Deuteronomy

~ Introduction ~

WRITER

This book is Moses’ farewell address to the nation of Israel. It was written as Moses’ last words to the nation (See 1:1,5; 4:44,45; 31:24- 26; see intro. to Gn). Since Jesus attributed to Moses the writing of the law (Gn – Dt), this is certified evidence that Moses was the writer (See Jn 5:35-47). Because of some detailed prophecies that Moses made in this book, some Bible students have erroneously assumed that Deuteronomy could not have been written by Moses who died around 1,400 B.C. These Bible students assume that the book was an accumulation of various prophets who lived sometime near the discovery of the book of the law (Gn – Dt) in the reconstruction of the temple in 621 B.C. In this year a copy of the book of the law was discovered by Hilkiah while doing renovations on the temple. The book was brought to King Josiah who subsequently initiated great reforms throughout Israel (See 2 Kg 22:8 – 23:25; 2 Ch 34:14 – 35:19). Because of the accuracy of the prophecies of the book that refer to the condition of Israel prior to 621 B.C. when the northern tribes were taken into Assyrian captivity, some Bible students have erroneously assumed that portions of the book were written by various writers who lived in the time of this apostasy of Israel. But such beliefs in reference to the book assume that the prophecies were historical records, not prophecies of God in reference to the future of Israel. These critics of the Mosaic authorship of Deuteronomy also base their assumptions on the fact that various parts of the book were written with different writing styles of the Hebrew language. But they fail to see a common characteristic of inspiration in reference to the Spirit’s direction in the writing of an author of inspired Scripture. The Holy Spirit allowed writers to use their own styles of writing in producing Scripture. When Scripture was written over a long period of time, therefore, the style of the writer would change. The Spirit did not inspire Scripture to be written by a dictatorial method of writing, that is, dictating the literary style of the author. We also do not assume that Moses sat down one day and wrote in one setting all the book of Deuteronomy. We only assume that he completed all the book immediately before Israel’s entrance into Canaan. He spoke the words of this book on the east side of the Jordan in the wilderness (1:1). However, the book could have been written throughout the years of the wilderness wandering. He was forty years in the wilderness with Israel. He had forty years to write Genesis through Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy was the last book, but this book could have been written in segments over a period of months or years, thus presenting the different styles of composition in writing. Simply because the styles of composition are different in any book of Scripture does not necessarily assume that a book was written by different people. It only reveals that the Holy Spirit allowed the inspired writers to inscribe Scripture according to the writer’s own style of writing. In this way the personality of the inspired writer was also revealed, making the Scriptures real and the writer a real person. We would not, therefore, assume that the Holy Spirit, through inspiration, used the writers as stenographers in order to communicate the word of God to people. He used real people to communicate a real message.

Book

The key verse of this book would be 6:5: “And you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” The laws of Deuteronomy were probably written sometime near the close of Israel’s forty years of wandering in the wilderness and prior to Moses’ death on Mt. Nebo east of the Jordan (See 1:3; 31:24- 26). The laws of Deuteronomy were spoken to a new generation of Israel, the generation of sons and daughters of those who originally came out of Egyptian captivity. Many of those who were about to enter into the promised land had only heard stories about the plagues of Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea. They had not personally experienced the events at the foot of Mt. Sinai and much of the wandering through the wilderness. This was a book, therefore, that was written to a new generation of Israelites who needed to be reminded of the God their fathers personally experienced in their deliverance from Egyptian captivity and the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai. The name “Deuteronomy” means “second law.” The name was ascribed to it by the translators of the Septuagint and was adopted by Jerome in the Latin Vulgate. It was not a new law for Israel, but a repetition of the laws that were given at Mt. Sinai. However, in the repetition of the law, Moses explained and amplified various portions of the laws that were given about forty years before. Deuteronomy is thus more than a restatement of the former laws. Moses expounded further on the laws that were originally given at Sinai to a new generation of Israel that was about to enter Canaan. By doing this he applied the law that was given forty years before to this new generation of Israel. In this way, Moses prepared the people for entering the land of promise. He reaffirmed the covenant conditions and promises that God had made with their fathers. He reminded the people what God had historically done for the nation, and thus, he spiritually prepared them to accept and live by the civil and moral laws of God. Moses emphasized the nation’s obligation to submit to the conditions of the covenant that God had made with Israel at the foot of Mt. Sinai. If they did not submit throughout their generations to come, the nation would be dispursed into captivity. Deuteronomy is unique. It is a record of God’s plan of redemption from beginning to end. It concludes God’s historical record of mankind from the beginning that is recorded in Genesis, until the time the Redeemer would come into the world. Recorded in this book were the final principles by which the nation of Israel was to live, and thus preserve the seedline through whom the Savior would come into the world. Because of its importance in reference to this eternal gospel plan of redemption, Deuteronomy is quoted at least 85 times in the New Testament. Only six New Testament books do not have quotes from this book. The reason for this number of quotations in the New Testament was to link Israel and Moses with the revelation of the Messiah as the “Moses” who would lead the people into a new Israel. It is imperative, therefore, that we connect the dots between the book Deuteronomy and the Christ in order to understand God’s prophecy of the Christ to come.

Chapter 1 — Leaving Mount Sinai

1 ¶ These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel a on this side of the Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red Sea, between Paran and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab. 2 There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir b to Kadesh Barnea. 3 Now it came to pass c in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the LORD had given him in commandment to them, 4 d after he had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites who dwelt in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan who dwelt at Astaroth e in Edrei. 5 On this side of the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses began to declare this law, saying, 6 “The LORD our God spoke to us in f Horeb, saying, ‘You have dwelt long g enough at this mountain. 7 ‘Turn and take your journey, and go to the mountain of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hills and in the lowland and in the Negev, and by the sea coast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon to the great river, the River Euphrates. 8 ‘Behold, I have set the land before you. Go in and possess the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, h Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give to them and to their seed after them.’ 9 ¶ “And i I spoke to you at that time, saying, ‘I am not able to bear the burden of you alone.’ 10 ‘The LORD your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are j this day as the stars of heaven for multitude. 11 k ‘The LORD God of your fathers make you a thousand times more than you are, and bless you as He has promised you! 12 l ‘How can I myself alone bear your problems and your burden and your strife? 13 ‘Choose wise men with understanding and knowledgeable men among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you.’ 14 “And you answered me and said, ‘The thing that you have spoken is good for us to do.’ 15 “So I took the m chief of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and made them heads over you, captains over thousands and captains over hundreds and captains over fifties and captains over tens and officers among your tribes. 16 “And I charged your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hear the cases between your brethren and n judge righteously between every man and his o brother, and the alien who is with him. 17 p ‘You will not respect persons in judgment. But you will hear the small as well as the great. You will not be afraid of any man, for q the judgment is God’s. And the case that is too hard for you, r bring it to me and I will hear it.’ 18 “And I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do. 19 ¶ “And when we departed from Horeb, s we went through all that great and terrible wilderness that you saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the LORD our God commanded us. And t we came to Kadesh Barnea. 20 “And I said to you, ‘You have come to the mountain of the Amorites that the LORD our God is giving to us. 21 ‘Behold, the LORD your God has set the land before you. Go up and possess it as the LORD God of your fathers has said to you. u Do not fear or be discouraged.’ 22 “Then you came near to me every one of you, and said, ‘We will send men before us and they will search out the land for us and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we will come.’ 23 “And the saying pleased me well. And v I took twelve men from you, one from each tribe. 24 w “And they turned and went up into the mountain and came to the valley of Eshcol and searched it out. 25 “And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us. And they brought us word again and said, ‘It is a x good land that the LORD our God is giving us.’ 26y “Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God. 27 “And you z murmured in your tents and said, ‘Because the LORD a hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt in order to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. 28 ‘Where will we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our hearts, saying, “The b people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and walled up to heaven. And besides, we have seen the sons of the c Anakim there.’” 29 “Then I said to you, ‘Do not be shocked, d nor be afraid of them. 30 e ‘The LORD your God who goes before you, He will fight for you according to all that He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31 ‘and in the wilderness where you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a f man carried his son, in all the way that you went, until you came into this place.’ 32 “Yet in this thing g you did not believe the LORD your God, 33 h “who went in the way before you, i to search out a place for you to pitch your tents, in fire by night to show you by what way you should go and in a cloud by day. 34 ¶ “Then the LORD heard the voice of your words. And He was angry and j swore an oath, saying, 35 k ‘Surely there will not one of these men of this evil generation see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers, 36 l ‘except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and to him I will give the land that he has trodden upon, and to his children, because m he has wholly followed the LORD.’ 37 n “Also the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, saying, ‘You also will not enter there. 38 o ‘But Joshua the son of Nun, p who stands before you, he will enter in. q Encourage him, for he will cause Israel to inherit it. 39 r ‘Moreover, your little ones who s you said should be prey, and your children who in that day had t no knowledge between good and evil, they will enter in, and to them I will give it. And they will possess it. 40 u ‘But as for you, turn and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.’ 41 ¶ “Then you answered and said to me, v ‘We have sinned against the LORD. We will go up and fight according to all that the LORD our God commanded us.’ And when every man had put on his weapons of war, you were ready to go up into the hill country. 42 “And the LORD said to me, ‘Say to them, w “Do not go up, nor fight, for I am not among you, lest you be smitten before your enemies.”’ 43 “So I spoke to you, and you would not hear, but x rebelled against the commandment of the LORD and went up y presumptuously into the hill country. 44 “And the Amorites who dwelt in that mountain came out against you. And they chased you z as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, even to Hormah. 45 “And you returned and wept before the LORD. But the LORD would not hearken to your voice, nor give ear to you. 46 a “So you remained in Kadesh many days according to the days that you abode there.

Chapter 1: a Dt 4:44-46 b Nm 13:26;32:8 c Nm 33:38 d Nm 21:23,24,33-35 e Ja 13:12 f Ex 3:1,12 g Ex 19:1,2 h Gn 12:7;15:6;22:17;26:3;28:13 i Ex 18:18,24 j Gn 15:5;22:17 k 2 Sm 24:3 l 1 Kg 3:8,9 m Ex 18:25 n Dt 16:18 o Lv 24:22 p Pv 24:23-26 q 2 Ch 19:6 r Ex 18:22,26 s Dt 2:7;8:15;32:10 t Nm 13:26 u Ja 1:6,9 v Nm 13:2,3 w Nm 13:21-25 x Nm 13:27 y Nm 14:1-4 z Ps 106:25 a Dt 9:28 b Dt 9:1,2 c Nm 13:28 d Nm 14:9 e Ex 14:14 f Is 46:3,4;63:9 g Jd 5 h Ex 13:21 i Nm 10:33 j Dt 2:14,15 k Nm 14:22,23 l Ja 14:9 m Nm 32:11,12 n Dt 3:16;4:21;34:4 o Nm 14:30 p 1 Sm 16:22 q Dt 31:7,23 r Nm 14:31 s Nm 14:3 t Is 7:15,16 u Nm 14:25 v Nm 14:40 w Nm 14:41-43 x Nm 14:44 y Dt 17:12,13 z Ps 118:12 a Dt 2:7,14

Chapter 2 — Wilderness Wonderings

1 ¶ “Then we turned and a set out for the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea, b as the LORD spoke to me. And we circled around Mount Seir many days. 2 “Then the LORD spoke to me, saying, 3 c ‘You have circled around this mountain long enough. Turn northward. 4 ‘Command the people, saying, d “You are to pass through the territory of e your brethren, the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir. And they will be afraid of you. Therefore, take heed to yourselves. 5 “Do not meddle with them, for I will not give you any of their land, not so much as a footstep f because I have given Mount Seir to Esau for a possession. 6 “You will buy food from them for money so that you may eat. And you will also buy water from them for money so that you may drink. 7 “For the LORD your God has blessed you in all the works of your hand. He knows your wanderings through this great wilderness. g These forty years the LORD your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.”’ 8 “And when we passed by our brethren the children of Esau who dwelt in Seir, through the way of the plain from h Elath and from Ezion Geber, i we turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab. 9 “Then the LORD said to me, ‘Do not distress the Moabites, nor contend with them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land for a possession because I have given j Ar to the k children of Lot for a possession. 10 l (The Emims dwelt in it in the past, a great and numerous people, and tall as the m Anakims. 11 They also were considered giants, as the Anakims, but the Moabites call them Emims. 12 n The Horites also formerly dwelt in Seir, but the children of Esau dispossessed them when they had destroyed them from before them. And they dwelt in their place, as Israel did to the land of his possession that the LORD gave to them.) 13 ‘Now rise up, I said, and cross over the o Brook Zered.’ And we went over the Brook Zered. 14 “Now the time that it took for us to come p from Kadesh Barnea, until we had crossed over the Brook Zered, was thirty-eight years; q until all the generation of the men of war had perished from among the army, r as the LORD swore to them. 15 “For indeed the hand of the LORD was against them, to destroy them from among the army, until they all perished. 16 ¶ “So it came to pass when all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people, 17 “that the LORD spoke to me, saying, 18 ‘You are to pass over through Ar, the territory of Moab, this day. 19 ‘And when you come opposite the children of Ammon, do not distress them, nor meddle with them. For I will not give you of the land of the children of Ammon any possession because I have given it to the s children of Lot for a possession.’ 20 (That also was regarded a land of the Rephaim. The Rephaim formerly lived in it, and the Ammonites call them t Zamzummims. u They were a great and numerous people, and tall as the Anakims. But the LORD destroyed them before them, and they dispossessed them and dwelt in their place, 21 as He did to the children of Esau v who dwelt in Seir, when He destroyed w the Horites from before them. And they dispossessed them and dwelt in their place even to this day. 22 And the x Avims who dwelt in Hazerim, even to Azzah, the y Caphtorims who came forth out of Caphtor destroyed them and dwelt in their place.) 24 ¶ ‘Rise up. Take your journey and z pass over the River Arnon. Behold, I have given into your hand a Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle. 25 b ‘This day I will begin to put the dread of you and the fear of you upon the nations that are under the whole heaven, who will hear the report of you and will c tremble and be in anguish because of you.’ 26 “So I d sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with e words of peace, saying, 27 f ‘Let me pass through your land. I will go along by the highway. I will neither turn to the right hand nor to the left. 28 ‘You will sell me food for money so that I may eat. And you give me water for money so that I may drink. g Only let me pass through on foot 29 h ‘as the children of Esau who dwell in Seir and the Moabites who dwell in Ar did for me, until I will pass over the Jordan into the land that the LORD our God gives us.’ 30 i “But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him, for j the LORD your God k hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate so that He might deliver him into your hand, as he is this day. 31 “And the LORD said to me, ‘Behold, I have begun to l give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to possess it so that you may inherit his land.’ 32 m “Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to fight at Jahaz. 33 “And the n LORD our God delivered him before us, and o we smote him and his sons and all his people. 34 “Then we took all his cities at that time and p utterly destroyed the men and the women and the little ones, of every city. We left none to remain. 35 “Only the cattle we took for a booty for ourselves, and the spoil of the cities, that we took. 36 q “From Aroer, that is by the brink of the river of Arnon, and from the r city that is by the river, even to Gilead, there was not one city too strong for us. s The LORD our God delivered all to us. 37 “Only you did not go near to the land of the sons of Ammon, nor to any place of the t River Jabbok, nor to the cities in the mountains, nor to u whatever the LORD our God forbade us.

