I said to you, Have no fear of them.

30 The Lord your God who goes before you will be fighting for you, and will do such wonders as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes;

31 And in the waste land, where you have seen how the Lord was supporting you, as a man does his son, in all your journeying till you came to this place.

32 But for all this, you had no faith in the Lord your God,

33 Who goes before you on your way, looking for a place where you may put up your tents, in fire by night, lighting up the way you are to go, and in a cloud by day.

34 And the Lord, hearing your words, was angry, and said with an oath,

35 Truly, not one of this evil generation will see that good land which I said I would give to your fathers,

36 But only Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, he will see it; and to him and to his children I will give the land over which his feet have gone, because he has been true to the Lord with all his heart.

37 And, in addition, the Lord was angry with me because of you, saying, You yourself will not go into it:

38 Joshua, the son of Nun, your servant, he will go into the land: say to him that he is to be strong, for he will be Israel's guide into their heritage.

39 And your little ones, who, you said, would come into strange hands, your children, who now have no knowledge of good or evil, they will go into that land, and to them I will give it and it will be theirs.

40 But as for you, go back, journeying into the waste land by the way of the Red Sea.

41 Then you said to me, We have done evil against the Lord, we will go up to the attack, as the Lord our God has given us orders. And arming yourselves every one, you made ready to go up without care into the hill-country.

42 And the Lord said to me, Say to them, Do not go up to the attack; for I am not among you, and you will be overcome by those who are against you.

43 This I said to you, but you gave no attention and went against the orders of the Lord, and in your pride went up into the hill-country.

44 And the Amorites who were in the hill-country came out against you and put you to flight, rushing after you like bees, and overcame you in Seir, driving you even as far as Hormah.

45 And you came back, weeping before the Lord; but the Lord gave no attention to your cries and did not give ear to you.

46 So you were kept waiting in Kadesh for a long time.

Deuteronomy 7

1 When the Lord your God takes you into the land where you are going, which is to be your heritage, and has sent out the nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you;

2 And when the Lord has given them up into your hands and you have overcome them, give them up to complete destruction: make no agreement with them, and have no mercy on them:

3 Do not take wives or husbands from among them; do not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons.

4 For through them your sons will be turned from me to the worship of other gods: and the Lord will be moved to wrath against you and send destruction on you quickly.

5 But this is what you are to do to them: their altars are to be pulled down and their pillars broken, and their holy trees cut down and their images burned with fire.

6 For you are a holy people to the Lord your God: marked out by the Lord your God to be his special people out of all the nations on the face of the earth.

7 The Lord did not give you his love or take you for himself because you were more in number than any other people; for you were the smallest of the nations:

8 But because of his love for you, and in order to keep his oath to your fathers, the Lord took you out with the strength of his hand, making you free from the prison-house and from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

9 Be certain, then, that the Lord your God is God; whose faith and mercy are unchanging, who keeps his word through a thousand generations to those who have love for him and keep his laws;

10 Rewarding his haters to their face with destruction; he will have no mercy on his hater, but will give him open punishment.

11 So keep the orders and the laws and the decisions which I give you today and do them.

12 And it will be, that if you give attention to these decisions and keep and do them, then the Lord will keep his agreement with you and his mercy, as he said in his oath to your fathers.

13 And he will give you his love, blessing you and increasing you: he will send his blessing on the offspring of your body and the fruit of your land, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the young of your flock, in the land which by his oath to your fathers he undertook to give you.

14 You will have greater blessings than any other people: no male or female among you or among your cattle will be without offspring.

15 And the Lord will take away from you all disease, and will not put on you any of the evil diseases of Egypt which you have seen, but will put them on your haters.

16 And you are to send destruction on all the peoples which the Lord your God gives into your hands; have no pity on them, and do not give worship to their gods; for that will be a cause of sin to you.

17 If you say in your hearts, These nations are greater in number than we are: how are we to take their land from them?

18 Have no fear of them, but keep well in mind what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt;

19 The great punishments which your eyes saw, and the signs and the wonders and the strong hand and the stretched-out arm, by which the Lord your God took you out: so will the Lord your God do to all the peoples who are the cause of your fears.

20 And the Lord will send a hornet among them, till all the rest who have kept themselves safe from you in secret places have been cut off.

21 Have no fear of them: for the Lord your God is with you, a great God greatly to be feared.

22 The Lord your God will send out the nations before you little by little; they are not to be rooted out quickly, for fear that the beasts of the field may be increased overmuch against you.

23 But the Lord your God will give them up into your hands, overpowering them till their destruction is complete.

24 He will give their kings into your hands, and you will put their names out of existence under heaven; there is not one of them who will not give way before you, till their destruction is complete.

25 The images of their gods are to be burned with fire: have no desire for the gold and silver on them, and do not take it for yourselves, for it will be a danger to you: it is a thing disgusting to the Lord your God:

26 And you may not take a disgusting thing into your house, and so become cursed with its curse: but keep yourselves from it, turning from it with fear and hate, for it is a cursed thing.

Deuteronomy 9

1 Give ear, O Israel: today you are to go over Jordan, to take the heritage of nations greater and stronger than yourselves, and towns of great size with walls as high as heaven;

2 A people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, of whom you have knowledge and of whom it has been said, All are forced to give way before the sons of Anak.

3 Be certain then today that it is the Lord your God who goes over before you like an all-burning fire; he will send destruction on them, crushing them before you; and you will send them in flight, putting an end to them quickly, as the Lord has said.

4 And after the Lord has sent them in flight from before you, say not in your heart, Because of my righteousness the Lord has given me this land; when it is because of their evil-doing that the Lord is driving these nations out before you.

