Deuteronomy
1 These are the words* that Moses spoke to all Israel in the region of the Jordan+ in the wilderness, on the desert plains* in front of Suph,* between Paʹran+ and Toʹphel and Laʹban and Ha·zeʹroth+ and Diʹza·hab, 2 it being eleven days from Hoʹreb by the way of Mount Seʹir to Kaʹdesh-barʹne·a.+ 3 And it came about that in the fortieth+ year, in the eleventh month, on the first of the month, Moses spoke to the sons of Israel according to all that Jehovah had commanded him for them, 4 after his defeating Siʹhon+ the king of the Amʹor·ites, who was dwelling in Heshʹbon, and Og+ the king of Baʹshan, who was dwelling in Ashʹta·roth,+ in Edʹre·i.+ 5 In the region of the Jordan in the land of Moʹab Moses undertook to explain this law,+ saying:
6 “Jehovah our God spoke to us in Hoʹreb,+ saying, ‘YOU have dwelt long enough in this mountainous region.+ 7 Turn and set out on YOUR way and go into the mountainous region of the Amʹor·ites+ and to all their neighbors in the Arʹa·bah,*+ the mountainous region+ and the She·pheʹlah* and the Negʹeb*+ and the seacoast,+ the land of the Caʹnaan·ites,+ and Lebʹa·non,+ up to the great river, the river Eu·phraʹtes.+ 8 See, I do put the land before YOU people. Go in and take possession of the land about which Jehovah swore to YOUR fathers, to Abraham, Isaac+ and Jacob,+ to give it to them and their seed* after them.’+
9 “And I proceeded to say this to YOU at that particular time, ‘I am not able by myself to carry YOU.+ 10 Jehovah YOUR God has multiplied YOU, and here YOU are today like the stars of the heavens for multitude.+ 11 May Jehovah the God of YOUR forefathers increase YOU+ a thousand times as many as YOU are, and may he bless+ YOU just as he has promised YOU.+ 12 How can I carry by myself the burden of YOU and the load of YOU and YOUR quarreling?+ 13 Get wise and discreet+ and experienced+ men of YOUR tribes, that I may set them as heads over YOU.’+ 14 At that YOU answered me and said, ‘The thing you have spoken for us to do is good.’ 15 So I took the heads of YOUR tribes, men wise and experienced, and put them as heads over YOU, chiefs* of thousands and chiefs of hundreds and chiefs of fifties and chiefs of tens and officers of YOUR tribes.+
16 “And I went on to command YOUR judges at that particular time, saying, ‘When having a hearing* between YOUR brothers, YOU must judge with righteousness+ between a man and his brother or his alien resident.+ 17 YOU must not be partial* in judgment.+ YOU should hear the little one the same as the great one.+ YOU must not become frightened because of a man,+ for the judgment belongs to God;+ and the case that is too hard for YOU, YOU should present to me, and I must hear it.’+ 18 And I proceeded to command YOU at that particular time all the things that YOU should do.
19 “Then we pulled away from Hoʹreb and went marching through all that great and fear-inspiring wilderness,+ which YOU have seen, by the way of the mountainous region of the Amʹor·ites,+ just as Jehovah our God had commanded us; and we eventually came to Kaʹdesh-barʹne·a.+ 20 I now said to YOU, ‘YOU have come to the mountainous region of the Amʹor·ites, which Jehovah our God is giving to us.+ 21 See, Jehovah your God has abandoned the land to you.+ Go up, take possession, just as Jehovah the God of your forefathers has spoken to you.+ Do not be afraid, nor be terrified.’+
22 “However, all of YOU came near to me and said, ‘Do let us send men ahead of us that they may search out the land for us and bring us back word concerning the way by which we should go up and the cities to which we will come.’+ 23 Well, the thing proved to be good in my eyes, so that I took twelve men of YOURS, one for each tribe.+ 24 Then they turned and went up into the mountainous region+ and got as far as the torrent valley of Eshʹcol+ and went spying on it. 25 And they proceeded to take some of the fruitage of the land+ in their hand and to bring it down to us, and they came bringing us back word and saying, ‘The land that Jehovah our God is giving us is good.’+ 26 But YOU did not wish to go up,+ and YOU began to behave rebelliously against the order of Jehovah YOUR God.+ 27 And YOU kept grumbling in YOUR tents and saying, ‘It was because Jehovah hated+ us that he brought us out of the land of Egypt+ to give us into the hand of the Amʹor·ites, to annihilate us.+ 28 Where are we going up? Our brothers have caused our heart to melt,+ saying: “A people greater and taller than we are,+ cities great and fortified to the heavens+ and also the sons of the Anʹa·kim+ we saw there.”’
29 “So I said to YOU, ‘YOU must not suffer a shock or be afraid because of them.+ 30 Jehovah YOUR God is the one going before YOU. He will fight for YOU+ according to all that he did with YOU in Egypt under YOUR own eyes,+ 31 and in the wilderness,+ where you saw how Jehovah your God carried you+ just as a man carries his son, in all the way that YOU walked until YOUR coming to this place.’+ 32 But despite this word YOU were not putting faith in Jehovah YOUR God,+ 33 who was going before YOU in the way to spy out for YOU a place for YOU to camp,+ by fire at night for YOU to see by what way YOU should walk and by a cloud in daytime.+
34 “All the while Jehovah heard the voice of YOUR words. So he became indignant and swore,+ saying, 35 ‘Not one among these men of this evil generation will see the good land that I swore to give to YOUR fathers,+ 36 except Caʹleb the son of Je·phunʹneh.+ He will see it, and to him and to his sons I shall give the land upon which he trod, by reason of the fact that he has followed Jehovah fully.+ 37 (Even against me Jehovah got incensed on YOUR account, saying, ‘You too will not go in there.+ 38 Joshua* the son of Nun, who is standing before you, is the one who will go in there.’+ Him he has made strong,+ because he will cause Israel to inherit it.) 39 As for YOUR little ones of whom YOU said: “Plunder they will become!”+ and YOUR sons who today do not know good or bad, these will go in there, and to them I shall give it, and they will take possession of it. 40 As for YOU yourselves, change your direction and pull away for the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.’+
41 “At this YOU answered and said to me, ‘We have sinned against Jehovah.+ We—we shall go up and fight in accord with all that Jehovah our God has commanded us!’ So YOU girded on, each one, his weapons of war and regarded it as easy to go up into the mountain.+ 42 But Jehovah said to me, ‘Say to them: “YOU must not go up and fight, because I am not in YOUR midst;+ that YOU may not be defeated before YOUR enemies.”’+ 43 So I spoke to YOU, and YOU did not listen but began to behave rebelliously+ against Jehovah’s order and to get all heated up, and you tried to go up into the mountain.+ 44 Then the Amʹor·ites who were dwelling in that mountain came out to meet YOU and went chasing YOU,+ just as bees do, and scattering YOU in Seʹir* as far as Horʹmah.+ 45 After that YOU returned and began to weep before Jehovah, but Jehovah did not listen to YOUR voice,+ neither did he give ear to YOU.+ 46 So YOU kept dwelling in Kaʹdesh many days, as many days as YOU did dwell there.+
2 “Then we turned and pulled away for the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea, just as Jehovah had spoken to me;+ and we were many days in going around Mount Seʹir. 2 Finally Jehovah said this to me, 3 ‘YOU have gone around this mountain long enough.+ Change YOUR direction to the north. 4 And command the people, saying: “YOU are passing along by the border of YOUR brothers,+ the sons of Eʹsau,+ who are dwelling in Seʹir;+ and they will be afraid because of YOU,+ and YOU must be very careful. 5 Do not engage in strife with them, because I shall not give YOU of their land so much as the width of the sole of the foot; because I have given Mount Seʹir to Eʹsau as a holding.+ 6 What food YOU may buy from them for money, YOU must eat; and also what water YOU may purchase from them for money, YOU must drink.+ 7 For Jehovah your God has blessed you in every deed of your hand.+ He well knows of your walking through this great wilderness. These forty+ years Jehovah your God has been with you. You have not lacked a thing.”’+ 8 So we passed on away from our brothers, the sons of Eʹsau,+ who are dwelling in Seʹir, from the way of the Arʹa·bah,+ from Eʹlath and from Eʹzi·on-geʹber.+
“Next we turned and passed on by the way of the wilderness of Moʹab.+ 9 Jehovah then said to me, ‘Do not molest Moʹab or engage in war with them, because I shall not give you any of his land as a holding, for to the sons of Lot+ I have given Ar+ as a holding. 10 (The Eʹmim*+ dwelt in it in former times, a people great and numerous and tall like the Anʹa·kim.+ 11 As for the Rephʹa·im,+ they also were considered like the Anʹa·kim,+ and the Moʹab·ites used to call them Eʹmim. 12 And the Horʹites+ dwelt in Seʹir in former times, and the sons of Eʹsau+ proceeded to dispossess them and to annihilate them from before them and to dwell in their place,+ just the same as Israel must do to the land that is his holding, which Jehovah will certainly give to them.) 13 At this time rise and make YOUR way across the torrent valley of Zeʹred.’ Accordingly we went crossing the torrent valley of Zeʹred.+ 14 And the days that we walked from Kaʹdesh-barʹne·a until we crossed the torrent valley of Zeʹred were thirty-eight years, until all the generation of the men of war had come to their end from the midst of the camp, just as Jehovah had sworn to them.+ 15 And the hand+ of Jehovah also proved to be upon them to disquiet them out of the midst of the camp, until they came to their end.+
16 “And it came about that as soon as all the men of war had finished dying off from the midst of the people,+ 17 Jehovah spoke further to me, saying, 18 ‘You are passing today by the territory of Moʹab, that is, Ar,+ 19 and you must get close in front of the sons of Amʹmon. Do not molest them or engage in strife with them, because I shall not give you any of the land of the sons of Amʹmon as a holding, for it is to the sons of Lot that I have given it as a holding.+ 20 As the land of the Rephʹa·im+ it also used to be considered. (The Rephʹa·im dwelt in it in former times, and the Amʹmon·ites used to call them Zam·zumʹmim. 21 They were a great and numerous and tall people like the Anʹa·kim;+ and Jehovah went annihilating+ them from before them, that they might dispossess them and dwell in their place; 22 just the same as he did for the sons of Eʹsau, who are dwelling in Seʹir,+ when he annihilated the Horʹites+ from before them, that they might dispossess them and dwell in their place until this day. 23 As for the Avʹvim,+ who were dwelling in settlements as far as Gaʹza,+ the Caphʹto·rim,+ who came out from Caphʹtor,+ annihilated them, that they might dwell in their place.)
24 “‘GET up, pull away and cross the torrent valley of Arʹnon.+ See, I have given into your hand Siʹhon+ the king of Heshʹbon, the Amʹor·ite. So start to take possession of his land, and engage in war with him. 25 This day I shall start to put the dread of you and the fear of you before the peoples beneath all the heavens, who will hear the report about you; and they will indeed be agitated and have pains like those of childbirth because of you.’+
26 “Then I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedʹe·moth+ to Siʹhon+ the king of Heshʹbon with words of peace,+ saying, 27 ‘Let me pass through your land. Only on the road* I shall walk. I shall not turn to the right or to the left.+ 28 What food you will sell me for money, I must eat; and what water you will give me for money, I must drink. Only let me pass through on my feet,+ 29 just the same as the sons of Eʹsau dwelling in Seʹir+ and the Moʹab·ites+ dwelling in Ar did to me, until I shall pass over the Jordan into the land that Jehovah our God is giving to us.’+ 30 And Siʹhon the king of Heshʹbon did not let us pass through him, because Jehovah your God had let his spirit become obstinate+ and his heart become hard, in order to give him into your hand just as at this day.+
31 “At this Jehovah said to me, ‘See, I have started to abandon Siʹhon and his land to you. Start to take possession of his land.’+ 32 When Siʹhon came on out, he and all his people, to meet us in battle at Jaʹhaz,+ 33 then Jehovah our God abandoned him to us,+ so that we defeated him+ and his sons* and all his people. 34 And we went capturing all his cities at that particular time and devoting every city to destruction,+ men and women and little children. We left no survivor. 35 Only the domestic animals did we take as plunder for ourselves, together with the spoil of the cities that we had captured.+ 36 From A·roʹer,+ which is by the bank of the torrent valley of Arʹnon, and the city that is in the torrent valley, as far as Gilʹe·ad, there proved to be no town that was too high up for us.+ Jehovah our God abandoned them all to us. 37 Only you did not go near the land of the sons of Amʹmon,+ the whole bank of the torrent valley of Jabʹbok,+ nor the cities of the mountainous region, nor anything about which Jehovah our God had given command.
3 “Then we turned and went up by the way of Baʹshan. At this Og+ the king of Baʹshan came on out, he and all his people, to meet us in battle at Edʹre·i.+ 2 So Jehovah said to me, ‘Do not be afraid of him,+ for I shall certainly give him and all his people and his land into your hand; and you must do to him just as you did to Siʹhon+ the king of the Amʹor·ites, who was dwelling in Heshʹbon.’ 3 Accordingly Jehovah our God gave into our hand also Og the king of Baʹshan and all his people, and we kept striking him until he had no survivor remaining.+ 4 And we went capturing all his cities at that particular time. There proved to be no town that we did not take from them, sixty cities,+ all the region of Arʹgob,+ the kingdom of Og in Baʹshan.+ 5 All these were cities fortified with a high wall, doors and bar, aside from very many rural towns. 6 However, we devoted them to destruction,+ just as we had done to Siʹhon the king of Heshʹbon, in devoting every city to destruction, men, women and little children.+ 7 And all the domestic animals and the spoil of the cities we took as plunder for ourselves.+
8 “And we proceeded to take at that particular time the land from the hand of the two kings of the Amʹor·ites+ who were in the region of the Jordan, from the torrent valley of Arʹnon+ as far as Mount Herʹmon;+ 9 (the Si·doʹni·ans used to call Herʹmon Sirʹi·on,+ and the Amʹor·ites used to call it Seʹnir,)*+ 10 all the cities of the tableland and all Gilʹe·ad and all Baʹshan as far as Salʹe·cah+ and Edʹre·i,+ the cities of the kingdom of Og in Baʹshan. 11 For only Og the king of Baʹshan remained of what was left of the Rephʹa·im.+ Look! His bier was a bier of iron.* Is it not in Rabʹbah+ of the sons of Amʹmon? Nine cubits* is its length, and four cubits its width, by the cubit of a man. 12 And we took possession of this land at that particular time; from A·roʹer,+ which is by the torrent valley of Arʹnon, and* half of the mountainous region of Gilʹe·ad, and its cities I have given to the Reuʹben·ites and the Gadʹites.+ 13 And the rest of Gilʹe·ad+ and all Baʹshan+ of the kingdom of Og I have given to the half tribe of Ma·nasʹseh. All the region of Arʹgob+ of all Baʹshan, is it not called the land of the Rephʹa·im?+
14 “Jaʹir+ the son of Ma·nasʹseh took all the region of Arʹgob+ as far as the boundary of the Geshʹur·ites+ and the Ma·acʹa·thites,+ and he proceeded to call those villages of Baʹshan* by his own name, Havʹvoth-jaʹir,*+ to this day. 15 And to Maʹchir+ I have given Gilʹe·ad.+ 16 And to the Reuʹben·ites+ and the Gadʹites I have given from Gilʹe·ad+ to the torrent valley of Arʹnon, the middle of the torrent valley being a boundary, and as far as Jabʹbok, the torrent valley that is the boundary of the sons of Amʹmon;+ 17 and the Arʹa·bah* and the Jordan and the border, from Chinʹne·reth+ to the sea of the Arʹa·bah, the Salt Sea,+ at the base of the slopes of Pisʹgah+ toward the sunrising.
18 “So I commanded YOU men at that particular time, saying, ‘Jehovah YOUR God has given YOU this land to take possession of it. YOU will pass over, equipped, before YOUR brothers, the sons of Israel, all the valiant men.*+ 19 Only YOUR wives and YOUR little ones and YOUR livestock (I well know that YOU have a great deal of livestock) will continue dwelling in YOUR cities that I have given YOU,+ 20 until Jehovah gives YOUR brothers rest, as well as YOU, and they also have taken possession of the land that Jehovah YOUR God is giving them across the Jordan; after which YOU must come back, each one to his holding that I have given YOU.’+
21 “And I commanded Joshua+ at that particular time, saying, ‘Your eyes are seeing all that Jehovah YOUR God has done to these two kings. The same way Jehovah will do to all the kingdoms to which you are passing over there.+ 22 YOU men must not be afraid of them, for Jehovah YOUR God is the One fighting for YOU.’+
23 “And I proceeded to implore favor from Jehovah at that particular time, saying, 24 ‘O Sovereign Lord Jehovah, you yourself have started to make your servant see your greatness+ and your strong arm,+ for who is a god* in the heavens or on the earth that does deeds like yours and mighty performances like yours?+ 25 Let me pass over, please, and see the good land+ that is across the Jordan, this good mountainous region+ and Lebʹa·non.’+ 26 And Jehovah continued to be furious* against me on YOUR account+ and did not listen to me; but Jehovah said to me, ‘That is enough of you! Never speak to me further on this matter. 27 Go up to the top of Pisʹgah+ and raise your eyes to the west and north and south and east and see with your eyes, for you will not pass over this Jordan.+ 28 And commission+ Joshua and encourage him and strengthen him, because he is the one to pass over+ before this people and he is the one to cause them to inherit the land that you will see.’+ 29 All this while we were dwelling in the valley in front of Beth-peʹor.+
4 “And now, O Israel, listen to the regulations and the judicial decisions that I am teaching YOU to do, in order that YOU may live+ and may indeed go in and take possession of the land that Jehovah the God of YOUR forefathers is giving YOU. 2 YOU must not add to the word that I am commanding YOU, neither must YOU take away from it,+ so as to keep the commandments of Jehovah YOUR God that I am commanding YOU.
3 “YOUR own eyes are the ones that saw what Jehovah did in the case of the Baʹal of Peʹor,*+ that every man who walked after the Baʹal of Peʹor was the one whom Jehovah your God annihilated from your midst.+ 4 But YOU who are cleaving+ to Jehovah YOUR God are all of YOU alive today. 5 See, I have taught YOU regulations+ and judicial decisions,+ just as Jehovah my God has commanded me, for YOU to do that way in the midst of the land to which YOU are going to take possession of it. 6 And YOU must keep and do them, because this is wisdom+ on YOUR part and understanding+ on YOUR part before the eyes of the peoples who will hear of all these regulations, and they will certainly say, ‘This great nation is undoubtedly a wise and understanding people.’+ 7 For what great nation+ is there that has gods* near to it the way Jehovah our God is in all our calling upon him?+ 8 And what great nation is there that has righteous regulations and judicial decisions like all this law that I am putting before YOU today?+
9 “Only watch out for yourself and take good care of your soul,+ that you may not forget the things that your eyes have seen+ and that they may not depart from your heart all the days of your life;+ and you must make them known to your sons and to your grandsons,*+ 10 the day that you stood before Jehovah your God in Hoʹreb,*+ when Jehovah said to me, ‘Congregate* the people together to me that I may let them hear my words,+ that they may learn to fear+ me all the days that they are alive on the soil and that they may teach their sons.’+
11 “So YOU people came near and stood at the base of the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire up to midheaven;* there was darkness, cloud and thick gloom.+ 12 And Jehovah began to speak to YOU out of the middle of the fire.+ The sound of words was what YOU were hearing, but no form+ were YOU seeing—nothing but a voice.+ 13 And he proceeded to state to YOU his covenant,+ which he commanded YOU to perform—the Ten Words,*+ after which he wrote them upon two tablets of stone.+ 14 And it was I whom Jehovah commanded at that particular time to teach YOU regulations and judicial decisions, for YOU to do them in the land to which YOU are passing over to take possession of it.+
15 “And YOU must take good care of YOUR souls,+ because YOU did not see any form+ on the day of Jehovah’s speaking to YOU in Hoʹreb out of the middle of the fire, 16 that YOU may not act ruinously+ and may not really make for yourselves a carved image, the form of any symbol, the representation of male or female,+ 17 the representation of any beast that is in the earth,+ the representation of any winged bird that flies in the heavens,+ 18 the representation of anything moving on the ground, the representation of any fish+ that is in the waters under the earth; 19 and that you may not raise your eyes to the heavens and indeed see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the army of the heavens, and actually get seduced and bow down to them and serve them,*+ which Jehovah your God has apportioned to all the peoples under the whole heavens.+ 20 But YOU are the ones Jehovah took that he might bring YOU out of the iron furnace,+ out of Egypt, to become a people of private ownership* to him+ as at this day.
