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 that Moses spoke to all Israel in the wilderness east of the Jordan—in the Arabah opposite Suph—between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.

2 It is an eleven-day journey from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea by way of Mount Seir.

3 In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses proclaimed to the Israelites all that the LORD had commanded him concerning them.

4 This was after he had defeated Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and then at Edrei had defeated Og king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth.

5 On the east side of the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this law, saying:

6 The LORD our God said to us at Horeb: “You have stayed at this mountain long enough.

7 Resume your journey and go to the hill country of the Amorites; go to all the neighboring peoples in the Arabah, in the hill country, in the foothills, in the Negev, and along the seacoast to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great River Euphrates.

8 See, I have placed the land before you. Enter and possess the land that the LORD swore He would give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their descendants after them.”

9 At that time I said to you, “I cannot carry the burden for you alone.

10 The LORD your God has multiplied you, so that today you are as numerous as the stars in the sky.

11 May the LORD, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand times over and bless you as He has promised.

12 But how can I bear your troubles, burdens, and disputes all by myself?

13 Choose for yourselves wise, understanding, and respected men from each of your tribes, and I will appoint them as your leaders.”

14 And you answered me and said, “What you propose to do is good.”

15 So I took the leaders of your tribes, wise and respected men, and appointed them as leaders over you—as commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens, and as officers for your tribes.

16 At that time I charged your judges: “Hear the disputes between your brothers, and judge fairly between a man and his brother or a foreign resident.

17 Show no partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike. Do not be intimidated by anyone, for judgment belongs to God. And bring to me any case too difficult for you, and I will hear it.”

18 And at that time I commanded you all the things you were to do.

19 And just as the LORD our God had commanded us, we set out from Horeb and went toward the hill country of the Amorites, through all the vast and terrifying wilderness you have seen. When we reached Kadesh-barnea,

20 I said: “You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which the LORD our God is giving us.

21 See, the LORD your God has placed the land before you. Go up and take possession of it as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.”

22 Then all of you approached me and said, “Let us send men ahead of us to search out the land and bring us word of what route to follow and which cities to enter.”

23 The plan seemed good to me, so I selected twelve men from among you, one from each tribe.

24 They left and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied out the land.

25 They took some of the fruit of the land in their hands, carried it down to us, and brought us word: “It is a good land that the LORD our God is giving us.”

26 But you were unwilling to go up; you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God.

27 You grumbled in your tents and said, “Because the LORD hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to be annihilated.

28 Where can we go? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying: ‘The people are larger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the heavens. We even saw the descendants of the Anakim there.’”

29 So I said to you: “Do not be terrified or afraid of them!

30 The LORD your God, who goes before you, will fight for you, just as you saw Him do for you in Egypt

31 and in the wilderness, where the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way by which you traveled until you reached this place.”

32 But in spite of all this, you did not trust the LORD your God,

33 who went before you on the journey, in the fire by night and in the cloud by day, to seek out a place for you to camp and to show you the road to travel.

34 When the LORD heard your words, He grew angry and swore an oath, saying,

35 “Not one of the men of this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your fathers,

36 except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land on which he has set foot, because he followed the LORD wholeheartedly.”

37 The LORD was also angry with me on your account, and He said, “Not even you shall enter the land.

38 Joshua son of Nun, who stands before you, will enter it. Encourage him, for he will enable Israel to inherit the land.

39 And the little ones you said would become captives—your children who on that day did not know good from evil—will enter the land that I will give them, and they will possess it.

40 But you are to turn back and head for the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea. ”

41 “We have sinned against the LORD,” you replied. “We will go up and fight, as the LORD our God has commanded us.” Then each of you put on his weapons of war, thinking it easy to go up into the hill country.

42 But the LORD said to me, “Tell them not to go up and fight, for I am not with you to keep you from defeat by your enemies.”

43 So I spoke to you, but you would not listen. You rebelled against the command of the LORD and presumptuously went up into the hill country.

44 Then the Amorites who lived in the hills came out against you and chased you like a swarm of bees. They routed you from Seir all the way to Hormah.

45 And you returned and wept before the LORD, but He would not listen to your voice or give ear to you.

46 For this reason you stayed in Kadesh for a long time—a very long time.

Deuteronomy 7

1 When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to possess, and He drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you—

2 and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you to defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.

3 Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons,

4 because they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and He will swiftly destroy you.

5 Instead, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their idols in the fire.

6 For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all peoples on the face of the earth.

7 The LORD did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than the other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.

8 But because the LORD loved you and kept the oath He swore to your fathers, He brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps His covenant of loving devotion for a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments.