Chapter 2: a Dt 1:40 b Nm 14:25 c Dt 2:7,14 d Nm 20:14-21 e Dt 23:7 f Gn 36:8 g Dt 8:2-4 h Jg 11:18 i Nm 21:4 j Dt 2:18,29 k Gn 19:36-38 l Gn 14:5 m Dt 9:2 n Dt 2:22 o Nm 21:12 p Nm 13:26 q Dt 1:34,35 r Nm 14:35 s Ps 44:3 t Gn 32:22 u Dt 2:5,9,19

Chapter 3 — Defeat of King Og

1 ¶ “Then we turned and went up by the way to Bashan. And a Og, the king of Bashan, came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at b Edrei. 2 “Then the LORD said to me, ‘Do not fear him, for I will deliver him and all his people and his land, into your hand. And you will do to him as you did to c Sihon king of the Amorites who dwelt at Heshbon.’ 3 “So the LORD our God delivered into our hands Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people. And we smote him until no one was left. 4 “And we took all his cities at that time. There was not a city that we did not take from them, sixty cities, d all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 5 “All these cities were fortified with high walls, gates and bars, besides a great many unwalled towns. 6 “And we utterly destroyed them as we did to Sihon king of e Heshbon, utterly destroying the men, women and children of every city. 7 “But all the livestock and the spoil of the cities, we took for a booty for ourselves. 8 “And we took at that time the f land out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were on this side of the Jordan, from the river of Arnon to g Mount Hermon, 9 (h Hermon is called Sirion by the Sidonians. The Amorites call it Shenir), 10 i “all the cities of the plain and all Gilead and j all Bashan, to Salchah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 11 k (For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of l giants. Behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron. It is in m Rabbah of the sons of Ammon. Its length was nine cubits and its width four cubits after the cubit of a man.) 12 ¶ “So this n land we possessed at that time, from o Aroer, that is by the River Arnon, and half the hill country of Gilead and p its cities, I gave to the Reubenites and to the Gadites. 13 q “And the rest of Gilead and all Bashan, being the kingdom of Og, I gave to half the tribe of Manasseh, all the region of Argob, with all Bashan that was called the land of Rephaim. 14 r “Jair the son of Manasseh took all the country of Argob to the s territory of Geshuri and Maachathi. And he called t Bashan after his own name, Havoth Jair, to this day. 15 “And I gave u Gilead to Machir. 16 “And to the Reubenites and to the v Gadites I gave from Gilead even to the River Arnon half the valley, and the border even to the River Jabbok, that is the w border of the children of Ammon; 17 “the plain also, and the Jordan as its border, from Chinnereth even to the x sea of the plain, even the y Salt Sea, below the slopes of Pisgah eastward. 18 ¶ “Then I commanded you at that time, saying, ‘The LORD your God has given you this land to possess it. You will pass over z armed before your brethren the children of Israel, all who are ready for the war. 19 “But your wives and your little ones and your livestock, (I know that you have much livestock), will abide in your cities that I have given you, 20 “until the LORD has given a a rest to your brethren, as well as to you, and until they also possess the land that the LORD your God has given them beyond the Jordan. Then you will b return every man to his possession that I have given you.’ 21 “And c I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, ‘Your eyes have seen all that the LORD your God has done to these two kings. Even so the LORD will do to all the kingdoms into which you are about to cross. 22 ‘You will not fear them, for d the LORD your God will fight for you.’ 23 ¶ “And e I pleaded with the LORD at that time, saying, 24 ‘O Lord GOD, You have begun to show your servant f Your greatness and Your mighty hand. For g what god is there in heaven or in earth who can do according to Your works and according to Your might? 25 ‘I beg You, let me go over and see the h good land that is beyond the Jordan, that good hill country and Lebanon.’ 26 “But the LORD i was angry with me for your sakes, and would not hear me. And the LORD said to me, ‘That is enough. Speak no more to Me of this matter. 27 j ‘Get up into the top of Pisgah and lift up your eyes westward and northward and southward and eastward, and behold it with your eyes, for you will not go over this Jordan. 28 ‘But k charge Joshua and encourage him and strengthen him. For he will go over before this people and he will cause them to inherit the land that you will see.’ 29 “So we remained in the l valley over against Beth Peor.

Chapter 3: a Nm 21:33-35 b Dt 1:4 c Nm 21:34 d Dt 3:13,14 e Dt 2:24,34,35 f Ja 12:6;13:8-12 g 1 Ch 5:23 h 1 Ch 5:23 i Dt 4:49 j Ja 12:5;13:11 k Am 2:9 l Dt 2:11,20 m Jr 49:2 n Nm 32:33 o Dt 2:36 p Nm 34:14 q Ja 13:29-31;17:1 r 1 Ch 2:22 s Ja 13:13 t Nm 32:41 u Nm 32:39,40 v 2 Sm 23:5 w Nm 21:24 x Nm 34:11,12 y Gn 14:3 z Nm 32:20 a Dt 12:9,10 b Ja 22:4 c Nm 27:22,23 d Ex 14:14 e 2 Co 12:8,9 f Dt 5:24;11:2 g 2 Sm 7:22 h Dt 4:22 i Nm 20:12;27:14 j Nm 23:14;27:12 k Nm 27:18,23 l Dt 4:46;34:6

Chapter 4 — Exhortation to Obey

1 ¶ “Now therefore hearken, O Israel, to the a statutes and to the judgments that I teach you, in order to do them so that you may live and go in and possess the land that the LORD God of your fathers is giving you. 2 b “You will not add to the word that I command you, nor will you diminish from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you. 3 “Your eyes have seen what the LORD did because of Baal Peor, for all the men who followed c Baal Peor, the LORD your God has destroyed them from among you. 4 “But you who held fast to the LORD your God are alive, every one of you this day. 5 “Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, so that you should do so in the land where you are going to possess it. 6 “Therefore, keep and do them, for this is your wisdom and d your understanding in the sight of the nations who will hear all these statutes, and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ 7 “For e what nation is there so great, who has f a god so near to it as is the LORD our God whenever we call on Him? 8 “And what nation is there so great that has statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law that I set before you this day? 9 ¶ “Only take heed to yourself and g keep your soul diligently, lest you h forget the things that your eyes have seen and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. But i teach them to your sons and your sons’ sons. 10 “Remember j the day that you stood before the LORD your God in Horeb, when the LORD said to me, ‘Assemble the people to Me and I will make them hear My words so that they may learn to fear Me all the days that they will live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.’ 11 “And you came near and stood under the mountain. And the mountain burned with fire to the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds and thick darkness. 12 k “Then the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the voice of the words, but saw no form. l You heard only a voice. 13 m “And He declared to you His covenant that He commanded you to perform, even n ten commandments. And o He wrote them on two tablets of stone. 14 “Then the p LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments so that you might do them in the land to which you are going over to possess. 15q “Therefore, take careful heed to yourselves, since you did not see any r form on the day that the LORD spoke to you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire, 16 “lest you s corrupt and t make for yourselves a graven image, an image of any shape, the u likeness of male or female, 17 “the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, 18 “the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground and the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth. 19 “And when you v lift up your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the army of heaven, do not be drawn away to x worship them and serve them, things that the LORD your God has allotted to all nations under the whole heaven. 20 “But the LORD has taken you and y brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be to Him a z people of inheritance as you are this day. 21 “Furthermore, the a LORD was angry with me for your sakes and swore that b I should not go over the Jordan and that I should not go into that good land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance. 22 “But c I must die in this land. d I must not go over the Jordan. But you will go over and possess that e good land. 23 “Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God that He made with you, and you f make a graven image or the likeness of anything that the LORD your God has forbidden you. 24 “For the g LORD your God is a consuming fire, even a h jealous God. 25 ¶ “When you will have had children and grandchildren, and will have remained long in the land, and will corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image or the likeness of anything, and will i do evil in the sight of the LORD your God, to provoke Him to anger, 26 j “I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you will surely utterly perish from off the land to which you go over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will utterly be destroyed. 27 “And the LORD will k scatter you among the nations. And you will be left few in number among the heathen, to which the LORD will lead you. 28 “And l there you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, m that neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. 29 “But if from there you will seek the LORD your God, you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 “When you are in tribulation and all these things have come upon you, in the o latter day you will p turn to the LORD your God and will be obedient to His voice. 31 “For the LORD your God is a merciful God. He will not forsake you, nor q destroy you nor forget the covenant of your fathers that He swore to them. 32 ¶ “Indeed, r ask now about the days that are past, that were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask s from the one side of heaven to the other, whether there has been any such thing as this great thing, or has been heard like it? 33 t “Did any people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and yet live? 34 “Or has God tried to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, u by trials, v by signs and by wonders and by war and w by a mighty hand and by an x outstretched arm and by y great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 “To you it was shown so that you might know that the LORD, He is God. z There is no one else besides Him. 36 a “Out of heaven He made you to hear His voice so that He might instruct you. And on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire. 37 “And because b He loved your fathers, therefore, He chose their seed after them and c brought you out of Egypt in His sight with His mighty power, 38 d “to drive out nations from before you greater and mightier than you, to bring you in to give you their land for an inheritance as it is this day. 39 “Therefore, know this day and consider it in your heart that the LORD, e He is God in heaven above and upon the earth beneath. There is no other. 40 f “Therefore, you will keep His statutes and His commandments that I command you this day, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days on the earth that the LORD your God is giving you forever.” 41 ¶ “Then Moses g set apart three cities on this side of the Jordan toward the sun rising, 42 “to which the h manslayer might flee who should kill his neighbor unintentionally, without having hatred toward him in the past, and that fleeing to one of these cities he might live: 43 i Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country of the Reubenites, and Ramoth in Gilead of the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan of the Manassites. 44 ¶ “Now this is the law that Moses set before the children of Israel. 45 “These are the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments that Moses spoke to the children of Israel after they came forth out of Egypt, 46 “on this side of the Jordan, in the j valley over against Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites who dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel k smote after they had come forth out of Egypt. 47 “And they possessed his land and the land of l Og king of Bashan, two kings of the Amorites who were on this side of the Jordan toward the sun rising, 48 “from m Aroer, that is by the bank of the River Arnon, even to Mount Sion that is n Hermon, 49 “and all the plain on this side of the Jordan eastward, even to the sea of the plain, under the o springs of Pisgah.

Chapter 4: a Rm 10:5 b Pv 30:6 c Nm 25:1-9 d 2 Tm 3:15 e 2 Sm 7:23 f Is 55:6 g Pv 4:23 h Dt 29:2-8 i Gn 18:19 j Ex 19:9,16,17 k Dt 5:4,22 l 1 Kg 19:11-18 m Dt 9:9,11 n Ex 34:28 o Ex 24:12 p Ex 21:1 q Ja 23:11 r Is 40:18 s Dt 9:12; 31:29 t Ex 20:4,5 u Rm 1:23 v Dt 17:3 w 2 Kg 21:3 x Rm 1:25 y Jr 11:4 z Dt 7:6; 27:9 a Nm 20:12 b Nm 27:13,14 c 2 Pt 1:13-15 d Dt 3:27 e Dt 3:25 f Dt 4:16 g Dt 9:3 h Ex 20:5; 34:14 i 2 Kg 17:17 j Dt 30:18,19 k Dt 28:62 l Jr 16:13 m Ps 115:4-7; 135:15-17 n 2 Ch 15:4 o Hs 3:5 p Jl 2:12 q Jr 30:11 r Jb 8:8 s Mt 24:31 t Dt 5:24-26 u Dt 7:19 v Ex 7:3 w Ex 13:3 x Ex 6:6 y Dt 26:8 z Mk 12:32 a Hb 12:19,25 b Dt 7:7,8; 10:15; 33:3 c Ex 13:3,9,14 d Dt 7:1 e Ja 2:11 f Lv 22:31 g Nm 35:6 h Dt 19:4 i Ja 20:8 j Dt 3:29 k Nm 21:24 l Nm 21:33-35 m Dt 2:36 n Dt 3:9 o Dt 3:17

Chapter 5 — The Ten Commandments

1 ¶ Then Moses called all Israel and said to them, “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments that I speak in your ears this day, that you may learn them and keep and do them. 2 a “The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3 “The LORD b did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us who are all of us here alive this day. 4 c “The LORD talked with you face to face in the mountain out of the midst of the fire, 5 d “while I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to show you the word of the LORD, for e you were afraid by reason of the fire and did not go up into the mountain. And He said, 6f ‘I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 7g ‘You will have no other gods before Me. 8h ‘You will not make for yourself any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the waters beneath the earth. 9 ‘You will not i bow down yourself to them nor serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 10 j ‘and showing mercy to thousands of them those who love Me and keep My commandments. 11k ‘You will not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain. 12l ‘Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD your God has commanded you. 13 m ‘Six days you will labor and do all your work. 14 ‘But the seventh day is the n Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you will not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your manservant or your maidservant or your ox or your donkey or any of your cattle or your alien who is within your gates, so that your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you. 15 o ‘And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD your God brought you out of there through a p mighty hand and by an outstretched arm. Therefore, the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. 16q ‘Honor your father and your mother as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that r your days may be prolonged and that it may go well with s you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. 17t ‘You will not kill. 18u ‘You will not commit adultery. 19v ‘You will not steal. 20w ‘You will not bear false witness against your neighbor. 21x ‘You will not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor will you covet your neighbor’s house, his field or his manservant or his maidservant, his ox or his donkey or anything that is your neighbor’s.’ 22 ¶ “These words the LORD spoke with a great voice to all your assembly in the mountain out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud and of the thick darkness. And He added no more. And y He wrote them on two tablets of stone and delivered them to me. 23z “Then it came to pass when you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, for the mountain was burning with fire, that you came near to me, even all the heads of your tribes and your elders. 24 “And you said, ‘Behold, the LORD our God has showed us His glory and His greatness, and a we have heard His voice out of the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God does talk with man and b He lives. 25 ‘Now therefore why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. c If we hear the voice of the LORD our God any longer, then we will die. 26 d ‘For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? 27 ‘Go near and hear all that the LORD our God will say. And e speak to us all that the LORD our God will speak to you, and we will hear it and do it.’ 28 “And the LORD heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me. And the LORD said to me, ‘I have heard the voice of the words of this people that they have spoken to you. f They have said well all that they have spoken. 29 g ‘Oh that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear Me and h keep all My commandments always so i that it might be well with them and with their children forever! 30 ‘Go say to them, “Return to your tents again.” 31 ‘But as for you, you stand here by Me and j I will speak to you all the commandments and the statutes and the judgments that you will teach them, so that they may do them in the land that I give them to possess.’ 32 “You will observe to do as the LORD your God has commanded you. k You will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. 33 “You will walk in l all the ways that the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live and that it may be m well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that you will possess.