21 “And Jehovah got incensed at me on YOUR account,+ so that he swore that I should not cross the Jordan or go into the good land that Jehovah your God is giving you as an inheritance.+ 22 For I am dying in this land.+ I am not crossing the Jordan, but YOU are crossing, and YOU must take possession of this good land. 23 Watch out for yourselves that YOU may not forget the covenant of Jehovah YOUR God that he concluded with YOU+ and that YOU do not make for yourselves a carved image, the form of anything about which Jehovah your God has commanded you.+ 24 For Jehovah your God is a consuming fire,+ a God exacting exclusive devotion.*+
25 “In case you* become father to sons and grandsons and YOU have resided a long time in the land and do act ruinously+ and do make a carved image,+ a form of anything, and do commit evil in the eyes of Jehovah your God+ so as to offend him, 26 I do take as witnesses against YOU today the heavens and the earth,+ that YOU will positively perish in a hurry from off the land to which YOU are crossing the Jordan to take possession of it. YOU will not lengthen YOUR days on it, because YOU will positively be annihilated.+ 27 And Jehovah will certainly scatter YOU among the peoples,+ and YOU will indeed be let remain few+ in number among the nations to which Jehovah will drive YOU away. 28 And there YOU will have to serve gods,+ the product of the hands of man, wood and stone,+ which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.+
29 “If YOU do look for Jehovah your God from there, you will also certainly find him,+ because you will inquire for him with all your heart and with all your soul.+ 30 When you are in sore straits and all these words have found you out at the close of the days, then you will have to return to Jehovah your God+ and to listen to his voice.+ 31 For Jehovah your God is a merciful God.+ He will not desert you or bring you to ruin or forget the covenant+ of your forefathers that he swore to them.
32 “Now ask, please, concerning the former days+ that occurred before you, from the day that God created man* on the earth+ and from one end of the heavens clear to the other end of the heavens, Was any great thing brought about like this or was anything heard like it?+ 33 Has any other people heard the voice of God* speaking out of the middle of the fire the way you yourself have heard it, and kept on living?+ 34 Or did God attempt to come to take a nation to himself out of the midst of another nation with provings,+ with signs+ and with miracles+ and with war+ and with a strong hand+ and with an outstretched arm+ and with great fearsomeness+ like all that Jehovah YOUR God has done for YOU in Egypt before your eyes? 35 You—you have been shown, so as to know that Jehovah is the [true] God;+ there is no other besides him.+ 36 Out of the heavens he made you hear his voice so as to correct you; and upon the earth he made you see his great fire, and his words you heard from the middle of the fire.+
37 “And [yet you continue to live], because* he loved your forefathers so that he chose their seed after them*+ and brought you out of Egypt in his sight with his great power,+ 38 to drive away nations greater and mightier than you from before you, so as to bring you in, to give you their land as an inheritance as at this day.+ 39 And you well know today, and you must call back to your heart* that Jehovah is the [true] God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.+ There is no other.+ 40 And you must keep his regulations+ and his commandments that I am commanding you today, that it may go well with you+ and your sons after you, and in order that you may lengthen your days on the soil that Jehovah your God is giving you,+ always.”
41 At that time Moses proceeded to set apart three cities on the side of the Jordan toward the rising of the sun,+ 42 for the manslayer to flee there who slays his fellow without knowing it,+ while he was not hating him formerly;+ and he must flee to one of these cities and live,+ 43 namely, Beʹzer+ in the wilderness on the tableland for the Reuʹben·ites, and Raʹmoth+ in Gilʹe·ad for the Gadʹites, and Goʹlan+ in Baʹshan for the Ma·nasʹsites.+
44 Now this is the law+ that Moses set before the sons of Israel. 45 These are the testimonies*+ and the regulations+ and the judicial decisions+ that Moses spoke to the sons of Israel on their coming out of Egypt, 46 in the region of the Jordan in the valley in front of Beth-peʹor,+ in the land of Siʹhon the king of the Amʹor·ites, who was dwelling in Heshʹbon,+ whom Moses and the sons of Israel defeated on their coming out of Egypt.+ 47 And they went taking possession of his land and of the land of Og+ the king of Baʹshan, the two kings of the Amʹor·ites who were in the region of the Jordan toward the rising of the sun, 48 from A·roʹer,+ which is on the bank of the torrent valley of Arʹnon, up to Mount Siʹon,* that is to say, Herʹmon,+ 49 and all the Arʹa·bah+ in the region of the Jordan toward the east, and as far as the sea of the Arʹa·bah+ at the base of the slopes of Pisʹgah.+
5 And Moses proceeded to call all Israel+ and to say to them: “Hear, O Israel, the regulations and the judicial decisions+ that I am speaking in YOUR ears today, and YOU must learn them and be careful to do them.+ 2 Jehovah our God concluded a covenant with us in Hoʹreb.+ 3 It was not with our forefathers that Jehovah concluded this covenant, but with us, all those of us alive here today. 4 Face to face Jehovah spoke with YOU in the mountain out of the middle of the fire.+ 5 I was standing between Jehovah and YOU at that particular time+ to tell YOU the word* of Jehovah, (for YOU were afraid because of the fire and did not go up into the mountain,)+ saying,
6 “‘I am Jehovah your God,+ who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves.+ 7 You must never have any other gods against my face.*+
8 “‘You must not make for yourself a carved image,+ any form*+ like anything that is in the heavens above or that is on the earth underneath or that is in the waters under the earth. 9 You must not bow down to them or be led to serve* them,+ because I Jehovah your God am a God exacting exclusive devotion,*+ bringing punishment for the error of fathers upon sons* and* upon the third generation and upon the fourth generation,* in the case of those who hate me;+ 10 but exercising loving-kindness* toward the thousandth generation in the case of those who love me and keep my commandments.+
11 “‘You must not take up* the name of Jehovah your God in a worthless way,*+ for Jehovah will not leave anyone unpunished who takes up his name in a worthless way.+
12 “‘Keeping* the sabbath day to hold it sacred, just as Jehovah your God commanded you,+ 13 you are to render service* and you must do all your work six days.+ 14 But the seventh day is a sabbath to Jehovah your God.+ You must not do any work,+ you nor your son nor your daughter nor your slave man nor your slave girl nor your bull nor your ass nor any domestic animal of yours nor your alien resident who is inside your gates,+ in order that your slave man and your slave girl may rest the same as you.+ 15 And you must remember that you became a slave in the land of Egypt+ and Jehovah your God proceeded to bring you out from there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm.+ That is why Jehovah your God commanded you to carry on the sabbath day.+
16 “‘Honor your father and your mother,+ just as Jehovah your God has commanded you; in order that your days may prove long and it may go well with you+ on the ground that Jehovah your God is giving you.
18 “‘Neither must you* commit adultery.+
20 “‘Neither must you testify to a falsehood against your fellowman.*+
21 “‘Neither must you desire your fellowman’s wife.+ Neither must you selfishly crave* your fellowman’s house, his field or his slave man or his slave girl, his bull or his ass or anything that belongs to your fellowman.’+
22 “These Words* Jehovah spoke to all YOUR congregation in the mountain out of the middle of the fire,+ the cloud and the thick gloom, with a loud voice, and he added nothing; after which he wrote them upon two tablets of stone and gave me them.+
23 “And it came about that as soon as YOU had heard the voice out of the middle of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire,+ YOU proceeded to come near to me, all the heads of YOUR tribes and YOUR older men.* 24 Then YOU said, ‘Here Jehovah our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the middle of the fire.+ This day we have seen that God may speak with man and he may actually keep living.+ 25 And now why should we die, for this great fire may consume us?+ If we are again hearing the voice of Jehovah our God any further, we are also certain to die.+ 26 For who is there of all flesh that has heard the voice of the living God*+ speaking out of the middle of the fire as we did and yet goes on living? 27 You yourself go near and hear all that Jehovah our God will say; and you will be the one to speak to us all that Jehovah our God will speak to you,+ and we shall certainly listen and do.’
28 “So Jehovah heard the voice of YOUR words when YOU spoke to me, and Jehovah went on to say to me, ‘I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken to you. They have done well in all they have spoken.+ 29 If only* they would develop this heart of theirs to fear me+ and to keep all my commandments+ always, in order that it might go well with them and their sons to time indefinite!+ 30 Go say to them: “Return home to YOUR tents.” 31 And you stand here with me, and let me speak to you all the commandment and the regulations and the judicial decisions that you should teach to them+ and that they must do in the land that I am giving them to take possession of it.’ 32 And YOU people must take care to do just as Jehovah YOUR God has commanded YOU.+ YOU must not turn to the right or to the left.+ 33 In all the way that Jehovah YOUR God has commanded YOU, YOU should walk,+ in order that YOU may live and it may be well with YOU+ and YOU may indeed lengthen YOUR days in the land of which YOU will take possession.
6 “Now these are the commandment, the regulations and the judicial decisions that Jehovah YOUR God has commanded to teach YOU,+ so as to do them in the land to which YOU are passing over there to take possession of it; 2 in order that you may fear+ Jehovah your God so as to keep all his statutes and his commandments that I am commanding you, you and your son and your grandson,+ all the days of your life, and in order that your days may prove long.+ 3 And you must listen, O Israel, and take care to do+ [them], that it may go well with you+ and that YOU may become very many, just as Jehovah the God of your forefathers has promised you,+ as respects the land* flowing with milk and honey.
4 “Listen, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah.*+ 5 And you must love Jehovah your God with all your heart+ and all your soul+ and all your vital force.+ 6 And these words that I am commanding you today must prove to be on your heart;+ 7 and you must inculcate them in your son+ and speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road and when you lie down+ and when you get up. 8 And you must tie them as a sign upon your hand,+ and they must serve as a frontlet band between your eyes;+ 9 and you must write them upon the doorposts* of your house and on your gates.+
10 “And it must occur that when Jehovah your God will bring you into the land that he swore to your forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to give you,+ great and good-looking cities that you did not build,+ 11 and houses full of all good things and that you did not fill, and cisterns hewn out that you did not hew out, vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant, and you shall have eaten and become satisfied,+ 12 watch out for yourself that you may not forget+ Jehovah, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves. 13 Jehovah your God you should fear,+ and him you should serve,*+ and by his name you should swear.+ 14 YOU must not walk after other gods, any gods of the peoples who are all around YOU,+ 15 (for Jehovah your God in your midst is a God exacting exclusive devotion,)+ for fear the anger of Jehovah your God may blaze against you+ and he must annihilate you from off the surface of the ground.+
16 “YOU must not put Jehovah YOUR God to the test,+ the way YOU put him to the test at Masʹsah.*+ 17 YOU should by all means keep the commandments of Jehovah YOUR God+ and his testimonies+ and his regulations+ that he has commanded you.+ 18 And you must do what is right and good in Jehovah’s eyes, in order that it may go well with you+ and you may indeed enter and take possession of the good land about which Jehovah has sworn to your forefathers,+ 19 by pushing away all your enemies from before you, just as Jehovah has promised.+
20 “In case your son should ask you in a future day,+ saying, ‘What do the testimonies and the regulations and the judicial decisions mean that Jehovah our God has commanded YOU?’ 21 then you must say to your son, ‘We became slaves to Pharʹaoh in Egypt, but Jehovah proceeded to bring us out of Egypt with a strong hand.+ 22 So Jehovah kept putting signs and miracles,+ great and calamitous, upon Egypt, upon Pharʹaoh and upon all his household before our eyes.+ 23 And he brought us out from there in order that he might bring us here to give us the land about which he had sworn to our forefathers.+ 24 Hence Jehovah commanded us to carry out all these regulations,+ to fear Jehovah our God for our good always,+ that we might keep alive as at this day.+ 25 And it will mean righteousness for us,+ that we take care to do all this commandment before Jehovah our God, just as he has commanded us.’+
7 “When Jehovah your God at last brings you into the land to which you are going so as to take possession of it,+ he must also clear away populous nations from before you,+ the Hitʹtites+ and the Girʹga·shites+ and the Amʹor·ites+ and the Caʹnaan·ites+ and the Perʹiz·zites+ and the Hiʹvites+ and the Jebʹu·sites,+ seven nations more populous and mighty than you are.+ 2 And Jehovah your God will certainly abandon them to you, and you must defeat them.+ You should without fail devote them to destruction.+ You must conclude no covenant with them nor show them any favor.+ 3 And you must form no marriage alliance with them. Your daughter you must not give to his son, and his daughter you must not take for your son.+ 4 For he will turn your son from following me, and they will certainly serve other gods;+ and Jehovah’s anger will indeed blaze against YOU, and he will certainly annihilate you in a hurry.+
5 “On the other hand, this is what YOU should do to them: Their altars YOU should pull down,+ and their sacred pillars YOU should break down,+ and their sacred poles*+ YOU should cut down,+ and their graven images YOU should burn with fire.+ 6 For you are a holy people to Jehovah your God.+ It is you Jehovah your God has chosen to become his people, a special property, out of all the peoples that are on the surface of the ground.+
7 “It was not because of YOUR being the most populous of all the peoples that Jehovah showed affection for YOU so that he chose YOU,+ for YOU were the least of all the peoples.+ 8 But it was because of Jehovah’s loving YOU,+ and because of his keeping the sworn statement that he had sworn to YOUR forefathers,+ that Jehovah brought YOU out with a strong hand,+ that he might redeem you from the house of slaves,+ from the hand of Pharʹaoh the king of Egypt. 9 And you well know that Jehovah your God is the [true] God,+ the faithful God,*+ keeping covenant+ and loving-kindness* in the case of those who love him and those who keep his commandments to a thousand generations,+ 10 but repaying to his face the one who hates him by destroying him.+ He will not hesitate toward the one who hates him; he will repay him to his face. 11 And you must keep the commandment and the regulations and the judicial decisions that I am commanding you today by doing them.+
12 “And it must occur that, because YOU continue listening to these judicial decisions and YOU do keep them and do carry them out,+ Jehovah your God must keep toward you the covenant+ and the loving-kindness about which he swore to your forefathers.+ 13 And he will certainly love you and bless+ you and multiply you+ and bless the fruit of your belly+ and the fruit of your soil,+ your grain and your new wine and your oil, the young of your cows and the progeny of your flock,+ on the soil that he swore to your forefathers to give to you.+ 14 The most blessed of all the peoples you will become.+ There will not prove to be in you a male or a female without offspring, nor among your domestic animals.+ 15 And Jehovah will certainly remove from you every sickness; and as for all the evil diseases of Egypt that you have known,+ he will not place them upon you, and he will indeed put them upon all those who hate you. 16 And you must consume all the peoples whom Jehovah your God is giving to you.+ Your eye must not feel sorry for them;+ and you must not serve their gods,+ because that will be a snare to you.+
17 “In case you say in your heart, ‘These nations are too populous for me. How shall I be able to drive them away?’+ 18 you must not be afraid of them.+ You should by all means remember what Jehovah your God did to Pharʹaoh and all Egypt,+ 19 the great provings that your eyes saw,+ and the signs and the miracles+ and the strong hand+ and the outstretched arm+ with which Jehovah your God brought you out.+ That is the way Jehovah your God will do to all the peoples before whom you are afraid.+ 20 And Jehovah your God will also send the feeling of dejection*+ upon them, until those perish who were let remain+ and who were concealing themselves from before you. 21 You must not suffer a shock because of them, for Jehovah your God is in your midst,+ a great and fear-inspiring God.+
22 “And Jehovah your God will certainly push these nations away from before you little by little.+ You will not be allowed to finish them off quickly, for fear the wild beasts of the field may multiply against you. 23 And Jehovah your God will indeed abandon them to you and rout them with a great rout, until they are annihilated.+ 24 And he will certainly give their kings into your hand,+ and you must destroy their names from under the heavens.+ Nobody will take a firm stand against you,+ until you have exterminated them.+ 25 The graven images of their gods you should burn in the fire.+ You must not desire the silver and the gold upon them,+ nor indeed take it for yourself,+ for fear you may be ensnared by it;+ for it is a thing detestable+ to Jehovah your God. 26 And you must not bring a detestable thing into your house and actually become a thing devoted to destruction* like it. You should thoroughly loathe it and absolutely detest it,+ because it is something devoted to destruction.+
8 “Every commandment that I am commanding you today YOU should be careful to keep,+ in order that YOU may continue living+ and indeed multiply and go in and take possession of the land about which Jehovah swore to YOUR forefathers.+ 2 And you must remember all the way that Jehovah your God made you walk these forty years in the wilderness,+ in order to humble you,+ to put you to the test+ so as to know what was in your heart,+ as to whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 So he humbled you and let you go hungry+ and fed you with the manna,+ which neither you had known nor your fathers had known; in order to make you know that not by bread alone does man live but by every expression of Jehovah’s mouth does man live.+ 4 Your mantle did not wear out upon you, nor did your foot become swollen these forty years.+ 5 And you well know with your own heart that just as a man corrects his son, Jehovah your God was correcting you.+
6 “And you must keep the commandments of Jehovah your God by walking in his ways+ and by fearing him.+ 7 For Jehovah your God is bringing you into a good land,+ a land of torrent valleys of water, springs and watery deeps* issuing forth in the valley plain+ and in the mountainous region, 8 a land of wheat and barley and vines and figs and pomegranates,+ a land of oil olives and honey,+ 9 a land in which you will not eat bread with scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land the stones of which are iron and out of the mountains of which you will mine copper.
10 “When you have eaten and satisfied yourself,+ you must also bless+ Jehovah your God for the good land that he has given you.+ 11 Watch out for yourself that you may not forget+ Jehovah your God so as not to keep his commandments and his judicial decisions and his statutes that I am commanding you today;+ 12 for fear that you may eat and indeed satisfy yourself, and you may build good houses and indeed dwell in them,+ 13 and your herd and your flock may increase, and silver and gold may increase for you, and all that is yours may increase; 14 and your heart may indeed be lifted up+ and you may indeed forget Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves;+ 15 who caused you to walk through the great and fear-inspiring wilderness,+ with poisonous* serpents+ and scorpions* and with thirsty ground that has no water; who brought forth water for you out of the flinty rock;+ 16 who fed you with manna+ in the wilderness, which your fathers had not known, in order to humble you+ and in order to put you to the test so as to do you good in your afterdays;+ 17 and you do say in your heart, ‘My own power and the full might of my own hand have made this wealth for me.’+ 18 And you must remember Jehovah your God, because he is the giver of power to you to make wealth;+ in order to carry out his covenant that he swore to your forefathers, as at this day.+
19 “And it must occur that if you should at all forget Jehovah your God and you should actually walk after other gods and serve them and bow down to them, I do bear witness against YOU today that YOU people will absolutely perish.+ 20 Like the nations that Jehovah is destroying from before YOU, that is the way YOU will perish, because YOU will not listen to the voice of Jehovah YOUR God.+
9 “Hear, O Israel, you are today crossing the Jordan+ to go in and dispossess nations greater and mightier than you,+ cities great and fortified to the heavens,+ 2 a people great and tall, the sons of Anʹa·kim,+ about whom you yourself have known and you yourself have heard it said, ‘Who can make a firm stand before the sons of Aʹnak?’ 3 And you well know today that Jehovah your God is crossing before you.+ A consuming fire he is.+ He will annihilate+ them, and he himself will subdue them before you; and you must dispossess them and destroy them speedily, just as Jehovah has spoken to you.+
4 “Do not say in your heart when Jehovah your God pushes them away from before you this, ‘It was for my own righteousness that Jehovah has brought me in to take possession of this land,’+ whereas it is for the wickedness of these nations that Jehovah is driving them away from before you.+ 5 It is not for your righteousness+ or for the uprightness of your heart+ that you are going in to take possession of their land; in fact, it is for the wickedness of these nations that Jehovah your God is driving them away from before you,+ and in order to carry out the word that Jehovah swore to your forefathers, Abraham,+ Isaac+ and Jacob.+ 6 And you must know that it is not for your righteousness that Jehovah your God is giving you this good land to take possession of it; for you are a stiff-necked people.+
7 “Remember: Do not forget how you have provoked Jehovah your God in the wilderness.+ From the day that you went out of the land of Egypt until YOUR coming to this place YOU people have proved rebellious in YOUR behavior with Jehovah.+ 8 Even in Hoʹreb YOU provoked Jehovah to anger so that Jehovah got incensed at YOU to the point of annihilating YOU.+ 9 When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets,+ the tablets of the covenant that Jehovah had concluded with YOU,+ and I kept dwelling in the mountain forty days and forty nights,+ (I neither ate bread nor drank water,) 10 then Jehovah gave me the two tablets of stone written upon with God’s finger;+ and upon them were all the words* that Jehovah had spoken with YOU in the mountain out of the middle of the fire in the day of the congregation.*+ 11 And it came about that at the end of the forty days and forty nights Jehovah gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant;+ 12 and Jehovah proceeded to say to me, ‘Get up, go down quickly from here, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted ruinously.+ They have turned aside quickly from the way about which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molten image.’+ 13 And Jehovah went on to say this to me, ‘I have seen this people, and, look! it is a stiff-necked people.+ 14 Let me alone that I may annihilate+ them and wipe out their name from under the heavens,+ and let me make you a nation mightier and more populous than they are.’+
15 “After that I turned and went down from the mountain, while the mountain was burning with fire;+ and the two tablets of the covenant were in both my hands.+ 16 Then I looked, and there YOU had sinned against Jehovah YOUR God! YOU had made yourselves a molten calf.+ YOU had turned aside quickly from the way about which Jehovah had commanded YOU.+ 17 At that I took hold of the two tablets and flung them down from both my hands and shattered them before YOUR eyes.+ 18 And I proceeded to prostrate myself before Jehovah, as at first, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water,+ because of all YOUR sin that YOU had committed in doing evil in the eyes of Jehovah so as to offend him.+ 19 For I was scared because of the hot anger with which Jehovah had got indignant at YOU to the point of annihilating YOU.+ However, Jehovah listened to me also that time.+
20 “At Aaron, too, Jehovah got very incensed to the point of annihilating him;+ but I made supplication+ also in behalf of Aaron at that particular time. 21 And YOUR sin that YOU had made, the calf,+ I took, and I proceeded to burn it in the fire and to crush it, grinding it thoroughly until it had become fine like dust; after which I threw its dust into the torrent that was descending from the mountain.+
22 “Further, at Tabʹe·rah+ and at Masʹsah+ and at Kibʹroth-hat·taʹa·vah+ YOU proved yourselves provokers of Jehovah to anger.+ 23 And when Jehovah sent YOU out of Kaʹdesh-barʹne·a,+ saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the land that I shall certainly give YOU!’ then YOU behaved rebelliously against the order of Jehovah YOUR God,+ and YOU did not exercise faith+ toward him and did not listen to his voice.+ 24 YOU have proved yourselves rebellious in behavior with Jehovah+ from the day of my knowing YOU.