5 Not for your righteousness or because your hearts are upright are you going in to take their land; but because of the evil-doing of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and to give effect to his oath to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

6 Be certain then that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land as a reward for your righteousness; for you are a stiff-necked people.

7 Keep well in mind how you made the Lord your God angry in the waste land; from the day when you went out of Egypt till you came to this place, you have gone against the orders of the Lord.

8 Again in Horeb you made the Lord angry, and in his wrath he would have put an end to you.

9 When I had gone up into the mountain to be given the stones on which was recorded the agreement which the Lord made with you, I was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights without taking food or drinking water.

10 And the Lord gave me the two stones with writing on them done by the finger of God: on them were recorded all the words which the Lord said to you on the mountain out of the heart of the fire, on the day of the great meeting.

11 Then at the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me those stones, the stones of the agreement.

12 And the Lord said to me, Get up now, and go down quickly from this place; for the people you have taken out of Egypt have given themselves over to evil; they have quickly been turned from the way in which I gave them orders to go; they have made themselves a metal image.

13 And then the Lord said to me, I have seen that this people is stiff-necked:

14 Let me send destruction on them till their very name is cut off; and I will make of you a nation greater and stronger than they.

15 So turning round I came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire; and the two stones of the agreement were in my hands.

16 And I saw that you had done evil against the Lord, and had made for yourselves a metal image of a young ox: you had quickly been turned from the way in which the Lord had given you orders to go.

17 And I let the stones go from my hands, and they were broken before your eyes.

18 And I went down on my face before the Lord, as at the first, for forty days and forty nights, without taking food or drinking water, because of all your sin, in doing evil in the eyes of the Lord and moving him to wrath.

19 For I was full of fear because of the wrath of the Lord which was burning against you, with your destruction in view. But again the Lord's ear was open to my prayer.

20 And the Lord, in his wrath, would have put Aaron to death: and I made prayer for Aaron at the same time.

21 And I took your sin, the image which you had made, and put it in the fire and had it hammered and crushed very small till it was only dust: and the dust I put in the stream flowing down from the mountain.

22 Again at Taberah and at Massah and at Kibroth-hattaavah you made the Lord angry.

23 And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, Go up and take the land which I have given you; you went against the orders of the Lord your God, and had no faith in him, and would not give ear to his voice.

24 From the day when I first had knowledge of you, you have gone against the word of the Lord.

25 So I went down on my face in prayer before the Lord for forty days and forty nights as I did at first; because the Lord had said that he would put an end to you.

26 And I made prayer to the Lord and said, O Lord God, do not send destruction on your people and your heritage, to whom, by your great power, you have given salvation, whom you have taken out of Egypt by the strength of your hand.

27 Keep in mind your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not looking at the hard heart of this people, or their evil-doing and their sin:

28 Or it may be said in the land from which you have taken them, Because the Lord was not able to take them into the land which he said he would give them, and because of his hate for them, he has taken them out to put them to death in the waste land.

29 But still they are your people and your heritage, whom you took out by your great power and by your stretched-out arm.

Deuteronomy 10

1 At that time the Lord said to me, Make two other stones, cut like the first two, and come up to me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood.

2 And I will put on the stones the words which were on the first stones which were broken by you, and you are to put them into the ark.

3 So I made an ark of hard wood, and had two stones cut like the others, and went up the mountain with the stones in my hands.

4 And he put on the stones, as in the first writing, the ten rules which the Lord gave you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the great meeting: and the Lord gave the stones to me.

5 And turning round I came down from the mountain and put the stones in the ark which I had made; and there they are as the Lord gave me orders.

6 (And the children of Israel went on from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah: there death came to Aaron and he was put to rest in the earth; and Eleazar, his son, took his place as priest.

7 From there they went on to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of streams of water.

8 At that time the Lord had the tribe of Levi marked out to take up the ark of the Lord's agreement, to be before the Lord and to do his work and to give blessings in his name, to this day.

9 For this reason Levi has no part or heritage for himself among his brothers: the Lord is his heritage, as the Lord your God said to him.)

10 And I was in the mountain, as at the first time, for forty days and forty nights; and again the ears of the Lord were open to my prayer, and he did not send destruction on you.

11 Then the Lord said to me, Get up and go on your journey before the people, so that they may go in and take the land which I said in my oath to their fathers that I would give them.

12 And now, Israel, what would the Lord your God have you do, but to go in the fear of the Lord your God, walking in all his ways and loving him and doing his pleasure with all your heart and all your soul,

13 Doing the orders of the Lord and keeping his laws which I give you this day for your good?

14 The Lord your God is ruler of heaven, of the heaven of heavens, and of the earth with everything in it.

15 But the Lord had delight in your fathers and love for them, marking out for himself their seed after them, even you, from all peoples, as at this day.

16 Let your circumcision be of the heart, and put away your pride.

17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, strong in power and greatly to be feared, who has no respect for any man's position and takes no rewards:

18 Judging uprightly in the cause of the widow and of the child who has no father, and giving food and clothing in his mercy to the man from a strange country.

19 So be kind to the man from a strange country who is living among you, for you yourselves were living in a strange country in the land of Egypt.

20 Let the fear of the Lord your God be before you, give him worship and be true to him at all times, taking your oaths in his name.

21 He is your God, the God of your praise, your God who has done for you all these works of power which your eyes have seen.

22 Your fathers went down into Egypt with seventy persons; and now the Lord your God has made you like the stars of heaven in number.