Chapter 5: a Ex 19:5 b Hb 8:9 c Ex 19:9 d Gl 3:19 e Ex 19:16 f Ex 20:2-17 g Hs 13:4 h Ex 20:4 i Ex 34:7,14-16 j Dn 9:4 k Ex 20:7 l Ex 20:8 m Ex 23:12; 35:2 n Hb 4:4 o Dt 15:15 p Dt 4:34,37 q Lv 19:3 r Dt 6:2 s Dt 4:40 t Mt 5:21 u Ex 20:14 v Rm 13:9 w Ex 20:16; 23:1 x Ex 20:17 y Dt 4:13 z Ex 20:18,19 a Ex 19:19 b Dt 4:33 c Dt 18:16 d Dt 4:33 e Ex 20:19 f Dt 18:17 g Ps 81:13 h Dt 11:1 i Dt 4:40 j Gl 3:19 k Dt 17:20; 28:14 l Dt 10:12 m Dt 4:40

Chapter 6 — Love the Lord God

1 ¶ “Now these are the a commandments, the statutes and the judgments that the LORD your God commanded me to teach you, so that you might do them in the land to which you are going to possess, 2 b “that you might fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments that I command you, you and your son, and your son’s son, all the days of your life, and c that your days may be prolonged. 3 “Therefore, hear O Israel and observe to do it, so that it may be well with you and that you may d increase mightily e as the LORD God of your fathers has promised you, in the f land that flows with milk and honey. 4g “Hear, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD. 5 h “And you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with i all your soul and with all your might. 6 ¶ “And j these words that I command you this day will be in your heart. 7 k “And you will teach them diligently to your children and will talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. 8 l “And you will bind them for a sign on your hand, and they will be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 m “And you will write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. 10 ¶ “And it will be when the LORD your God brings you into the land that He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, to give you great and splendid cities, n that you did not build, 11 “and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and wells you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant, o which you will eat and be full, 12 “then beware lest you forget the p LORD who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 13 “You will q fear the LORD your God and serve Him, and r will swear by His name. 14 “You will not go after other gods, of s the gods of the people who are around you, 15 “for t the LORD your God is a jealous God u among you; lest the anger of the LORD your God be kindled against you and destroy you from off the face of the earth. 16v “You will not tempt the LORD your God as you w tempted Him at Massah. 17 “You will x diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and His testimonies and His statutes that He has commanded you. 18 “And you y will do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD, so that it may be well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land that the LORD swore to your fathers, 19 z “to cast out all your enemies from before you, as the LORD has spoken. 20a “And when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean that the LORD our God has commanded you?’ 21 “then you will say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. But the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a b mighty hand. 22 ‘And the LORD showed before our eyes signs and wonders, great and terrible against Egypt, upon Pharaoh and upon all his household. 23 ‘Then He brought us out from there so that He might bring us in, to give us the land that He swore to our fathers. 24 ‘And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to c fear the LORD our God, for d our good always that e He might preserve us alive, as it is this day. 25 ‘And f it will be our righteousness if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as He has commanded us.’

Chapter 6: a Dt 12:1 b Ec 12:13 c Dt 4:40 d Dt 7:13 e Gn 22:17 f Ex 3:8,17 g 1 Co 8:4,6 h Mt 22:37 i 2 Kg 23:25 j Dt 11:18-20 k Dt 4:9; 11:19 l Pv 3:3; 6:21; 7:3 m Dt 11:20 n Ja 24:13 o Dt 8:10; 11:15; 14:29 p Dt 8:11-18 q Mt 4:10 r Dt 5:11 s Dt 13:7 t Ex 20:5 u Ex 33:3 v Lk 4:12 w 1 Co 10:9 x Dt 11:22 y Ex 15:26 z Nm 33:52 a Ex 13:8,14 b Ex 13:3 c Dt 6:2 d Jr 32:39 e Dt 4:1 f Rm 10:3,5

Chapter 8 — Remember the Lord

1 ¶ “All the commandments that I command you this day a you will observe to do so that you may live and b multiply and go in and possess the land that the LORD swore to your fathers. 2 “And you will remember that the LORD your God c led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and to d prove you, e to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. 3 “And He humbled you and f allowed you to hunger. And g He fed you with manna that you did not know, neither did your fathers know, so that He might make you know that h man does not live by bread only, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD. 4 i “Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. 5 j “You will also consider in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you. 6 “Therefore, you will keep the commandments of the LORD your God, k to walk in His ways and to fear Him. 7 “For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, l a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs flowing out of valleys and hills, 8 “a land of wheat and barley and vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey, 9 “a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity. You will not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you may dig bronze. 10 m “When you have eaten and are full, then you will bless the LORD your God for the good land that He has given you. 11 ¶ “Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments and His judgments and His statutes that I command you this day. 12 n “Otherwise, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and dwelt in them, 13 “and when your herds and your flocks multiply and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, 14 o “and your heart is lifted up and p you forget the LORD your God who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 15 “He q led you through that great and terrible wilderness in which there were r fiery serpents and scorpions and drought, where there was no water. s He brought you forth water out of the rock of flint. 16 “He fed you in the wilderness with t manna that your fathers did not know so that He might humble you and that He might test you, u to do good for you in the end. 17 “And you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand has produced this wealth for me.’ 18 “But you will remember the LORD your God, v for it is He who is giving you power to get wealth, w so that He may establish His covenant that He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. 19 “And it will be that if you ever forget the LORD your God and walk after other gods and serve them and worship them, x I testify against you this day that you will surely perish. 20 “As the nations that the LORD destroys before your face, y so will you perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the LORD your God.

Chapter 8: a Dt 4:1; 6:24 b Dt 30:16 c Am 2:10 d Ex 16:4 e Jn 2:35 f Ex 16:2,3 g Ex 16:12,14,35 h Mt 4:4 i Ne 9:21 j 2 Sm 7:14 k Dt 5:33 l Dt 11:9-12 m Dt 6:11,12 n Hs 13:6 o 1 Co 4:7 p Ps 106:21 q Is 63:12-14 r Nm 21:6 s Nm 20:11 t Ex 16:15 u Hb 12:11 v Hs 2:8 w Dt 7:8,12 x Dt 4:26; 30:18 y Dn 9:11,12

Chapter 9 — Chosen by Grace

1 ¶ “Hear, O Israel! You are to pass over the Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified to heaven, 2 “a people great and tall, the a children of the Anakims, whom you know and of whom you have heard say, ‘Who can stand before the children of Anak?’ 3 “Understand therefore this day, that the LORD your God is He who b goes over before you. As a c consuming fire d He will destroy them and He will bring them down before your face. e So you will drive them out and destroy them quickly as the LORD has said to you. 4 f “Do not say in your heart after the LORD your God has cast them out from before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness the LORD brought me in to possess this land,’ g but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD drives them out from before you. 5 h “Not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart do you go to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God drives them out from before you, in order that He might accomplish the i word that the LORD swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 6 “Understand therefore that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a j stiffnecked people. 7 ¶ “Remember and do not forget how you k provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. l From the day that you departed out of the land of Egypt, until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD. 8 “Also in m Horeb you provoked the LORD to wrath, so that the LORD was angry with you that He would have destroyed you. 9 n “When I went up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, even the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, then I remained in the mountain o forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. 10 p “And the LORD delivered to me two tablets of stone written with the finger of God. And on them were all the words that the LORD spoke with you in the mountain out of the midst of the fire in the q day of the assembly. 11 “And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights that the LORD gave me the two tablets of stone, even the tablets of the covenant. 12 “And the LORD said to me, r ‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They are s quickly turned aside out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten image.’ 13 ¶ “Furthermore, the t LORD spoke to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, it is a u stiffnecked people. 14 v ‘Let Me alone so that I may destroy them and w blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make of you a x nation mightier and greater than they.’ 15 y “So I turned and came down from the mountain while the z mountain was burning with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16 “And a I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the LORD your God and had made for yourselves a molten calf. You had turned aside quickly out of the way that the LORD had commanded you. 17 “And I took the two tablets and cast them out of my two hands and b broke them before your eyes. 18 “And I c fell down before the LORD as at the first, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water because of all your sins that you sinned in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger. 19 d “For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the LORD was wrathful against you to destroy you. e But the LORD hearkened to me at that time also. 20 “And the LORD was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him. But I prayed for Aaron at the same time. And I took your sin, the calf that you had made, and burned it with fire. And I crushed it and ground it very small, even until it was as small as dust. And f I cast the dust of it into the brook that descended out of the mountain. 22 ¶ “And at g Taberah and at h Massah and at i Kibroth Hattaavah, you provoked the LORD to wrath. 23 “Likewise j when the LORD sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, ‘Go up and possess the land that I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God and k you did not believe Him nor hearken to His voice. 24 l “You have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you. 25m “Thus I fell down before the LORD forty days and forty nights, as I fell down at the first, because the LORD had said He would destroy you. 26 “I prayed therefore to the LORD, and said, ‘O Lord GOD, do not destroy Your people and n Your inheritance that You have redeemed through Your greatness, that You have brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 27 ‘Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Do no look to the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin. 28 ‘Otherwise the land from which You brought us may say, “Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land that He promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.” 29 ‘Yet they are Your people and Your inheritance that You brought out by Your mighty power and by Your outstretched arm.’

Chapter 9: a Nm 13:22,28,33 b Ja 3:11; 5:14 c Dt 4:24 d Dt 7:24 e Ex 23:31 f Dt 8:17 g Lv 18:3,24-30 h Ti 3:5 i Gn 50:24 j Dt 31:27 k Nm 14:22 l Ex 14:11 m Ex 32:1-8 n Dt 5:2-22 o Ex 24:18 p Dt 4:13 q Ex 19:17 r Ex 32:7,8 s Dt 31:29 t Ex 32:9 u Dt 9:6 v Ex 32:10 w Dt 29:20 x Nm 14:12 y Ex 32:15-19 z Ex 19:18 a Ex 32:19 b Ex 32:19 c Ex 34:28 d Ex 32:10,11 e Ex 32:14 f Ex 32:20 g Nm 11:1,3 h Ex 17:7 i Nm 11:4,34 j Nm 13:3 k Ps 106:24,25 l Dt 9:7; 31:27 m Dt 9:18 n Dt 32:9

Chapter 10 — The Second Tablets of Stone

1 ¶ “At that time the LORD said to me, ‘Cut out for yourself two tablets of stone like the first and come up to Me into the mountain and make for yourself an a ark of wood.’ 2 ‘And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets that you broke, and you will b put them in the ark.’ 3 “And I made an ark of acacia wood, and cut out two tablets of stone like the first ones. Then I went up into the mountain, having the two tablets in My hand. 4 “And He wrote on the tablets according to the first writing, the ten commandments c that the LORD spoke to you in the mountain out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. And the LORD gave them to me. 5 “Then I turned and d came down from the mountain and e put the tablets in the ark that I had made. And f there they are as the LORD commanded me.” 6 ¶ (Now the children of Israel set out from the wells Beeroth Jaakan to Mosera. g Aaron died there and there he was buried. And Eleazar his son ministered in the priest’s office in his place. 7 h From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbath, a land of rivers of waters. 8 At that time the i LORD separated the tribe of Levi j to bear the ark of the covenant of the LORD, k to stand before the LORD to minister to Him and l to bless in His name to this day. 9 m Therefore, Levi has no part nor inheritance with his brethren. The LORD is his inheritance according as the LORD your God promised him.) 10 “And n I stayed in the mountain according to the first time, forty days and forty nights. And the o LORD hearkened to me at that time also. The LORD was not willing to destroy you. 11 p “And the LORD said to me, ‘Arise, take your journey before the people so that they may go in and possess the land that I swore to their fathers to give to them.’ 12 ¶ “And now, Israel, q what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to r love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 “to keep the commandments of the LORD and His statutes that I command you this day s for your good? 14 “Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the t LORD’S your God, the earth also, with all that is in it. 15 “Only the LORD set His affection on your fathers to love them. And He chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day. 16 “Circumcise, therefore, the foreskin of your u heart and be no longer v stiffnecked. 17 “For the LORD your God is w God of gods and x Lord of lords, a great God, the y mighty and awesome who z does not show partiality, nor takes a bribe. 18 a “He executes the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loves the alien by giving him food and clothing. 19 “Therefore, you love the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. 20 b “You will fear the LORD your God. Him you will serve, and to Him you will cleave and swear by His name. 21 “He is your praise and He is your God who has done for you these great and awesome things that your eyes have seen. 22 “Your fathers went down into Egypt with seventy persons. And now the LORD your God has made you as the stars of heaven for multitude.