25 “So I kept prostrating myself before Jehovah forty days and forty nights,+ for I prostrated myself thus because Jehovah talked* of annihilating YOU.+ 26 And I began to make supplication+ to Jehovah and to say, ‘O Sovereign Lord Jehovah,* do not bring to ruin your people, even your private property,*+ whom you redeemed with your greatness, whom you brought out of Egypt+ with a strong hand.+ 27 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.+ Do not turn your face to the hardness of this people and their wickedness and their sin,+ 28 for fear the land*+ out of which you brought us may say: “Because Jehovah was unable to bring them into the land that he had promised them, and because he hated them he brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.”+ 29 They are, too, your people and your private property+ whom you brought out with your great power and your outstretched arm.’+
10 “At that particular time Jehovah said to me, ‘Carve for yourself two tablets of stone like the first ones,+ and come up to me into the mountain, and you must make an ark of wood+ for yourself. 2 And I shall write upon the tablets the words that appeared on the first tablets, which you shattered, and you must place them in the ark.’ 3 So I made an ark of acacia wood and carved two tablets of stone like the first ones+ and went up into the mountain, and the two tablets were in my hand. 4 Then he wrote upon the tablets the same writing as the first,+ the Ten Words,*+ which Jehovah had spoken to YOU in the mountain out of the middle of the fire+ in the day of the congregation;+ after which Jehovah gave them to me. 5 Then I turned and went down from the mountain+ and placed the tablets in the ark that I had made, that they might continue there, just as Jehovah had commanded me.+
6 “And the sons of Israel pulled away from Be·erʹoth Benʹe-jaʹa·kan+ for Mo·seʹrah. There Aaron died, and he got to be buried there;+ and El·e·aʹzar his son began to act as priest instead of him.+ 7 From there they pulled away for Gudʹgo·dah, and from Gudʹgo·dah for Jotʹba·thah,+ a land of torrent valleys running with water.
8 “At that particular time Jehovah separated the tribe of Leʹvi+ to carry the ark of Jehovah’s covenant,+ to stand before Jehovah for ministering to him+ and to bless in his name until this day.+ 9 That is why Leʹvi has come to have no share and inheritance+ with his brothers. Jehovah is his inheritance, just as Jehovah your God had said to him.+ 10 And I—I stayed* in the mountain the same as the first days, forty days and forty nights,+ and Jehovah proceeded to listen to me also on that occasion.+ Jehovah did not want to bring you to ruin.+ 11 Then Jehovah said to me, ‘Get up, go before the people for a pulling away, that they may go in and take possession of the land that I have sworn to their forefathers to give to them.’+
12 “And now, O Israel, what is Jehovah your God asking of you+ but to fear+ Jehovah your God, so as to walk in all his ways+ and to love him+ and to serve Jehovah your God with all your heart and all your soul;+ 13 to keep the commandments of Jehovah and his statutes+ that I am commanding you today, for your good?+ 14 Behold, to Jehovah your God belong the heavens,+ even the heavens of the heavens, the earth+ and all that is in it. 15 Only to your forefathers did Jehovah get attached so as to love them, so that he chose their offspring after them,+ even YOU, out of all the peoples, as at this day. 16 And YOU must circumcise the foreskin of YOUR hearts+ and not harden* YOUR necks any longer.+ 17 For Jehovah YOUR God is the God of gods*+ and the Lord of lords,*+ the God* great, mighty and fear-inspiring,+ who treats none with partiality+ nor accepts a bribe,*+ 18 executing judgment for the fatherless boy and the widow+ and loving the alien resident+ so as to give him bread and a mantle. 19 YOU too must love the alien resident,+ for YOU became alien residents in the land of Egypt.+
20 “Jehovah your God you should fear.+ Him you should serve,+ and to him you should cling,+ and by his name you should make sworn statements.+ 21 He is the One for you to praise,*+ and he is your God, who has done with you these great and fear-inspiring things that your eyes have seen.+ 22 With seventy souls your forefathers went down into Egypt,+ and now Jehovah your God has constituted you like the stars of the heavens for multitude.+
11 “And you must love Jehovah your God+ and keep your obligation to him and his statutes and his judicial decisions+ and his commandments always. 2 And YOU well know today (for [I do] not [address] YOUR sons who have not known and who have not seen the discipline of Jehovah+ YOUR God, his greatness,+ his strong hand+ and his outstretched arm,+ 3 nor his signs and his deeds that he did in the midst of Egypt+ to Pharʹaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land; 4 nor what he did to the military forces of Egypt, to his horses and his war chariots against the faces of which he made the waters of the Red Sea overflow when they were chasing after them,+ and Jehovah proceeded to destroy them till this day;+ 5 nor what he has done to YOU in the wilderness until YOUR coming to this place; 6 nor what he did to Daʹthan and A·biʹram+ the sons of E·liʹab the son of Reuʹben, when the earth opened its mouth and proceeded to swallow them up and their households and their tents and every existing thing that stepped after them in the midst of all Israel);+ 7 for YOUR eyes were the ones seeing all the great deeds of Jehovah that he did.+
8 “And YOU must keep the whole commandment+ that I am commanding you today, in order that YOU may grow strong and may indeed enter in and take possession of the land to which YOU are crossing to take possession of it,+ 9 and in order that YOU may lengthen YOUR days+ on the soil that Jehovah swore to YOUR forefathers to give to them and their seed,+ a land flowing with milk and honey.+
10 “For the land to which you are going to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt out of which YOU came, where you used to sow your seed and you had to do irrigating with your foot,* like a garden of vegetables. 11 But the land to which YOU are crossing to take possession of it is a land of mountains and valley+ plains. Of the rain of the heavens it drinks water; 12 a land that Jehovah your God is caring for. The eyes+ of Jehovah your God are constantly upon it, from the beginning of the year to the close of the year.
13 “And it must occur that if YOU will without fail obey my commandments+ that I am commanding YOU today so as to love Jehovah YOUR God and to serve him with all YOUR heart and all YOUR soul,+ 14 I* also shall certainly give rain for YOUR land at its appointed time,+ autumn rain and spring rain,*+ and you will indeed gather your grain and your sweet wine and your oil. 15 And I shall certainly give vegetation in your field for your domestic animals,+ and you will indeed eat and be satisfied.+ 16 Watch out for yourselves for fear YOUR heart may be enticed,+ and YOU do turn aside and worship other gods and bow down to them,+ 17 and Jehovah’s anger does blaze against YOU, and he does shut up the heavens so that no rain will occur+ and the ground will not give its produce and YOU have to perish speedily from off the good land that Jehovah is giving YOU.+
18 “And YOU must apply these words of mine to YOUR heart+ and YOUR soul and bind them as a sign upon YOUR hand, and they must serve as a frontlet band between YOUR eyes.+ 19 YOU must also teach them to YOUR sons, so as to speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road and when you lie down and when you get up.+ 20 And you must write them upon the doorposts of your house and on your gates,+ 21 in order that YOUR days and the days of YOUR sons may be many+ on the soil that Jehovah swore to YOUR forefathers to give to them,+ as the days of the heavens over the earth.+
22 “For if YOU strictly keep all this commandment+ that I am commanding YOU so as to do it, to love Jehovah YOUR God,+ to walk in all his ways+ and to cling to him,+ 23 Jehovah also must drive away all these nations on account of YOU,+ and YOU will certainly dispossess nations greater and more numerous than YOU are.+ 24 Every place on which the sole of YOUR foot will tread will become YOURS.+ From the wilderness up to* Lebʹa·non, from the River, the river Eu·phraʹtes, to the western* sea YOUR boundary will become.+ 25 No man will make a firm stand against YOU.+ The dread of YOU and the fear of YOU Jehovah YOUR God will put before the face of all the land+ on which YOU will tread, just as he has promised YOU.
26 “See, I am putting before YOU today blessing and malediction:+ 27 the blessing, provided YOU will obey the commandments of Jehovah YOUR God+ that I am commanding YOU today; 28 and the malediction,+ if YOU will not obey the commandments of Jehovah YOUR God+ and YOU do turn aside from the way about which I am commanding YOU today, so as to walk after other gods whom YOU have not known.
29 “And it must occur that when Jehovah your God brings you into the land to which you are going to take possession of it,+ you must also give* the blessing upon Mount Gerʹi·zim+ and the malediction upon Mount Eʹbal.+ 30 Are they not on the side of the Jordan toward the direction of the sunset, in the land of the Caʹnaan·ites dwelling in the Arʹa·bah,+ in front of Gilʹgal,+ beside the big trees of Moʹreh?*+ 31 For YOU are crossing the Jordan to go in and take possession of the land that Jehovah YOUR God is giving YOU, and YOU must take possession of it and dwell in it.+ 32 And YOU must be careful to carry out all the regulations and the judicial decisions+ that I am putting before YOU today.+
12 “These are the regulations+ and the judicial decisions+ that YOU should be careful to carry out+ in the land that Jehovah the God of your forefathers will certainly allow you to take possession of, all the days that YOU are alive on the soil.+ 2 YOU should absolutely destroy+ all the places where the nations whom YOU are dispossessing have served their gods, on the tall mountains and the hills and under every luxuriant tree.+ 3 And YOU must pull down their altars+ and shatter their sacred pillars,+ and YOU should burn their sacred poles*+ in the fire and cut down the graven images+ of their gods, and YOU must destroy their names from that place.+
4 “YOU must not do that way to Jehovah YOUR God,+ 5 but to the place that Jehovah YOUR God will choose out of all YOUR tribes to place his name there, to have it reside,* YOU will seek, and there you must come.+ 6 And there YOU must bring YOUR burnt offerings+ and YOUR sacrifices and YOUR tenth parts*+ and the contribution of YOUR hand+ and YOUR vow offerings+ and YOUR voluntary offerings+ and the firstborn ones of YOUR herd and of YOUR flock.+ 7 And there YOU must eat before Jehovah YOUR God+ and rejoice in every undertaking of YOURS,*+ YOU and YOUR households, because Jehovah your God has blessed you.
8 “YOU must not do according to all that we are doing here today, each one whatever is right in his own eyes,+ 9 because YOU have not yet come into the resting-place+ and the inheritance that Jehovah your God is giving you. 10 And YOU must cross the Jordan+ and dwell in the land that Jehovah YOUR God is giving YOU as a possession,+ and he will certainly give YOU rest from all YOUR enemies round about, and YOU will indeed dwell in security.+ 11 And it must occur that the place+ that Jehovah YOUR God will choose to have his name reside there is where YOU will bring all about which I am commanding YOU, YOUR burnt offerings+ and YOUR sacrifices, YOUR tenth parts+ and the contribution+ of YOUR hand and every choice of YOUR vow+ offerings that YOU will vow to Jehovah. 12 And YOU must rejoice before Jehovah YOUR God,+ YOU and YOUR sons and YOUR daughters and YOUR man slaves and YOUR slave girls and the Levite who is inside YOUR gates,* because he has no share or inheritance with YOU.+ 13 Watch out for yourself for fear you may offer up your burnt offerings in any other place you may see.+ 14 But in the place that Jehovah will choose in one of your tribes is where you should offer up your burnt offerings, and there you should do all that I am commanding you.+
15 “Only whenever your soul craves it you may slaughter,+ and you must eat meat according to the blessing of Jehovah your God that he has given you, inside all your gates.* The unclean+ one and the clean one may eat it, like the gazelle and like the stag.+ 16 Only the blood YOU must not eat.+ On the earth you should pour it out as water.+ 17 You will not be allowed to eat inside your gates the tenth part of your grain+ or of your new wine or of your oil or the firstborn ones of your herd and of your flock+ or any of your vow offerings that you will vow or your voluntary offerings+ or the contribution of your hand.+ 18 But before Jehovah your God you will eat it, in the place that Jehovah your God will choose,+ you and your son and your daughter and your man slave and your slave girl and the Levite who is inside your gates; and you must rejoice+ before Jehovah your God in every undertaking of yours. 19 Watch out for yourself that you may not abandon the Levite+ all your days on your soil.
20 “When Jehovah your God will widen out your territory,*+ just as he has promised you,+ and you will be certain to say, ‘Let me eat meat,’ because your soul craves to eat meat, whenever your soul craves it you may eat meat.+ 21 In case the place that Jehovah your God will choose to put his name+ there should be far away from you, you must then slaughter some of your herd or some of your flock that Jehovah has given you, just as I have commanded you, and you must eat inside your gates whenever your soul craves it.+ 22 Only in the way that the gazelle and the stag may be eaten,+ so you may eat it: the unclean+ one and the clean one together may eat it. 23 Simply be firmly resolved not to eat the blood,+ because the blood is the soul+ and you must not eat the soul with the flesh.* 24 You must not eat it. You should pour it out upon the ground as water.+ 25 You must not eat it, in order that it may go well with you+ and your sons after you, because you will do what is right in Jehovah’s eyes.+ 26 Merely your holy things+ that will become yours, and your vow offerings+ you should carry, and you must come to the place that Jehovah will choose.+ 27 And you must render up your burnt offerings,+ the flesh and the blood,+ upon the altar of Jehovah your God; and the blood of your sacrifices should be poured out against the altar of Jehovah+ your God, but the flesh you may eat.
28 “Watch, and you must obey all these words that I am commanding you,+ in order that it may go well with you+ and your sons after you to time indefinite, because you will do what is good and right in the eyes of Jehovah your God.+
29 “When Jehovah your God will cut off from before you the nations to whom you are going to dispossess them,+ you must also dispossess them and dwell in their land.+ 30 Watch out for yourself for fear you may be entrapped after them,+ after they have been annihilated from before you, and for fear you may inquire respecting their gods, saying, ‘How was it these nations used to serve* their gods? And I, yes, I, will do the same way.’ 31 You must not do that way to Jehovah your God,+ for everything detestable to Jehovah that he does hate they have done to their gods, for even their sons and their daughters they regularly burn in the fire to their gods.*+ 32 Every word that I am commanding YOU is what YOU should be careful to do.+ YOU must not add to it nor take away from it.+
13 “In case a prophet+ or a dreamer+ of a dream arises in your midst and does give you a sign or a portent,+ 2 and the sign or the portent does come true of which he spoke to you,+ saying, ‘Let us walk after other gods, whom you have not known, and let us serve them,’ 3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or to the dreamer of that dream,+ because Jehovah YOUR God is testing+ YOU to know whether YOU are loving Jehovah YOUR God with all YOUR heart and all YOUR soul.+ 4 After Jehovah YOUR God YOU should walk, and him YOU should fear, and his commandments YOU should keep, and to his voice YOU should listen, and him YOU should serve, and to him YOU should cling.+ 5 And that prophet+ or that dreamer of the dream should be put to death,+ because he has spoken of revolt against Jehovah YOUR God, who has brought YOU out of the land of Egypt and has redeemed you from the house of slaves, to turn you from the way in which Jehovah your God has commanded you to walk;+ and you must clear out what is evil from your midst.+
6 “In case your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or your cherished wife* or your companion who is like your own soul,+ should try to allure you in secrecy, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’+ whom you have not known, neither you nor your forefathers, 7 some of the gods of the peoples who are all around YOU, the ones near you or those far away from you, from one end of the land to the other end of the land, 8 you must not accede to his wish or listen to him,+ nor should your eye feel sorry for him, nor must you feel compassion,+ nor cover him [protectively]; 9 but you should kill him without fail.+ Your hand first of all should come upon him to put him to death, and the hand of all the people afterward.+ 10 And you must stone him with stones, and he must die,+ because he has sought to turn you away from Jehovah your God, who has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves.+ 11 Then all Israel will hear and become afraid, and they will not do anything like this bad thing again in your midst.+
12 “In case you hear it said in one of your cities, which Jehovah your God is giving you to dwell there, 13 ‘Good-for-nothing men* have gone out from your midst+ that they may try to turn away the inhabitants of their city,+ saying: “Let us go and serve other gods,” whom you have not known,’ 14 you must also search and investigate and inquire thoroughly;+ and if the thing is established as the truth, this detestable thing has been done in your midst, 15 you should without fail strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword.+ Devote it and everything that is in it, and its domestic animals, to destruction+ at the edge of the sword. 16 And all its spoil you should collect into the middle of its public square, and you must burn in the fire the city+ and all its spoil as a whole offering to Jehovah your God, and it must become a heap of ruins to time indefinite.+ It should never be rebuilt. 17 And nothing at all should stick to your hand of the thing made sacred by ban,*+ in order that Jehovah may turn from his burning anger+ and may indeed give you mercy and he may certainly show you mercy+ and multiply you, just as he has sworn to your forefathers.+ 18 For you should listen to the voice of Jehovah your God by keeping all his commandments+ that I am commanding you today, so as to do what is right in the eyes of Jehovah your God.+
14 “Sons YOU are of Jehovah YOUR God.+ YOU must not make cuttings+ upon yourselves or impose baldness+ on YOUR foreheads* for a dead person. 2 For you are a holy people+ to Jehovah your God, and Jehovah has chosen you to become his people, a special property,+ out of all the peoples who are on the surface of the ground.
3 “You must eat no detestable thing of any sort.+ 4 This is the sort of beast that YOU may eat:+ the bull, the sheep and the goat, 5 the stag and gazelle and roebuck+ and wild goat and antelope* and wild sheep and chamois;* 6 and every beast that splits the hoof and that forms a cleft into two hoofs, chewing* the cud among the beasts.+ It YOU may eat. 7 Only this sort YOU must not eat out of those that chew the cud or that split the hoof, cloven: the camel+ and the hare+ and the rock badger,+ because they are chewers of the cud but do not split the hoof. They are unclean for YOU. 8 The pig+ also, because it is a splitter of the hoof but there is no cud. It is unclean for YOU. None of their flesh must YOU eat, and their carcasses YOU must not touch.+
9 “This sort out of everything that is in the waters YOU may eat: Everything that has fins and scales YOU may eat.+ 10 And everything that has no fins and scales YOU must not eat.+ It is unclean for YOU.
11 “Any clean bird YOU may eat. 12 But these are the ones of which YOU must not eat: the eagle and the osprey* and the black vulture,+ 13 and the red kite* and the black kite+ and the glede* according to its kind;* 14 and every raven+ according to its kind; 15 and the ostrich*+ and the owl* and the gull and the falcon according to its kind; 16 the little owl and the long-eared owl+ and the swan,* 17 and the pelican+ and the vulture and the cormorant, 18 and the stork and the heron according to its kind, and the hoopoe and the bat.+ 19 And every winged swarming creature is unclean for YOU.+ They should not be eaten. 20 Any clean flying creature YOU may eat.
