Common English Bible CEB
New Revised Standard NRS
1 These are the regulations and the case laws that you must carefully keep in the fertile land the LORD, your ancestors' God, has given to you to possess for as long as you live on that land:
1
These are the statutes and ordinances that you must diligently observe in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you to occupy all the days that you live on the earth.
2 You must completely destroy every place where the nations that you are displacing worshipped their gods—whether on high mountains or hills or under leafy green trees.
2
You must demolish completely all the places where the nations whom you are about to dispossess served their gods, on the mountain heights, on the hills, and under every leafy tree.
3 Rip down their altars and shatter their sacred stones. Burn their sacred poles with fire. Hack their gods' idols into pieces. Wipe out their names from that place.
3
Break down their altars, smash their pillars, burn their sacred poles with fire, and hew down the idols of their gods, and thus blot out their name from their places.
4 Don't act like they did toward the LORD your God!
4
You shall not worship the Lord your God in such ways.
5 Instead, you must search for the location the LORD your God will select from all your tribes to put his name there, as his residence, and you must go there.
5
But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes as his habitation to put his name there. You shall go there,
6 You must bring your entirely burned offerings, your sacrifices, your tenth-part gifts, your contributions, your payments for solemn promises, your spontaneous gifts, and the oldest offspring of your herds and flocks to that place.
6
bringing there your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your donations, your votive gifts, your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks.
7 You will have a feast there, each of you and your families, in the LORD your God's presence, and you will celebrate all you have done because the LORD your God has blessed you.
7
And you shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your households together, rejoicing in all the undertakings in which the Lord your God has blessed you.
8 Don't act like we've been acting here lately—everyone doing what seems right to them—
8
You shall not act as we are acting here today, all of us according to our own desires,
9 because up to this point you haven't yet reached the place of rest or the inheritance the LORD your God is giving you.
9
for you have not yet come into the rest and the possession that the Lord your God is giving you.
10 But you are about to cross the Jordan River and will settle in the land the LORD your God is giving you as your inheritance. Then he will give you rest from all your enemies on every side so that you live safely and securely.
10
When you cross over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is allotting to you, and when he gives you rest from your enemies all around so that you live in safety,
11 At that point, you must bring all that I am commanding you, your entirely burned offerings, your sacrifices, your tenth-part gifts, your contributions, and all your best payments that you solemnly promised to the LORD, to the location the LORD your God selects for his name to reside.
11
then you shall bring everything that I command you to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your donations, and all your choice votive gifts that you vow to the Lord.
12 Then you will rejoice in the LORD your God's presence: each of you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites who dwell in your cities because they have no designated inheritance.
12
And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you together with your sons and your daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levites who reside in your towns (since they have no allotment or inheritance with you).
13 But watch yourself! Make sure you don't offer up your entirely burned offerings in just any place you see.
13
Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place you happen to see.
14 No, only at the location the LORD selects from one of your tribal areas—that's where you must offer up your entirely burned offerings and that's where you must perform everything I'm telling you.
14
But only at the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes—there you shall offer your burnt offerings and there you shall do everything I command you.
15 However, whenever you wish, you may slaughter and eat meat, as the LORD your God sees fit to bless you with such in your cities. People who are polluted and people who are purified can join in the feast, as they would if they were eating gazelle or deer.
15
Yet whenever you desire you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, according to the blessing that the Lord your God has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, as they would of gazelle or deer.
16 But you must not consume any of the animals' blood. Pour it out on the ground, just like water.
16
The blood, however, you must not eat; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.
17 Within your cities you are not allowed to eat any of the following: your tenth-part gifts of grain, wine, and oil; the oldest offspring of your herds and flocks; any of the payments you have solemnly promised; your spontaneous gifts or your contributions.
17
Nor may you eat within your towns the tithe of your grain, your wine, and your oil, the firstlings of your herds and your flocks, any of your votive gifts that you vow, your freewill offerings, or your donations;
18 Only in the presence of the LORD your God, at the location the LORD your God selects, can you eat these things—that holds true for you, your son and daughter, your male and female servant, and the Levite who lives in your city. Then celebrate all you have done in the LORD your God's presence.
18
these you shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God at the place that the Lord your God will choose, you together with your son and your daughter, your male and female slaves, and the Levites resident in your towns, rejoicing in the presence of the Lord your God in all your undertakings.
19 But watch yourself: as long as you are on the land, don't forget about the Levites.
19
Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.
20 Once the LORD your God has enlarged your territory, as he promised you, and you think to yourself, I'd like to eat some meat (because you have the desire to do so), feel free to do so whenever you want.
20
When the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he has promised you, and you say, "I am going to eat some meat," because you wish to eat meat, you may eat meat whenever you have the desire.
21 But if the location that the LORD your God will choose to put his name is far away from where you live, then slaughter an animal from your herd or flock that the LORD has given you, just as I have commanded you, and eat it in your cities whenever you wish.
21
If the place where the Lord your God will choose to put his name is too far from you, and you slaughter as I have commanded you any of your herd or flock that the Lord has given you, then you may eat within your towns whenever you desire.
22 But be sure to eat it as if it were gazelle or deer. People who are polluted and people who are purified can feast on it together.
22
Indeed, just as gazelle or deer is eaten, so you may eat it; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it.
23 Furthermore, make sure that you don't consume any of the blood, because blood is life. You must not consume the life along with the meat.
23
Only be sure that you do not eat the blood; for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the meat.
24 You must not consume any of it. Pour it out on the ground, just like water.
24
Do not eat it; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.
25 You must not consume any of it so that things go well for you and for your children later because you did what was right in the LORD's eyes.
25
Do not eat it, so that all may go well with you and your children after you, because you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.
26 Note that you must bring your sacred offerings and your payments for solemn promises to the location the LORD selects,
26
But the sacred donations that are due from you, and your votive gifts, you shall bring to the place that the Lord will choose.
27 offering up your entirely burned sacrifices—both meat and blood—on the LORD your God's altar. The blood from your sacrifices must be poured out on the LORD your God's altar, but you are allowed to eat the meat.
27
You shall present your burnt offerings, both the meat and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God; the blood of your other sacrifices shall be poured out beside the altar of the Lord your God, but the meat you may eat.
28 Observe and obey all these words that I am commanding you so that things always go well for you and your children later because you did what was good and right in the LORD your God's eyes.
28
Be careful to obey all these words that I command you today, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, because you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.
29 Once the LORD your God has removed from before you all the nations that you are entering and taking possession of, and you have displaced them and are living in their land,
29
When the Lord your God has cut off before you the nations whom you are about to enter to dispossess them, when you have dispossessed them and live in their land,
30 then watch yourself! Don't be trapped by following their practices after they've been wiped out before you. Don't go investigating their gods, thinking, How did these nations worship their gods? I want to do the very same thing!
30
take care that you are not snared into imitating them, after they have been destroyed before you: do not inquire concerning their gods, saying, "How did these nations worship their gods? I also want to do the same."
31 Don't act like they did toward the LORD your God because they did things for their gods that are detestable to the LORD, which he hates. They even burned their own sons and daughters with fire for their gods!
31
You must not do the same for the Lord your God, because every abhorrent thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods. They would even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.
32 Everything I'm commanding you, you must do it with utmost care! Don't add anything to it or take anything away from it.
32
You must diligently observe everything that I command you; do not add to it or take anything from it.
Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.