Chapter 10: a Ex 25:10 b Ex 25:16,21 c Ex 20:1; 34:28 d Ex 34:29 e Ex 40:20 f 1 Kg 8:9 g Nm 20:25-28; 33:38 h Nm 33:32-34 i Nm 3:6 j Nm 4:5,15; 10:21 k Dt 18:5 l Nm 6:23 m Dt 18:1,2 n Dt 9:18 o Ex 32:14 p Ex 33:1 q Mc 6:8 r Dt 6:5 s Dt 6:24 t Ne 9:6 u Jr 4:4 v Dt 9:6,13 w Dn 2:47 x Rv 19:16 y Dt 7:21 z At 10:34 a Ps 68:5; 146:9 b Mt 4:10

Chapter 11 — Love and Obey God

1 ¶ “Therefore you will love the LORD your God and always keep His charge and His statutes and His judgments and His commandments. 2 “And know this day that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the LORD your God, His greatness, His mighty hand and His outstretched arm, 3 “and His miracles and His acts that He did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land; 4 “and what He did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots, a how He made the water of the Red Sea to overflow them as they pursued after you, and how the LORD destroyed them to this day; 5 “and what He did to you in the wilderness until you came into this place; 6 “and b what He did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben, when the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their households and their tents and all the substance that was in their possession, in the midst of all Israel. 7 “But your eyes have seen c all the great acts of the LORD that He did. 8 ¶ “Therefore, you will keep all the commandments that I command you this day so that you may d be strong and go in and possess the land into which you go to possess it; 9 “so that you may prolong your days in the land f that the LORD swore to your fathers to give to them and to their seed, g a land that flows with milk and honey. 10 “For the land to which you are going in to possess is not as the land of Egypt from where you came, where you used to sow your seed and water it with your foot as a garden of herbs. 11 “But the land to which you are going to possess is a land of hills and valleys that drinks water from heaven, 12 “a land for which the LORD your God cares. i The eyes of the LORD your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year. 13 ¶ “And it will come to pass that if you will hearken diligently to My commandments that I command you this day, to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14 “then j I will give you the rain for your land in its due season, the k first rain and the latter rain so that you may gather in your corn and your wine and your oil. 15 “And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock so that you may meat and be full.” 16 “Take heed to yourselves so that n your heart not be deceived, and you turn aside and o serve other gods and worship them, 17 “and then the p LORD’S wrath be kindled against you and He q shut up the heaven so that there is no rain, and that the land does not yield her fruit, and lest r you perish quickly from off the good land that the LORD is giving you. 18 ¶ “Therefore s you will lay up these words of mine in your heart and in t your soul, and u bind them for a sign on your hand so that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 “And you will teach them to your children, speaking of them when you are sitting in your house and when you are walking by the way and when you are lying down and when you rise up. 20 “And you will write them on the doorposts of your house and upon your gates, 21 “so that x your days may be multiplied and the days of your children in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, as many as the y days of heaven upon the earth. 22 ¶ “For if z you will diligently keep all these commandments that I command you, to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to a cleave to Him, 23 “then the LORD will b drive out all these nations from before you and you will c dispossess greater nations and mightier than you. 24 “Every place on which the soles of your feet will tread will be yours. Your border will be e from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, even to the uttermost sea. 25 “There no man will be able to f stand before you. For the LORD your God will lay the g fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that you will tread upon, as He has said to you. 26 ¶ “Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse: 27 “the blessing if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you this day; 28 “the j curse if you will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way that I command you this day to go after other gods that you have not known. 29 “And it will come to pass when the LORD your God has brought you into the land to which you are going to possess, that you will put the k blessing on Mount Gerizim and the l curse on Mount Ebal. 30 “Are they not on the other side of the Jordan by the way where the sun goes down in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah opposite Gilgal, m beside the plains of Moreh? 31 “For you will pass over the Jordan to go in to possess the land that the LORD your God is giving you. And you will possess it and dwell in it. 32 “And you will observe to do all the statutes and judgments that I set before you this day.

Chapter 11: a Ps 106:11 b Ps 106:16-18 c Dt 10:21; 29:2 d Ja 1:6,7 e Dt 4:40; 5:16,33; 6:2 f Dt 9:5 g Ex 3:8 h Dt 8:7 i 1 Kg 9:3 j Dt 28:12 k Jl 2:23 l Ps 104:14 m Dt 6:11 n Jb 31:27 o Dt 8:19 p Dt 6:15; 9:19 q 2 Ch 6:26; 7:13 r Dt 4:26 s Dt 6:6-9 t Ps 119:2,34 u Dt 6:8 v Dt 4:9,10; 6:7 w Dt 6:9 x Dt 4:40 y Ps 72:5; 89:29 z Dt 11:1 a Dt 10:20 b Dt 4:38 c Dt 9:1 d Ja 1:3; 14:9 e Gn 15:18 f Dt 7:24 g Dt 2:25 h Dt 30:1,15,19 i Dt 28:1-14 j Dt 28:15-68 k Ja 8:33 l Dt 27:13-26 m Gn 12:6

Chapter 12 — Place for God’s Name

1 ¶ “These are the a statutes and judgments that you will observe to do in the land that the LORD God of your fathers has given you to possess b as long as you live in the land. 2 c “You will utterly destroy all the places in which the nations that you will possess served their gods, d on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. 3 “And e you will tear down their altars and break their pillars and burn their groves with fire. And you will cut down the graven images of their gods and destroy their names out of that place. 4 f “You will not act like this toward the LORD your God. 5 “But you will seek the g place where the LORD your God chooses out of all your tribes, to put His name for h His habitation. And there you will go. 6 i “And there you will bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, and your tithes and heave offerings of your hand, your votive offerings and your freewill offerings, and the j firstborn of your herds and of your flocks. 7 “And k there you will eat before the LORD your God. And you and your households will l rejoice in all that you put your hand to do, because the LORD your God has blessed you. 8 “You will not do after all the things that we do here this day, m every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes. 9 “For you have not as yet come to n the rest and to the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you. 10 “But when you go over the Jordan and dwell in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, and when He gives you o rest from all your enemies around so that you dwell in safety, 11 “then there will be a place that the LORD your God will choose to cause His name to dwell there, to which you will bring all that I command you, your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the heave offering of your hand and all your choice votive offerings that you vow to the LORD. 12 “And p you will rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your sons and your daughters and your menservants and your maidservants and the q Levite who is within your gates, since he has no part nor inheritance with you. 13 “Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see. 14 “But in the place that the LORD will choose in one of your tribes, there you will offer your burnt offerings and there you will do all that I command you. 15 ¶ “However, r you may kill and eat flesh in all your gates, whatever your soul desires, according to the blessing of the LORD your God that He has given you. The s unclean and the clean person may eat of it, t of the gazelle and the deer alike. 16 u “Only you will not eat the blood. You will pour it on the earth as water. 17 “You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your corn or of your wine, or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herds, or of your flock, or any of your votive offerings that you vow, or your freewill offerings, or heave offering of your hand. 18 “But you must eat them before the LORD your God in the place that the LORD your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter and your manservant and your maidservant and the Levite who is within your gates. And you will rejoice before the LORD your God in all that you put your hands to do. 19 “Take heed to yourself that you not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land. 20 ¶ “When the LORD your God v enlarges your border as He has promised you, and you will say, ‘I will eat meat’ because your soul longs to eat meat, then you may eat meat, whatever you desire. 21 “If the place that the LORD your God has chosen to put His name is too far from w you, then you will kill of your herd and of your flock that the LORD has given you as I have commanded you, and you will eat in your gates whatever your soul desires. 22 “Even as a gazelle or a deer is eaten, so you will eat them. The unclean and the clean person will eat of them alike. 23 “Only be sure that you do not eat the x blood, for the blood is the life. And you may not eat the life with the flesh. 24 “You will not eat it. You will pour it on the earth as water. 25 “You will not eat it so y that it may go well with you and with your children after you, z when you will do that which is right in the sight of the LORD. 26 “Only your a holy things that you have and your vows, you will take and go to the place that the LORD will choose. 27 “And b you will offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the altar of the LORD your God. And the blood of your sacrifices will be poured out on the altar of the LORD your God and you will eat the meat. 28 “Observe and hear all these words that I command you so c that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do that which is good and right in the sight of the LORD your God. 29 ¶ “When the d LORD your God cuts off the nations from before you to which you go to possess them and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, 30 “take heed to yourself that you be not ensnared by following them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? Even so I will do likewise.’ 31 e “You will not do so to the LORD your God. For every abomination to the LORD that He hates, they have done to their gods. For even their sons and their daughters f they have burned in the fire to their gods. 32 “Whatever thing I command you, observe to do it. g You will not add to it, nor diminish from it.

Chapter 12: a Dt 6:1 b Dt 4:9,10 c Ex 34:13 d 2 Kg 16:4; 17:10,11 e Nm 33:52 f Dt 12:31 g Ex 20:24 h Ex 15:13 i Lv 17:3,4 j Dt 14:23 k Dt 14:26 l Dt 12:12,18 m Jg 17:6; 21:25 n Dt 3:20; 25:19 o Ja 11:23 p Dt 12:18; 26:11 q Dt 10:9; 14:29 r Dt 12:21 s Dt 12:22 t Dt 14:5 u Gn 9:4 v Ex 34:24 w Dt 14:24 x Gn 9:4 y Dt 4:40; 6:18 z Ex 15:26 a Nm 5:9,10; 18:19 b Lv 1:5,9,13,17 c Dt 12:25 d Ex 23:23 e Lv 18:3,26,30; 20:1,2 f Dt 18:10 g Rv 22:18,19

Chapter 13 — Worshiping Other Gods

1 ¶ “If there arises among you a prophet or a a dreamer of dreams and b he gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 “and the c sign or the wonder comes to pass that he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods that you have not known and let us serve them,’ 3 “you will not hearken to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the LORD your God is d testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 “You will e walk after the LORD your God and fear Him and keep His commandments and obey His voice. And you will serve Him and f cleave to Him. 5 “And g that prophet or that dreamer of dreams will be put to death, because he has spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to seduce you from the way that the LORD your God commanded you to walk in. h So you will put the evil away from the midst of you. 6i “If your brother, the son of your mother or your son or your daughter or the j wife of your bosom or your friend k who is as your own soul, entice you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods’ whom neither you nor your fathers have known, 7 “of the gods of the people who are around you, near to you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth, 8 “you will l not consent to him nor hearken to him. Neither will your eye pity him, nor will you spare or conceal him. 9 “But you will surely kill him. Your hand will be first upon him to put him to m death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. 10 “And you will stone him with stones so that he dies, because he has sought to seduce you away from the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 11 “And all Israel will hear and n fear, and will do no more any such wickedness as this is among you. 12o “If you will hear in one of your cities that the LORD your God has given you to dwell there, anyone saying 13 “that wicked men have gone out from among you and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods’ (whom you have not known), 14 “then you will inquire and search and ask diligently. And behold, if it is truth and the thing is certain that such abomination is done among you, 15 “you will surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly with the edge of the sword and all that is in it and its cattle. 16 “And you will gather all the spoil of it into the midst of its street and will p burn the city with fire as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. And it will be a q heap forever. It will not be built again. 17 r “And none of those condemned things will be found in your hands, so that the LORD may s turn from the fierceness of His anger and show you mercy, and have compassion on you and multiply you, as He has sworn to your fathers, 18 “when you will hearken to the voice of the LORD your God, t to keep all His commandments that I command you this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of the LORD your God.

Chapter 13: a Zc 10:2 b Mt 24:24 c Dt 18:22 d Dt 8:2,16 e 2 Kg 23:3 f Dt 30:20 g Jr 14:15 h Dt 17:5,7 i Dt 17:2 j Gn 16:5 k 1 Sm 18:1-3 l Pv 1:10 m Dt 17:7 n Dt 17:13 o Jg 20:1-48 p Ja 6:24 q Ja 8:28 r Ja 6:18 s Ja 7:26 t Dt 12:25,28,32

Chapter 14 — Clean and Unclean Food

1 ¶ “You are the a children of the LORD your God. b You will not cut yourselves nor make any baldness between your eyes for the sake of the dead. 2 c “For you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the nations who are on the earth. 3d “You will not eat any abominable thing. 4 e “These are the animals that you will eat: the ox, the sheep and the goat, 5 “the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope and the mountain sheep. 6 “And every animal that divides the hoof, and has the hoof split in two and chews the cud among the animals, that you will eat. 7 “Nevertheless, you will not eat of those that chew the cud, or of those that divide the hoof in two, as the camel and the rabbit and the coney, for they chew the cud, but do not divide the hoof. They are unclean to you. 8 “And the swine, because it divides the hoof, yet does not chew the cud, it is unclean to you. You will not eat of their flesh f nor touch their dead carcass. 9g “These you will eat of all that are in the waters: you will eat all that has fins and scales. 10 “But you may not eat whatever does not have fins and scales. It is unclean to you. 11 ¶ “You will eat all clean birds. 12 h “But these are the ones that you will not eat: the eagle and the vulture and the buzzard, 13 “and the red kite and the falcon and kite in their kinds, 14 “and every raven after its kind, 15 “the horned owl and the screech owl and the gull and any kind of hawk, 16 “the little owl and the great owl and the white owl, 17 “and the pelican, the carrion vulture and the cormorant, 18 “and the stork and the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe and the bat. 19 “And every i creeping thing that flies is unclean to you. j They will not be eaten. 20 “But of all clean birds you may eat. 21k “You will not eat of anything that dies by itself. You will give it to the alien who is in your gates so that he may eat it, or you may sell it to an alien. For l you are a holy people to the LORD your God. m You will not boil a kid in its mother’s milk. 22n “You will surely tithe all the increase of your seed that the field brings forth year by year. 23 o “And you will eat before the LORD your God in the place that He will choose to place His name there, the tithe of your corn, of your wine and of your oil and the p firstborn of your herds and of your flocks, so that you may learn always to fear the LORD your God. 24 “And if the distance is too great for you so that you are not able to bring it, since q the place is too far from you that the LORD your God will choose to set His name when the LORD your God has blessed you, 25 “then you will turn it into money and bind up the money in your hand and will go to the place that the LORD your God will choose. 26 “And you will spend the money for whatever your heart desires, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatever your soul desires. And you will eat there before the LORD your God and you will r rejoice, you and your household. 27 “And the s Levite who is within your gates, you will not forsake him, for he has no part nor inheritance with you. 28t “At the end of three years you will bring forth all the u tithe of your increase in that year, and will lay it up within your gates. The Levite, because he has no part nor inheritance with you, and the alien and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, will come and will eat and be satisfied, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hand that you do.