21 “YOU must not eat any body [already] dead.*+ To the alien resident who is inside your gates you may give it, and he must eat it; or there may be a selling* of it to a foreigner, because you are a holy people to Jehovah your God.
“You must not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.+
22 “Without fail you should give a tenth* of all the produce of your seed, that which comes forth of the field year by year.+ 23 And before Jehovah your God, in the place that he* will choose to have his name reside there, you must eat the tenth part of your grain,+ your new wine and your oil and the firstborn ones of your herd and of your flock;+ in order that you may learn to fear Jehovah your God always.+
24 “Now in case the journey should be too long for you,+ because you will not be able to carry it, since the place that Jehovah your God will choose to place his name+ there will be too far away for you, (because Jehovah your God will bless you,)+ 25 you must then turn it into money, and you must wrap the money up in your hand and travel to the place that Jehovah your God will choose. 26 You must also give the money for whatever your soul may crave+ in the way of cattle and sheep and goats and wine and intoxicating liquor+ and anything that your soul may ask of you; and you must eat there before Jehovah your God and rejoice,+ you and your household. 27 And the Levite who is inside your gates, you must not abandon him,+ for he has no share or inheritance with you.+
28 “At the end of three years you will bring out the entire tenth part of your produce in that year,+ and you must deposit it inside your gates. 29 And the Levite,+ because he has no share or inheritance with you, and the alien resident+ and the fatherless boy and the widow,+ who are inside your gates, must come, and they must eat and satisfy themselves; in order that Jehovah your God may bless+ you in every deed+ of your hand that you will do.
15 “At the end of every seven years you should make a release. 2 And this is the manner of the release:+ there will be a releasing* by every creditor of the debt* that he may let his fellow incur. He should not press his fellow or his brother for payment,+ because a release to Jehovah must be called.*+ 3 The foreigner+ you may press for payment; but whatever of yours may prove to be with your brother let your hand release. 4 However, no one should come to be poor among you, because Jehovah will without fail bless+ you in the land that Jehovah your God is giving you as an inheritance to take possession of it,+ 5 only if you will without fail listen to the voice of Jehovah your God so as to be careful to do all this commandment that I am commanding you today.+ 6 For Jehovah your God will indeed bless you just as he has promised you, and you will certainly lend+ on pledge to many nations, whereas you yourself will not borrow; and you must dominate over many nations, whereas over you they will not dominate.+
7 “In case some one of your brothers becomes poor among you in one of your cities,* in your land that Jehovah your God is giving you, you must not harden your heart or be closefisted toward your poor brother.+ 8 For you should generously open your hand to him+ and by all means lend him on pledge as much as he needs, which he is in want of. 9 Watch out for yourself for fear a base word* should come to be in your heart,+ saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of the release,* has come close,’+ and your eye should indeed become ungenerous toward your poor brother,+ and you should give him nothing, and he has to call out to Jehovah against you,+ and it has become a sin on your part.+ 10 You should by all means give to him,+ and your heart should not be stingy in your giving to him, because on this account Jehovah your God will bless you in every deed of yours and in every undertaking of yours.+ 11 For someone poor will never cease to be in the midst of the land.+ That is why I am commanding you, saying, ‘You should generously open up your hand to your afflicted and poor brother* in your land.’+
12 “In case there should be sold to you your brother, a Hebrew or a Hebrewess,+ and he has served you six years, then in the seventh year you should send him out from you as one set free.+ 13 And in case you should send him out from you as one set free, you must not send him out empty-handed.+ 14 You should surely equip him with something from your flock and your threshing floor and your oil and winepress. Just as Jehovah your God has blessed you, you should give to him.+ 15 And you must remember that you became a slave in the land of Egypt and Jehovah your God proceeded to redeem you.+ That is why I am commanding you this thing today.
16 “And it must occur that in case he says to you, ‘I shall not go out from your company!’ because he does love you and your household, since it was well with him while with you,+ 17 you must also take an awl and put it through his ear and to the door, and he must become your slave to time indefinite.+ And to your slave girl you should also do this way. 18 It should not be something hard in your eyes when you send him out from your company as one set free;+ because for double the value of a hired laborer+ he served you six years, and Jehovah your God has blessed you in everything that you would do.+
19 “Every male firstborn that will be born in your herd and in your flock you should sanctify to Jehovah your God.+ You must do no service with the firstborn of your bull, nor shear the firstborn of your flock.+ 20 Before Jehovah your God you should eat it year by year in the place that Jehovah will choose,+ you and your household. 21 And in case there should prove to be in it a defect, being lame or blind, any bad defect, you must not sacrifice it to Jehovah your God.+ 22 Inside your gates you should eat it, the unclean one and the clean one together,+ like the gazelle and like the stag.+ 23 Only its blood you must not eat.+ Upon the earth you should pour it out as water.+
16 “Let there be an observing* of the month of Aʹbib,+ and you must celebrate the passover to Jehovah your God,+ because in the month of Aʹbib Jehovah your God brought you out of Egypt by night.+ 2 And you must sacrifice the passover to Jehovah your God,+ of the flock and of the herd,+ in the place that Jehovah will choose to have his name reside there.+ 3 You must eat nothing leavened along with it for seven days.+ You should eat along with it unfermented cakes, the bread of affliction, because it was in haste that you came out of the land of Egypt,+ that you may remember the day of your coming out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.+ 4 And no sourdough* should be seen with you in all your territory seven days,+ neither should any of the flesh, which you will sacrifice in the evening on the first day, stay all night until the morning.+ 5 You will not be allowed to sacrifice the passover in any one of your cities* that Jehovah your God is giving you. 6 But at the place that Jehovah your God will choose to have his name reside there,+ you should sacrifice the passover in the evening as soon as the sun sets,+ at the appointed time of your coming out of Egypt. 7 And you must do the boiling and the eating+ in the place that Jehovah your God will choose,+ and in the morning you must turn around and go to your own tents. 8 Six days you should eat unfermented cakes; and on the seventh day there will be a solemn assembly* to Jehovah your God.+ You must do no work.
9 “Seven weeks you should count for yourself. From when the sickle is first put to the standing grain you will start to count seven weeks.+ 10 Then you must celebrate the festival of weeks to Jehovah your God,+ according to the voluntary offering of your hand that you will give, just as Jehovah your God may bless you.+ 11 And you must rejoice before Jehovah your God,+ you and your son and your daughter and your man slave and your slave girl and the Levite who is inside your gates* and the alien resident+ and the fatherless boy+ and the widow,+ who are in your midst, in the place that Jehovah your God will choose to have his name reside there.+ 12 And you must remember that you became a slave in Egypt,+ and you must observe and carry out these regulations.+
13 “The festival of booths+ you should celebrate for yourself seven days when you make an ingathering from your threshing floor and your oil and winepress. 14 And you must rejoice during your festival,+ you and your son and your daughter and your man slave and your slave girl and the Levite and the alien resident and the fatherless boy and the widow, who are inside your gates. 15 Seven days you will celebrate the festival+ to Jehovah your God in the place that Jehovah will choose, because Jehovah your God will bless+ you in all your produce and in every deed of your hand, and you must become nothing but joyful.+
16 “Three times in the year every male of yours should appear before Jehovah your God in the place that he will choose:+ in the festival of the unfermented cakes+ and in the festival of weeks+ and in the festival of booths,+ and none should appear before Jehovah empty-handed.+ 17 The gift of each one’s hand should be in proportion to the blessing of Jehovah your God that he has given you.+
18 “You should set judges+ and officers+ for yourself inside all your gates that Jehovah your God is giving you by your tribes, and they must judge the people with righteous judgment. 19 You must not pervert judgment.+ You must not be partial+ or accept a bribe, for the bribe blinds the eyes of wise ones+ and distorts the words of righteous ones. 20 Justice—justice you should pursue,+ in order that you may keep alive and may indeed take possession of the land that Jehovah your God is giving you.+
21 “You must not plant for yourself any sort of tree as a sacred pole* near the altar of Jehovah your God that you will make for yourself.+
22 “Neither should you set up for yourself a sacred pillar,+ a thing Jehovah your God hates indeed.+
17 “You must not sacrifice to Jehovah your God a bull or a sheep in which there proves to be a defect, anything bad; because it is a thing detestable to Jehovah your God.+
2 “In case there should be found in your midst in one of your cities that Jehovah your God is giving you a man or a woman who should practice what is bad in the eyes of Jehovah your God so as to overstep his covenant,+ 3 and he should go and worship other gods and bow down to them or to the sun or the moon or all the army* of the heavens,+ a thing that I have not commanded,+ 4 and it has been told you and you have heard it and have searched thoroughly, and, look! the thing is established as the truth,+ this detestable thing has been done in Israel! 5 you must also bring that man or that woman who has done this bad thing out to your gates, yes, the man or the woman, and you must stone such one with stones, and such one must die.+ 6 At the mouth* of two witnesses or of three witnesses+ the one dying should be put to death. He will not be put to death at the mouth of one witness.+ 7 The hand of the witnesses first of all should come upon him to put him to death, and the hand of all the people afterward;+ and you must clear out what is bad from your midst.+
8 “In case a matter for judicial decision should be too extraordinary for you,+ one in which blood has been shed,+ in which a legal claim has been raised,+ or a violent deed has been committed,* matters of dispute,+ inside your gates, you must also rise and go up to the place that Jehovah your God will choose,+ 9 and you must go to the priests,+ the Levites, and to the judge+ who will be acting in those days, and you must make inquiry, and they must hand down to you the word of the judicial decision.+ 10 Then you must do in accordance with the word that they will hand down to you from that place which Jehovah will choose; and you must be careful to do according to all that they instruct you. 11 In accordance with the law that they will point out to you, and according to the judicial decision that they will say to you, you should do.+ You must not turn aside from the word that they will hand down to you, to the right or to the left.+ 12 And the man who will behave with presumptuousness in not listening to the priest who is standing to minister there to Jehovah your God or to the judge,+ that man must die;+ and you must clear out what is bad from Israel.+ 13 And all the people will hear and become afraid,+ and they will not act presumptuously anymore.
14 “When you eventually come into the land that Jehovah your God is giving you, and you have taken possession of it and have dwelt in it,+ and you have said, ‘Let me set a king over myself like all the nations who are round about me’;+ 15 you should without fail set over yourself a king whom Jehovah your God will choose.+ From among your brothers you should set a king over yourself. You will not be allowed to put over yourself a foreigner who is not your brother. 16 Only he should not increase horses for himself,+ nor make the people go back to Egypt in order to increase horses;+ whereas Jehovah has said to YOU, ‘YOU must never go back again by this way.’ 17 He should also not multiply wives for himself, that his heart may not turn aside;+ nor should he increase silver and gold for himself very much.+ 18 And it must occur that when he takes his seat on the throne of his kingdom, he must write in a book for himself a copy of this law from that which is in the charge of the priests, the Levites.*+
19 “And it must continue with him, and he must read in it all the days of his life,+ in order that he may learn to fear Jehovah his God so as to keep all the words of this law and these regulations by doing them;+ 20 that his heart may not exalt itself above his brothers+ and that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right or to the left,+ in order that he may lengthen his days upon his kingdom,+ he and his sons in the midst of Israel.
18 “No share or inheritance with Israel should come to belong to the priests, the Levites, the entire tribe of Leʹvi.+ The offerings made by fire of Jehovah, even his* inheritance, they should eat.+ 2 So no inheritance should come to belong to him in the midst of his brothers. Jehovah is his inheritance,+ just as he has spoken to him.
3 “Now this should continue as the due right of the priests from the people, from the ones who sacrifice a victim, whether a bull or a sheep: One must give to the priest the shoulder blade and the jaws and the stomach. 4 The first of your grain, your new wine and your oil and the first of the shorn wool of your flock you should give him.+ 5 For he is the one whom Jehovah* your God has chosen out of all your tribes to stand to minister in the name of Jehovah,* he and his sons, always.+
6 “And in case the Levite goes out of one of your cities of all Israel, where he had resided for a while,+ and he does come because of any craving of his soul to the place that Jehovah will choose,+ 7 he must also minister in the name of Jehovah* his God the same as all his brothers, the Levites, who are standing there before Jehovah.+ 8 An equal share he should eat,+ besides what he gets from things he sells of his ancestral goods.*
9 “When you are entered into the land that Jehovah your God is giving you, you must not learn to do according to the detestable things of those nations.+ 10 There should not be found in you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire,+ anyone who employs divination,+ a practicer of magic+ or anyone who looks for omens+ or a sorcerer,+ 11 or one who binds others with a spell+ or anyone who consults a spirit medium*+ or a professional foreteller of events+ or anyone who inquires of the dead.+ 12 For everybody doing these things is something detestable to Jehovah, and on account of these detestable things Jehovah your God is driving them away from before you.+ 13 You should prove yourself faultless with Jehovah your God.+
14 “For these nations whom you are dispossessing used to listen to those practicing magic+ and to those who divine;+ but as for you, Jehovah your God has not given* you anything like this.+ 15 A prophet from your own midst, from your brothers, like me, is what Jehovah* your God will raise up for you—to him YOU people should listen+— 16 in response to all that you asked of Jehovah* your God in Hoʹreb on the day of the congregation,+ saying, ‘Do not let me hear again the voice of Jehovah my God, and this great fire do not let me see anymore, that I may not die.’+ 17 At that Jehovah said to me, ‘They have done well in speaking what they did.+ 18 A prophet I shall raise up for them from the midst of their brothers, like you;+ and I shall indeed put my words in his mouth,+ and he will certainly speak to them all that I shall command him.+ 19 And it must occur that the man who will not listen to my words that he will speak in my name, I shall myself require an account from him.+
20 “‘However, the prophet who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded him to speak+ or who speaks in the name of other gods,+ that prophet must die.+ 21 And in case you should say in your heart: “How shall we know the word that Jehovah has not spoken?”+ 22 when the prophet speaks in the name of Jehovah and the word does not occur or come true, that is the word that Jehovah did not speak. With presumptuousness the prophet spoke it.+ You must not get frightened at him.’+
19 “When Jehovah your God cuts off the nations+ whose land Jehovah your God is giving you, and you have dispossessed them and have dwelt in their cities and their houses,+ 2 you will set apart three cities for yourself in the midst of your land that Jehovah your God is giving you to take possession of it.+ 3 You will prepare for yourself the way, and you must divide up the territory of your land that Jehovah your God proceeded to give you as a possession into three parts, and it must be for any manslayer to flee there.+
4 “Now this is the case of the manslayer who may flee there and has to live: When he strikes his fellowman without knowing it and he was no hater of him formerly;+ 5 or when he goes with his fellowman into the woods to gather* wood, and his hand has been raised to strike with the ax to cut the tree, and the iron has slipped off from the wooden handle,+ and it has hit his fellowman and he has died, he himself should flee to one of these cities and must live.+ 6 Otherwise, the avenger+ of blood* may, because his heart is hot, chase after the manslayer and actually overtake him, since the way is great; and he may indeed strike his soul fatally,* whereas there is no sentence of death+ for him, because he was no hater of him formerly. 7 That is why I am commanding you, saying, ‘Three cities you will set apart for yourself.’+
8 “And if Jehovah* your God widens out your territory according to what he swore to your forefathers,+ and he has given you all the land that he promised to give to your forefathers,+ 9 because you will keep all this commandment that I am commanding you today by doing it, to love Jehovah your God and to walk in his ways always,+ you must then add three other cities for yourself to these three,+ 10 that no innocent blood+ may be spilled in the midst of your land that Jehovah your God is giving you as an inheritance, and no bloodguilt* has to be upon you.+
11 “But in case there should happen to be a man hating+ his fellowman, and he has lain in wait for him and has risen up against him and struck his soul fatally and he has died,+ and the man has fled to one of these cities, 12 the older men of his city must then send and take him from there, and they must deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood,* and he must die.+ 13 Your eye should not feel sorry for him,+ and you must clear away the guilt of innocent blood out of Israel,+ that you may have good.
14 “You must not move back the boundary marks of your fellowman,+ when the ancestors will have set the boundaries in your inheritance that you will inherit in the land that Jehovah* your God is giving you to take possession of it.
15 “No single witness should rise up against a man respecting any error or any sin,+ in the case of any sin that he may commit. At the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses the matter should stand good.+ 16 In case a witness scheming violence should rise up against a man to bring a charge of revolt against him,+ 17 the two men who have the dispute must also stand before Jehovah, before the priests and the judges who will be acting in those days.+ 18 And the judges must search thoroughly,+ and if the witness is a false witness and has brought a false charge against his brother, 19 YOU must also do to him just as he had schemed to do to his brother,+ and you must clear away what is bad from your midst.+ 20 So those who remain will hear and be afraid, and they will never again do anything bad like this in your midst.+ 21 And your eye should not feel sorry:+ soul will be for soul, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.+
20 “In case you go out to the battle against your enemies and you actually see horses and war chariots,+ a people more numerous than you, you must not be afraid of them; for Jehovah your God is with you,+ who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.+ 2 And it must occur that when YOU have drawn near to the battle, the priest must also approach and speak to the people.+ 3 And he must say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, YOU are drawing near today to the battle against YOUR enemies. Do not let YOUR hearts be timid.+ Do not be afraid and run in panic or shudder because of them,+ 4 for Jehovah* YOUR God is marching with YOU to fight for YOU against YOUR enemies so as to save YOU.’+
5 “The officers+ too must speak to the people, saying, ‘Who is the man that has built a new house and has not inaugurated it? Let him go and return to his house, for fear he may die in the battle and another man should inaugurate it.+ 6 And who is the man that has planted a vineyard and not begun to use it? Let him go and return to his house, for fear he may die in the battle and another man should begin to use it.+ 7 And who is the man that has become engaged to a woman and has not taken her? Let him go and return to his house,+ for fear he may die in the battle and another man should take her.’ 8 And the officers must speak further to the people and say, ‘Who is the man that is fearful and fainthearted?+ Let him go and return to his house, that he may not cause the hearts of his brothers to melt as his own heart.’+ 9 And it must occur that when the officers have finished speaking to the people, they must also appoint chiefs* of the armies at the head of the people.*
10 “In case you draw near to a city to fight against it, you must also announce to it terms of peace.+ 11 And it must occur that if it gives a peaceful answer to you and it has opened up to you, it must even occur that all the people found in it should become yours for forced labor, and they must serve you.+ 12 But if it does not make peace with you,+ and it actually makes war with you and you have to besiege it, 13 Jehovah* your God also will certainly give it into your hand, and you must strike every male in it with the edge of the sword.+ 14 Only the women and the little children+ and the domestic animals+ and everything that happens to be in the city, all its spoil you will plunder for yourself;+ and you must eat the spoil of your enemies, whom Jehovah your God has given to you.+
15 “That is the way you will do to all the cities very far away from you that are not of the cities of these nations. 16 It is only of the cities of these peoples that Jehovah your God is giving you as an inheritance that you must not preserve any breathing thing* alive,+ 17 because you should without fail devote them to destruction, the Hitʹtites and the Amʹor·ites, the Caʹnaan·ites and the Perʹiz·zites, the Hiʹvites and the Jebʹu·sites,+ just as Jehovah your God has commanded you; 18 in order that they may not teach YOU to do according to all their detestable things, which they have done to their gods, and YOU may indeed sin against Jehovah* YOUR God.+
19 “In case you lay siege to a city many days by fighting against it so as to capture it, you must not ruin its trees by wielding an ax against them; for you should eat from them, and you must not cut them down,+ for is the tree of the field a man to be besieged by you?* 20 Only a tree that you know is not a tree for food, it is the one you should ruin, and you must cut it down and build siegeworks+ against the city that is making war with you, until it falls.*
21 “In case someone is found slain on the ground that Jehovah* your God is giving you to take possession of it, fallen on the field, and it has not become known who struck him fatally,+ 2 your older men and your judges+ must also go out and measure to the cities that are all around the slain one; 3 and it must prove to be the city nearest to the slain one. And the older men of that city must take a young cow of the herd that has not been worked with,* that has not pulled in a yoke; 4 and the older men of that city must lead the young cow down to a torrent valley running with water in which there was customarily no tilling or sowing of seed, and they must break the neck of the young cow there in the torrent valley.+
5 “And the priests the sons of Leʹvi must approach, because they are the ones Jehovah your God has chosen to minister to him+ and to bless+ in the name of Jehovah and at whose mouth every dispute over every violent deed* should be disposed of.+ 6 Then all the older men of that city who are nearest to the slain one should wash their hands+ over the young cow, the neck of which was broken in the torrent valley; 7 and they must answer and say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, neither did our eyes see [it shed].+ 8 Do not set it to the account of your people Israel, whom you redeemed,+ O Jehovah,* and do not put the guilt of innocent blood+ in the midst of your people Israel.’ And the bloodguilt must not be set to their account. 9 And you—you will clear away the guilt of innocent blood from your midst,+ because you will do what is right in Jehovah’s eyes.+
10 “In case you go out to the battle against your enemies and Jehovah your God has given them into your hand+ and you have carried them away captive;+ 11 and you have seen among the captives a woman beautiful in form, and you have got attached to her+ and taken her for your wife, 12 you must then bring her into the midst of your house. She must now shave her head+ and attend to her nails, 13 and remove the mantle of her captivity from off her and dwell in your house and weep for her father and her mother a whole lunar month;*+ and after that you should have relations with her, and you must take possession of her as your bride, and she must become your wife. 14 And it must occur that if you have found no delight in her, you must then send her away,+ agreeably to her own soul;* but you must by no means sell her for money. You must not deal tyrannically+ with her after you have humiliated her.