10 But those who hate Him He repays to their faces with destruction; He will not hesitate to repay to his face the one who hates Him.

11 So keep the commandments and statutes and ordinances that I am giving you to follow this day.

12 If you listen to these ordinances and keep them carefully, then the LORD your God will keep His covenant and the loving devotion that He swore to your fathers.

13 He will love you and bless you and multiply you. He will bless the fruit of your womb and the produce of your land—your grain, new wine, and oil, the young of your herds and the lambs of your flocks—in the land that He swore to your fathers to give you.

14 You will be blessed above all peoples; among you there will be no barren man or woman or livestock.

15 And the LORD will remove from you all sickness. He will not lay upon you any of the terrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but He will inflict them on all who hate you.

16 You must destroy all the peoples the LORD your God will deliver to you. Do not look on them with pity. Do not worship their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

17 You may say in your heart, “These nations are greater than we are; how can we drive them out?”

18 But do not be afraid of them. Be sure to remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and all Egypt:

19 the great trials that you saw, the signs and wonders, and the mighty hand and outstretched arm by which the LORD your God brought you out. The LORD your God will do the same to all the peoples you now fear.

20 Moreover, the LORD your God will send the hornet against them until even the survivors hiding from you have perished.

21 Do not be terrified by them, for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God.

22 The LORD your God will drive out these nations before you little by little. You will not be enabled to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals would multiply around you.

23 But the LORD your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed.

24 He will hand their kings over to you, and you will wipe out their names from under heaven. No one will be able to stand against you; you will annihilate them.

25 You must burn up the images of their gods; do not covet the silver and gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it; for it is detestable to the LORD your God.

26 And you must not bring any detestable thing into your house, or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. You are to utterly detest and abhor it, because it is set apart for destruction.

Deuteronomy 9

1 Hear, O Israel: Today you are about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities fortified to the heavens.

2 The people are strong and tall, the descendants of the Anakim. You know about them, and you have heard it said, “Who can stand up to the sons of Anak?”

3 But understand that today the LORD your God goes across ahead of you as a consuming fire; He will destroy them and subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them swiftly, as the LORD has promised you.

4 When the LORD your God has driven them out before you, do not say in your heart, “Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land.” Rather, the LORD is driving out these nations before you because of their wickedness.

5 It is not because of your righteousness or uprightness of heart that you are going in to possess their land, but it is because of their wickedness that the LORD your God is driving out these nations before you, to keep the promise He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

6 Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.

7 Remember this, and never forget how you provoked the LORD your God in the wilderness. From the day you left the land of Egypt until you reached this place, you have been rebelling against the LORD.

8 At Horeb you provoked the LORD, and He was angry enough to destroy you.

9 When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water.

10 Then the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, inscribed by the finger of God with the exact words that the LORD spoke to you out of the fire on the mountain on the day of the assembly.

11 And at the end of forty days and forty nights, the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant.

12 And the LORD said to me, “Get up and go down from here at once, for your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. How quickly they have turned aside from the way that I commanded them! They have made for themselves a molten image.”

13 The LORD also said to me, “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people.

14 Leave Me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. Then I will make you into a nation mightier and greater than they are.”

15 So I went back down the mountain while it was blazing with fire, with the two tablets of the covenant in my hands.

16 And I saw how you had sinned against the LORD your God; you had made for yourselves a molten calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the LORD had commanded you.

17 So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, shattering them before your eyes.

18 Then I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. I did not eat bread or drink water because of all the sin you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD and provoking Him to anger.

19 For I was afraid of the anger and wrath that the LORD had directed against you, enough to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me this time as well.

20 The LORD was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I also prayed for Aaron.

21 And I took that sinful thing, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust, and I cast it into the stream that came down from the mountain.

22 You continued to provoke the LORD at Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah.

23 And when the LORD sent you out from Kadesh-barnea, He said, “Go up and possess the land that I have given you.” But you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. You neither believed Him nor obeyed Him.

24 You have been rebelling against the LORD since the day I came to know you.

25 So I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, because the LORD had said He would destroy you.

26 And I prayed to the LORD and said, “O Lord GOD, do not destroy Your people, Your inheritance, whom You redeemed through Your greatness and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

27 Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness of this people and the wickedness of their sin.

28 Otherwise, those in the land from which You brought us out will say, ‘Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land He had promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.’

29 But they are Your people, Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your great power and outstretched arm.”

Deuteronomy 10

1 At that time the LORD said to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the originals, come up to Me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood.

2 And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke; and you are to place them in the ark.”

3 So I made an ark of acacia wood, chiseled out two stone tablets like the originals, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hands.