Chapter 14: a Rm 8:16 b Lv 19:28; 21:2-5 c Lv 20:26 d Ez 4:14 e Lv 11:2-45 f Lv 11:26,27 g Lv 11:9 h Lv 11:13 i Lv 11:20 j Lv 11:23 k Lv 17:16; 22:8 l Dt 14:2 m Ex 23:19; 34:26 n Lv 27:30 o Dt 12:5-7 p Dt 15:18,20 q Dt 12:5,21 r Dt 12:7 s Dt 12:12 t Dt 26:12 u Nm 18:21-24

Chapter 15 — Year of Debt Cancellation

1 ¶ “At the end of every a seven years you will grant a remission of debts. 2 “And this is the manner of the remission: every creditor who lends anything to his neighbor will cancel it. He will not exact it from his neighbor, or from his brother, because it is called the LORD’S remission. 3 “From a foreigner you may exact it again. But your hand will release whatever of yours is with your brother. 4 “However, there will be no poor among you, for the LORD will b greatly bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, 5 “if only you carefully hearken to the voice of the LORD your God, to observe to do all these commandments that I command you this day. 6 “For the LORD your God blesses you, as He promised you. And you will c lend to many nations, but you will not borrow. And you will reign over many nations, but they will not reign over you. 7 ¶ “If there is among you a poor man of one of your brethren within any of your gates in your land that the LORD your God is giving you, d you will not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your poor brother. 8 “But e you will open your hand wide to him, and will surely lend him sufficient for his need in that which he lacks. 9 “Beware that there is not a thought in your wicked heart, saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of remission is at hand,’ and your f eye is evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing; and g he cries to the LORD against you, and h it is sin to you. 10 “You will surely give to him, and i your heart will not be grieved when you give to him, because j for this thing the LORD your God will bless you in all your works and in all that you put your hand to. 11 “For the k poor will never cease out of the land. Therefore I command you, saying, ‘You will open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and to your needy in your land.’ 12l “And if your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman is m sold to you, and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you will let him go free from you. 13 “And when you send him out free from you, you will not let him go away empty. 14 “You will furnish him liberally out of your flock and out of your threshing floor and out of your winepress. You will give to him as the LORD your n God has blessed you. 15 “And o you will remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you. Therefore, I command you this thing today. 16 “And p it will be if he says to you, ‘I will not go away from you,’ because he loves you and your house, because he prospers with you, 17 “then you will take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door, and he will be your servant forever. And also to your maidservant you will do likewise. 18 “It will not seem hard to you when you send him away free from you, for he has been worth a q double hired servant to you in serving you six years. And the LORD your God will bless you in all that you do. 19r “All the firstborn males that come from your herd and from your flock you will sanctify to the LORD your God. You will do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your sheep. 20 “You will eat it before the LORD your God year after year in the place that the LORD will choose, you and your household. 21 “And if there is any blemish in it, as if it is lame or blind or has any ill blemish, you will not sacrifice it to the LORD your God. 22 “You will eat it within your gates. The u unclean and the clean person will eat it alike, as a gazelle or a deer. Only you will not eat its blood. You will pour it on the ground as water.

Chapter 15: a Ex 21:2; 23:10,11 b Dt 7:13 c Dt 28:12,44 d Lv 25:35-37 e Mt 5:42 f Dt 28:54,56 g Dt 24:15 h Mt 25:41,42 i 2 Co 9:5,7 j Dt 14:29 k Mt 26:11 l Ex 21:2-6 m Lv 25:39-46 n Pv 10:22 o Dt 5:15 p Ex 21:5,6 q Is 16:14 r Ex 13:2,12 s Dt 12:5; 14:23 t Lv 22:19-25 u Dt 12:15,16,22

Chapter 16 — The Passover, Feast of Weeks, and Feast of Tabernacles

1 ¶ “Observe the a month of Abib and keep the Passover to the LORD your God, for b in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you forth out of Egypt by night. 2 “You will therefore sacrifice the Passover to the LORD your God, of the flock and c the herd, in the d place that the LORD will choose to place His name. 3 “You will eat no leavened bread with it. e Seven days you will eat unleavened bread with it, even the bread of affliction (for you came forth out of the land of Egypt in haste), in order that you may f remember all the days of your life the day when you came forth out of the land of Egypt. 4 g “And there will be no leavened bread seen with you in all your territory for seven days. Neither will there be any of the meat that you sacrificed the first day at evening remain all night until the h morning. 5 “You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates that the LORD your God is giving you; 6 “but at the place that the LORD your God will choose to place His name, there you will sacrifice the Passover at evening, at the i going down of the sun, at the time that you came forth out of Egypt. 7 “And you will roast and eat it in the j place that the LORD your God will choose. And in the morning you will return and go to your tents. 8 “Six days you will eat unleavened bread. And on the k seventh day there will be a solemn assembly to the LORD your God. You will do no work in it. 9 ¶ “You will number seven weeks for yourself. Begin to number the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain. 10 “And you will keep the l feast of weeks to the LORD your God with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, that you will give to the LORD your God according as the LORD your God has blessed you. 11 n “And you will rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your son, and your daughter and your manservant and your maidservant and the Levite who is within your gates, and the alien and the fatherless and the widow who are among you, in the place that the LORD your God has chosen to place His name. 12 o “And you will remember that you were a bondman in Egypt, and you will observe and do these statutes. 13p “You will observe the feast of tabernacles seven days after you have gathered in your grain and from your winepress. 14 “And q you will rejoice in your feast, you and your son, and your daughter and your manservant and your maidservant and the Levite, the alien and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates. 15 r “Seven days you will keep a solemn feast to the LORD your God in the place that the LORD will choose. Because the LORD your God will bless you in all your increase, and in all the works of your hands, therefore you will surely rejoice. 16 s “Three times in a year will all your males appear before the LORD your God in the place that He will choose: at the feast of unleavened bread and at the feast of weeks and at the feast of tabernacles. t And they will not appear before the LORD empty-handed. 17 “Every man will give as he is able, u according to the blessing of the LORD your God that He has given you. 18 ¶ “You will appoint v judges and officers in all your gates that the LORD your God is giving you throughout your tribes. And they will judge the people with just judgment. 19 w “You will not pervert judgment. x You will not show partiality y nor take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous. 20 “That which is just you will follow so that you may z live and inherit the land that the LORD your God is giving you. 21a “You will not plant for yourself any tree as a wooden image near the altar that you build for yourself to the LORD your God. 22 b “Neither will you set up for yourself any image that the LORD your God hates.

Chapter 16: a Ex 12:2 b Ex 13:4 c Nm 28:19 d Dt 12:5,26; 15:20 e Nm 29:12 f Ex 13:3 g Ex 13:7 h Nm 9:12 i Ex 12:7-10 j 2 Kg 23:23 k Lv 23:8,36 l Ex 34:22 m 1 Co 16:2 n Dt 16:14 o Dt 15:15 p Ex 23:16 q Ne 8:9 r Lv 23:39-41 s Ex 23:14-17; 34:22-24 t Ex 23:15 u Dt 16:10 v Dt 1:16,17 w Ex 23:2,6 x Dt 1:17 y Ex 23:8 z Ez 18:5-9 a Ex 34:13 b Lv 26:1

Chapter 17 — Laws for Worship, Courts, and Kings

1 ¶ “You a will not sacrifice to the LORD your God any bull or sheep that has a blemish or any defect, for that is an abomination to the LORD your God.

2b “If there is found among you within any of your gates that the LORD your God is giving you, man or woman, anyone who does wickedness in the sight of the LORD your God in c transgressing His covenant,

3 “and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, either the d sun or moon or any of the host of heaven that e I have not commanded,

4 f “and it is told you and you have heard of it, and then inquired diligently, and behold, it is true and the thing is certain that such abomination is done in Israel,

5 “then you will bring forth to your gates that man or that woman who has committed that wicked thing, even that man or that woman, and g you will stone them with stones h until they die.

6 “At the mouth of two witnesses or i three witnesses will he who is worthy of death be put to death. But at the mouth of one witness he will not be put to death.

7 “The hands of the witnesses will be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you will put the evil j away from among you.

8k “If there arise a matter too hard for you in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within your gates, then you will arise and go up to the l place that the LORD your God will choose.

9 “And you will come to the priests, the Levites, and n to the judge who will be in those days, and inquire. o And they will show you the sentence of judgment.

10 “And you will do according to the verdict of those of that place which the LORD will choose. And you will observe to do according to all that they inform you.

11 “You will do according to the sentence of the law that they will teach you and according to the judgment that they will tell you. You will not turn aside from the verdict that they will show you, to the right hand nor to the left.

12p “The man who will do presumptuously and will not hearken to the priest who stands to minister there before the LORD your God, or to the judge, even that man will die. And you will put away the evil from Israel.

13 q “And all the people will hear and fear, and no longer act presumptuously.

14 ¶ “When you have come to the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and will possess it, and will dwell in it, and will say, r ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me,’

15 “you will surely set a king over you s whom the LORD your God will choose. You will set as king over you one t from among your brethren. You may not set an alien over you who is not your brother.

16 “But he will not multiply u horses for himself, nor cause the people to v return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses, since the LORD has said to you, w ‘You will never return that way.’

17 “Neither will he multiply wives to himself so that his heart not turn away. Neither will he greatly multiply silver and y gold for himself.

18 ¶ “And it will be when he sits upon the throne of his kingdom, he will write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one z before the priests the Levites.

19 “And a it will stay with him, and he will read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them,

20 “so that his heart not be lifted up above his brethren and that b he not turn aside from the commandment, to the right hand or to the left; in order that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the midst of Israel.

Chapter 17 References: a Dt 15:21; b Dt 13:6; c Ja 7:11; d Dt 4:19; e Jr 7:22; f Dt 13:12,14; g Lv 24:14-16; h Dt 13:6-18; i Nm 35:30; j Dt 13:5; 19:19; k Dt 1:17; l Dt 12:5; 16:2; m Jr 18:18; n Dt 19:17-19; o Ez 44:24; p Nm 15:30; q Dt 13:11; r 1 Sm 8:5,19,20; 10:19; s 1 Sm 9:15,16; 10:24; 16:12,13; t Jr 30:21; u 1 Kg 4:16; 10:26-29; v Ez 17:15; w Ex 13:17,18; x Dt 28:68; y 1 Kg 10:14; z Dt 31:24-26; a Ps 119:97,98; b Dt 5:32

Chapter 18 — Offerings for Priests, Abominable Practices, and The Prophet

1 ¶ “The Levitical priests and all the tribe of Levi will have no part nor a inheritance with Israel. They will eat the offerings of the LORD made by fire and His inheritance. 2 “Therefore, they will have no inheritance among their brethren. The LORD is their inheritance as He has said to them. 3 ¶ “Now this will be the b priest’s portion from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it is ox or sheep: they will give to the priest the shoulder and the cheeks and the inner parts. 4 c “You will give also the firstfruit of your corn, of your new wine and of your oil and the first of the fleece of your sheep. 5 “For d the LORD your God has chosen him out of all your tribes e to stand to minister in the name of the LORD, him and his sons forever. 6 ¶ “And if a Levite comes from any of your gates out of all Israel f where he resides, and comes with all the desire of his mind to the g place that the LORD will choose, 7 “then he will minister in the name of the LORD his God, h as all his brethren the Levites do who stand there before the LORD. 8 “They will have equal i portions to eat, besides that which comes from the sale of his family possessions. 9 ¶ “When you have come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, j you will not learn to imitate the abominations of those nations. 10 “There will not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to k pass through the fire, or l who uses divination or an observer of times or an enchanter or a witch, 11 m “or one who casts a spell or a medium or a spiritist or n one who consults the dead. 12 “For all who do these things are an abomination to the LORD. And o because of these abominations the LORD your God will drive them out from before you. 13 “You will be blameless before the LORD your God. 14 “For these nations that you will dispossess hearkened to those who practice witchcraft and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do so. 15p “The LORD your God will raise up to you a Prophet from the midst of you, from your brethren, like unto me. To Him you will hearken. 16 “For this is what you desired of the LORD your God in Horeb in the q day of the assembly, saying, r ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, so that I not die.’ 17 “And the LORD said to me, s ‘They have well spoken that which they have spoken. 18 t ‘I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren like you. And he will u put My words in His mouth. v And He will speak to them all that I will command Him. 19 w ‘And it will come to pass that whoever will not hearken to My words that He will speak in My name, I will require it of him. 20 ‘But x the prophet who will presume to speak a word in My name that I have not commanded him to speak, or y who will speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet will die.’ 21 “And if you say in your heart, ‘How will we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’ 22 z “When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, a if the thing does not follow or come to pass, that is the thing that the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it b presumptuously. You will not be afraid of him.

Chapter 18: a Dt 10:9 b Lv 7:32-34; 1 Sm 2:13-16,29 c Ex 22:29 d Ex 28:1 e Dt 10:8 f Nm 35:2 g Dt 12:5; 14:23 h 2 Ch 31:2 i 2 Ch 31:4 j Dt 12:29,30; 20:16-18 k Dt 12:31 l Is 8:19 m Lv 20:27 n 1 Sm 28:7 o Lv 18:24 p Mt 21:11; Lk 1:76; 2:25-34; 7:16; 24:19; Jn 1:45; At 3:22 q Dt 5:23-27 r Ex 20:18,19 s Dt 5:28 t Jn 1:45; 6:14; At 3:22 u Is 49:2; 51:16 v Jn 4:25; 8:28 w At 3:23; Hb 12:25 x Jr 14:14,15 y Jr 2:8 z Jr 28:9 a Dt 13:2 b Dt 18:20

Chapter 19 — Cities of Refuge & Witnesses

1 ¶ “When the LORD your God a has cut off the nations whose land the LORD your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses,

2 b “you will separate three cities for yourself in the midst of your land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.

3 “You will prepare the roads for yourself and divide into three parts the land the LORD your God is giving you as a possession, so that any manslayer may flee there.