15 “In case a man comes to have two wives, the one loved and the other hated, and they, the loved one and the hated one, have borne sons to him, and the firstborn son has come to be of the hated one,+ 16 it must also occur that in the day that he gives as an inheritance to his sons what he happens to have, he will not be allowed to constitute the son of the loved one his firstborn at the expense of the hated one’s son, the firstborn.+ 17 For he should recognize as the firstborn the hated one’s son by giving him two parts in everything he is found to have,+ because that one is the beginning of his generative power.+ The right of the firstborn’s position belongs to him.+
18 “In case a man happens to have a son who is stubborn and rebellious,+ he not listening to the voice of his father or the voice of his mother,+ and they have corrected him but he will not listen to them,+ 19 his father and his mother must also take hold of him and bring him out to the older men of his city and to the gate of his place,+ 20 and they must say to the older men of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he is not listening to our voice,+ being a glutton*+ and a drunkard.’+ 21 Then all the men of his city must pelt him with stones, and he must die. So you must clear away what is bad from your midst, and all Israel will hear and indeed become afraid.+
22 “And in case there comes to be in a man a sin deserving the sentence of death, and he has been put to death,+ and you have hung him upon a stake,*+ 23 his dead body should not stay all night on the stake;+ but you should by all means bury him on that day, because something accursed* of God is the one hung up;+ and you must not defile your soil, which Jehovah your God is giving you as an inheritance.+
22 “You must not see the bull of your brother or his sheep straying about and deliberately withdraw* from them.+ You should by all means lead them back to your brother.+ 2 And if your brother is not near you and you have not got to know him, you must also bring it home into the midst of your house, and it must continue with you until your brother has searched for it. And you must return it to him.+ 3 That is the way too that you will do with his ass, and that is the way you will do with his mantle, and that is the way you will do with anything lost of your brother’s, which gets lost from him and which you have found. You will not be allowed to withdraw yourself.
4 “You must not see the ass of your brother or his bull fall down on the road and deliberately withdraw from them. You should by all means help him raise them up.+
5 “No garb of an able-bodied man should be put upon a woman, neither should an able-bodied man wear the mantle of a woman;+ for anybody doing these things is something detestable to Jehovah your God.
6 “In case a bird’s nest happens to be before you in the way, in any tree or on the earth with young ones+ or eggs, and the mother is sitting upon the young ones or the eggs, you must not take the mother along with the offspring.+ 7 You should by all means send the mother away, but you may take the offspring for yourself; in order that it may go well with you, and you may indeed lengthen your days.+
8 “In case you build a new house, you must also make a parapet for your roof,+ that you may not place bloodguilt upon your house because someone falling might fall from it.
9 “You must not sow your vineyard with two sorts of seed,+ for fear that the full produce of the seed that you might sow and the product of the vineyard may be forfeited to the sanctuary.*
10 “You must not plow with a bull and an ass together.+
11 “You must not wear mixed stuff of wool and linen together.+
12 “You should make tassels for yourself on the four extremities of your clothing with which you cover yourself.+
13 “In case a man takes a wife and actually has relations with her and has come to hate her,+ 14 and he has charged her with notorious deeds and brought forth a bad name+ upon her and has said, ‘This is the woman I have taken, and I proceeded to go near her, and I did not find evidence of virginity in her’;+ 15 the father of the girl and her mother must also take and bring forth the evidence of the girl’s virginity to the older men of the city at the gate of it;+ 16 and the girl’s father must say to the older men, ‘I gave my daughter to this man as a wife, and he went hating*+ her. 17 And here he is charging her with notorious deeds,+ saying: “I have found your daughter does not have evidence of virginity.”+ Now this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they must spread out the mantle before the older men of the city. 18 And the older men+ of that city must take the man and discipline him.+ 19 And they must fine him a hundred silver shekels* and give them to the girl’s father, because he brought forth a bad name upon a virgin of Israel;+ and she will continue to be his wife. He will not be allowed to divorce* her all his days.
20 “If, though, this thing has proved to be the truth, evidence of virginity was not found in the girl,+ 21 they must also bring the girl out to the entrance of her father’s house, and the men of her city must pelt her with stones, and she must die, because she has committed a disgraceful folly+ in Israel by committing prostitution in the house of her father.+ So you must clear away what is bad from your midst.+
22 “In case a man is found lying down with a woman owned* by an owner,+ both of them must then die together, the man lying down with the woman and the woman.+ So you must clear away what is bad out of Israel.+
23 “In case there happened to be a virgin girl engaged to a man,+ and a man actually found her in the city and lay down with her,+ 24 YOU must also bring them both out to the gate of that city and pelt them with stones, and they must die, the girl for the reason that she did not scream in the city, and the man for the reason that he humiliated the wife of his fellowman.+ So you must clear away what is evil from your midst.+
25 “If, however, it is in the field that the man found the girl who was engaged, and the man grabbed hold of her and lay down with her, the man who lay down with her must also die by himself, 26 and to the girl you must do nothing. The girl has no sin deserving of death, because just as when a man rises up against his fellowman and indeed murders him,+ even a soul, so it is with this case. 27 For it was in the field that he found her. The girl who was engaged screamed, but there was no one to rescue her.
28 “In case a man finds a girl, a virgin who has not been engaged, and he actually seizes her and lies down with her,+ and they have been found out,+ 29 the man who lay down with her must also give the girl’s father fifty silver shekels,*+ and she will become his wife due to the fact that he humiliated her. He will not be allowed to divorce her all his days.*+
30 “No man should take his father’s wife, that he may not uncover the skirt of his father.*+
23 “No man castrated+ by crushing the testicles+ or having his male member cut off may come into the congregation* of Jehovah.
2 “No illegitimate+ son may come into the congregation of Jehovah. Even to the tenth generation none of his may come into the congregation of Jehovah.
3 “No Amʹmon·ite or Moʹab·ite* may come into the congregation of Jehovah.+ Even to the tenth generation none of theirs may come into the congregation of Jehovah to time indefinite, 4 for the reason that they did not come to YOUR aid+ with bread and water in the way when YOU were going out of Egypt,+ and because they hired* against you Baʹlaam the son of Beʹor from Peʹthor of Mes·o·po·taʹmi·a* to call down evil upon you.+ 5 And Jehovah* your God did not want to listen to Baʹlaam;+ but Jehovah your God in your behalf changed the malediction into a blessing,+ because Jehovah your God loved you.+ 6 You must not work for* their peace and their prosperity all your days to time indefinite.+
7 “You must not detest an Eʹdom·ite,* for he is your brother.+
“You must not detest an Egyptian, for you became an alien resident in his country.+ 8 The sons that may be born to them as the third generation* may come for themselves into the congregation of Jehovah.
9 “In case you go out into camp against your enemies, you must also keep yourself from every bad thing.+ 10 In case there happens to be in you a man who does not continue clean, because of a pollution that occurs at night,+ he must also go outside the camp. He may not come into the midst of the camp.+ 11 And it must occur that at the falling of evening he should wash with water, and at the setting of the sun he may come into the midst of the camp.+ 12 And a private place* should be at your service outside the camp, and you must go out there. 13 And a peg should be at your service along with your implements,* and it must occur that when you squat outside, you must also dig a hole with it and turn and cover your excrement.+ 14 For Jehovah your God is walking about within your camp to deliver you+ and to abandon your enemies to you;+ and your camp must prove to be holy,+ that he may see nothing indecent in you* and certainly turn away from accompanying you.+
15 “You must not hand over a slave to his master* when he escapes from his master to you.+ 16 With you he will keep on dwelling in among you in whatever place he may choose in one of your cities,*+ wherever he likes. You must not maltreat him.+
17 “None of the daughters of Israel may become a temple prostitute,+ neither may anyone of the sons of Israel become a temple prostitute.*+ 18 You must not bring the hire+ of a harlot* or the price of a dog*+ into the house of Jehovah your God for any vow, because they are something detestable to Jehovah your God, even both of them.
19 “You must not make your brother pay interest,+ interest on money, interest on food,+ interest on anything on which one may claim interest. 20 You may make a foreigner+ pay interest, but your brother you must not make pay interest;+ in order that Jehovah your God may bless you in every undertaking of yours on the land to which you are going so as to take possession of it.+
21 “In case you vow a vow to Jehovah+ your God, you must not be slow about paying it,+ because Jehovah your God will without fail require it of you, and it would indeed become a sin on your part.+ 22 But in case you omit making a vow, it will not become a sin on your part.+ 23 The utterance of your lips you should keep,+ and you must do just as you have vowed to Jehovah your God as a voluntary offering that you spoke of with your mouth.+
24 “In case you go into the vineyard of your fellowman, you must eat only enough grapes for you to satisfy your soul,* but you must not put any into a receptacle of yours.+
25 “In case you go into the standing grain of your fellowman, you must pluck off only the ripe ears with your hand, but the sickle you must not swing to and fro upon the standing grain of your fellowman.+
24 “In case a man takes a woman and does make her his possession as a wife, it must also occur that if she should find no favor in his eyes because he has found something indecent* on her part,+ he must also write out a certificate of divorce+ for her and put it in her hand and dismiss her from his house.+ 2 And she must go out of his house and go and become another man’s.+ 3 If the latter man has come to hate her and has written out a certificate of divorce for her and put it in her hand and dismissed her from his house, or in case the latter man who took her as his wife should die, 4 the first owner of her who dismissed her will not be allowed to take her back again to become his wife after she has been defiled;+ for that is something detestable before Jehovah, and you must not lead the land that Jehovah* your God is giving you as an inheritance into sin.
5 “In case a man takes a new wife,+ he should not go out into the army, nor should anything else be imposed onto him. He should continue exempt at his house for one year, and he must make his wife whom he has taken rejoice.+
6 “No one should* seize a hand mill or its upper grindstone as a pledge,+ because it is a soul* that he is seizing as a pledge.
7 “In case a man is found kidnapping+ a soul of his brothers of the sons of Israel, and he has dealt tyrannically with him and sold him,+ that kidnapper must also die. And you must clear away what is bad from your midst.+
8 “Be on your guard in the plague of leprosy+ to take good care and do according to all that the priests, the Levites, will instruct YOU.+ Just as I have commanded them, YOU should be careful+ to do. 9 There should be a remembering* of what Jehovah* your God did to Mirʹi·am in the way when YOU were coming out of Egypt.+
10 “In case you lend your fellowman a loan of any sort,+ you must not enter into his house to take from him what he has pledged.+ 11 You should stand on the outside, and the man to whom you are making a loan should bring the pledge outside to you. 12 And if the man is in trouble, you must not go to bed with his pledge.+ 13 You should by all means return the pledge to him as soon as the sun sets,+ and he must go to bed in his garment,+ and he must bless+ you; and it will mean righteousness for you before Jehovah your God.+
14 “You must not defraud a hired laborer who is in trouble and poor, whether of your brothers or of your alien residents who are in your land, within your gates.+ 15 In his day you should give him his wages,+ and the sun should not set upon them, because he is in trouble and is lifting up his soul to his wages; that he may not cry out to Jehovah against you,+ and it must become sin on your part.+
16 “Fathers should not be put to death* on account of children, and children should not be put to death on account of fathers.+ Each one should be put to death* for his own sin.+
17 “You must not pervert the judgment of the alien resident+ or of the fatherless boy,+ and you must not seize the garment of a widow as a pledge.+ 18 And you must remember that you became a slave in Egypt, and Jehovah your God proceeded to redeem you from there.+ That is why I am commanding you to do this thing.
19 “In case you reap your harvest in your field,+ and you have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you must not go back to get it. It should stay for the alien resident, for the fatherless boy and for the widow;+ in order that Jehovah your God may bless you in every deed of your hand.+
20 “In case you beat your olive tree, you must not go over its boughs* following up yourself. It should stay for the alien resident, for the fatherless boy and for the widow.+
21 “In case you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you must not gather the leftovers following up yourself. They should stay for the alien resident, for the fatherless boy and for the widow. 22 And you must remember that you became a slave in the land of Egypt.+ That is why I am commanding you to do this thing.+
25 “In case a dispute arises between men,+ and they have presented themselves for the judgment,+ they must also judge them and pronounce the righteous one righteous and pronounce the wicked one wicked.+ 2 And it must occur that if the wicked one deserves to be beaten,*+ the judge must also have him laid prostrate and given strokes+ before him by number to correspond with his wicked deed. 3 With forty strokes he may beat him. He should add none, for fear he should continue to beat him with many strokes in addition to these+ and your brother is actually disgraced in your eyes.
4 “You must not muzzle a bull while it is threshing.+
5 “In case brothers dwell together and one of them has died without his having a son, the wife of the dead one should not become a strange man’s outside. Her brother-in-law should go to her, and he must take her as his wife and perform brother-in-law marriage with her.*+ 6 And it must occur that the firstborn whom she will bear should succeed to the name of his dead brother,+ that his name may not be wiped out of Israel.+
7 “Now if the man finds no delight in taking his brother’s widow, his brother’s widow must then go up to the gate to the older men+ and say, ‘My husband’s brother has refused to preserve his brother’s name in Israel. He has not consented to perform brother-in-law marriage with me.’ 8 And the older men of his city must call him and speak to him, and he must stand and say, ‘I have found no delight in taking her.’+ 9 At that his brother’s widow must approach him before the eyes of the older men and draw his sandal off his foot+ and spit in his face+ and answer and say, ‘That is the way it should be done to the man who will not build up his brother’s household.’+ 10 And his name must be called in Israel ‘The house of the one who had his sandal drawn off.’
11 “In case men struggle together with one another, and the wife of the one has come near to deliver her husband out of the hand of the one striking him, and she has thrust out her hand and grabbed hold of him by his privates,+ 12 you must then amputate her hand.* Your eye must feel no sorrow.+
13 “You must not come to have in your bag two sorts of weights,*+ a great one and a small one. 14 You must not come to have in your house two sorts of eʹphahs,*+ a great one and a small one. 15 A weight accurate and just you should continue to have. An eʹphah accurate and just you should continue to have, in order that your days may become long on the soil that Jehovah* your God is giving you.+ 16 For everyone doing these things, every doer of injustice, is something detestable to Jehovah* your God.+
17 “There should be a remembering* of what Amʹa·lek did to you in the way when YOU were coming out of Egypt,+ 18 how he met you in the way and proceeded to strike in the rear of you all those straggling after you, while you were exhausted and weary; and he did not fear God.+ 19 And it must occur that when Jehovah your God has given you rest from all your enemies round about in the land that Jehovah your God is giving you as an inheritance to take possession of it,+ you should wipe out the mention of Amʹa·lek from under the heavens.+ You must not forget.
26 “And it must occur that when at last you enter into the land that Jehovah your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you have taken possession of it and dwelt in it,+ 2 you must also take some of the firstfruits+ of all the fruitage of the soil, which you will bring in from the land of yours that Jehovah your God is giving you, and you must put them in a basket and go to the place that Jehovah* your God will choose to have his name reside there.+ 3 And you must come to the priest+ who will be acting in those days and say to him, ‘I must report today to Jehovah your* God that I have come into the land that Jehovah swore to our forefathers to give to us.’+
4 “And the priest must take the basket out of your hand and deposit it before the altar of Jehovah your God. 5 And you must answer and say before Jehovah your God, ‘My father was a perishing Syrian;*+ and he proceeded to go down to Egypt+ and to reside there as an alien with very few in number;+ but there he became a great nation, mighty and numerous.+ 6 And the Egyptians went treating us badly and afflicting us and putting hard slavery upon us.+ 7 And we began to cry out to Jehovah* the God of our forefathers,+ and Jehovah proceeded to hear our voice+ and to look on our affliction and our trouble and our oppression.+ 8 Finally Jehovah* brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand+ and an outstretched arm+ and with great fearsomeness+ and with signs and miracles.+ 9 Then he brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.+ 10 And now here I have brought the firstfruits of the fruitage of the ground that Jehovah has given me.’+
“You must also deposit it before Jehovah your God and bow down before Jehovah your God.+ 11 And you must rejoice+ over all the good that Jehovah your God has given you and your household, you and the Levite and the alien resident who is in your midst.+
12 “When you finish with tithing+ the entire tenth of your produce in the third year,+ the year of the tenth, you must also give it* to the Levite, the alien resident, the fatherless boy and the widow, and they must eat it within your gates and satisfy themselves.+ 13 And you must say before Jehovah your God, ‘I have cleared away what is holy from the house and I have also given it to the Levite and the alien resident, the fatherless boy and the widow,+ in accord with all your commandment that you have commanded me. I have not overstepped your commandments, nor have I forgotten.+ 14 I have not eaten of it during my mourning,* nor have I removed any of it while unclean, nor have I given any of it for anyone dead. I have listened to the voice of Jehovah* my God. I have done in accord with all that you have commanded me. 15 Do look down from your holy dwelling,+ the heavens, and bless your people Israel+ and the soil that you have given us, just as you swore to our forefathers,+ the land flowing with milk and honey.’+
16 “This day Jehovah your God is commanding you to carry out these regulations and judicial decisions;+ and you must observe and carry them out with all your heart+ and all your soul.+ 17 Jehovah you have induced to say today that he will become your God while you walk in his ways and observe his regulations+ and his commandments+ and his judicial decisions+ and listen to his voice.+ 18 As for Jehovah, he has induced you to say today that you will become his people, a special property,+ just as he has promised you,+ and that you will observe all his commandments, 19 and that he will put you high above all the other nations that he has made,+ resulting in praise and reputation and beauty, while you prove yourself a people holy to Jehovah your God,+ just as he has promised.”
27 And Moses together with the older men of Israel went on to command the people, saying: “There should be an observing* of every commandment that I am commanding YOU today.+ 2 And it must occur that in the day when YOU will cross the Jordan+ into the land that Jehovah* your God is giving you, you must also set up for yourself great stones and whitewash them with lime. 3 And you must write upon them all the words of this law+ when you have crossed,+ in order that you may enter into the land that Jehovah* your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, according to what Jehovah the God of your forefathers has spoken to you.+ 4 And it must occur that when YOU have crossed the Jordan, YOU should set up these stones, just as I am commanding YOU today, in Mount Eʹbal,*+ and you must whitewash them with lime.+ 5 You must also build an altar there to Jehovah your God, an altar of stones. You must not wield an iron tool upon them.+ 6 With whole stones you should build the altar of Jehovah your God, and you must offer burnt offerings to Jehovah your God on it.+ 7 And you must sacrifice communion sacrifices+ and eat them there,+ and you must rejoice before Jehovah* your God.+ 8 And you must write on the stones all the words of this law,+ making them quite clear.”*+
9 Then Moses and the priests, the Levites, spoke to all Israel, saying: “Keep silent and listen, O Israel. This day you have become* the people of Jehovah your God.+ 10 And you must listen to the voice of Jehovah* your God and carry out his commandments+ and his regulations,+ which I am commanding you today.”
11 And Moses went on to command the people on that day, saying: 12 “The following are the ones who will stand to bless the people on Mount Gerʹi·zim+ when YOU have crossed the Jordan: Simʹe·on and Leʹvi and Judah and Isʹsa·char and Joseph and Benjamin. 13 And the following are the ones who will stand for the malediction+ on Mount Eʹbal:+ Reuʹben, Gad and Ashʹer and Zebʹu·lun, Dan and Naphʹta·li. 14 And the Levites must answer and say with raised voice to every man of Israel:+
15 “‘Cursed is the man who makes a carved image+ or a molten statue,+ a thing detestable to Jehovah,*+ the manufacture of the hands of a wood-and-metal worker,+ and who has put it in a hiding place.’ (And all the people must answer and say, ‘Amen!’*)+
16 “‘Cursed is the one who treats his father or his mother with contempt.’+ (And all the people must say, ‘Amen!’)
17 “‘Cursed is the one who moves back the boundary mark of his fellowman.’+ (And all the people must say, ‘Amen!’)