Deuteronomy 14

1 You are the children of the Lord your God: you are not to make cuts on your bodies or take off the hair on your brows in honour of the dead;

2 For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has taken you to be his special people out of all the nations on the face of the earth.

3 No disgusting thing may be your food.

4 These are the beasts which you may have for food: the ox, the sheep, and the goat;

5 The hart, the gazelle, and the roe, the mountain goat and the pygarg and the antelope and the mountain sheep.

6 Any beast which has a division in the horn of its foot and whose food comes back into its mouth to be crushed again, may be used for food.

7 But even among these, there are some which may not be used for food: such as the camel, the hare, and the coney, which are unclean to you, because, though their food comes back, the horn of their feet is not parted in two.

8 And the pig is unclean to you, because though it has a division in the horn of its foot, its food does not come back; their flesh may not be used for food or their dead bodies touched by you.

9 And of the things living in the waters, you may take all those who have wings for swimming with and skins formed of thin plates.

10 But any which have no skin-plates or wings for swimming, you may not take; they are unclean for you.

11 All clean birds may be used for food.

12 But these birds you may not take: the eagle and the gier-eagle and the ospray;

13 The falcon and the kite, and birds of that sort;

14 Every raven, and all birds of that sort;

15 And the ostrich and the night-hawk and the sea-hawk and birds of that sort;

16 The little owl and the great owl and the water-hen;

17 And the pelican and the vulture and the cormorant;

18 The stork and the heron and birds of that sort, and the hoopoe and the bat.

19 Every winged thing which goes flat on the earth is unclean to you and may not be used as food.

20 But all clean birds you may take.

21 You may not have as food anything which has come to a natural death; the man from another country who is living with you may take it for food, or you may get a price for it from one of another nation; for you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The young goat is not to be cooked in its mother's milk.

22 Put on one side a tenth of all the increase of your seed, produced year by year.

23 And make a feast before the Lord your God, in the place which is to be marked out, where his name will be for ever, of the tenth part of your grain and your wine and your oil, and the first births of your herds and your flocks; so that you may have the fear of the Lord your God in your hearts at all times.

24 And if the way is so long that you are not able to take these things to the place marked out by the Lord your God for his name, when he has given you his blessing, because it is far away from you;

25 Then let these things be exchanged for money, and, taking the money in your hand, go to the place marked out by the Lord your God for himself;

26 And with the money get whatever you have a desire for, oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your soul's desire may be: and make a feast there before the Lord your God, and be glad, you and all your house;

27 And give a thought to the Levite who is living among you, for he has no part or heritage in the land.

28 At the end of every three years take a tenth part of all your increase for that year, and put it in store inside your walls:

29 And the Levite, because he has no part or heritage in the land, and the man from a strange country, and the child who has no father, and the widow, who are living among you, will come and take food and have enough; and so the blessing of the Lord your God will be on you in everything you do.

Deuteronomy 15

1 At the end of every seven years there is to be a general forgiveness of debt.

2 This is how it is to be done: every creditor is to give up his right to whatever he has let his neighbour have; he is not to make his neighbour, his countryman, give it back; because a general forgiveness has been ordered by the Lord.

3 A man of another nation may be forced to make payment of his debt, but if your brother has anything of yours, let it go;

4 But there will be no poor among you; for the Lord will certainly give you his blessing in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage;

5 If only you give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, and take care to keep all these orders which I give you today.

6 For the Lord your God will give you his blessing as he has said: you will let other nations have the use of your money, but you will not make use of theirs; you will be rulers over a number of nations, but they will not be your rulers.

7 If in any of your towns in the land which the Lord your God is giving you, there is a poor man, one of your countrymen, do not let your heart be hard or your hand shut to him;

8 But let your hand be open to give him the use of whatever he is in need of.

9 And see that there is no evil thought in your heart, moving you to say to yourself, The seventh year, the year of forgiveness is near; and so looking coldly on your poor countryman you give him nothing; and he will make an outcry to the Lord against you, and it will be judged as sin in you.

10 But it is right for you to give to him, without grief of heart: for because of this, the blessing of the Lord your God will be on all your work and on everything to which you put your hand.

11 For there will never be a time when there are no poor in the land; and so I give orders to you, Let your hand be open to your countrymen, to those who are poor and in need in your land.

12 If one of your countrymen, a Hebrew man or woman, becomes your servant for a price and does work for you six years, in the seventh year let him go free.

13 And when you make him free, do not let him go away with nothing in his hands:

14 But give him freely from your flock and from your grain and your wine: in the measure of the wealth which the Lord your God has given you, you are to give to him.

15 And keep in mind that you yourself were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God made you free: so I give you this order today.

16 But if he says to you, I have no desire to go away from you; because you and your family are dear to him and he is happy with you;

17 Then take a sharp-pointed instrument, driving it through his ear into the door, and he will be your servant for ever. And you may do the same for your servant-girl.

18 Let it not seem hard to you that you have to send him away free; for he has been working for you for six years, which is twice the regular time for a servant: and the blessing of the Lord your God will be on you in everything you do.

19 All the first males to come to birth in your herd and your flock are to be holy to the Lord your God: the first birth of your ox is not to be used for work, the wool of your first lamb is not to be cut.

20 But year by year you and all your house are to take a meal of it before the Lord, in the place of his selection.

21 But if it has any mark on it, if it is blind or has damaged legs, or if there is anything wrong with it, it may not be offered to the Lord your God.

22 It may be used for food in your houses: the unclean and the clean may take of it, as of the gazelle and the roe.

23 Only do not take its blood for food, but let it be drained out on the earth like water.

Deuteronomy 16

1 Take note of the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God: for in the month of Abib the Lord your God took you out of Egypt by night.