4 And the LORD wrote on the tablets what had been written previously, the Ten Commandments that He had spoken to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly. The LORD gave them to me,

5 and I went back down the mountain and placed the tablets in the ark I had made, as the LORD had commanded me; and there they have remained.

6 The Israelites traveled from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah, where Aaron died and was buried, and Eleazar his son succeeded him as priest.

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

8 At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to serve Him, and to pronounce blessings in His name, as they do to this day.

9 That is why Levi has no portion or inheritance among his brothers; the LORD is his inheritance, as the LORD your God promised him.

10 I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, like the first time, and that time the LORD again listened to me and agreed not to destroy you.

11 Then the LORD said to me, “Get up. Continue your journey ahead of the people, that they may enter and possess the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.”

12 And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God by walking in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD that I am giving you this day for your own good?

14 Behold, to the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, and the earth and everything in it.

15 Yet the LORD has set His affection on your fathers and loved them. And He has chosen you, their descendants after them, above all the peoples, even to this day.

16 Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and stiffen your necks no more.

17 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, showing no partiality and accepting no bribe.

18 He executes justice for the fatherless and widow, and He loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing.

19 So you also must love the foreigner, since you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

20 You are to fear the LORD your God and serve Him. Hold fast to Him and take your oaths in His name.

21 He is your praise and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome wonders that your eyes have seen.

22 Your fathers went down to Egypt, seventy in all, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.

Deuteronomy 14

1 You are sons of the LORD your God; do not cut yourselves or shave your foreheads on behalf of the dead,

2 for you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth.

3 You must not eat any detestable thing.

4 These are the animals that you may eat: The ox, the sheep, the goat,

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

6 You may eat any animal that has a split hoof divided in two and that chews the cud.

7 But of those that chew the cud or have a completely divided hoof, you are not to eat the following: the camel, the rabbit, or the rock badger. Although they chew the cud, they do not have a divided hoof. They are unclean for you,

8 as well as the pig; though it has a divided hoof, it does not chew the cud. It is unclean for you. You must not eat its meat or touch its carcass.

9 Of all the creatures that live in the water, you may eat anything with fins and scales,

10 but you may not eat anything that does not have fins and scales; it is unclean for you.

11 You may eat any clean bird,

12 but these you may not eat: the eagle, the bearded vulture, the black vulture,

13 the red kite, the falcon, any kind of kite,

14 any kind of raven,

15 the ostrich, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk,

16 the little owl, the great owl, the white owl,

17 the desert owl, the osprey, the cormorant,

18 the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe, or the bat.

19 All flying insects are unclean for you; they may not be eaten.

20 But you may eat any clean bird.

21 You are not to eat any carcass; you may give it to the foreigner residing within your gates, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a holy people belonging to the LORD your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.

22 You must be sure to set aside a tenth of all the produce brought forth each year from your fields.

23 And you are to eat a tenth of your grain, new wine, and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks, in the presence of the LORD your God at the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name, so that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always.

24 But if the distance is too great for you to carry that with which the LORD your God has blessed you, because the place where the LORD your God will choose to put His Name is too far away,

25 then exchange it for money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place the LORD your God will choose.

26 Then you may spend the money on anything you desire: cattle, sheep, wine, strong drink, or anything you wish. You are to feast there in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice with your household.

27 And do not neglect the Levite within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance among you.

28 At the end of every three years, bring a tenth of all your produce for that year and lay it up within your gates.

29 Then the Levite (because he has no portion or inheritance among you), the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow within your gates may come and eat and be satisfied. And the LORD your God will bless you in all the work of your hands.

Deuteronomy 15

1 At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts.

2 This is the manner of remission: Every creditor shall cancel what he has loaned to his neighbor. He is not to collect anything from his neighbor or brother, because the LORD’s time of release has been proclaimed.

3 You may collect something from a foreigner, but you must forgive whatever your brother owes you.

4 There will be no poor among you, however, because the LORD will surely bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance,

5 if only you obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow all these commandments I am giving you today.

6 When the LORD your God blesses you as He has promised, you will lend to many nations but borrow from none; you will rule over many nations but be ruled by none.

7 If there is a poor man among your brothers within any of the gates in the land that the LORD your God is giving you, then you are not to harden your heart or shut your hand from your poor brother.

8 Instead, you are to open your hand to him and freely loan him whatever he needs.

9 Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought in your heart: “The seventh year, the year of release, is near,” so that you look upon your poor brother begrudgingly and give him nothing. He will cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.

10 Give generously to him, and do not let your heart be grieved when you do so. And because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything to which you put your hand.