18 “‘Cursed is the one who causes the blind to go astray in the way.’+ (And all the people must say, ‘Amen!’)
19 “‘Cursed is the one who perverts+ the judgment+ of an alien resident,+ a fatherless boy and a widow.’+ (And all the people must say, ‘Amen!’)
20 “‘Cursed is the one who lies down with his father’s wife, because he has uncovered the skirt of his father.’+ (And all the people must say, ‘Amen!’)
21 “‘Cursed is the one who lies down with any beast.’+ (And all the people must say, ‘Amen!’)
22 “‘Cursed is the one who lies down with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.’+ (And all the people must say, ‘Amen!’)
23 “‘Cursed is the one who lies down with his mother-in-law.’+ (And all the people must say, ‘Amen!’)
24 “‘Cursed is the one who fatally strikes his fellowman from a hiding place.’+ (And all the people must say, ‘Amen!’)
25 “‘Cursed is the one who accepts a bribe to strike a soul fatally, when it is innocent blood.’*+ (And all the people must say, ‘Amen!’)
26 “‘Cursed is the one who will not put the words of this law in force by doing them.’+ (And all the people must say, ‘Amen!’)
28 “And it must occur that if you will without fail listen to the voice of Jehovah* your God by being careful to do all his commandments that I am commanding you today,+ Jehovah* your God also will certainly put you high above all other nations of the earth.+ 2 And all these blessings must come upon you and overtake you,+ because you keep listening to the voice of Jehovah your God:
3 “Blessed will you be in the city,+ and blessed will you be in the field.+
4 “Blessed will be the fruit of your belly+ and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your domestic beast,+ the young of your cattle and the progeny of your flock.+
5 “Blessed will be your basket+ and your kneading trough.+
6 “Blessed will you be when you come in, and blessed will you be when you go out.+
7 “Jehovah* will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you.+ By one way they will come out against you, but by seven ways they will flee before you.+ 8 Jehovah* will decree for you the blessing on your stores of supply+ and every undertaking of yours,+ and he will certainly bless you in the land that Jehovah your God is giving you. 9 Jehovah will establish you as a holy people to himself,+ just as he swore to you,+ because you continue to keep the commandments+ of Jehovah* your God, and you have walked in his ways. 10 And all the peoples of the earth will have to see that Jehovah’s name has been called upon you,+ and they will indeed be afraid of you.+
11 “Jehovah will also make you overflow indeed with prosperity in the fruit of your belly+ and the fruit of your domestic animals and the fruitage of your ground,+ on the ground that Jehovah swore to your forefathers to give you.+ 12 Jehovah will open up to you his good storehouse, the heavens, to give the rain on your land in its season+ and to bless every deed of your hand;+ and you will certainly lend to many nations, while you yourself will not borrow.+ 13 And Jehovah will indeed put you at the head and not at the tail; and you must come to be only on top,+ and you will not come to be on the bottom, because you keep obeying the commandments+ of Jehovah* your God, which I am commanding you today to observe and to do. 14 And you must not turn aside from all the words that I am commanding YOU today, to the right or to the left,+ to walk after other gods to serve+ them.
15 “And it must occur that if you will not listen to the voice of Jehovah your God by taking care to do all his commandments and his statutes that I am commanding you today, all these maledictions must also come upon you and overtake you:+
16 “Cursed will you be in the city,+ and cursed will you be in the field.+
17 “Cursed will be your basket+ and your kneading trough.+
18 “Cursed will be the fruit of your belly+ and the fruitage of your ground,+ the young of your cattle and the progeny of your flock.+
19 “Cursed will you be when you come in, and cursed will you be when you go out.+
20 “Jehovah will send upon you the curse,+ confusion+ and rebuke+ in every undertaking of yours that you try to carry out, until you have been annihilated and have perished in a hurry, because of the badness of your practices in that you have forsaken me.+ 21 Jehovah will cause the pestilence to cling to you until he has exterminated you from off the ground to which you are going to take possession of it.+ 22 Jehovah will strike you with tuberculosis+ and burning fever and inflammation and feverish heat and the sword*+ and scorching+ and mildew,+ and they will certainly pursue you until you have perished. 23 Your skies that are over your head must also become copper, and the earth that is beneath you iron.+ 24 Jehovah will give powder and dust as the rain of your land. From the heavens it will come down upon you until you have been annihilated. 25 Jehovah will cause you to be defeated before your enemies.+ By one way you will go out against them, but by seven ways you will flee before them; and you must become a frightful object to all the earth’s kingdoms.+ 26 And your dead body must become food for every flying creature of the heavens and to the beast of the field,* with no one to make [them] tremble.+
27 “Jehovah will strike you with the boil of Egypt+ and piles and eczema and skin eruption, from which you will not be able to be healed. 28 Jehovah will strike you with madness+ and loss of sight+ and bewilderment of heart.+ 29 And you will indeed become one who gropes about at midday, just as a blind man gropes about in the gloom,+ and you will not make your ways successful; and you must become only one who is always defrauded and robbed, with no one to save you.+ 30 You will become engaged to a woman, but another man will rape her.+ You will build a house, but you will not dwell in it.+ You will plant a vineyard, but you will not begin to use it.+ 31 Your bull slaughtered there before your eyes—but you will not eat any of it. Your ass taken in robbery from before your face—but it will not return to you. Your sheep given to your enemies—but you will have no savior.+ 32 Your sons and your daughters given to another people+ and your eyes looking on and yearning for them always—but your hands* will be without power.+ 33 The fruitage of your ground and all your production a people will eat whom you have not known;+ and you must become one who is only defrauded and crushed always.+ 34 And you will certainly become maddened at the sight of your eyes that you will see.+
35 “Jehovah will strike you with a malignant boil upon both knees and both legs, from which you will not be able to be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.+ 36 Jehovah will march you+ and your king+ whom you will set up over you to a nation whom you have not known, neither you nor your forefathers; and there you will have to serve other gods, of wood and of stone.+ 37 And you must become an object of astonishment,+ a proverbial saying+ and a taunt among all the peoples to whom Jehovah will lead you away.
38 “A lot of seed you will take out to the field, but little will you gather,+ because the locust will devour it.+ 39 Vineyards you will plant and certainly cultivate, but you will drink no wine and gather nothing in,+ because the worm will eat it up.+ 40 You will come to have olive trees in all your territory, but you will rub yourself with no oil, because your olives will drop off.+ 41 Sons and daughters you will bring forth, but they will not continue yours, because they will go off into captivity.+ 42 All your trees and the fruitage of your ground whirring insects* will take in possession. 43 The alien resident who is in your midst will keep ascending higher and higher above you, while you—you will keep descending lower and lower.+ 44 He will be the one to lend to you, while you—you will not lend to him.+ He will become the head, while you—you will become the tail.+
45 “And all these maledictions+ will certainly come upon you and pursue you and overtake you until you have been annihilated,+ because you did not listen to the voice of Jehovah your God by keeping his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you.+ 46 And they must continue on you and your offspring as a sign and a portent to time indefinite,+ 47 due to the fact that you did not serve Jehovah your God with rejoicing and joy+ of heart* for the abundance of everything.+ 48 And you will have to serve your enemies+ whom Jehovah will send against you with hunger+ and thirst and nakedness and the want of everything; and he will certainly put an iron yoke upon your neck until he has annihilated you.+
49 “Jehovah will raise up against you a nation far away,+ from the end of the earth, just as an eagle pounces,+ a nation whose tongue you will not understand,+ 50 a nation fierce in countenance,+ who will not be partial to an old man or show favor to a young man.+ 51 And they will certainly eat the fruit of your domestic animals and the fruitage of your ground until you have been annihilated,+ and they will let no grain, new wine or oil, no young of your cattle or progeny of your flock, remain for you until they have destroyed you.+ 52 And they will indeed besiege you within all your gates until your high and fortified walls in which you are trusting fall in all your land, yes, they will certainly besiege you within all your gates in all your land, which Jehovah your God has given you.+ 53 Then you will have to eat the fruit of your belly, the flesh of your sons and your daughters,+ whom Jehovah your God has given you, because of the tightness and stress with which your enemy will hem you in.
54 “As for the very delicate and dainty man among you, his eye+ will be evil-inclined toward his brother and his cherished wife and the remainder of his sons whom he has remaining, 55 so as not to give one of them any of the flesh of his sons that he will eat, because he has nothing at all remaining to him because of the tightness and stress with which your enemy will hem you in within all your gates.+ 56 As for the delicate and dainty woman among you who never attempted to set the sole of her foot upon the earth for being of dainty habit and for delicateness,+ her eye will be evil-inclined toward her cherished husband and her son and her daughter, 57 even toward her afterbirth that comes out from between her legs and toward her sons whom she proceeded to bear,+ because she will eat them in secrecy for the want of everything because of the tightness and stress with which your enemy will hem you in within your gates.+
58 “If you will not take care to carry out all the words of this law that are written in this book+ so as to fear this glorious+ and fear-inspiring+ name, even Jehovah,+ your God, 59 Jehovah also will certainly make your plagues and the plagues of your offspring especially severe, great and long-lasting plagues,+ and malignant and long-lasting sicknesses.+ 60 And he will indeed bring back upon you all the diseases of Egypt before which you got scared, and they will certainly hang onto you.+ 61 Also, any sickness and any plague that is not written in the book of this law, Jehovah* will bring them upon you until you have been annihilated. 62 And YOU will indeed be left with very few in number,+ although YOU have become like the stars of the heavens for multitude,+ because you did not listen to the voice of Jehovah* your God.
63 “And it must occur that just as Jehovah exulted over YOU to do YOU good and to multiply YOU,+ so Jehovah will exult over YOU to destroy YOU and to annihilate YOU;+ and YOU will simply be torn away from off the soil to which you are going to take possession of it.+
64 “And Jehovah* will certainly scatter you among all the peoples from the one end of the earth to the other end of the earth,+ and there you will have to serve other gods whom you have not known, neither you nor your forefathers, wood and stone.+ 65 And among those nations you will have no ease,+ nor will there prove to be any resting-place for the sole of your foot; and Jehovah* will indeed give you there a trembling heart+ and a failing of the eyes+ and despair of soul. 66 And you will certainly be in the greatest peril for your life* and be in dread night and day, and you will not be sure of your life.+ 67 In the morning you will say, ‘If it only were evening!’* and in the evening you will say, ‘If it only were morning!’* because of the dread of your heart with which you will be in dread and because of the sight of your eyes that you will see.+ 68 And Jehovah will certainly bring you back to Egypt by ships by the way about which I have said to you, ‘You will never see it again,’+ and YOU will have to sell yourselves there to your enemies as slave men and maidservants,+ but there will be no buyer.”
29 These are the words of the covenant that Jehovah commanded Moses to conclude with the sons of Israel in the land of Moʹab aside from the covenant that he had concluded with them in Hoʹreb.*+
2 And Moses proceeded to call all Israel and to say to them: “YOU were the ones seeing all that Jehovah did before YOUR eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharʹaoh and all his servants and all his land,+ 3 the great provings that your eyes saw,+ those great signs+ and miracles.+ 4 And yet Jehovah* has not given YOU a heart* to know and eyes to see and ears to hear down to this day.+ 5 ‘While I kept guiding YOU forty years in the wilderness,+ YOUR garments did not wear out upon YOU, and your sandal did not wear out upon your foot.+ 6 Bread YOU did not eat,+ and wine and intoxicating liquor YOU did not drink, in order that YOU might know that I am Jehovah YOUR God.’ 7 Eventually YOU came to this place, and Siʹhon the king of Heshʹbon+ and Og+ the king of Baʹshan proceeded to come out to meet us in battle, but we defeated them.+ 8 After that we took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reuʹben·ites and the Gadʹites and half the tribe of the Ma·nasʹsites.+ 9 So YOU must keep the words of this covenant and do them, in order that YOU may make everything YOU will do turn out well.+
10 “YOU are all of YOU stationed today before Jehovah* YOUR God, the heads of YOUR tribes,* YOUR older men and YOUR officers, every man of Israel,+ 11 YOUR little ones, YOUR wives,+ and your alien resident+ who is in the midst of your camp, from the gatherer* of your wood to the drawer of your water,+ 12 in order for you to enter into the covenant+ of Jehovah your God and his oath, which Jehovah your God is concluding with you today;+ 13 for the purpose of establishing you today as his people+ and that he may prove himself your God,+ just as he has promised you and just as he has sworn to your forefathers Abraham,+ Isaac+ and Jacob.+
14 “Now it is not with YOU alone that I am concluding this covenant and this oath,*+ 15 but it is with him who is here standing with us today before Jehovah our God and with those who are not here with us today;+ 16 (for YOU yourselves well know how we dwelt in the land of Egypt and how we passed through the midst of the nations through whom YOU passed.+ 17 And YOU used to see their disgusting things and their dungy idols,+ wood and stone, silver and gold, that were with them;) 18 that there may not be among YOU a man or a woman or a family or a tribe whose heart is turning today away from Jehovah our God to go and serve the gods of those nations;+ that there may not be among YOU a root bearing the fruit of a poisonous plant and wormwood.+
19 “And it must occur that when someone has heard the words of this oath,+ and he has blessed himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall come to have peace,+ although I shall walk in the stubbornness of my heart,’+ with the intention of sweeping away the well-watered one along with the thirsty ones, 20 Jehovah will not want to forgive him,+ but then Jehovah’s* anger+ and his ardor+ will smoke against that man,+ and all the oath written in this book+ will certainly settle down on him, and Jehovah will indeed wipe out his name from under the heavens. 21 So Jehovah will have to separate+ him for calamity from all the tribes of Israel in accord with all the oath* of the covenant that is written in this book of the law.
22 “And the future generation, YOUR sons who will rise up after YOU, will be bound to say, also the foreigner who will come from a distant land, even [when] they have seen the plagues of that land and its maladies with which Jehovah has sickened it,+ 23 sulphur and salt+ and burning,+ so that its whole land will not be sown, nor sprout, nor will any vegetation spring up in it, like the overthrow of Sodʹom and Go·morʹrah,+ Adʹmah+ and Ze·boiʹim,+ which Jehovah overthrew in his anger and in his wrath;+ 24 yes, all the nations will be bound to say, ‘Why did Jehovah do like this to this land?+ Why the heat of this great anger?’ 25 Then they will have to say, ‘It was because they abandoned the covenant+ of Jehovah the God of their forefathers, which he concluded with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.+ 26 And they proceeded to go and serve other gods and to bow down to them, gods that they had not known and he had not apportioned to them.+ 27 Then Jehovah’s anger blazed against that land by bringing upon it the whole malediction written in this book.+ 28 Hence Jehovah uprooted them from off their soil in anger+ and rage and great indignation and threw them into another land as at this day.’+
29 “The things concealed+ belong to Jehovah* our God, but the things revealed+ belong to us and to our sons* to time indefinite, that we may carry out all the words of this law.+
30 “And it must occur that when all these words will come upon you, the blessing+ and the malediction,+ which I have put before you, and you have brought them back to your heart*+ among all the nations where Jehovah your God has dispersed you,+ 2 and you have returned to Jehovah your God+ and listened to his voice according to all that I am commanding you today, you and your sons, with all your heart and all your soul,+ 3 Jehovah your God must also bring back your captives*+ and show you mercy+ and collect you again from all the peoples where Jehovah your God has scattered you.+ 4 If your dispersed people should be at the end of the heavens, from there Jehovah your God will collect you and from there he will take you.+ 5 Jehovah your God will indeed bring you into the land of which your fathers took possession, and you will certainly take possession of it; and he will indeed do you good and multiply you more than your fathers.+ 6 And Jehovah your God will have to circumcise your heart+ and the heart of your offspring,+ that you may love Jehovah your God with all your heart and all your soul for the sake of your life.+ 7 And Jehovah your God will certainly put all these oaths upon your enemies and those who hate you, who have persecuted you.+
8 “As for you, you will turn and certainly listen to the voice of Jehovah and do all his commandments that I am commanding you today.+ 9 And Jehovah your God will indeed make you have more than enough in every work of your hand,+ in the fruit of your belly and the fruit of your domestic animals+ and the fruitage of your soil,+ resulting in prosperity;+ because Jehovah* will again exult over you for good, just as he exulted over your forefathers;+ 10 for you will listen to the voice of Jehovah your God so as to keep his commandments and his statutes written in this book of the law,+ because you will return to Jehovah your God with all your heart and all your soul.+
11 “For this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it far away.+ 12 It is not in the heavens, so as to result in saying, ‘Who will ascend for us into the heavens and get it for us, that he may let us hear it that we may do it?’+ 13 Neither is it on the other side of the sea, so as to result in saying, ‘Who will pass over for us to the other side of the sea and get it for us, that he may let us hear it that we may do it?’ 14 For the word is very near you, in your own mouth and in your own heart,+ that you may do it.+
15 “See, I do put before you today life and good, and death and bad.+ 16 [If you will listen to the commandments of Jehovah your God,]* which I am commanding you today, so as to love Jehovah your God,+ to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments+ and his statutes and his judicial decisions,+ then you will be bound to keep alive+ and to multiply, and Jehovah your God must bless you in the land to which you are going to take possession of it.+
17 “But if your heart turns away and you do not listen,+ and you are actually seduced and bow down to other gods and serve them,+ 18 I do tell YOU today that YOU will positively perish.+ YOU will not lengthen YOUR days on the ground to which you are crossing the Jordan to go to take possession of it. 19 I do take the heavens and the earth as witnesses against YOU today,+ that I have put life and death before you,+ the blessing+ and the malediction;+ and you must choose life in order that you may keep alive,+ you and your offspring,+ 20 by loving Jehovah* your God,+ by listening to his voice and by sticking to him;+ for he is your life and the length of your days,+ that you may dwell upon the ground that Jehovah swore to your forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to give to them.”+
31 Then Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel 2 and said to them: “A hundred and twenty years old I am today.+ I shall no more be allowed to go out and come in,+ as Jehovah has said to me, ‘You will not cross this Jordan.’+ 3 Jehovah* your God is the one crossing before you.+ He himself will annihilate these nations from before you, and you must drive them away.+ Joshua* is the one crossing before you,+ just as Jehovah has spoken. 4 And Jehovah will certainly do to them just as he has done to Siʹhon+ and to Og,+ the kings of the Amʹor·ites, and to their land, when he annihilated them.+ 5 And Jehovah has abandoned them to YOU,+ and YOU must do to them according to all the commandment that I have commanded YOU.+ 6 BE courageous and strong.+ Do not be afraid or suffer a shock before them,+ because Jehovah your God is the one marching with you. He will neither desert you nor leave you entirely.”+
7 And Moses proceeded to call Joshua and say to him before the eyes of all Israel: “Be courageous and strong,+ because you—you will bring* this people into the land that Jehovah swore to their forefathers to give to them, and you yourself will give it to them as an inheritance.+ 8 And Jehovah is the one marching before you. He himself will continue with you.+ He will neither desert you nor leave you entirely. Do not be afraid or be terrified.”+
9 Then Moses wrote this law+ and gave it to the priests the sons of Leʹvi,+ the carriers of the ark of Jehovah’s covenant,+ and to all the older men of Israel. 10 And Moses went on to command them, saying: “At the end of every seven years, in the appointed time of the year of the release,+ in the festival of booths,+ 11 when all Israel comes to see* the face of Jehovah+ your God in the place that he will choose,+ you will read this law in front of all Israel in their hearing.*+ 12 Congregate the people,+ the men and the women and the little ones and your alien resident who is within your gates, in order that they may listen and in order that they may learn,+ as they must fear Jehovah YOUR God+ and take care to carry out all the words of this law. 13 And their sons who have not known should listen,+ and they must learn to fear Jehovah YOUR God all the days that YOU are living upon the soil to which YOU are crossing the Jordan to take possession of it.”+
14 After that Jehovah said to Moses: “Look! The days have drawn near for you to die.+ Call Joshua, and station yourselves in the tent of meeting, that I may commission him.”+ So Moses and Joshua went and stationed themselves in the tent of meeting.+ 15 Then Jehovah appeared at the tent in the pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud began to stand by the entrance of the tent.+
16 Jehovah now said to Moses: “Look! You are lying down with your forefathers;+ and this people will certainly get up+ and have immoral intercourse* with foreign gods of the land to which they are going,+ in their very midst, and they will certainly forsake me+ and break my covenant that I have concluded with them.+ 17 At that my anger will indeed blaze against them in that day,+ and I shall certainly forsake them+ and conceal my face from them,+ and they must become something to be consumed; and many calamities and distresses must come upon them,+ and they will be bound to say in that day, ‘Is it not because our* God is not in our midst that these calamities have come upon us?’*+ 18 As for me, I shall absolutely conceal my face in that day because of all the badness that they have done, because they have turned to other gods.+
19 “And now WRITE for yourselves this song+ and teach it to the sons of Israel.+ Place it in their mouths in order that this song may serve as my witness against the sons of Israel.+ 20 For I shall bring them to the ground that I have sworn about* to their forefathers,+ which flows with milk and honey,+ and they will certainly eat+ and be satisfied and grow fat+ and turn to other gods,+ and they will indeed serve them and treat me with disrespect and break my covenant.+ 21 And it must occur that when many calamities and distresses will come upon them,+ this song must also answer before them as a witness, because it should not be forgotten out of the mouth of their offspring, for I well know their inclination+ that they are developing today before I bring them into the land about which I have sworn.”*
22 So Moses wrote this song in that day, that he might teach it to the sons of Israel.+
23 And he proceeded to commission Joshua the son of Nun+ and to say: “Be courageous and strong,+ because you—you will bring the sons of Israel into the land about which I have sworn to them,+ and I myself shall continue with you.”