2 The Passover offering, from your flock or your herd, is to be given to the Lord your God in the place marked out by him as the resting-place of his name.

3 Take no leavened bread with it; for seven days let your food be unleavened bread, that is, the bread of sorrow; for you came out of the land of Egypt quickly: so the memory of that day, when you came out of the land of Egypt, will be with you all your life.

4 For seven days let no leaven be used through all your land; and nothing of the flesh which is put to death in the evening of the first day is to be kept through the night till morning.

5 The Passover offering is not to be put to death in any of the towns which the Lord your God gives you:

6 But in the place marked out by the Lord your God as the resting-place of his name, there you are to put the Passover to death in the evening, at sundown, at that time of the year when you came out of Egypt.

7 It is to be cooked and taken as food in the place marked out by the Lord: and in the morning you are to go back to your tents.

8 For six days let your food be unleavened bread; and on the seventh day there is to be a holy meeting to the Lord your God; no work is to be done.

9 Let seven weeks be numbered from the first day when the grain is cut.

10 Then keep the feast of weeks to the Lord your God, with an offering freely given to him from the wealth he has given you:

11 Then you are to be glad before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your man-servant and your woman-servant, and the Levite who is with you, and the man from a strange country, and the child without a father, and the widow, who are living among you, in the place marked out by the Lord your God as a resting-place for his name.

12 And you will keep in mind that you were a servant in the land of Egypt: and you will take care to keep all these laws.

13 You are to keep the feast of tents for seven days after you have got in all your grain and made your wine:

14 You are to keep the feast with joy, you and your son and your daughter, your man-servant and your woman-servant, and the Levite, and the man from a strange country, and the child without a father, and the widow, who are living among you.

15 Keep the feast to the Lord your God for seven days, in the place marked out by the Lord: because the blessing of the Lord your God will be on all the produce of your land and all the work of your hands, and you will have nothing but joy.

16 Three times in the year let all your males come before the Lord your God in the place named by him; at the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of weeks, and the feast of tents: and they are not to come before the Lord with nothing in their hands;

17 Every man is to give as he is able, in the measure of the blessing which the Lord your God has given you.

18 You are to make judges and overseers in all your towns which the Lord your God gives you, for every tribe: and they are to be upright men, judging the people in righteousness.

19 You are not to be moved in your judging by a man's position, you are not to take rewards; for rewards make the eyes of the wise man blind, and the decisions of the upright false.

20 Let righteousness be your guide, so that you may have life, and take for your heritage the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

21 Let no holy tree of any sort be planted by the altar of the Lord your God which you will make.

22 You are not to put up stone pillars, for they are hated by the Lord your God.

Deuteronomy 17

1 No ox or sheep which has a mark on it or is damaged in any way may be offered to the Lord your God: for that is disgusting to the Lord your God.

2 If there is any man or woman among you, in any of the towns which the Lord your God gives you, who does evil in the eyes of the Lord your God, sinning against his agreement,

3 By becoming a servant of other gods and worshipping them or the sun or the moon or all the stars of heaven, against my orders;

4 If word of this comes to your ears, then let this thing be looked into with care, and if there is no doubt that it is true, and such evil has been done in Israel;

5 Then you are to take the man or woman who has done the evil to the public place of your town, and they are to be stoned with stones till they are dead.

6 On the word of two or three witnesses, a man may be given the punishment of death; but he is not to be put to death on the word of one witness.

7 The hands of the witnesses will be the first to put him to death, and after them the hands of all the people. So you are to put away the evil from among you.

8 If you are not able to give a decision as to who is responsible for a death, or who is right in a cause, or who gave the first blow in a fight, and there is a division of opinion about it in your town: then go to the place marked out by the Lord your God;

9 And come before the priests, the Levites, or before him who is judge at the time: and they will go into the question and give you a decision:

10 And you are to be guided by the decision they give in the place named by the Lord, and do whatever they say:

11 Acting in agreement with their teaching and the decision they give: not turning to one side or the other from the word they have given you.

12 And any man who, in his pride, will not give ear to the priest whose place is there before the Lord your God, or to the judge, is to be put to death: you are to put away the evil from Israel.

13 And all the people, hearing of it, will be full of fear and put away their pride.

14 When you have come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and have taken it for a heritage and are living in it, if it is your desire to have a king over you, like the other nations round about you;

15 Then see that you take as your king the man named by the Lord your God: let your king be one of your countrymen, not a man of another nation who is not one of yourselves.

16 And he is not to get together a great army of horses for himself, or make the people go back to Egypt to get horses for him: because the Lord has said, You will never again go back that way.

17 And he is not to have a great number of wives, for fear that his heart may be turned away; or great wealth of silver and gold.

18 And when he has taken his place on the seat of his kingdom, he is to make in a book a copy of this law, from that which the priests, the Levites, have in their care:

19 And it is to be with him for his reading all the days of his life, so that he may be trained in the fear of the Lord his God to keep and do all the words of this teaching and these laws:

20 So that his heart may not be lifted up over his countrymen, and he may not be turned away from the orders, to one side or the other: but that his life and the lives of his children may be long in his kingdom in Israel.

Deuteronomy 18

1 The priests, the Levites, that is, all the tribe of Levi, will have no part or heritage with Israel: their food and their heritage will be the offerings of the Lord made by fire.

2 And they will have no heritage among their countrymen: the Lord is their heritage, as he has said to them.

3 And this is to be the priests' right: those who make an offering of a sheep or an ox are to give to the priest the top part of the leg and the two sides of the head and the stomach.