11 For there will never cease to be poor in the land; that is why I am commanding you to open wide your hand to your brother and to the poor and needy in your land.

12 If a fellow Hebrew, a man or a woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you must set him free.

13 And when you release him, do not send him away empty-handed.

14 You are to furnish him liberally from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress. You shall give to him as the LORD your God has blessed you.

15 Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you; that is why I am giving you this command today.

16 But if your servant says to you, ‘I do not want to leave you,’ because he loves you and your household and is well off with you,

17 then take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door, and he will become your servant for life. And treat your maidservant the same way.

18 Do not regard it as a hardship to set your servant free, because his six years of service were worth twice the wages of a hired hand. And the LORD your God will bless you in all you do.

19 You must set apart to the LORD your God every firstborn male produced by your herds and flocks. You are not to put the firstborn of your oxen to work, nor are you to shear the firstborn of your flock.

20 Each year you and your household are to eat it before the LORD your God in the place the LORD will choose.

21 But if an animal has a defect, is lame or blind, or has any serious flaw, you must not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.

22 Eat it within your gates; both the ceremonially unclean and clean may eat it as they would a gazelle or a deer.

23 But you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.

Deuteronomy 16

1 Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover to the LORD your God, because in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night.

2 You are to offer to the LORD your God the Passover sacrifice from the herd or flock in the place the LORD will choose as a dwelling for His Name.

3 You must not eat leavened bread with it; for seven days you are to eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left the land of Egypt in haste—so that you may remember for the rest of your life the day you left the land of Egypt.

4 No leaven is to be found in all your land for seven days, and none of the meat you sacrifice in the evening of the first day shall remain until morning.

5 You are not to sacrifice the Passover animal in any of the towns that the LORD your God is giving you.

6 You must only offer the Passover sacrifice at the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for His Name. Do this in the evening as the sun sets, at the same time you departed from Egypt.

7 And you shall roast it and eat it in the place the LORD your God will choose, and in the morning you shall return to your tents.

8 For six days you must eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day you shall hold a solemn assembly to the LORD your God, and you must not do any work.

9 You are to count off seven weeks from the time you first put the sickle to the standing grain.

10 And you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with a freewill offering that you give in proportion to how the LORD your God has blessed you,

11 and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you.

12 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and carefully follow these statutes.

13 You are to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress.

14 And you shall rejoice in your feast—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you.

15 For seven days you shall celebrate a feast to the LORD your God in the place He will choose, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that your joy will be complete.

16 Three times a year all your men are to appear before the LORD your God in the place He will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the LORD empty-handed.

17 Everyone must appear with a gift as he is able, according to the blessing the LORD your God has given you.

18 You are to appoint judges and officials for your tribes in every town that the LORD your God is giving you. They are to judge the people with righteous judgment.

19 Do not deny justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.

20 Pursue justice, and justice alone, so that you may live, and you may possess the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

21 Do not set up any wooden Asherah pole next to the altar you will build for the LORD your God,

22 and do not set up for yourselves a sacred pillar, which the LORD your God hates.

Deuteronomy 17

1 You shall not sacrifice to the LORD your God an ox or a sheep with any defect or serious flaw, for that is detestable to the LORD your God.

2 If a man or woman among you in one of the towns that the LORD your God gives you is found doing evil in the sight of the LORD your God by transgressing His covenant

3 and going to worship other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven—which I have forbidden—

4 and if it is reported and you hear about it, you must investigate it thoroughly. If the report is true and such an abomination has happened in Israel,

5 you must bring out to your gates the man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you must stone that person to death.

6 On the testimony of two or three witnesses a man shall be put to death, but he shall not be executed on the testimony of a lone witness.

7 The hands of the witnesses shall be the first in putting him to death, and after that, the hands of all the people. So you must purge the evil from among you.

8 If a case is too difficult for you to judge, whether the controversy within your gates is regarding bloodshed, lawsuits, or assaults, you must go up to the place the LORD your God will choose.

9 You are to go to the Levitical priests and to the judge who presides at that time. Inquire of them, and they will give you a verdict in the case.

10 You must abide by the verdict they give you at the place the LORD will choose. Be careful to do everything they instruct you,

11 according to the terms of law they give and the verdict they proclaim. Do not turn aside to the right or to the left from the decision they declare to you.

12 But the man who acts presumptuously, refusing to listen either to the priest who stands there to serve the LORD your God, or to the judge, must be put to death. You must purge the evil from Israel.

13 Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and will no longer behave arrogantly.

14 When you enter the land that the LORD your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,”

15 you are to appoint over yourselves the king whom the LORD your God shall choose. Appoint a king from among your brothers; you are not to set over yourselves a foreigner who is not one of your brothers.