24 And it came about that as soon as Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book until their completion,+ 25 Moses began to command the Levites, the carriers of the ark of Jehovah’s covenant,+ saying: 26 “Taking* this book of the law,+ YOU must place it at the side of the ark+ of the covenant of Jehovah* YOUR God, and it must serve as a witness there against you.+ 27 For I—I well know your rebelliousness+ and your stiff neck.+ If while I am yet alive with YOU today, YOU have proved rebellious in behavior toward Jehovah,*+ then how much more so after my death! 28 Congregate to me all the older men of YOUR tribes and YOUR officers,+ and let me speak in their hearing these words, and let me take the heavens and the earth as witnesses against them.+ 29 For I well know that after my death YOU will without fail act ruinously,+ and YOU will certainly turn aside from the way about which I have commanded YOU; and calamity+ will be bound to befall YOU at the close of the days, because YOU will do what is bad in the eyes of Jehovah* so as to offend him by the works of YOUR hands.”+
30 And Moses proceeded to speak in the hearing of all the congregation* of Israel the words of this song until their completion:+
2 My instruction will drip as the rain,+
My saying will trickle as the dew,+
As gentle rains upon grass+
And as copious showers upon vegetation.+
4 The Rock, perfect is his activity,*+
For all his ways are justice.+
A God* of faithfulness,+ with whom there is no injustice;+
Righteous and upright is he.+
5 They have* acted ruinously on their own part;*+
They are not his children, the defect is their own.*+
A generation crooked and twisted!+
6 Is it to Jehovah* that YOU keep doing this way,+
O people stupid and not wise?+
Is he not your Father who has produced you,+
He who made you and proceeded to give you stability?+
CONSIDER the years back from generation to generation;
Ask your father, and he can tell you;+
Your old men, and they can say it to you.+
8 When the Most High gave the nations an inheritance,*+
When he parted the sons of Adam* from one another,+
He proceeded to fix the boundary of the peoples+
With regard for the number of the sons of Israel.+
10 He came to find him in a wilderness land,+
And in an empty,* howling desert.+
He began to encircle him,+ to take care of him,+
To safeguard him as the pupil of his eye.+
11 Just as an eagle stirs up its nest,
Hovers over its fledglings,+
Spreads out its wings, takes them,
Carries them on its pinions,+
13 He kept making him ride upon earth’s high places,+
So that he ate* the produce of the field.+
And he kept making him suck honey out of a crag,+
And oil out of a flinty rock;+
14 Butter* of the herd and milk of the flock+
Together with the fat of rams,
And male sheep, the breed of Baʹshan, and he-goats+
Together with the kidney fat of wheat;+
15 When Jeshʹu·run*+ began to grow fat, then he kicked.*+
You have grown fat, you have become thick, you have become gorged.+
16 They began inciting him to jealousy+ with strange gods;+
With detestable things they kept offending him.+
17 They went sacrificing to demons,* not to God,*+
Gods* whom they had not known,+
New ones who recently came in,+
With whom YOUR forefathers were not acquainted.*
18 The Rock who fathered you, you proceeded to forget,+
And you began to leave God out of memory, the One bringing you forth with childbirth pains.+
19 When Jehovah* saw it, then he came to disrespect them,+
Because of the vexation his sons and his daughters gave.
20 So he said, ‘Let me conceal my face from them,+
Let me see what their end will be afterward.
For they are a generation of perverseness,+
Sons in whom there is no faithfulness.+
21 They, for their part, have incited me to jealousy with what is no god;+
They have vexed me with their vain idols;*+
And I, for my part, shall incite them to jealousy with what is no people;+
With a stupid nation I shall offend them.+
22 For a fire has been ignited in my anger+
And it will burn down to Sheʹol, the lowest place,*+
And it will consume the earth and its produce+
And will set ablaze the foundations of mountains.+
24 Exhausted from hunger+ they will be and eaten up by burning fever+
And bitter destruction.+
And the teeth of beasts I shall send upon them,+
With the venom of reptiles of the dust.+
25 Outdoors a sword will bereave them,+
Of both young man and virgin,+
Suckling together with gray-haired man.+
26 I should have said: “I shall disperse them,*+
I will make the mention of them cease from mortal men,”+
27 Were it not that I was afraid of vexation from the enemy,+
That their adversaries might misconstrue it,+
That they might say: “Our hand* has proved superior,+
And it was not Jehovah who worked all this out.”+
29 O that they were wise!+ Then they would ponder over this.+
They would consider their end afterward.+
30 How could one pursue a thousand,
And two put ten thousand to flight?+
Not unless their Rock had sold them*+
And Jehovah had surrendered them.*
32 For their vine is from the vine of Sodʹom
And from the terraces of Go·morʹrah.+
Their grapes are grapes of poison,
Their clusters are bitter.+
35 Vengeance is mine, and retribution.+
At the appointed time their foot will move unsteadily,+
For the day of their disaster is near,+
And the events in readiness for them do make haste.’+
36 For Jehovah will judge his people+
And he will feel regret over his servants,+
Because he will see that support* has disappeared
And there is only a helpless and worthless one.*
37 And he will certainly say, ‘Where are their gods,*+
The rock in whom they sought refuge,*+
38 Who used to eat the fat of their sacrifices,+
To drink the wine of their drink offerings?+
Let them get up and help YOU.+
Let them become a concealment place for YOU.+
And there are no gods together with me.+
I put to death, and I make alive.*+
I have severely wounded,+ and I—I will heal,+
And there is no one snatching out of my hand.+
40 For I raise my hand to heaven [in an oath],+
And I do say: “As I am alive to time indefinite,”*+
41 If I do indeed sharpen my glittering sword,*+
And my hand takes hold on judgment,+
I will pay back vengeance to my adversaries+
And render retribution to those who intensely hate me.+
42 I shall intoxicate my arrows with blood,+
While my sword will eat flesh,+
With the blood of the slain and the captives,*
43 Be glad, YOU nations, with his people,*+
For he will avenge the blood of his servants,+
And he will pay back vengeance to his adversaries+
And will indeed make atonement for the ground of his people.”*
44 Thus Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing* of the people,+ he and Ho·sheʹa* the son of Nun.+ 45 After Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel, 46 he went on to say to them: “Apply YOUR hearts to all the words that I am speaking in warning to YOU* today,+ that YOU may command YOUR sons to take care to do all the words of this law.+ 47 For it is no valueless word for YOU,+ but it means YOUR life,+ and by this word YOU may lengthen YOUR days upon the soil to which YOU are crossing the Jordan to take possession of it.”+
48 And Jehovah proceeded to speak to Moses on this same day, saying: 49 “Go up into this mountain of Abʹa·rim,*+ Mount Neʹbo,+ which is in the land of Moʹab, which fronts toward Jerʹi·cho, and see the land of Caʹnaan, which I am giving to the sons of Israel as a possession.+ 50 Then die on the mountain into which you are going up, and be gathered to your people,+ just as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor+ and got to be gathered to his people; 51 for the reason that YOU men acted undutifully toward me+ in the middle of the sons of Israel at the waters of Merʹi·bah+ of Kaʹdesh in the wilderness of Zin; for the reason that YOU men did not sanctify me* in the middle of the sons of Israel.+ 52 For from a distance you will see the land, but you will not go there into the land that I am giving to the sons of Israel.”+
33 Now this is the blessing+ with which Moses the man of the [true] God+ blessed the sons of Israel before his death. 2 And he proceeded to say:
“Jehovah—from Siʹnai he came,+
And he flashed forth from Seʹir upon them.+
He beamed forth from the mountainous region of Paʹran,+
3 He was also cherishing his people;*+
All their* holy ones are in your hand.+
And they—they reclined at your feet;*+
They began to receive some of your words.+
5 And he came to be king in Jeshʹu·run,*+
When the heads of the people gathered themselves,+
The entire number of the tribes of Israel.+
7 And this was Judah’s [blessing],*+ as he went on to say:
“Hear, O Jehovah, the voice of Judah,+
And may you bring him to his people.
His arms have contended for what is his;*
And may you prove yourself a helper from his adversaries.”+
“Your Thumʹmim* and your Uʹrim+ belong to the man loyal to you,*+
Whom you put to the test at Masʹsah.+
You began to contend with him by the waters of Merʹi·bah,+
9 The man who said to his father and his mother, ‘I have not seen him.’
Even his brothers he did not acknowledge,+
And his sons he did not know.
For they kept your saying,+
And your covenant they continued to observe.+
10 Let them instruct Jacob in your judicial decisions+
And Israel in your law.+
Let them render up incense before your nostrils+
And a whole offering on your altar.+
11 Bless, O Jehovah, his vital energy,+
And may you show pleasure in the activity of his hands.+
Wound severely in their hips those who rise up against him,+
And those who intensely hate him, that they may not rise up.”+
“Let the beloved+ one of Jehovah reside in security by him,+
While he shelters him the whole day,+
And he must reside between his shoulders.”+
“May his land be continually blessed from Jehovah+
With the choice things of heaven, with dew,*+
And with the watery deep lying down below,+
14 And with the choice things, the products of the sun,+
And with the choice things, the yield of the lunar months,+
15 And with the choicest from the mountains of the east,+
And with the choice things of the indefinitely lasting hills,
16 And with the choice things of the earth and its fullness,+
And with the approval of the One residing in the thornbush.+
May they come upon the head of Joseph+
And upon the crown of the head of the one singled out* from his brothers.+
17 As the firstborn of a bull his splendor is,+
And his horns are the horns of a wild bull.*+
With them he will push peoples+
All together to the ends of the earth,
And they are the tens of thousands of Eʹphra·im,+
And they are the thousands of Ma·nasʹseh.”
18 And as to Zebʹu·lun he said:+
19 Peoples to the mountain they will call.
There they will sacrifice the sacrifices of righteousness.+
For they will suck the abounding wealth of the seas+
And the hidden hoards of the sand.”*
“Blessed is the one widening the borders of Gad.+
And he must tear the arm, yes, the crown of the head.+
21 And he will pick out the first part for himself,*+
For there the allotment of a statute-giver is reserved.+
And the heads of the people will gather themselves together.*
The righteousness of Jehovah will he certainly execute
And his judicial decisions with Israel.”
23 And as to Naphʹta·li he said:+
“Naphʹta·li is satisfied with the approval
And full of the blessing of Jehovah.
“Blessed with sons is Ashʹer.+
Let him become one approved by his brothers,+
And one dipping his foot in oil.+
27 A hiding place is the God of ancient time,+
And underneath are the indefinitely lasting arms.+
And he will drive away from before you the enemy,+
And he will say, ‘Annihilate [them]!’+
28 And Israel will reside in security,+
The fountain of Jacob by itself,+
Upon* a land of grain and new wine.+
Yes, his heavens will let the dew drip down.+
Who is there like you,+
A people enjoying salvation in Jehovah,+
The shield of your help,+
And the One who is your eminent sword?+
34 Then Moses proceeded to go up from the desert plains of Moʹab into Mount Neʹbo,+ to the top of Pisʹgah,+ which fronts toward Jerʹi·cho.+ And Jehovah went showing him all the land, Gilʹe·ad as far as Dan,+ 2 and all Naphʹta·li and the land of Eʹphra·im and Ma·nasʹseh and all the land of Judah as far as the western sea,+ 3 and the Negʹeb+ and the District,*+ the valley plain of Jerʹi·cho, the city of the palm trees,+ as far as Zoʹar.*+
4 And Jehovah went on to say to him: “This is the land about which I have sworn to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, ‘To your seed I shall give it.’+ I have caused you to see it with your own eyes, as you will not cross over there.”+
5 After that Moses the servant* of Jehovah+ died there in the land of Moʹab at the order of Jehovah.+ 6 And he proceeded to bury him in the valley in the land of Moʹab in front of Beth-peʹor,+ and nobody has come to know his grave down to this day.+ 7 And Moses was a hundred and twenty years old at his death.+ His eye had not grown dim,+ and his vital strength had not fled.+ 8 And the sons of Israel proceeded to weep for Moses on the desert plains of Moʹab thirty days.+ At length the days of weeping of the mourning period for Moses were completed.
9 And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom,+ for Moses had laid his hand upon him;+ and the sons of Israel began to listen to him and they went doing just as Jehovah had commanded Moses.+ 10 But there has never yet risen up a prophet in Israel like Moses,+ whom Jehovah knew face to face,+ 11 as respects all the signs and the miracles that Jehovah sent him to do in the land+ of Egypt to Pharʹaoh and all his servants and all his land, 12 and as regards all the strong hand and all the great awesomeness that Moses exercised before the eyes of all Israel.+
“These are the words (things).” Heb., ʼElʹleh had·deva·rimʹ. In Heb. this fifth book of Moses is named after these opening words. LXXVg name this book “Deuteronomy” (Gr., Deu·te·ro·noʹmi·on, meaning “Second Law,” that is, an explanation of the Law [see vs 5]; Lat., Deu·te·ro·noʹmi·um). Compare 17:18 ftn.
Or, “the Arabah.” The part of the rift valley that runs south to the Gulf of ‘Aqaba at the Red Sea.
“Suph,” MSamSy; LXXVg, “the Red Sea.” Evidently LXXVg thought yam, “sea,” had been separated from Suph, so that it originally read Yam Suph, “Red Sea,” and if so, the reference would be to that part of the Sea known as the Gulf of ‘Aqaba.
Or, “the desert plains.”
Or, “the lowland.”
Or, “the South,” that is, the southern part of the Promised Land.
Or, “offspring.”
“Chiefs of.” Heb., sa·rehʹ.
“When having a hearing.” In Heb. this is a verb in the infinitive absolute, indefinite as to time.
Lit., “not discern faces,” that is, not show favoritism.
Lit., “Jehoshua,” MSam; Gr., Ἰησοῦς (Jesus); Syr., Ye·shuaʽ. See Ge 49:18 ftn, “You.”
“In Seir,” MSam; LXXSyVg, “from Seir.”
Or, “frightful creatures.”
“Road,” MSamLXX; Vg, “public way.”
“Sons,” MmarginSamLXXSyVg.
“Sirion . . . Senir.” These names appear in the Ugaritic texts found at Ras Shamra, Syria, and in the documents from Bogazköy, Turkey.
Or, “a sarcophagus of black basalt.” The Arabs still refer to basalt as iron.
A cubit equaled 44.5 cm (17.5 in.).
“And,” MLXXSy; Vg, “as far as.”
“Call those villages of Bashan.” Lit., “call them Bashan.”
Meaning “Tent Villages of Jair.”
Or, “the desert plains.”
Lit., “the sons of ability.”
“A god.” MSam(Heb.), ʼel; Gr., the·osʹ; Lat., Deʹus.
Or, “Jehovah became furious.”
Or, “of Baal-peor.”
“Gods.” Heb., ʼelo·himʹ, followed by the pl. adjective qero·vimʹ, “near” (Vg is the same); LXX, “God; a god,” followed by a sing. adjective.
Lit., “your sons’ sons.”
LXX adds, “in the day of the assembly [Gr., ek·kle·siʹas],” the first occurrence of this word in LXX.
Or, “Assemble.” Gr., Ek·kle·siʹa·son; Lat., conʹgre·ga.
Lit., “up to the heart of the heavens.”
“The Ten Words (Decalogue),” commonly called the Ten Commandments. Heb., ʽaseʹreth had·deva·rimʹ; Gr., deʹka rheʹma·ta, “Ten Sayings”; Lat., deʹcem verʹba. See 10:4 ftn; Ex 34:28 ftn, “Words.”
“And serve (worship) them.” Heb., wa·ʽavadh·tamʹ; Gr., la·treuʹseis, “you will render sacred service.” See Ex 3:12 ftn.
Or, “people of inheritance.”
“A God exacting exclusive devotion.” MSam(Heb.), ʼEl qan·naʼʹ; Gr., The·osʹ ze·lo·tesʹ.
“You,” sing., MLXX; SamSyItVg, “you,” pl.
“Man.” Heb., ʼa·dhamʹ.
“God,” MVg; SamLXX, “the living God.”
“And yet you continue to live, because,” the probable reading of the Heb., to agree with vs 33 and 5:26; LXXVg, “Because.”
“Their seed after them,” SamLXXSyVg; M, “his seed after him.”
Or, “must recall to your mind.”
Or, “reminders; exhortations.”
“Sion,” MSamLXXVg; Sy, “Sirion.” See 3:9 ftn.
“Word,” M; SamLXXSyVg, “words.”
Or, “gods in defiance of me.”
“Any form,” M; SamTJLXXSyVg, 61 Heb. mss and Ex 20:4, “or a form.”
Or, “be led to worship; be led to render sacred service to.” Heb., tho·ʽov·dhemʹ; Gr., la·treuʹseis.
Or, “a God who is jealous (zealous); a God not tolerating rivalry.” See 4:24 ftn.
Or, “children.”
“And,” M; SamTJLXXSyVg, 57 Heb. mss and Ex 20:5 omit.
Lit., “down to the third and fourth [generated] ones.” See Ge 50:23 ftn.
Or, “loyal love.”
Or, “not pronounce”; or, “not lift up (carry).”
Or, “to a falsehood,” as in vs 20. Or, “in vain.”
“Keeping.” In Heb. this is a verb in the infinitive absolute, indefinite as to time and not in the imperative mood.
Or, “you are to labor.” Gr., er·gaiʹ.
“Neither must you,” MVg; SamLXXSy and Ex 20:14-17, “You must not.”
Or, “your companion.” LXXVg, “your neighbor.”
“You desire [Heb., thach·modhʹ] . . . you selfishly crave [Heb., thith·ʼaw·wehʹ].” Two different Heb. verbs are used in this tenth commandment but only the first one is used in Ex 20:17. Augustine depended upon these different verbs to make two commandments here, thus making up for combining the first two commandments. See Ex 20:17 ftns.
Or, “elders.”
“Living God.” Heb., ʼElo·himʹ, followed by the pl. adjective chai·yimʹ, “living”; in 2Ki 19:4, 16 and Isa 37:4, 17, “God,” followed by the sing. adjective, chai. This is the first occurrence of this title.
Lit., “Who will give and . . . ?”
Lit., “to you, the land,” MSam; LXX, “to give to you a land”; Sy, “to you, that he would give you a land.”
Or, “Jehovah is our God, Jehovah is one [or, there is one Jehovah].” Lit., “Jehovah our God [is] Jehovah one.” Heb., Yehwahʹ ʼElo·hehʹnu Yehwahʹ ʼe·chadhʹ.
“Doorposts of.” Heb., mezu·zothʹ, the basis for the modern Jewish term “mezuzah.” See Ex 12:7 ftn, “Doorposts.”
“You should serve (worship).” Heb., tha·ʽavodhʹ; Gr., la·treuʹseis, “you will render sacred service.” See Ex 3:12 ftn.
Meaning “Testing; Trial.”
Or, “their Asherim.”
“The faithful God,” M(Heb., ha·ʼElʹ han·ne·ʼemanʹ)Sam; Gr., The·osʹ pi·stosʹ; Lat., Deʹus . . . fi·deʹlis. See App 1G.
Or, “loyal love.”
“A thing devoted to destruction.” Heb., cheʹrem; Gr. and Lat., a·naʹthe·ma, “an accursed thing.” See Ga 1:8 ftn.
“And watery deeps (great quantities of water).” Heb., u·theho·mothʹ, pl., as in Sam.
Or, “fiery; inflammation-causing.” LXX, “stinging; biting”; Vg, “fiery (burning) in breath.”
Lit., “And fighter.” Heb., weʽaq·ravʹ; Lat., et scorʹpi·o.
According to LXXSyVg; MSam, “upon them there was [the same] as all the words.”
“The congregation.” Heb., haq·qa·halʹ; Gr., ek·kle·siʹas. See 4:10 ftn, “Horeb.”