4c “And this is the case of the manslayer that will flee there so that he may live: whoever unintentionally kills his neighbor whom he has not hated in the past,

5 “as when a man goes into the woods with his neighbor to hew wood and his hand swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his friend so that he dies, he will flee to one of these cities and live;

6 d “lest the avenger of the blood pursue the manslayer while his heart is hot, and overtakes him because the way is long, and kills him, though he was not worthy of death, inasmuch as he did not hate him in time past.

7 “Therefore I command you, saying, ‘You will separate three cities for yourself.’

8 “And if the LORD your God e enlarges your territory as He has sworn to f your fathers, and gives you all the land that He promised to give to your fathers—

9 “if you will keep all these commandments to do them, that I command you this day, to love the LORD your God and to walk always in His ways— g then you will add three cities more for yourselves, besides these three,

10 h “so that innocent blood not be shed in your land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance, and that you not be guilty of bloodshed.

11 “But i if any man hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him, and rises up against him and smites him mortally so that he dies and flees into one of these cities,

12 “then the elders of his city will send and fetch him from there and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood so that he may die.

13 j “Your eye will not pity him, k but you will put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel so that it may go well with you.

14l “You will not remove your neighbor’s landmark that they of old time have set, in your inheritance that you will inherit in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to possess.

15m “One witness will not rise up against a man for any iniquity or for any sin, in any sin that he sins. At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses will the matter be confirmed.

16 “If a false witness n rises up against any man to testify against him what is wrong,

17 “then both the men between whom the controversy is will stand o before the LORD, before the priests and the judges, who will be in office in those days.

18 “And the judges will make diligent investigation. And behold, if the witness is a false witness and has testified falsely against his brother,

19 p “then you will do to him as he had thought to have done to his brother. Thus q you will put the evil away from among you.

20 r “And those who remain will hear and fear, and will never again commit such an evil thing among you.

21 s “And your eye will not pity. But t life will go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Chapter 19 References: a Dt 12:29; b Nm 35:10-15; c Nm 35:9-34; d Nm 35:12; e Dt 12:20; f Gn 15:18-21; g Ja 20:7-9; h Dt 21:1-9; i Nm 35:16,24; j Dt 13:8; k 1 Kg 2:31; l Pv 22:28; m Nm 35:30; n Ex 23:1; o Dt 17:8-11; 21:5; p Pv 19:5; q Dt 13:5; 17:7; 21:21; 22:21; r Dt 17:13; 21:21; s Dt 19:13; t Ex 21:23,34

Chapter 20 — Going to War

1 ¶ “When you go out to battle against your enemies and see a horses and chariots and a people more than you, do not be b afraid of them. For the LORD your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt is c with you.

2 “And it will be when you have come near to the battle, the priest will approach and speak to the people.

3 “And he will say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, you approach this day to battle against your enemies. Do not let your hearts faint. Do not fear and do not tremble, nor be terrified because of them.

4 ‘For the LORD your God is He who goes with you d to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.’

5 “And the officers will speak to the people, saying, ‘What man is there who has built a new house and has not e dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it.

6 ‘And what man is he who has planted a vineyard and has not yet eaten of it? Let him also go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man eat of it.

7 f ‘And what man is there who has engaged to a woman and has not married her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her.’

8 “And the officers will speak further to the people and they will say, g ‘What man is there who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest his brothers’ heart faint as well as his heart.’

9 “And it will be when the officers have made an end of speaking to the people, that they will make captains of the armies to lead the people.

10 ¶ “When you come near to a city to fight against it, h then proclaim peace to it.

11 “And it will come about if they agree to make peace with you and open their gates to you, then all the people who are found in it will be tributaries to you. And they will serve you.

12 “And if the city will not make peace with you, but will make war against you, then you will besiege it.

13 “And when the LORD your God has delivered it into your hands, i you will strike every male in it with the edge of the sword.

14 “But the women and the little ones and j the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all its spoil, you will take for yourself. k And you will eat the spoil of your enemies that the LORD your God has given you.

15 “Thus you will do to all the cities that are very far off from you, that are not of the cities of these nations.

16 “But of l the cities of these people that the LORD your God does give you for an inheritance you will save alive nothing that breathes.

17 “But you will utterly destroy them, that is the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the LORD your God has commanded you,

18 “so that m they teach you not to do after all their abominations that they have done for their gods, and in this you n sin against the LORD your God.

19 ¶ “When you besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you will not destroy its trees by swinging an ax against them, for you may eat of them. And you will not cut them down. Are the trees of the field a person, that they should be besieged by you?

20 “Only the trees that you know that are not trees for food, you will destroy and cut them down. And you will build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you, until it is subdued.

Chapter 20 References: a Ps 20:7; b Dt 7:18; c 2 Ch 13:12; 32:7,8; d Ja 23:10; e Ne 12:27; f Dt 24:5; g Jg 7:3; h 2 Sm 10:19; i Nm 31:7; j Ja 8:2; k 1 Sm 14:30; l Dt 7:1-5; m Dt 7:4; 12:30; n Ex 23:33

Chapter 21 — Atonement for Unsolved Murder, Marriage, and Laws

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

2 “then your elders and your judges will go out and they will measure around the slain man the distance to the neighboring cities.

3 “And it will be that the city that is next to the slain man, the elders of that city will take a heifer that has not been worked, and that has not pulled in the a yoke;

4 “and the elders of that city will bring down the heifer to a valley with running water that has not been plowed or sown. And in the valley they will break the heifer’s neck.

5 “And the priests, the sons of Levi, will come near, for b the LORD your God has chosen them to minister to Him and to bless in the name of the LORD. c And by their word will every controversy and every assault be tried.

6 “And all the elders of that city who are next to the slain man will d wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley.

7 “And they will answer and say, ‘Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it.’

8 “‘Be merciful, O LORD, to your people Israel, whom You have redeemed, and e do not lay innocent blood to the charge of Your people Israel.’ And the blood will be forgiven them.

9 “So f you will put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when you do that which is right in the sight of the LORD.

10 ¶ “When you go forth to war against your enemies, and the LORD your God has delivered them into your hands, and you have taken them captive,

11 “and you see among the captives a beautiful woman and have a desire for her that you would have her for your g wife,

12 “then you will bring her home to your house, and she will h shave her head and trim her nails.

13 “And she will remove the clothes of her captivity and will remain in your house. And she will i mourn her father and her mother a full month. Then after that you will go in to her and be her husband and she will be your wife.

14 “And it will be, if you have no delight in her, then you will let her go wherever she desires, but you will certainly not sell her for money. You will not make merchandise of her because you have j humbled her.

15 ¶ “If a man has two wives, one beloved and k another unloved, and the beloved and the unloved have borne him children, and if the firstborn son is hers who is unloved,

16 l “then it will be when he makes his sons to inherit that which he has, he may not put the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the unloved, the true firstborn.

17 “But he will acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved, m by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for n he is the beginning of his strength; to him belongs the o right of the firstborn.

18 ¶ “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have disciplined him, will not hearken to them,

19 “then his father and his mother will lay hold on him and bring him out to the elders of his city and to the gate of his city.

20 “And they will say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard.’

21 “Then all the men of his city will stone him with stones so that he dies. p So will you put evil away from among you, q and all Israel will hear and fear.

22 ¶ “And if a man has committed a sin r worthy of death, and he is to be put to death, and you hang him on a tree,

23 s “his body will not remain all night on the tree. But you will surely bury him that day, for t he who is hanged is accursed of God. u You must not defile your land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance.

Chapter 21 References: a Nm 19:2; b 1 Ch 23:13; c Dt 17:8,9; d Mt 27:24; e Jh 1:14; f Dt 19:13; g Nm 31:18; h Lv 14:8,9; i Ps 45:10; j Jg 19:24; k Gn 29:33; l 1 Ch 5:2; 26:10; m 2 Kg 2:9; n Gn 49:3; o Gn 25:31,33; p Dt 13:5; 19:19,20; q Dt 13:11; r At 23:29; s Jn 19:31; t Gl 3:13; u Lv 18:25

Chapter 22 — Laws on Lost Property, Clothing, Birds, and Marriage

1 ¶ “You a will not see your brother’s ox or his sheep go astray and ignore them. You will certainly bring them again to your brother.

2 “And if your brother is not near to you, or if you do not know him, then you will bring it to your own house. And it will be with you until your brother seeks after it, then you will restore it to him again.

3 “In like manner you will do with his donkey, and you will do with his garment, and you will likewise do with all lost things of your brother’s that he has lost and you have found. You are not allowed to ignore them.

4b “You will not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fall down by the way, and ignore them. You will surely help him to lift them up again.

5 “The woman will not wear that which pertains to a man, nor will a man put on a woman’s clothing; for all who do so are an abomination to the LORD your God.

6 ¶ “If you happen to come upon a bird’s nest along the way in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, c you will not take the mother with the young.

7 “You will let the mother go and take the young for yourself, so d that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days.

8 ¶ “When you build a new house, then you will make a parapet for your roof so that you not bring bloodshed on your house if any man fall from it.

9e “You will not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the fruit of your seed that you have sown, and the fruit of your vineyard become defiled.

10f “You will not plow with an ox and a donkey together.

11g “You will not wear a garment of wool and linen woven together.

12 ¶ “You will make yourself tassels on the h four corners of your garment with which you cover yourself.

13 ¶ “If any man takes a wife and goes in to her, and i detests her,

14 “and slanders her and publicly defames her, and says, ‘I took this woman and when I came to her, I found she was not a virgin,’

15 “then the father of the girl and her mother will bring forth the evidence of the damsel’s virginity to the elders of the city in the gate.

16 “And the damsel’s father will say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man as a wife and he dislikes her.

17 ‘And lo, he has slandered her, saying, “I did not find your daughter a virgin,” and yet, this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they will spread the cloth before the elders of the city.

18 “And the elders of that city will take that man and punish him.

19 “And they will fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give it to the father of the girl, because he publicly defamed a virgin of Israel. And she will be his wife. He may not put her away all his days.

20 “But if this charge is true, and the evidence of virginity is not found for the girl,

21 “then they will bring out the girl to the door of her father’s house and the men of her city will stone her with j stones that she die because she has k worked folly in Israel, to play the harlot in her father’s house. l So will you put evil away from among you.

22m “If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then both of them will die, both the man who lay with the woman and the woman. So will you put away evil from Israel.

23 ¶ “If a girl who is a virgin is n engaged to a husband, and a man finds her in the city and lies with her,

24 “then you will bring them both out to the gate of that city and you will stone them with stones so that they die; the girl because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he has o humbled his neighbor’s wife. p So you will put away evil from among you.

25 ¶ “But if a man finds an engaged girl in the field, and the man forces her and lies with her, then the man only who lies with her will die.

26 “But you will do nothing to the girl. There is in the girl no sin worthy of death, for as when a man rises against his neighbor and slays him, even so is this matter.

27 “For he found her in the field, and the engaged girl cried out and there was no one to save her.

28q “If a man finds a girl who is a virgin, who is not engaged, and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are found,

29 “then the man who lay with her will give to the damsel’s father r fifty shekels of silver. And she will be his wife s because he has humbled her. He may not put her away all his days.

30t “A man will not take his father’s wife. u He must not dishonor his father’s bed.

Chapter 22 References: a Ex 23:4; b Ex 23:5; c Lv 22:28; d Dt 4:40; e Lv 19:19; f 2 Co 6:14-16; g Lv 19:19; h Nm 15:37-41; i Dt 21:15; 24:3; j Dt 21:21; k Gn 34:7; l Dt 13:5; m Lv 20:10; n Mt 1:18,19; o Dt 21:14; p Dt 22:21,22; q Ex 22:16,17; r Ex 22:16,17; s Dt 22:24; t Dt 27:20; u Ez 16:8

Chapter 23 — Exclusion, Uncleanness, and Various Laws

1 ¶ “He who is emasculated, or has his male organ cut off, a will not enter into the assembly of the LORD.

2 ¶ “One of illegitimate birth will not enter into the assembly of the LORD; none of his descendants, unto the tenth generation will enter into the assembly of the LORD.

3b “An Ammonite or Moabite will not enter into the assembly of the LORD; unto their tenth generation they will not enter into the assembly of the LORD,

4 c “because they did not meet you with bread and with water in the way when you came out of Egypt, and d because they hired Balaam the son of Beor of Pethor of Mesopotamia against you to curse you.

5 “Nevertheless, the LORD your God would not hearken to Balaam. But the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you because the LORD your God e loved you.

6 f “You will never seek their peace nor their prosperity all your days.

7 ¶ “You will not abhor an Edomite, g for he is your brother. You will not abhor an Egyptian, because h you were an alien in his land.

8 “The children who are born of them will enter into the assembly of the LORD in their third generation.

9 ¶ “When the army goes forth against your enemies, then you will keep yourself from every wicked thing.

10 i “If there is among you any man who is unclean because of a nocturnal emission, then he will go outside the camp. He will not come within the camp.

11 “But it will be when evening approaches, j he will wash himself with water. And when the sun is down he will come into the camp.

12 “You will have a place also outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself.

13 “And you will have a spade among your equipment. And it will be when you sit down outside, you will dig with it and will turn back and cover that which comes from you.

14 “For the LORD your God k walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you, and to defeat your enemies before you. Therefore, your camp will be holy so that He sees no unclean thing in you and turn away from you.

15l “You will not hand over to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you.

16 “He will dwell with you, even among you, in that place that he will choose in one of your towns where it pleases him. m You will not oppress him.

17 “There will be no prostitute of the n daughters of Israel, nor a o sodomite of the sons of Israel.

18 “You will not bring the hire of a harlot or the price of a dog into the house of the LORD your God for any votive offering, for even both of these are an abomination to the LORD your God.

19p “You will not charge interest to your brother: interest of money, interest of victuals, interest of anything that is loaned at interest.

20 q “To an alien you may charge interest. But to your brother you will not charge interest so r that the LORD your God may bless you in all that you set your hand to do in the land where you are going to possess.

21s “When you will make a vow to the LORD your God, you will not delay to pay it, for it would be sin in you, and the LORD your God will surely require it of you.

22 “But if you refrain from making a vow, it will not be sin in you.

23 t “That which is gone out of your lips you will keep and perform, even a freewill offering, according as you have vowed to the LORD your God that you have promised with your mouth.