4 And in addition you are to give him the first of your grain and wine and oil, and the first wool cut from your sheep.

5 For he, and his sons after him for ever, have been marked out by the Lord your God from all your tribes, to do the work of priests in the name of the Lord.

6 And if a Levite, moved by a strong desire, comes from any town in all Israel where he is living to the place marked out by the Lord;

7 Then he will do the work of a priest in the name of the Lord his God, with all his brothers the Levites who are there before the Lord.

8 His food will be the same as theirs, in addition to what has come to him as the price of his property.

9 When you have come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, do not take as your example the disgusting ways of those nations.

10 Let there not be seen among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter go through the fire, or anyone using secret arts, or a maker of strange sounds, or a reader of signs, or any wonder-worker,

11 Or anyone using secret force on people, or putting questions to a spirit, or having secret knowledge, or going to the dead for directions.

12 For all who do such things are disgusting to the Lord; and because of these disgusting things the Lord your God is driving them out before you.

13 You are to be upright in heart before the Lord your God.

14 For these nations, whose land you are taking, give attention to readers of signs and to those using secret arts: but the Lord your God will not let you do so.

15 The Lord your God will give you a prophet from among your people, like me; you will give ear to him;

16 In answer to the request you made to the Lord your God in Horeb on the day of the great meeting, when you said, Let not the voice of the Lord my God come to my ears again, and let me not see this great fire any more, or death will overtake me.

17 Then the Lord said to me, What they have said is well said.

18 I will give them a prophet from among themselves, like you, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he will say to them whatever I give him orders to say.

19 And whoever does not give ear to my words which he will say in my name, will be responsible to me.

20 But the prophet who takes it on himself to say words in my name which I have not given him orders to say, or who says anything in the name of other gods, will come to his death.

21 And if you say in your hearts, How are we to be certain that the word does not come from the Lord?

22 When a prophet makes a statement in the name of the Lord, if what he says does not take place and his words do not come true, then his word is not the word of the Lord: the words of the prophet were said in the pride of his heart, and you are to have no fear of him.

Deuteronomy 19

1 When the nations, whose land the Lord your God is giving you, have been cut off by him, and you have taken their place and are living in their towns and in their houses;

2 You are to have three towns marked out in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage.

3 You are to make ready a way, and see that the land which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage, is marked out into three parts, to which any taker of life may go in flight.

4 This is to be the rule for anyone who goes in flight there, after causing the death of his neighbour in error and not through hate;

5 For example, if a man goes into the woods with his neighbour for the purpose of cutting down trees, and when he takes his axe to give a blow to the tree, the head of the axe comes off, and falling on to his neighbour gives him a wound causing his death; then the man may go in flight to one of these towns and be safe:

6 For if not, he who has the right of punishment may go running after the taker of life in the heat of his wrath, and overtake him because the way is long, and give him a death-blow; though it is not right for him to be put to death because he was not moved by hate.

7 And so I am ordering you to see that three towns are marked out for this purpose.

8 And if the Lord your God makes wide the limits of your land, as he said in his oath to your fathers, and gives you all the land which he undertook to give to your fathers;

9 If you keep and do all these orders which I give you today, loving the Lord your God and walking ever in his ways; then let three more towns, in addition to these three, be marked out for you:

10 So that in all your land, which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage, no man may be wrongly put to death, for which you will be responsible.

11 But if any man has hate for his neighbour, and waiting for him secretly makes an attack on him and gives him a blow causing his death, and then goes in flight to one of these towns;

12 The responsible men of his town are to send and take him, and give him up to the one who has the right of punishment to be put to death.

13 Have no pity on him, so that Israel may be clear from the crime of putting a man to death without cause, and it will be well for you.

14 Your neighbour's landmark, which was put in its place by the men of old times, is not to be moved or taken away in the land of your heritage which the Lord your God is giving you.

15 One witness may not make a statement against a man in relation to any sin or wrongdoing which he has done: on the word of two or three witnesses a question is to be judged.

16 If a false witness makes a statement against a man, saying that he has done wrong,

17 Then the two men, between whom the argument has taken place, are to come before the Lord, before the priests and judges who are then in power;

18 And the judges will have the question looked into with care: and if the witness is seen to be false and to have made a false statement against his brother,

19 Then do to him what it was his purpose to do to his brother: and so put away the evil from among you.

20 And the rest of the people, hearing of it, will be full of fear, and never again do such evil among you.

21 Have no pity; let life be given for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Deuteronomy 20

1 When you go out to war against other nations, and come face to face with horses and war-carriages and armies greater in number than yourselves, have no fear of them: for the Lord your God is with you, who took you up out of the land of Egypt.

2 And when you are on the point of attacking, let the priest come forward and say to the people,

3 Give ear, O Israel: today you are going forward to the fight; let your heart be strong; do not let uncontrolled fear overcome you because of those who are against you;

4 For the Lord your God goes with you, fighting for you to give you salvation from those who are against you.

5 And let the overseers say to the people, If there is any man who has made for himself a new house and has not gone into it, let him go back to his house, so that in the event of his death in the fight, another may not take his house for himself.

6 Or if any man has made a vine-garden without taking the first-fruits of it, let him go back to his house, so that in the event of his death in the fight, another may not be the first to make use of the fruit.

7 Or if any man is newly married and has had no sex relations with his wife, let him go back to his house, so that in the event of his death in the fight, another man may not take her.

8 And let the overseers go on to say to the people, If there is any man whose heart is feeble with fear, let him go back to his house before he makes the hearts of his countrymen feeble.