16 But the king must not acquire many horses for himself or send the people back to Egypt to acquire more horses, for the LORD has said, ‘You are never to go back that way again.’

17 He must not take many wives for himself, lest his heart go astray. He must not accumulate for himself large amounts of silver and gold.

18 When he is seated on his royal throne, he must write for himself a copy of this instruction on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests.

19 It is to remain with him, and he is to read from it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by carefully observing all the words of this instruction and these statutes.

20 Then his heart will not be exalted above his countrymen, and he will not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or to the left, in order that he and his sons may reign many years over his kingdom in Israel.

Deuteronomy 18

1 The Levitical priests—indeed the whole tribe of Levi—shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They are to eat the food offerings to the LORD; that is their inheritance.

2 Although they have no inheritance among their brothers, the LORD is their inheritance, as He promised them.

3 This shall be the priests’ share from the people who offer a sacrifice, whether a bull or a sheep: the priests are to be given the shoulder, the jowls, and the stomach.

4 You are to give them the firstfruits of your grain, new wine, and oil, and the first wool sheared from your flock.

5 For the LORD your God has chosen Levi and his sons out of all your tribes to stand and minister in His name for all time.

6 Now if a Levite moves from any town of residence throughout Israel and comes in all earnestness to the place the LORD will choose,

7 then he shall serve in the name of the LORD his God like all his fellow Levites who stand there before the LORD.

8 They shall eat equal portions, even though he has received money from the sale of his father’s estate.

9 When you enter the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not imitate the detestable ways of the nations there.

10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, practices divination or conjury, interprets omens, practices sorcery,

11 casts spells, consults a medium or spiritist, or inquires of the dead.

12 For whoever does these things is detestable to the LORD. And because of these detestable things, the LORD your God is driving out the nations before you.

13 You must be blameless before the LORD your God.

14 Though these nations, which you will dispossess, listen to conjurers and diviners, the LORD your God has not permitted you to do so.

15 The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to him.

16 This is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God or see this great fire anymore, so that we will not die!”

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

18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put My words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him.

19 And I will hold accountable anyone who does not listen to My words that the prophet speaks in My name.

20 But if any prophet dares to speak a message in My name that I have not commanded him to speak, or to speak in the name of other gods, that prophet must be put to death.”

21 You may ask in your heart, “How can we recognize a message that the LORD has not spoken?”

22 When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD and the message does not come to pass or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.

Deuteronomy 19

1 When the LORD your God has cut off the nations whose land He is giving you, and when you have driven them out and settled in their cities and houses,

2 then you are to set apart for yourselves three cities within the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.

3 You are to build roads for yourselves and divide into three regions the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, so that any manslayer can flee to these cities.

4 Now this is the situation regarding the manslayer who flees to one of these cities to save his life, having killed his neighbor accidentally, without intending to harm him:

5 If he goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut timber and swings his axe to chop down a tree, but the blade flies off the handle and strikes and kills his neighbor, he may flee to one of these cities to save his life.

6 Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue the manslayer in a rage, overtake him if the distance is great, and strike him dead though he did not deserve to die, since he did not intend any harm.

7 This is why I am commanding you to set apart for yourselves three cities.

8 And if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as He swore to your fathers, and gives you all the land He promised them,

9 and if you carefully keep all these commandments I am giving you today, loving the LORD your God and walking in His ways at all times, then you are to add three more cities to these three.

10 Thus innocent blood will not be shed in the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, so that you will not be guilty of bloodshed.

11 If, however, a man hates his neighbor and lies in wait, attacks him and kills him, and then flees to one of these cities,

12 the elders of his city must send for him, bring him back, and hand him over to the avenger of blood to die.

13 You must show him no pity. You are to purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, that it may go well with you.

14 You must not move your neighbor’s boundary marker, which was set up by your ancestors to mark the inheritance you shall receive in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.

15 A lone witness is not sufficient to establish any wrongdoing or sin against a man, regardless of what offense he may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

16 If a false witness testifies against someone, accusing him of a crime,

17 both parties to the dispute must stand in the presence of the LORD, before the priests and judges who are in office at that time.

18 The judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is proven to be a liar who has falsely accused his brother,

19 you must do to him as he intended to do to his brother. So you must purge the evil from among you.

20 Then the rest of the people will hear and be afraid, and they will never again do anything so evil among you.

21 You must show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.

Deuteronomy 20

1 When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses, chariots, and an army larger than yours, do not be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, is with you.

2 When you are about to go into battle, the priest is to come forward and address the army,

3 saying to them, “Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle with your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not be alarmed or terrified because of them.