24 ¶ “When you come into your neighbor’s vineyard, then you may eat grapes until you are fully satisfied. But you will not put any in your vessel.

25 “When you come into the standing corn of your neighbor, then u you may pluck the ears with your hand. But you will not wield a sickle to your neighbor’s standing corn.

Chapter 23 References: a Lv 21:20; 22:24; b Ne 13:1,2; c Dt 2:27-30; d Nm 22:5,6; 23:7; e Dt 4:37; f Ez 9:12; g Ob 10,12; h Dt 10:19; i Lv 15:16; j Lv 15:5; k Lv 26:12; l 1 Sm 30:15; m Ex 22:21; n Lv 19:29; o 2 Kg 23:7; p Ex 22:25; q Dt 15:3; r Dt 15:10; s Ec 5:4,5; t Ps 66:13,14; u Lk 6:1

Chapter 24 — Divorce, Justice, and Care for the Needy

1 ¶ “When a a man has taken a wife and married her, and it comes to pass that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her, then let him write her a b certificate of divorcement and put it in her hand and send her out of his house.

2 “And when she has departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife.

3 “And if the latter husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorcement and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife,

4 c “her former husband who sent her away may not take her again to be his wife, since she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the LORD. And you will not cause the land to sin that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance.

5d “When a man has taken a new wife, he will not go out to war, nor will he be charged with any business. But he will be free at home one year and will e bring happiness to his wife whom he has taken.

6 ¶ “No man will take the handmill or the upper millstone as security, for he would be taking a man’s life for security.

7 ¶ “If a man is f found kidnapping any of his brethren of the children of Israel and treats him as a slave or sells him, the kidnapper must die. g You will put evil away from among you.

8 ¶ “Take heed in the h infection of leprosy so that you observe diligently and do according to all that the priests the Levites will teach you. As I commanded them, so you will observe to do.

9 i “Remember what the LORD your God did to j Miriam on the way, after you had come forth out of Egypt.

10 ¶ “When you do k lend your brother anything, you will not go into his house to take his pledge.

11 “You will stand outside and the man to whom you do lend will bring out the pledge to you.

12 “And if the man is poor, you will not sleep with his pledge.

13 l “When the sun goes down you will surely return the pledge to him so that he may sleep in his own clothes and m bless you. n And it will be righteousness to you before the LORD your God.

14 ¶ “You will not o oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is of your brethren or of your aliens who are in your land within your gates.

15 p “You will give him his wages on his day before the sun sets, for he is poor and sets his heart on it; q so that he not cry against you to the LORD and it becomes sin to you.

16 r “The fathers will not be put to death for the children, nor will the children be put to death for the fathers. Every man will be put to death for his own sin.

17s “You will not pervert the judgment of the alien or of the fatherless, t nor take a widow’s clothing in pledge.

18 “But u you will remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you from there. Therefore, I command you to do this thing.

19v “When you cut down your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you will not go again to fetch it. It will be for the alien, for the fatherless and for the widow, so that the LORD your God may w bless you in all the work of your hands.

20 “When you beat your olive trees, you will not go over the boughs again. It will be for the alien, for the fatherless and for the widow.

21 “When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you will not glean it again. It will be for the alien, for the fatherless and for the widow.

22 “And you will remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. Therefore, I command you to do this thing.

Chapter 24 References: a Mt 5:31; 19:7; b Jr 3:8; c Jr 3:1; d Dt 20:7; e Pv 5:18; f Ex 21:16; g Dt 19:19; h Lv 13:2; 14:2; i 1 Co 10:6; j Nm 12:10; k Mt 5:42; l Ex 22:26; m 2 Tm 1:18; n Dt 6:25; o Ml 3:5; p Lv 19:13; q Js 5:4; r Ez 18:20; s Ex 23:6; t Ex 22:26; u Dt 24:22; v Lv 19:9,10; w Ps 41:1

Chapter 25 — Justice, Fairness, and Honest Measures

1 ¶ “If there is a controversy between men and they come to the judges, then they will judge them; and the judges will justify the righteous and condemn the wicked.

2 ¶ “It will be, if the wicked man deserves to be beaten, that the judge will cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence according to his fault, by number.

3 ¶ “You shall not beat him with many stripes, lest your brother be degraded in your sight.

4 ¶ “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.

5 ¶ “If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead shall not be married outside to a stranger. Her brother-in-law shall go in to her and take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her.

6 ¶ “It shall be, the firstborn son that she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.

7 ¶ “If the man does not want to take his brother’s wife, then the woman shall go up to the elders at the city gate and declare her case, and the elders shall judge her.

8 ¶ “You shall have honest weights and honest measures: a full and fair ephah, a full and fair hin.

9 ¶ “You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a large and a small.

10 ¶ “You shall not have in your house differing measures, a large and a small.

11 ¶ “You shall have a perfect and just standard, that your days may be long in the land which the LORD your God gives you.

12 ¶ “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or mother, and after chastisement will not obey them, the father and mother shall bring him to the elders of the city.

13 ¶ “And all the men of the city shall stone him to death, so that you remove the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear and fear.

14 ¶ “Do not have in your house differing weights, differing ephahs, or differing measures.

Chapter 25 References: a Dt 16:18; b Lv 19:35-36; c Dt 22:28-29; d Rt 4:5-6; e 1 Kg 21:3

Chapter 26 — Firstfruits and Tithes

1 ¶ “And it will be when you have come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance, and you possess it and dwell in it,

2 a “that you will take of the first of all the fruit of the earth that you will bring in from your land that the LORD your God is giving you, and will put it in a basket and will b go to the place that the LORD your God will choose to place His name there.

3 “Then you will go to the priest who is in office in those days and say to him, ‘I profess this day to the LORD your God that I have come to the country that the LORD swore to our fathers to give us.’

4 “Then the priest will take the basket out of your hand and set it down before the altar of the LORD your God.

5 “And you will speak and say before the LORD your God, ‘My father was a wandering c Aramean, d and he went down into Egypt and e sojourned there with a f few. And he became there a g great, mighty and populous nation.

6 ‘And the h Egyptians mistreated us and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage.

7 i ‘Then when we cried out to the LORD God of our fathers, the LORD heard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labor and our oppression.

8 j ‘So the LORD brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and k with great terror, and with signs and with wonders.

9 ‘Now He has brought us into this place and has given us this land, even a l land that flows with milk and honey.

10 ‘And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land that you, O LORD, have given me.’ And you will set it before the LORD your God, and worship before the LORD your God.

11 “Then you and the Levite and the alien who is among you will rejoice in every good thing that the LORD your God has given to you and to your house.

12 ¶ “When you have made an end of n tithing all the tithes of your increase the third year, the o year of tithing, and have given it to the Levite, the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that they may eat within your gates and be filled,

13 “then you will say before the LORD your God, ‘I have brought away the sacred things out of my house. And I have also given them to the Levite and to the alien, to the fatherless and to the widow, according to all Your commandments that You have commanded me. I have not transgressed Your commandments, p nor have I forgotten them. q ‘I have not eaten of it in my mourning, nor have I taken away from it for any unclean use, nor given any of it for the dead. But I have hearkened to the voice of the LORD my God and have done according to all that You have commanded me.

14 r ‘Look down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the land that You have given us as You swore to our fathers, a s land that flows with milk and honey.’

15 ¶ “This day the LORD your God has commanded you to do these statutes and judgments. You will therefore keep and do them with all your heart and with all your soul.

16 “You have declared this day the LORD to be your God and to walk in His ways and to keep His statutes and His commandments and His judgments, and u to hearken to His voice.

17 “And the v LORD has this day declared you to be His people, a treasured possession, as He has promised you, and that you should keep all His commandments;

18 “and to make you high above all nations that He has made, in praise and in name and in honor, and that you may be a x holy people to the LORD your God, as He has spoken.”

Chapter 26 References: a Ex 22:29; 23:16,19; b Dt 12:5; c Hs 12:12; d Gn 43:1,2; e At 7:15; f Dt 10:22; g Dt 1:10; h Ex 1:8-11,14; i Ex 2:23-25; 3:9; 4:31; j Dt 5:15; k Dt 4:34; 34:11,12; l Ex 3:8,17; m Dt 12:7; 16:11; n Lv 27:30; o Dt 14:28,29; p Ps 119:141,153,176; q Hs 9:4; r Is 63:15; s Ex 3:8; t Ex 20:19; u Dt 15:5; v Ex 6:7; 19:5; w Dt 4:7,8; 28:1; x 1 Pt 2:9

Chapter 27 — The Altar on Mount Ebal

1 ¶ Then Moses with the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, “Keep all the commandments that I command you this day.

2 “And it will be on the day a when you will pass over the Jordan to the land that the LORD your God is giving you, b that you will set up for yourselves great stones and coat them with plaster.

3 “And when you have crossed over, you will write on them all the words of this law so that you may go into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, a c land that flows with milk and honey, as the LORD God of your fathers has promised you.

4 “Therefore, it will be when you have crossed the Jordan that you will set up these stones that I command you this day on d Mount Ebal, and you will coat them with plaster.

5 “And there you will build an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones. e You will not lift up any iron tool upon them.

6 “You will build the altar of the LORD your God of whole stones. And you will offer on it burnt offerings to the LORD your God.

7 “And you will offer peace offerings, and will eat there and f rejoice before the LORD your God.

8 “And you will g write very plainly on the stones all the words of this law.”

9 ¶ And Moses and the Levitical priests spoke to all Israel, saying, “Take heed and hearken, O Israel. h This day you have become the people of the LORD your God.

10 “You will therefore obey the voice of the LORD your God and do His commandments and His statutes that I command you this day.”

11 ¶ Then Moses charged the people the same day, saying,

12 “These will stand upon i Mount Gerizim to bless the people when you have come over the Jordan: Simeon and Levi and Judah and Issachar and Joseph and Benjamin.

13 “And j these will stand on Mount Ebal to curse: Reuben, Gad and Asher and Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali.

14 ¶ And the k Levites will speak and say to all the men of Israel with a loud voice,

15 l ‘Cursed is the man who makes any graven or molten image—an abomination to the LORD, the work of the hands of the craftsman—and puts it in a secret place.’ m And all the people will answer and say, ‘Amen.’

16 n ‘Cursed is he who dishonors his father or mother.’ And all the people will say, ‘Amen.’

17 o ‘Cursed is he who removes his neighbor’s landmark.’ And all the people will say, ‘Amen.’

18 p ‘Cursed is he who makes the blind to wander out of the way.’ And all the people will say, ‘Amen.’

19 q ‘Cursed is he who perverts the judgment of the alien, fatherless and widow.’ And all the people will say, ‘Amen.’

20 r ‘Cursed is he who lies with his father’s wife, because he uncovers his father’s skirt.’ And all the people will say, ‘Amen.’

21 s ‘Cursed is he who lies with any manner of animal.’ And all the people will say, ‘Amen.’

22 t ‘Cursed is he who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.’ And all the people will say, ‘Amen.’

23 u ‘Cursed is he who lies with his mother-in-law.’ And all the people will say, ‘Amen.’

24 v ‘Cursed is he who smites his neighbor secretly.’ And all the people will say, ‘Amen.’

25 w ‘Cursed is he who takes reward to slay an innocent person.’ And all the people will say, ‘Amen.’

26 x ‘Cursed is he who does not confirm all the words of this law to do them.’ And all the people will say, ‘Amen.’

Chapter 27 References: a Ja 4:1; b Ja 8:32; c Ex 3:8; d Dt 11:29; e Ex 20:25; f Dt 26:11; g Ja 8:32; h Dt 26:18; i Ja 8:33; j Dt 11:29; k Dt 33:10; l Ex 20:4,23; 24:17; m Nm 5:22; n Ez 22:7; o Dt 19:14; p Lv 19:14; q Ex 22:21,22; 23:9; r Dt 22:30; s Lv 18:23; 20:15,16; t Lv 18:9; u Lv 18:17; 20:14; v Ex 20:13; 21:12; w Ex 23:7; x Gl 3:10

Chapter 28 — Rewards for Obedience

1 ¶ “Now it will come to pass a if you will hearken diligently to the voice of the LORD your God, to observe and to do all His commandments that I command you this day, that the LORD your b God will set you on high above all nations of the earth.

2 “And all these blessings will come on you and c overtake you if you will hearken to the voice of the LORD your God.

3 d “Blessed will you be in the city and blessed will you be e in the field.

4 “Blessed will be the f fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herd, and the flocks of your sheep.

5 “Blessed will be your basket and your store.

6 g “Blessed will you be when you come in, and blessed will you be when you go out.

7 ¶ “The LORD h will cause your enemies that rise up against you to be smitten before your face. They will come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.

8 “The LORD will i command the blessing upon you in your storehouses and in all that you j set your hand to. And He will bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

9 k “The LORD will establish you a holy people to Himself as He has sworn to you, if you will keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways.

10 “And all people of the earth will see that you are l called by the name of the LORD. And they will be afraid of you.

11 “And the n LORD will make you plenteous in goods, in the fruit of your body and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground, in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give you.

12 “The LORD will open to you His good treasure, the heaven o to give the rain to your land in its season, and p to bless all the work of your hand. q And you will lend to many nations and you will not borrow.

13 “And the LORD will make r you the head and not the tail. And you will be above and you will not be beneath, if you hearken to the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you this day, to observe and to do them.

14 s “And you will not turn aside from any of the words that I command you this day, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

15 ¶ “But it will come to pass t if you will not hearken to the voice of the LORD your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes that I command you this day, that all these curses will 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 store.

18 “Cursed will be the fruit of your body and the fruit of your land, the increase of your herd and the flocks of your sheep.

19 “Cursed will you be when you come in and cursed will you be when you go out.

20 ¶ “The LORD will send on you u cursing, v confusion and w rebuke, in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings by which you have forsaken Him.

21 “The LORD will make the pestilence cleave to you until He has consumed you from off the land where you are going to possess it.

22 x “The LORD will smite you with consumption and with fever and with inflammation, and with y extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew. And they will pursue you until you perish.

23 “And z your heaven that is over your head will be bronze. And the earth that is under you will be iron.

24 “The LORD will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven it will come down on you until you are destroyed.

25 a “The LORD will cause you to be smitten before your enemies. You will go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them. And you will be horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

26 b “And your carcasses will be food to all birds of the air and to the animals of the earth, and no man will frighten them away.