9 Then, after saying these words to the people, let the overseers put captains over the army.

10 When you come to a town, before attacking it, make an offer of peace.

11 And if it gives you back an answer of peace, opening its doors to you, then all the people in it may be put to forced work as your servants.

12 If however it will not make peace with you, but war, then let it be shut in on all sides:

13 And when the Lord your God has given it into your hands, let every male in it be put to death without mercy.

14 But the women and the children and the cattle and everything in the town and all its wealth, you may take for yourselves: the wealth of your haters, which the Lord your God has given you, will be your food.

15 So you are to do to all the towns far away, which are not the towns of these nations.

16 But in the towns of these peoples whose land the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage, let no living thing be kept from death:

17 Give them up to the curse; the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, as the Lord your God has given you orders:

18 So that you may not take them as your example and do all the disgusting things which they do in the worship of their gods, so sinning against the Lord your God.

19 If in war a town is shut in by your armies for a long time, do not let its trees be cut down and made waste; for their fruit will be your food; are the trees of the countryside men for you to take up arms against them?

20 Only those trees which you are certain are not used for food may be cut down and put to destruction: and you are to make walls of attack against the town till it is taken.

Deuteronomy 21

1 If, in the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you come across the dead body of a man in the open country, and you have no idea who has put him to death:

2 Then your responsible men and your judges are to come out, and give orders for the distance from the dead body to the towns round about it to be measured;

3 And whichever town is nearest to the body, the responsible men of that town are to take from the herd a young cow which has never been used for work or put under the yoke;

4 And they are to take the cow into a valley where there is flowing water, and which is not ploughed or planted, and there the neck of the cow is to be broken:

5 Then the priests, the sons of Levi, are to come near; for they have been marked out by the Lord your God to be his servants and to give blessings in the name of the Lord; and by their decision every argument and every blow is to be judged:

6 And all the responsible men of that town which is nearest to the dead man, washing their hands over the cow whose neck was broken in the valley,

7 Will say, This death is not the work of our hands and our eyes have not seen it.

8 Have mercy, O Lord, on your people Israel whom you have made free, and take away from your people the crime of a death without cause. Then they will no longer be responsible for the man's death.

9 So you will take away the crime of a death without cause from among you, when you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

10 When you go out to war against other nations, and the Lord your God gives them up into your hands and you take them as prisoners;

11 If among the prisoners you see a beautiful woman and it is your desire to make her your wife;

12 Then take her back to your house; and let her hair and her nails be cut;

13 And let her take off the dress in which she was made prisoner and go on living in your house and weeping for her father and mother for a full month: and after that you may go in to her and be her husband and she will be your wife.

14 But if you have no delight in her, you are to let her go wherever she will; you may not take a price for her as if she was your property, for you have made use of her for your pleasure.

15 If a man has two wives, one greatly loved and the other hated, and the two of them have had children by him; and if the first son is the child of the hated wife:

16 Then when he gives his property to his sons for their heritage, he is not to put the son of his loved one in the place of the first son, the son of the hated wife:

17 But he is to give his first son his birthright, and twice as great a part of his property: for he is the first-fruits of his strength and the right of the first son is his.

18 If a man has a son who is hard-hearted and uncontrolled, who gives no attention to the voice of his father and mother, and will not be ruled by them, though they give him punishment:

19 Then let his father and mother take him to the responsible men of the town, to the public place;

20 And say to them, This son of ours is hard-hearted and uncontrolled, he will not give attention to us; he gives himself up to pleasure and strong drink.

21 Then he is to be stoned to death by all the men of the town: so you are to put away the evil from among you; and all Israel, hearing of it, will be full of fear.

22 If a man does a crime for which the punishment is death, and he is put to death by hanging him on a tree;

23 Do not let his body be on the tree all night, but put it to rest in the earth the same day; for the man who undergoes hanging is cursed by God; so do not make unclean the land which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage.

Deuteronomy 22

1 If you see your brother's ox or his sheep wandering, do not go by without helping, but take them back to your brother.

2 If their owner is not near, or if you are not certain who he is, then take the beast to your house and keep it till its owner comes in search of it, and then you are to give it back to him.

3 Do the same with his ass or his robe or anything which has gone from your brother's keeping and which you have come across: do not keep it to yourself.

4 If you see your brother's ox or his ass falling down on the road, do not go by without giving him help in lifting it up again.

5 It is not right for a woman to be dressed in man's clothing, or for a man to put on a woman's robe: whoever does such things is disgusting to the Lord your God.

6 If by chance you see a place which a bird has made for itself in a tree or on the earth, with young ones or eggs, and the mother bird seated on the young ones or on the eggs, do not take the mother bird with the young:

7 See that you let the mother bird go, but the young ones you may take; so it will be well for you and your life will be long.

8 If you are building a house, make a railing for the roof, so that the blood of any man falling from it will not come on your house.

9 Do not have your vine-garden planted with two sorts of seed: or all of it may become a loss, the seed you have put in as well as the increase.

10 Do not do your ploughing with an ox and an ass yoked together.

11 Do not have clothing made of two sorts of thread, wool and linen together.

12 On the four edges of your robe, with which your body is covered, put ornaments of twisted threads.

13 If any man takes a wife, and having had connection with her, has no delight in her,

14 And says evil things about her and gives her a bad name, saying, I took this woman, and when I had connection with her it was clear to me that she was not a virgin:

15 Then let the girl's father and mother put before the responsible men of the town, in the public place, signs that the girl was a virgin:

16 And let the girl's father say to the responsible men, I gave my daughter to this man for his wife, but he has no love for her;

17 And now he has put shame on her, saying that she is not a virgin; but here is the sign that she is a virgin. Then they are to put her clothing before the responsible men of the town.