4 For the LORD your God goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.”

5 Furthermore, the officers are to address the army, saying, “Has any man built a new house and not dedicated it? Let him return home, or he may die in battle and another man dedicate it.

6 Has any man planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy its fruit? Let him return home, or he may die in battle and another man enjoy its fruit.

7 Has any man become pledged to a woman and not married her? Let him return home, or he may die in battle and another man marry her.”

8 Then the officers shall speak further to the army, saying, “Is any man afraid or fainthearted? Let him return home, so that the hearts of his brothers will not melt like his own.”

9 When the officers have finished addressing the army, they are to appoint commanders to lead it.

10 When you approach a city to fight against it, you are to make an offer of peace.

11 If they accept your offer of peace and open their gates, all the people there will become forced laborers to serve you.

12 But if they refuse to make peace with you and wage war against you, lay siege to that city.

13 When the LORD your God has delivered it into your hand, you must put every male to the sword.

14 But the women, children, livestock, and whatever else is in the city—all its spoil—you may take as plunder, and you shall use the spoil of your enemies that the LORD your God gives you.

15 This is how you are to treat all the cities that are far away from you and do not belong to the nations nearby.

16 However, in the cities of the nations that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not leave alive anything that breathes.

17 For you must devote them to complete destruction —the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—as the LORD your God has commanded you,

18 so that they cannot teach you to do all the detestable things they do for their gods, and so cause you to sin against the LORD your God.

19 When you lay siege to a city for an extended time while fighting against it to capture it, you must not destroy its trees by putting an axe to them, because you can eat their fruit. You must not cut them down. Are the trees of the field human, that you should besiege them?

20 But you may destroy the trees that you know do not produce fruit. Use them to build siege works against the city that is waging war against you, until it falls.

Deuteronomy 21

1 If one is found slain, lying in a field in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him,

2 your elders and judges must come out and measure the distance from the victim to the neighboring cities.

3 Then the elders of the city nearest the victim shall take a heifer that has never been yoked or used for work,

4 bring the heifer to a valley with running water that has not been plowed or sown, and break its neck there by the stream.

5 And the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to serve Him and pronounce blessings in His name and to give a ruling in every dispute and case of assault.

6 Then all the elders of the city nearest the victim shall wash their hands by the stream over the heifer whose neck has been broken,

7 and they shall declare, “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it.

8 Accept this atonement, O LORD, for Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, and do not hold the shedding of innocent blood against them.” And the bloodshed will be atoned for.

9 So you shall purge from among you the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the LORD.

10 When you go to war against your enemies and the LORD your God delivers them into your hand and you take them captive,

11 if you see a beautiful woman among them, and you desire her and want to take her as your wife,

12 then you shall bring her into your house. She must shave her head, trim her nails,

13 and put aside the clothing of her captivity. After she has lived in your house a full month and mourned her father and mother, you may have relations with her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.

14 And if you are not pleased with her, you are to let her go wherever she wishes. But you must not sell her for money or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.

15 If a man has two wives, one beloved and the other unloved, and both bear him sons, but the unloved wife has the firstborn son,

16 when that man assigns his inheritance to his sons he must not appoint the son of the beloved wife as the firstborn over the son of the unloved wife.

17 Instead, he must acknowledge the firstborn, the son of his unloved wife, by giving him a double portion of all that he has. For that son is the firstfruits of his father’s strength; the right of the firstborn belongs to him.

18 If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and does not listen to them when disciplined,

19 his father and mother are to lay hold of him and bring him to the elders of his city, to the gate of his hometown,

20 and say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he does not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.”

21 Then all the men of his city will stone him to death. So you must purge the evil from among you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.

22 If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is executed, and you hang his body on a tree,

23 you must not leave the body on the tree overnight, but you must be sure to bury him that day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

Deuteronomy 22

1 If you see your brother’s ox or sheep straying, you must not ignore it; be sure to return it to your brother.

2 If your brother does not live near you, or if you do not know who he is, you are to take the animal home to remain with you until your brother comes seeking it; then you can return it to him.

3 And you shall do the same for his donkey, his cloak, or anything your brother has lost and you have found. You must not ignore it.

4 If you see your brother’s donkey or ox fallen on the road, you must not ignore it; you must help him lift it up.

5 A woman must not wear men’s clothing, and a man must not wear women’s clothing, for whoever does these things is detestable to the LORD your God.

6 If you come across a bird’s nest with chicks or eggs, either in a tree or on the ground along the road, and the mother is sitting on the chicks or eggs, you must not take the mother along with the young.