Or, “thought.”
“O Sovereign Lord Jehovah.” Heb., ʼAdho·naiʹ Yehwihʹ. See App 1E.
Or, “your inheritance.”
“The land,” sing. but with the verb, “may say,” pl. in Heb.; SamLXXSyVg, “the inhabitants of the land.”
“The Ten Words,” that is, words of command, commandments. Heb., ʽaseʹreth had·deva·rimʹ; Gr., deʹka loʹgous, “Decalogue”; Lat., verʹba deʹcem. See 4:13 ftn; Ex 34:28 ftn, “Words.”
Lit., “stood.” Compare Ex 9:16 ftn, “Existence.”
Or, “stiffen.”
“The God of gods.” Or, “God of the gods.” MSam(Heb.), ʼElo·hehʹ ha·ʼelo·himʹ; Gr., The·osʹ ton the·onʹ; Lat., Deʹus de·oʹrum.
“And the Lord of lords.” Or, “and Lord of the lords.” Heb., wa·ʼAdho·nehʹ (pl. to denote excellence) ha·ʼadho·nimʹ; Gr., Kyʹri·os ton ky·riʹon; Lat., Doʹmi·nus do·mi·nanʹti·um, “Lord of dominating ones.”
“The God.” MSam(Heb.), ha·ʼElʹ; Gr., ho The·osʹ; Lat., Deʹus. See App 1G.
Or, “gift.”
Lit., “He is your praise.”
Or, “had to water it with your foot,” that is, by some form of foot power, whether on a waterwheel or by forming and opening water channels.
“I,” MSy; SamLXXVgc, “he.”
Lit., “early (former) rain and latter rain.”
“Up to.” Lit., “and,” MSamLXXSyVg.
Lit., “hinder,” that is, to one’s back when facing east.
Or, “pronounce.”
Sam adds, “in front of Shechem.”
Or, “their Asherim.”
Or, “there, to his residence.”
Or, “your tithes.”
Or, “in all the gain of your hand.”
“Gates,” MSamLXX; SyVg, “cities.”
“All your gates,” MSam; LXX, “every city”; SyVg, “(all) your cities.”
Or, “boundary.”
Or, “meat.”
Or, “worship.” See 4:19 ftn.
MLXX end chapter 12 here.
Lit., “or the wife of your bosom.”
Lit., “Men, sons of belial (worthlessness).”
“The thing made sacred by ban.” Heb., ha·cheʹrem; Gr., tou a·na·theʹma·tos, “the thing made accursed.” See Ga 1:8 ftn.
Lit., “between your eyes,” that is, by shaving the eyebrows.
“And antelope.” Heb., wedhi·shonʹ. Some would identify this animal as the bison.
“And chamois.” Heb., wa·zaʹmer, a bouncing, leaping animal, likely a kind of gazelle.
Lit., “bringing up [regurgitating].”
Lit., “the breaker,” a kind of bird of prey.
“The red kite,” SamLXX and Le 11:14. The Heb. term suggests a bird distinguished by a swooping or darting flight, hence, a bird of prey.
“And the glede (kite).” Heb., wehad·dai·yahʹ, an unidentified unclean bird.
“According to its kind.” Heb., lemi·nahʹ. See Ge 1:11 ftn.
Lit., “the daughter of the desert [hard, stony tract of land]”; or, “the daughter of greed.”
“Night owl,” LXXVg.
“Ibis,” LXXVg.
“Body [already] dead,” that is, any animal found dead.
“There may be a selling.” In Heb. this is a verb in the infinitive absolute, indefinite as to time.
Or, “tithe.”
“He,” MSyVg; SamLXX, “Jehovah your God.”
“There will be a releasing.” In Heb. this is a verb in the infinitive absolute, indefinite as to time.
Lit., “every owner of a debt of his hand.”
Lit., “one (he) must call.”
“Cities,” LXXSy; MSam, “gates”; Vg, “within the gates of your city.”
Or, “a word of belial (worthlessness).”
“The year of the release.” Lat., anʹnus re·mis·si·oʹnis.
Or, “to your brother, to your afflicted one and to your poor one.”
“Let there be an observing.” In Heb. this is a verb in the infinitive absolute, indefinite as to time and impersonal.
Or, “yeast.”
“One of your cities,” LXXSyVg; M, “one of your gates.” By a figure of speech, synecdoche, the part (gates) is put for the whole (city).
“A solemn assembly.” Gr., e·xoʹdi·on; a festival day to commemorate the Exodus from Egypt.
Or, “city.” Vg, “gates”; LXXSy, “cities.”
Or, “as an Asherah.”
Or, “host.”
Or, “On the statement.”
Lit., “between blood and blood, between legal claim and legal claim, and between violent deed and violent deed.”
Lit., “a copy of this law from before the priests, the Levites,” M; LXX, “this deu·te·ro·noʹmi·on (second law) by means of (issuing from) the priests, the Levites”; Vg, “a deu·te·ro·noʹmi·um of this law, taking (accepting) an exemplar from the priests of the Levitic tribe.” Compare 1:1 ftn, “Words.”
“His,” MSyVg; LXX, “their.”
“Jehovah.” Heb., Yehwahʹ. In the first-century B.C.E. papyrus fragment LXXP. Fouad Inv. 266 the Tetragrammaton appears in square Heb. characters in the Gr. text. See App 1C §1.
See App 1C §1.
See App 1C §1.
Lit., “besides the things he sells according to the forefathers.”
See Le 19:31 ftn.
Or, “allowed.”
See App 1C §1.
See App 1C §1.
Or, “cut.”
“The avenger (goel) of blood.” Heb., go·ʼelʹ had·damʹ; Vg, “the neighbor of him whose blood was shed.”
Lit., “strike him to the soul,” M; LXXVg, “strike his soul.”
See App 1C §1.
Lit., “bloods.” Heb., da·mimʹ.
See vs 6 ftn, “Blood.”
See App 1C §1.
See App 1C §1.
“Chiefs of.” Heb., sa·rehʹ.
“Then each one will prepare his wedge-shaped divisions to do battle,” Vg.
See App 1C §1.
“Any breathing thing,” LXX; MSamSy, “any breath.”
See App 1C §1.
Lit., “to come into the siege before you?”
Or, “goes down.”
See App 1C §1.
Possibly, “that has not been crossed (mated; impregnated),” by a correction. See VT, Vol. II, 1952, p. 356.
Lit., “every dispute and every violent deed.” A form of hendiadys. Compare Ge 3:16 ftn.
See App 1C §1.
Lit., “a month of days.”
“Agreeably to her own soul,” M(Heb., lenaph·shahʹ)SamSy. Or, “agreeably to (for) herself; where she wishes.” LXXVg, “free.”
Or, “being lavish.”
Lit., “tree”; or, “wood.”
Lit., “because a malediction [in a concrete sense].”
Or, “hide yourself.”
“May be forfeited to the sanctuary.” Lit., “may be holy,” that is, fall to the sanctuary’s share. Heb., tiq·dashʹ.
Or, “disdaining.”
“Silver shekels,” Vg; MSam, “silver pieces”; LXX, “shekels.” To calculate value, see App 8A.
Lit., “send away.”
“Owned,” that is, as a wife.
“Silver shekels,” Vg; M, “silver pieces”; LXX, “silver didrachmas.”
MSamLXX end chapter 22 here.
Or, “not lie with his father’s wife.”
“Into the congregation of.” Heb., biq·halʹ; Gr., ek·kle·siʹan; Lat., ec·cleʹsi·am.
“Ammonite or Moabite,” masc., possibly referring to the males only.
“They hired,” LXXVg; MSamSy, “he hired; there was hired.”
“Mesopotamia,” LXX; Vg, “Mesopotamia of Syria”; MSamSy, “Aram-naharaim.”
See App 1C §1.
Or, “not ask about.”
Or, “Idumean.”
Or, “as great-grandsons.”
Or, “a privy.”
Or, “on your tools,” M; LXXVg, “on your belt.”
Lit., “that he may not see in you the nakedness of a thing.”
“His master.” Heb., ʼadho·navʹ, pl. to denote excellence.
Lit., “your gates.”
Or, “a catamite,” a boy kept for purposes of sexual perversion.
Or, “prostitute.” Gr., porʹnes.
Likely a pederast; one who practices anal intercourse, especially with a boy.
“For . . . your soul (own self).” MSam(Heb.), kenaph·shekhaʹ; Gr., psy·khenʹ sou; Syr., naph·shakh.
Lit., “the nakedness of a thing.”
See App 1C §1.
“No one should,” MSam; LXXSyVg, “You must not.”
“Because it is a soul (means of life).” Heb., ki-neʹphesh; Gr., psy·khenʹ; Lat., aʹni·mam.
“There should be a remembering.” In Heb. this is a verb in the infinitive absolute, indefinite as to time and impersonal.
See App 1C §1.
According to MSamVg; LXXSy, “should not die.”
According to MSam; LXXSyVg, “should die.”
Or, “not knock down [olives] from the boughs.”
Lit., “one is a son of beating.”
“And perform brother-in-law (levirate) marriage with her.” Heb., weyib·bemahʹ.
Lit., “palm.”
Lit., “in your bag a weight and a weight.”
Lit., “in your house an ephah and an ephah.”
See App 1C §1.
See App 1C §1.
See 24:9 ftn, “Remembering.”
See App 1C §1.
“Your,” MSamSyVg; LXX, “my.”
Lit., “My father was a perishing Aramaean,” MSam; Sy, “My father was led to Aram”; LXX, “My father cast off Syria.”
See App 1C §1.
See App 1C §1.
“The year of the tenth, you must also give it,” MSamSyVg; LXX, “you will give the second tenth.”
Or, “of it in my state of taboo.”
See App 1C §1.
“There should be an observing.” In Heb. this is a verb in the infinitive absolute, indefinite as to time and impersonal.
See App 1C §1.
See App 1C §1.
“Ebal,” MLXXSyVg; Sam, “Gerizim.”
See App 1C §1.
Or, “explaining them well”; or, “there should be an explaining of them well.” In Heb. this phrase is two verbs in the infinitive absolute, indefinite as to time and impersonal.
Lit., “you have been brought to be.”
See App 1C §1.
See App 1C §1.
Or, “So be it!” Heb., ʼa·menʹ.
Lit., “a soul of innocent blood,” MSamLXXSyVg.
See App 1C §1.
See App 1C §1.
See App 1C §1.
See App 1C §1.
See App 1C §1.
See App 1C §1.
“Sword,” MSy; by a change in vowel pointing, “dryness; drought”; Vg, “heat”; LXXB omits.
Lit., “earth.”
“Hands,” Sy and 46 Heb. mss; MSamLXXVg, “hand.”
Or, “clanking armies.” LXXVg, “rust.”
Or, “and contentment.”
See App 1C §1.
See App 1C §1.
See App 1C §1.
See App 1C §1.
Lit., “And your life will certainly become suspended for you over the way.”
Lit., “Who will give evening?”
Lit., “Who will give morning?”
MSamLXX end chapter 28 here, with this as vs 69.
See App 1C §1.
Or, “mind.”
See App 1C §1.
According to LXXSy; MSam, “your heads, your tribes”; Vg, “your princes and tribes.”
Or, “cutter.”
See Ge 24:41 ftn.
See App 1C §1.
Or, “oath-bound curse,” because the Heb. modifier “written” is sing. Lit., “(oath-bound) curses.” See vs 20.
See App 1C §1.
Or, “The things concealed belong to Jehovah our God, and the things revealed. To us and to our sons it belongs for time indefinite to carry out all the words of this law.” In Al and Leningrad B 19A the words “to us and to our sons,” and in Al the first consonant of the following Heb. preposition “to,” have extraordinary points over them. This is understood by some to mean that these words should either be omitted or not be emphasized. However, these words were written in LXXP. Fouad Inv. 266 of the first cent. B.C.E. One of the 15 cases of extraordinary points. See App 2A.
Or, “you have recalled them to your heart.”
Or, “captivity,” that is, a body of captives.
See App 1C §1.
“If you will listen to the commandments of Jehovah your God,” LXX; MSamSyVg omit.
See App 1C §1.
See App 1C §1.
“Joshua.” Heb., Yehoh·shuʹaʽ, “Jehoshua”; Gr., Ἰησοῦς (Jesus); Syr., Ye·shuaʽ; Lat., Ioʹsu·e.
“You will bring,” SamSyVg and five Heb. mss; M, “you will go with”; LXX, “you will go before the face of.” Compare vs 23.
“See,” by a correction of the vowel pointing of M; LXXSyVg, “appear before.” Compare 16:16.
Lit., “ears.”
Or, “and commit fornication.”
Lit., “my,” MSam.
Lit., “me,” MSam.
Or, “I have promised on oath.”
“I have sworn,” M; LXXSy, “I have sworn to their forefathers”; Sam, “I have sworn to his forefathers”; Vg, “I have promised him.”
“Taking.” In Heb. this is a verb in the infinitive absolute, indefinite as to time.
See App 1C §1.
See App 1C §1.
See App 1C §1.
“All the congregation of.” Heb., kol-qehalʹ; Gr., ek·kle·siʹas.
See App 1C §1.
“The Rock, perfect is his activity.” Heb., hats·Tsurʹ ta·mimʹ po·ʽolohʹ; LXX, “God, true are his works”; Sy, “For without blemish (spotless) are his works”; Vg, “God’s works are perfect.”
“A God,” M(Heb., ʼEl)Sam; Gr., The·osʹ; Lat., Deʹus.
“They have,” SamLXXSyVg; M, “He has.”
Or, “ruinously toward him.”
“They have sinned; blameworthy children do not belong to him,” LXX.
See App 1C §1.
“When the Most High was dividing nations,” LXXSyVg. Evidently they understood the Heb. verb to be derived from a similar-looking root that means “to sift; to pass through a sieve.” According to this, M would read: “When the Most High sprinkled the nations [as through a sieve].” This thought runs parallel, or in poetic balance, with the second part of the vs. See VT, Vol. II, 1952, pp. 356, 357.
Or, “earthling man.” Heb., ʼa·dhamʹ.
“And Jehovah’s share became,” LXX.
Or, “and in a featureless.” Heb., u·vethoʹhu, the same Heb. noun as in Ge 1:2.
“God.” MSam(Heb.), ʼel; Gr., the·osʹ.
Or, “and he continued to eat,” M; Vg, “that he might eat”; Sam, “he made him eat”; LXX, “he made them eat.”
Or, “curds.”
“Wine.” Heb., chaʹmer, that is, still-foaming, fermenting wine.
Meaning “Upright One”; an honorary title for Israel. Heb., Yeshu·runʹ.
“And Jacob ate and got full and the loved one kicked,” LXX (Sam is similar); Vg, “The dear one got fat and kicked.”
“God,” MSam. Heb., ʼElohʹah, the first occurrence of the sing. form of ʼElo·himʹ; Gr., The·onʹ; Lat., Deʹum. See Job 3:4 ftn.
“The Rock of.” Heb., Tsur; LXXVg, “God”; Sy, “Strong (Mighty) One.”
“To demons (idols).” Heb., lash·she·dhimʹ; Gr., dai·mo·niʹois; Lat., dae·moʹni·bus.
“Not to God.” Heb., loʼ ʼEloʹah; Gr., ou The·oiʹ; Lat., non Deʹo.
“Gods.” Heb., ʼelo·himʹ; Gr., the·oisʹ; Lat., diʹis.
Or, “about whom your forefathers had not known.”
See App 1C §1.
Lit., “their vanities.”
Or, “down to the lowest Sheol.” LXX, “to Hades below.”
Lit., “at the interior rooms.”
Or, “cleave them in pieces.”
“Our hand,” SamLXXSyVg and many Heb. mss; M, “Our hands,” but with a sing. verb.
“Had delivered them up,” LXX.
“Had shut them up,” Vg.
“For their gods are not like our God,” LXX; Vgc, “For our God is not like their gods.”
“And our enemies are judges,” Vg; LXX, “but our enemies are senseless.”
Or, “among my supplies.”
Lit., “hand.”
Lit., “only one restrained and one let go (abandoned).” See VT, Vol. II, 1952, pp. 371-374.
“Their gods.” MSam(Heb.), ʼelo·hehʹmoh, pl.; Gr., the·oiʹ; Lat., diʹi.
“Where are their gods upon whom they put their trust?” LXX; Vg, “Where are their gods in whom they had confidence?”
Or, “I preserve alive.”
Or, “alive forever.”
Lit., “the lightning of my sword.”
Or, “captivity,” that is, a body of captives.
Or, “the long-haired head of the enemy.”
“Be glad, O heavens, together with him, and let all the angels of God worship him. Be glad, you nations, with his people, and let all the sons of God strengthen themselves in him,” LXXBagster. Compare Heb 1:6.
“For the ground of his people,” SamLXXVg; M, “for his ground, for his people”; Sy, “for his ground and for his people.”
Lit., “ears.”
Meaning “Salvation; Deliverance”; the original name of Joshua.
Or, “in witness against you.”
Or, “the borderland.”
“You men did not sanctify me (hold me sacred; treat me as holy).” Heb., loʼ-qid·dash·temʹ ʼoh·thiʹ; Gr., he·gi·aʹsa·te; Lat., sanc·ti·fi·caʹstis.
Or, “tens of thousands of holy ones.”
Or, “and with him were myriads of Kadesh, at his right hand warriors [or, angels] thereof.” See JTS, Vol. 2, 1951, pp. 30, 31. LXX, “with [the] myriads of Kadesh; at his right hand angels [were] with him”; Vg, “and with him thousands of holy ones. In his right hand [there was] a fiery law.” Mmargin breaks the Heb. into two words, ʼesh (fire) and dath (law), to read, “the fire of a law”; or, “a fiery law.” But this would introduce into the Pentateuch a Persian loanword, dath (law), which is found elsewhere in Heb. only in Ezra and Esther. See Ezr 8:36; Es 1:8.
“His people,” LXX; MSamSyVg, “peoples,” referring to the Israelite tribes or their ancestors.
Possibly, “his,” in the collective sense, referring to “his people,” which is pl. in M (Heb., ʽam·mimʹ).
Possibly, “And they—they followed at your feet.” The meaning of the Heb. verb is uncertain. LXX, “And these are under you”; Vg, “And they who approach his feet.”
“Moses laid as a command upon us a law.” Some consider these words to be a gloss from the margin and so would delete them.
Meaning “Upright One”; an honorary title for Israel.
“And let his number become complete (perfect),” by a correction proposed in BHK and BHS; LXX, “and let him be great in number”; Vg, “and let him be small in number.”
“Blessing.” Inserted for sense in agreement with vs 1.
Or, “contended for him.”
See Ex 28:30 ftn, “Thummim.”
Possibly, “your man of loyal love.”
“Of heaven above,” two Heb. mss. In TO this line reads: “with dew of heaven from above.” See Ge 49:25.
“One singled out.” MSam(Heb.), nezirʹ, translated “Nazirite” (meaning “One Singled Out; Dedicated One; Separated One”) in Nu 6:2, 13, 18-20.
Or, “a buffalo.”
“And the hidden treasures of the sands,” Vg; LXX, “and the commerce of the inhabitants of the seacoast.”
“As a lion.” Heb., kela·viʼʹ, the Asian lion.
Lit., “And he will see the first part is his.” Vg, “And he saw the first place (preeminence) to be his.”
Lit., “for there was the allotment (share) of a commander [his prescribed allotment, by an emendation] covered in. And he proceeded to come [with] the heads of the people,” M; Vg, “for in his part the teacher was laid up (reserved) . . . .”
Possibly, “The sea and its fish are his possession.” LXXSyVg, “The sea (west) and the south he will inherit (take possession of).”
“Leisurely walk.” Or, “gait.” According to KB3, p. 199, “strength.”
“Like the [true] God of.” Heb., ka·ʼElʹ. Here the definite article ha, “the,” is indicated by the vowel points under the Heb. preposition Kaph, “k,” to form ka, “like the.” This introduction gives special emphasis to the noun “God,” here rendered “the [true] God.” See Heb. grammars under “prepositions”; App 1G.
“And the magnificent one of the firmament,” LXX; Vg, “by his magnificence the clouds run to and fro.”
“Upon,” Sam; M, “to (for).”
Or, “will pretend to be obedient to you.”
The tribe of Simeon is not named in the blessing upon all Israel, but with Levi named and also the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh that descended from Joseph, the number of tribes remains 12.
Or, “the Basin.” Compare Ge 13:10 ftn, “District.”
For vss 1b-3, “And Jehovah went showing him . . . as far as Zoar,” Sam reads: “And Jehovah went showing him all the land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, and to the western sea.” Compare 11:24; Ge 15:18.
Or, “slave.”