18 Then the responsible men of the town are to give the man his punishment;

19 They will take from him a hundred shekels of silver, which are to be given to the father of the girl, because he has given an evil name to a virgin of Israel: she will go on being his wife, he may never put her away all his life.

20 But if what he has said is true, and she is seen to be not a virgin,

21 Then they are to make the girl come to the door of her father's house and she will be stoned to death by the men of the town, because she has done evil and put shame on Israel, by acting as a loose woman in her father's house: so you are to put away evil from among you.

22 If a man is taken in the act of going in to a married woman, the two of them, the man as well as the woman, are to be put to death: so you are to put away the evil from Israel.

23 If a young virgin has given her word to be married to a man, and another man meeting her in the town, has connection with her;

24 Then you are to take the two of them to the doorway of the town, and have them stoned to death; the young virgin, because she gave no cry for help, though it was in the town, and the man, because he has put shame on his neighbour's wife: so you are to put away evil from among you.

25 But if the man, meeting such a virgin in the open country, takes her by force, then only the man is to be put to death;

26 Nothing is to be done to the virgin, because there is no cause of death in her: it is the same as if a man made an attack on his neighbour and put him to death:

27 For he came across her in the open country, and there was no one to come to the help of the virgin in answer to her cry.

28 If a man sees a young virgin, who has not given her word to be married to anyone, and he takes her by force and has connection with her, and discovery is made of it;

29 Then the man will have to give the virgin's father fifty shekels of silver and make her his wife, because he has put shame on her; he may never put her away all his life.

30 A man may not take his father's wife or have sex relations with a woman who is his father's.

Deuteronomy 23

1 No man whose private parts have been wounded or cut off may come into the meeting of the Lord's people.

2 One whose father and mother are not married may not come into the meeting of the Lord's people, or any of his family to the tenth generation.

3 No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their people to the tenth generation may come into the meeting of the Lord's people:

4 Because they gave you no bread or water on your way, when you came out of Egypt: and they got Balaam, the son of Peor, from Pethor in Aram-naharaim to put curses on you

5 But the Lord your God would not give ear to Balaam, but let the curse be changed into a blessing to you, because of his love for you.

6 Do nothing for their peace or well-being for ever.

7 But have no hate for an Edomite, because he is your brother, or for an Egyptian, for you were living in his land.

8 Their children in the third generation may come into the meeting of the Lord's people.

9 When you go out to war and put your tents in position, keep from every evil thing.

10 If any man among you becomes unclean through anything which has taken place in the night, he is to go out from the tent-circle and keep outside it:

11 But when evening comes near, let him take a bath: and after sundown he may come back to the tents.

12 Let there be a place outside the tent-circle to which you may go;

13 And have among your arms a spade; and when you have been to that place, let that which comes from you be covered up with earth:

14 For the Lord your God is walking among your tents, to keep you safe and to give up into your hands those who are fighting against you; then let your tents be holy, so that he may see no unclean thing among you, and be turned away from you

15 Do not give back to his master a servant who has gone in flight from his master and come to you:

16 Let him go on living among you in whatever place is most pleasing to him: do not be hard on him.

17 No daughter of Israel is to let herself be used as a loose woman for a strange god, and no son of Israel is to give himself to a man.

18 Do not take into the house of the Lord your God, as an offering for an oath, the price of a loose woman or the money given to one used for sex purposes in the worship of the gods: for these two things are disgusting to the Lord your God.

19 Do not take interest from an Israelite on anything, money or food or any other goods, which you let him have

20 From men of other nations you may take interest, but not from an Israelite: so that the blessing of the Lord your God may be on everything to which you put your hand, in the land which you are about to take as your heritage.

21 When you take an oath to the Lord, do not be slow to give effect to it: for without doubt the Lord your God will make you responsible, and will put it to your account as sin

22 But if you take no oath, there will be no sin.

23 Whatever your lips have said, see that you do it; for you gave your word freely to the Lord your God.

24 When you go into your neighbour's vine-garden, you may take of his grapes at your pleasure, but you may not take them away in your vessel.

25 When you go into your neighbour's field, you may take the heads of grain with your hand; but you may not put your blade to his grain.

Deuteronomy 24

1 If a man takes a wife, and after they are married she is unpleasing to him because of some bad quality in her, let him give her a statement in writing and send her away from his house.

2 And when she has gone away from him, she may become another man's wife.

3 And if the second husband has no love for her and, giving her a statement in writing, sends her away; or if death comes to the second husband to whom she was married;

4 Her first husband, who had sent her away, may not take her back after she has been wife to another; for that is disgusting to the Lord: and you are not to be a cause of sin in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage.

5 A newly married man will not have to go out with the army or undertake any business, but may be free for one year, living in his house for the comfort of his wife.

6 No one is to take, on account of a debt, the stones with which grain is crushed: for in doing so he takes a man's living.

7 If a man takes by force one of his countrymen, the children of Israel, using him as his property or getting a price for him, that thief is to be put to death: so you are to put away evil from among you.

8 In connection with the leper's disease, take care to keep and do every detail of the teaching of the priests, the Levites: as I gave them orders, so you are to do.

9 Keep in mind what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the way, when you came out of Egypt.

10 If you let your brother have the use of anything which is yours, do not go into his house and take anything of his as a sign of his debt;

11 But keep outside till he comes out and gives it to you.

12 If he is a poor man, do not keep his property all night;

13 But be certain to give it back to him when the sun goes down, so that he may have his clothing for sleeping in, and will give you his blessing: and this will be put to your account as righteousness before the Lord your God.