7 You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go, so that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days.

8 If you build a new house, you are to construct a railing around your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if someone falls from it.

9 Do not plant your vineyard with two types of seed; if you do, the entire harvest will be defiled —both the crop you plant and the fruit of your vineyard.

10 Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.

11 Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.

12 You are to make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.

13 Suppose a man marries a woman, has relations with her, and comes to hate her,

14 and he then accuses her of shameful conduct and gives her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman and had relations with her, but I discovered she was not a virgin.”

15 Then the young woman’s father and mother shall bring the proof of her virginity to the city elders at the gate

16 and say to the elders, “I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he has come to hate her.

17 And now he has accused her of shameful conduct, saying, ‘I discovered that your daughter was not a virgin.’ But here is the proof of her virginity.” And they shall spread out the cloth before the city elders.

18 Then the elders of that city shall take the man and punish him.

19 They are also to fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the young woman’s father, because this man has given a virgin of Israel a bad name. And she shall remain his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives.

20 If, however, this accusation is true, and no proof of the young woman’s virginity can be found,

21 she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house, and there the men of her city will stone her to death. For she has committed an outrage in Israel by being promiscuous in her father’s house. So you must purge the evil from among you.

22 If a man is found lying with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.

23 If there is a virgin pledged in marriage to a man, and another man encounters her in the city and sleeps with her,

24 you must take both of them out to the gate of that city and stone them to death—the young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. So you must purge the evil from among you.

25 But if the man encounters a betrothed woman in the open country, and he overpowers her and lies with her, only the man who has done this must die.

26 Do nothing to the young woman, because she has committed no sin worthy of death. This case is just like one in which a man attacks his neighbor and murders him.

27 When he found her in the field, the betrothed woman cried out, but there was no one to save her.

28 If a man encounters a virgin who is not pledged in marriage, and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are discovered,

29 then the man who lay with her must pay the young woman’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she must become his wife because he has violated her. He must not divorce her as long as he lives.

30 A man is not to marry his father’s wife, so that he will not dishonor his father’s marriage bed.

Deuteronomy 23

1 No man with crushed or severed genitals may enter the assembly of the LORD.

2 No one of illegitimate birth may enter the assembly of the LORD, nor may any of his descendants, even to the tenth generation.

3 No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, even to the tenth generation.

4 For they did not meet you with food and water on your way out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram-naharaim to curse you.

5 Yet the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam, and the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loves you.

6 You are not to seek peace or prosperity from them as long as you live.

7 Do not despise an Edomite, for he is your brother. Do not despise an Egyptian, because you lived as a foreigner in his land.

8 The third generation of children born to them may enter the assembly of the LORD.

9 When you are encamped against your enemies, then you shall keep yourself from every wicked thing.

10 If any man among you becomes unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he must leave the camp and stay outside.

11 When evening approaches, he must wash with water, and when the sun sets he may return to the camp.

12 You must have a place outside the camp to go and relieve yourself.

13 And you must have a digging tool in your equipment so that when you relieve yourself you can dig a hole and cover up your excrement.

14 For the LORD your God walks throughout your camp to protect you and deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, lest He see anything unclean among you and turn away from you.

15 Do not return a slave to his master if he has taken refuge with you.

16 Let him live among you wherever he chooses, in the town of his pleasing. Do not oppress him.

17 No daughter or son of Israel is to be a shrine prostitute.

18 You must not bring the wages of a prostitute, whether female or male, into the house of the LORD your God to fulfill any vow, because both are detestable to the LORD your God.

19 Do not charge your brother interest on money, food, or any other type of loan.

20 You may charge a foreigner interest, but not your brother, so that the LORD your God may bless you in everything to which you put your hand in the land that you are entering to possess.

21 If you make a vow to the LORD your God, do not be slow to keep it, because He will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin.

22 But if you refrain from making a vow, you will not be guilty of sin.

23 Be careful to follow through on what comes from your lips, because you have freely vowed to the LORD your God with your own mouth.

24 When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, but you must not put any in your basket.

25 When you enter your neighbor’s grainfield, you may pluck the heads of grain with your hand, but you must not put a sickle to your neighbor’s grain.

Deuteronomy 24

1 If a man marries a woman, but she becomes displeasing to him because he finds some indecency in her, he may write her a certificate of divorce, hand it to her, and send her away from his house.

2 If, after leaving his house, she goes and becomes another man’s wife,

3 and the second man hates her, writes her a certificate of divorce, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house, or if he dies,

4 then the husband who divorced her first may not remarry her after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination to the LORD. You must not bring sin upon the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

5 If a man is newly married, he must not be sent to war or be pressed into any duty. For one year he is free to stay at home and bring joy to the wife he has married.

6 Do not take a pair of millstones or even an upper millstone as security for a debt, because that would be taking one’s livelihood as security.

7 If a man is caught kidnapping one of his Israelite brothers, whether he treats him as a slave or sells him, the kidnapper must die. So you must purge the evil from among you.

8 In cases of infectious skin diseases, be careful to diligently follow everything the Levitical priests instruct you. Be careful to do as I have commanded them.

9 Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam on the journey after you came out of Egypt.

10 When you lend anything to your neighbor, do not enter his house to collect security.

11 You are to stand outside while the man to whom you are lending brings the security out to you.

12 If he is a poor man, you must not go to sleep with the security in your possession;

13 be sure to return it to him by sunset, so that he may sleep in his own cloak and bless you, and this will be credited to you as righteousness before the LORD your God.

14 Do not oppress a hired hand who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother or a foreigner residing in one of your towns.

15 You are to pay his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and depends on them. Otherwise he may cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.

16 Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin.

17 Do not deny justice to the foreigner or the fatherless, and do not take a widow’s cloak as security.

18 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you from that place. Therefore I am commanding you to do this.

19 If you are harvesting in your field and forget a sheaf there, do not go back to get it. It is to be left for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

20 When you beat the olives from your trees, you must not go over the branches again. What remains will be for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow.

21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you must not go over the vines again. What remains will be for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow.

22 Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt. Therefore I am commanding you to do this.

Deuteronomy 25

1 If there is a dispute between men, they are to go to court to be judged, so that the innocent may be acquitted and the guilty condemned.

2 If the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall have him lie down and be flogged in his presence with the number of lashes his crime warrants.

3 He may receive no more than forty lashes, lest your brother be beaten any more than that and be degraded in your sight.

4 Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.

5 When brothers dwell together and one of them dies without a son, the widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother is to take her as his wife and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law for her.

6 The first son she bears will carry on the name of the dead brother, so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.

7 But if the man does not want to marry his brother’s widow, she is to go to the elders at the city gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to preserve his brother’s name in Israel. He is not willing to perform the duty of a brother-in-law for me.”

8 Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak with him. If he persists and says, “I do not want to marry her,”

9 his brother’s widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, remove his sandal, spit in his face, and declare, “This is what is done to the man who will not maintain his brother’s line.”

10 And his family name in Israel will be called “The House of the Unsandaled.”

11 If two men are fighting, and the wife of one comes to rescue her husband from the one striking him, and she reaches out her hand and grabs his genitals,

12 you are to cut off her hand. You must show her no pity.

13 You shall not have two differing weights in your bag, one heavy and one light.

14 You shall not have two differing measures in your house, one large and one small.

15 You must maintain accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

16 For everyone who behaves dishonestly in regard to these things is detestable to the LORD your God.

17 Remember what the Amalekites did to you along your way from Egypt,

18 how they met you on your journey when you were tired and weary, and they attacked all your stragglers; they had no fear of God.

19 When the LORD your God gives you rest from the enemies around you in the land that He is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you are to blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!

Deuteronomy 30

1 “When all these things come upon you—the blessings and curses I have set before you—and you call them to mind in all the nations to which the LORD your God has banished you,

2 and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey His voice with all your heart and all your soul according to everything I am giving you today,

3 then He will restore you from captivity and have compassion on you and gather you from all the nations to which the LORD your God has scattered you.

4 Even if you have been banished to the farthest horizon, He will gather you and return you from there.

5 And the LORD your God will bring you into the land your fathers possessed, and you will take possession of it. He will cause you to prosper and multiply more than your fathers.

6 The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love Him with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.

7 Then the LORD your God will put all these curses upon your enemies who hate you and persecute you.

8 And you will again obey the voice of the LORD and follow all His commandments I am giving you today.

9 So the LORD your God will make you abound in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your land. Indeed, the LORD will again delight in your prosperity, as He delighted in that of your fathers,

10 if you obey the LORD your God by keeping His commandments and statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

11 For this commandment I give you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.

12 It is not in heaven, that you should need to ask, ‘Who will ascend into heaven to get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?’

13 And it is not beyond the sea, that you should need to ask, ‘Who will cross the sea to get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?’

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

15 See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, as well as death and disaster.

16 For I am commanding you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and increase, and the LORD your God may bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.

17 But if your heart turns away and you do not listen, but are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them,

18 I declare to you today that you will surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.

19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, so that you and your descendants may live,

20 and that you may love the LORD your God, obey Him, and hold fast to Him. For He is your life, and He will prolong your life in the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”