14 Do not be hard on a servant who is poor and in need, if he is one of your countrymen or a man from another nation living with you in your land.

15 Give him his payment day by day, not keeping it back over night; for he is poor and his living is dependent on it; and if his cry against you comes to the ears of the Lord, it will be judged as sin in you.

16 Fathers are not to be put to death for their children or children for their fathers: every man is to be put to death for the sin which he himself has done.

17 Be upright in judging the cause of the man from a strange country and of him who has no father; do not take a widow's clothing on account of a debt:

18 But keep in mind that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God made you free: for this is why I give you orders to do this.

19 When you get in the grain from your field, if some of the grain has been dropped by chance in the field, do not go back and get it, but let it be for the man from a strange land, the child without a father, and the widow: so that the blessing of the Lord your God may be on all the work of your hands.

20 When you are shaking the fruit from your olive-trees, do not go over the branches a second time: let some be for the man from a strange land, the child without a father, and the widow.

21 When you are pulling the grapes from your vines, do not take up those which have been dropped; let them be for the man from a strange land, the child without a father, and the widow.

22 Keep in mind that you were a servant in the land of Egypt: for this is why I give you orders to do this.

Deuteronomy 25

1 If there is an argument between men and they go to law with one another, let the judges give their decision for the upright, and against the wrongdoer.

2 And if the wrongdoer is to undergo punishment by whipping, the judge will give orders for him to go down on his face and be whipped before him, the number of the blows being in relation to his crime.

3 He may be given forty blows, not more; for if more are given, your brother may be shamed before you.

4 Do not keep the ox from taking the grain when he is crushing it.

5 If brothers are living together and one of them, at his death, has no son, the wife of the dead man is not to be married outside the family to another man: let her husband's brother go in to her and make her his wife, doing as it is right for a brother-in-law to do.

6 Then the first male child she has will take the rights of the brother who is dead, so that his name may not come to an end in Israel.

7 But if the man says he will not take his brother's wife, then let the wife go to the responsible men of the town, and say, My husband's brother will not keep his brother's name living in Israel; he will not do what it is right for a husband's brother to do.

8 Then the responsible men of the town will send for the man, and have talk with him: and if he still says, I will not take her;

9 Then his brother's wife is to come to him, before the responsible men of the town, and take his shoe off his foot, and put shame on him, and say, So let it be done to the man who will not take care of his brother's name.

10 And his family will be named in Israel, The house of him whose shoe has been taken off.

11 If two men are fighting, and the wife of one of them, coming to the help of her husband, takes the other by the private parts;

12 Her hand is to be cut off; have no pity on her.

13 Do not have in your bag different weights, a great and a small;

14 Or in your house different measures, a great and a small.

15 But have a true weight and a true measure: so that your life may be long in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

16 For all who do such things, and all whose ways are not upright, are disgusting to the Lord your God.

17 Keep in mind what Amalek did to you on your way from Egypt;

18 How, meeting you on the way, he made an attack on you when you were tired and without strength, cutting off all the feeble ones at the end of your line; and the fear of God was not in him.

19 So when the Lord your God has given you rest from all who are against you on every side, in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage, see to it that the memory of Amalek is cut off from the earth; keep this in mind.

Deuteronomy 30

1 Now when all these things have come on you, the blessing and the curse which I have put before you, if the thought of them comes back to your minds, when you are living among the nations where the Lord your God has sent you,

2 And your hearts are turned again to the Lord your God, and you give ear to his word which I give you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul:

3 Then the Lord will have pity on you, changing your fate, and taking you back again from among all the nations where you have been forced to go.

4 Even if those who have been forced out are living in the farthest part of heaven, the Lord your God will go in search of you, and take you back;

5 Placing you again in the land of your fathers as your heritage; and he will do you good, increasing you till you are more in number than your fathers were.

6 And the Lord your God will give to you and to your seed a circumcision of the heart, so that, loving him with all your heart and all your soul, you may have life.

7 And the Lord your God will put all these curses on those who are against you, and on your haters who put a cruel yoke on you.

8 And you will again give ear to the voice of the Lord, and do all his orders which I have given you today.

9 And the Lord your God will make you fertile in all good things, blessing the work of your hands, and the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your cattle, and the fruit of your land: for the Lord will have joy in you, as he had in your fathers:

10 If you give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, keeping his orders and his laws which are recorded in this book of the law, and turning to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

11 For these orders which I have given you today are not strange and secret, and are not far away.

12 They are not in heaven, for you to say, Who will go up to heaven for us and give us knowledge of them so that we may do them?

13 And they are not across the sea, for you to say, Who will go over the sea for us and give us news of them so that we may do them?

14 But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may do it.

15 See, I have put before you today, life and good, and death and evil;

16 In giving you orders today to have love for the Lord your God, to go in his ways and keep his laws and his orders and his decisions, so that you may have life and be increased, and that the blessing of the Lord your God may be with you in the land where you are going, the land of your heritage.

17 But if your heart is turned away and your ear is shut, and you go after those who would make you servants and worshippers of other gods:

18 I give witness against you this day that destruction will certainly be your fate, and your days will be cut short in the land where you are going, the land of your heritage on the other side of Jordan.

19 Let heaven and earth be my witnesses against you this day that I have put before you life and death, a blessing and a curse: so take life for yourselves and for your seed:

20 In loving the Lord your God, hearing his voice and being true to him: for he is your life and by him will your days be long: so that you may go on living in the land which the Lord gave by an oath to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.