27 “The LORD will smite you with the c boils of Egypt and with the d tumors, and with the scab and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed.

28 “The LORD will smite you with madness and blindness and e bewilderment of heart.

29 “And you will f grope at noon, as the blind grope in darkness. And you will not prosper in your ways. But you will be only oppressed and robbed continually, and no man will save you.

30 g “You will pledge to marry a wife and another man will lie with her. h You will build a house and you will not dwell in it. i You will plant a vineyard and will not gather the grapes of it.

31 “Your ox will be slain before your eyes and you will not eat of it. Your donkey will be violently taken away from before your face and will not be restored to you. Your sheep will be given to your enemies and you will have no one to rescue them.

32 “Your sons and your daughters will be given to j another people and your eyes will look and k fail with longing for them all day long. And there will be no might in your l hand.

33 “The m fruit of your land and all your labors, a nation that you do not know will eat up, and you will be oppressed and crushed always.

34 “So you will be driven mad by the sight of what you see.

35 “The LORD will smite you in the knees and in the legs with sore boils that cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.

36 “The LORD will n bring you and your king whom you will set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known. o And there you will serve other gods, wood and stone.

37 “And you will become an p astonishment, q a proverb and a taunt among all nations where the LORD will lead you.

38 r “You will carry much seed out into the field and will gather in little, for s the locust will consume it.

39 “You will plant vineyards and dress them, but will neither drink of the t wine nor gather the grapes, for the worms will eat them.

40 “You will have olive trees throughout all your territory but you will not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives will drop off.

41 “You will beget sons and daughters, but you will not enjoy them, for u they will go into captivity.

42 “The locust will consume all your trees and fruit of your land.

43 “The alien who is among you will rise up above you very high, and you will come down very low.

44 “He will lend to you and you will not lend to him. He will be the head and you will be the tail.

45 “Moreover all these curses will come on you and will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not hearken to the voice of the LORD your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes that He commanded you.

46 “And v they will become a sign and a wonder on you and your descendants forever.

47w “Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart, for the x abundance of all things,

48 “therefore you will serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in y hunger and in thirst and in nakedness and in want of all things. And He will put a z yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you.

49 a “The LORD will bring a nation against you from far, from the end of the earth, b as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand,

50 “a nation of fierce countenance c that will have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young.

51 “And he will eat the fruit of your cattle and the fruit of your land until you are destroyed, who also will not leave you either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of your herd or flocks of your sheep, until he has destroyed you.

52 “And he will d besiege you in all your gates until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout all your land. And he will besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land that the LORD your God has given you.

53 e “And you will eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters that the LORD your God has given you, during the siege and in the distress by which your enemies will distress you.

54 “The man who is refined among you and very delicate, his eye will be f evil toward his brother and toward the g wife of his bosom and toward the remnant of his children who remain,

55 “so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left during the siege, and the distress by which your enemies will distress you in all your gates.

56 “The refined and delicate woman among you who would not adventure to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye will be evil toward the husband of her bosom and toward her son and toward her daughter,

57 “and toward her young one who comes out from h between her feet, and toward her children whom she will bear; for she will eat them secretly for lack of anything else during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will oppress you in your gates.

58 ¶ “If you will not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this i glorious and fearful name, THE LORD YOUR GOD,

59 “then the LORD will bring you j fearful plagues, and the plagues of your descendants, even great and lasting plagues and miserable and lingering sicknesses.

60 “Moreover He will bring on you all the k diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid. And they will cleave to you.

61 “Also every sickness and every plague that is not written in the book of this law, these will the LORD bring on you until you are destroyed.

62 “And you will be l left few in number, whereas you were as the m stars of heaven for multitude, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God.

63 “And it will come to pass that as the LORD n rejoiced over you to do you good and to multiply you, so the LORD will o rejoice over you to destroy you and to bring you to nought. And you will be p plucked from off the land where you are going to possess.

64 ¶ “And the LORD q will scatter you among all people, from one end of the earth even to the other. r And there you will serve other gods that neither you nor your fathers have known, even wood and stone.

65 “And s among these nations you will find no rest, neither will the sole of your foot have rest. t But the LORD will give you there a trembling heart and failing of eyes and u sorrow of mind.

66 “And your life will hang in doubt before you. And you will fear day and night, and will have no assurance for your life.

67 v “In the morning you will say, ‘Would that it were evening!’ And at evening you will say, ‘Would that it were morning!’ w because of the fear of your heart with which you will fear and for the sight of your eyes that you will see.

68 “And the LORD x will bring you into Egypt again with ships by the way about which I spoke to you, y ‘You will see it no more again.’ And there you will be sold to your enemies as male and female slaves, and no one will buy you.”

Chapter 28 References: a Ex 15:26; b Dt 26:19; c Dt 28:15; d Ps 128:1,4; e Gn 39:5; f Gn 22:17; g Ps 121:8; h Lv 26:7,8; i Lv 25:21; j Dt 15:10; k Ex 19:5,6; l Nm 6:27; m Dt 11:25; n Dt 30:9; o Lv 26:4; p Dt 14:29; q Dt 15:6; r Is 9:14,15; s Dt 5:32; t Lv 26:14-39; u Ml 2:2; v Is 65:14; w Is 30:17; x Lv 26:16; y Am 4:9; z Lv 26:19; a Dt 32:30; b 1 Sm 17:44; c Ex 15:26; d 1 Sm 5:6; e Jr 4:9; f Jb 5:14; g Jr 8:10; h Am 5:1; i Dt 20:6; j 2 Ch 29:9; k Ps 119:82; l Ne 5:5; m Jr 5:15,17; n Jr 39:1-9; o Dt 4:28; p 1 Kg 9:7,8; q Ps 44:14; r Dt 28:36; s Am 9:4; t Lv 26:36; u Lv 26:16; v Jb 7:4; w Dt 28:34; x Hs 8:13; y Dt 17:16

Chapter 29 — Renewal of the Covenant

1 ¶ These are the words of the covenant that the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the a covenant that He made with them in Horeb.

2 ¶ And Moses called to all Israel and said to them, b “You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land,

3 c “the great temptations that your eyes have seen, the signs and those great miracles.

4 “Yet to this day the d LORD has not given you a heart to perceive, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear.

5 e “And I have led you forty years in the wilderness. f Your clothes are not worn out on you and your sandal is not worn out on your foot.

6 g “You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or strong drink, so that you might know that I am the LORD your God.

7 “And when you came to this place, h Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out against us to battle, and we defeated them.

8 “And we took their land and i gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites and to the Gadites and to the half-tribe of Manasseh.

9 “Therefore, j keep the words of this covenant and do them, so that you may k prosper in all that you do.

10 ¶ “All of you stand this day before the LORD your God: your captains of your tribes, your elders and your officers, with all the men of Israel,

11 “your little ones, your wives and your alien who is in your camp, from l the hewer of your wood to the drawer of your water,

12 “so that you should enter into a covenant with the LORD your God, and m into His oath that the LORD your God is making with you this day,

13 “in order that He may n establish you today for a people to Himself, and that He may be to you a God as o He has said to you and as p He has sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.

14q “Not only with you do I make this covenant and this oath,

15 “but with those who stand here with us this day before the LORD our God, and r also with those who are not here with us this day.

16 “For you know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the nations that you passed.

17 “And you have seen their abominations and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, that were among them.

18 “Make sure there is no man or woman or family or tribe among you today s whose heart turns away from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a t root that produces such u bitter poison,

19 “and it come to pass when he hears the words of this curse, that he will boast, saying, ‘I have peace, though I walk in the v imagination of my heart w to destroy the watered land with the dry.’

20 x “The LORD will not spare him, but rather the y anger of the LORD and z His jealousy will strike against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book will lie upon him. And the LORD will a blot out his name from under heaven.

21 “And the LORD b will separate him out for adversity from all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the c law.

22 “So that the generation to come, your children who will rise up after you, and the alien who will come from a far land, will say when they d see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses that the LORD has laid upon it,

23 “‘the whole land is brimstone and e salt and burning. It is not sown, nor does it bear, nor any grass grows in it, like the f overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, that the LORD overthrew in His anger and in His wrath.’

24 “Even all nations will say, g ‘Why has the LORD done thus to this land? What caused the heat of this great anger?’

25 “Then men will say, ‘Because they forsook the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers that He made with them when He brought them forth out of the land of Egypt.

26 ‘For they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they did not know, and whom He had not given to them.

27 ‘And the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, h to bring on it all the curses that are written in this book.

28 ‘And the LORD i uprooted them out of their land in anger and in wrath and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.’

29 “The secret things belong to the LORD our God. But those things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, so that we may do all the words of this law.

Chapter 29 References: a Dt 5:2,3; b Ex 19:4; c Dt 4:34; 7:19; d At 28:26,27; e Dt 1:3; 8:2; f Dt 8:4; g Dt 8:3; h Nm 21:23,24; i Dt 3:12,13; j Dt 4:6; k Ja 1:7; l Ja 9:21,23,27; m Ne 10:29; n Dt 28:9; o Ex 6:7; p Gn 17:7,8; q Jr 31:31; r At 2:39; s Dt 11:16; t Hb 12:15; u Dt 32:32; v Jr 3:17; 7:24; w Is 30:1; x Ez 14:7; y Ps 74:1; z Ps 79:5; a Dt 9:14; b Mt 24:51; c Dt 30:10; d Jr 19:8; 49:17; 50:13; e Zp 2:9; f Gn 19:24,25; g 1 Kg 9:8; h Dn 9:11; i 1 Kg 14:15

Chapter 30 — Blessing for Repentance

1 ¶ “Now a it will come to pass when b all these things have come upon you, the blessing and the c curse that I have set before you, and d you call them to mind among all the nations to which the LORD your God has driven you,

2 “and you e return to the LORD your God and obey His voice according to all that I command you this day, you and your children with all your heart and with all your soul,

3 f “then the LORD your God will turn your captivity and have compassion on you. And He will g gather you again from all the nations where the LORD your God has scattered you.

4 h “If any of you are driven out to the outmost parts of heaven, from there will the LORD your God gather you, and from there He will fetch you.

5 “And the LORD your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed and you will possess it. And He will do good to you and multiply you above your fathers.

6 “And the i LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.

7 “And the LORD your God will put all these j curses on your enemies, and on those who hate you and who persecuted you.

8 “Then you will k return and obey the voice of the LORD and do all His commandments that I command you this day.

9 l “And the LORD your God will make you prosper in every work of your hand, in the fruit of your body and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your land. For the LORD will again m rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers;

10 “if you will hearken to the voice of the LORD your God to keep His commandments and His statutes that are written in this book of the law, and if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

11 ¶ “For this commandment that I command you this day, n it is not hidden from you, nor is it beyond your reach.

12 o “It is not in heaven so that you should say, ‘Who will go up for us to heaven and bring it to us so that we may hear it and do it?’

13 “Nor is it beyond the sea so that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us so that we may hear it and do it?’

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

15 ¶ “See, q I have set before you this day life and good and death and evil,

16 “in that I command you this day to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, so that you may live and multiply. And the LORD your God will bless you in the land where you are going to possess it.

17 “But if your heart turns away so that you will not hear, but will be drawn away and worship other gods and serve them,

18 r “I declare to you this day that you will surely perish and that you will not prolong your days in the land where you are passing over the Jordan to go to possess it.

19 s “I call heaven and earth to witness this day against you that t I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life so that both you and your seed may live,

20 “that you may love the LORD your God and that you may obey His voice, and that you may cleave to Him. For He is your u life and the length of your days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.”

Chapter 30 References: a Lv 26:40; b Dt 28:2; c Dt 28:15-45; d Dt 4:29,30; e Ne 1:9; f Jr 29:14; g Ez 34:13; h Ne 1:9; i Dt 10:16; j Jr 30:16,20; k Zp 3:20; l Dt 28:11; m Jr 32:41; n Is 45:19; o Rm 10:6-8; p Rm 10:8; q Dt 30:1,19; r Dt 4:26; 8:18; s Dt 4:26; t Dt 30:15; u Jn 11:25; 14:6

Chapter 31 — Joshua to Succeed Moses

1 ¶ So Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel.

2 And he said to them, a “I am one hundred and twenty years old this day. I can no longer b go out and come in. Also, the LORD has said to me, c ‘You will not go over this the Jordan.’

3 “The LORD your God, d He will go over before you and He will destroy these nations from before you. And you will possess them. e Joshua will go over before you, f as the LORD has said.

4 g “And the LORD will do to them h as He did to Sihon and to Og, kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when He destroyed them.

5 i “And the LORD will give them up before your face so that you may do to them according to all the commandments that I have commanded you.

6 j “Be strong and courageous. k Do not fear nor be afraid of them, for the LORD your l God is the One who goes with you. m He will not fail you nor forsake you.”

7 And Moses called to Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, n “Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people to the land that the LORD has sworn to their fathers to give them. You must give it to them as their inheritance.

8 “And the o LORD is the One who goes before you. p He will be with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you. Do not fear nor be dismayed.”

9 ¶ So Moses wrote this law and q delivered it to the priests the sons of Levi, r who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel.

10 Then Moses commanded them, saying, “At the end of every seven years, at the time of the s year of remission of debts, t at the feast of tabernacles

11 “when all Israel comes to u appear before the LORD your God in the v place that He will choose, w you will read this law before all Israel in their hearing.

12 x “Gather the people together, men and women and children and your alien who is within your gates, so that they may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God and observe to do all the words of this law.

13 “And their children y who have not known z will hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live in the land where you go over the Jordan to possess it.”

14 ¶ Then the LORD said to Moses, a “Behold, your days approach that you must die. Call Joshua and present yourselves in the tabernacle of the assembly so that b I may give him a charge.” So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tabernacle of the assembly.

15 And the c LORD appeared in the tabernacle in a pillar of cloud. And the pillar of the cloud stood over the door of the tabernacle.

16 ¶ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, you will sleep with your fathers and this people will d rise up and e play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land where they go to be among them. And they will f forsake Me and g break My covenant that I have made with them.

17 “Then My anger will be h kindled against them in that day and i I will forsake them, and I will j hide My face from them. And they will be devoured and many evils and troubles will befall them, so that they will say in that day, k ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is l not among us?’

18 “But m I will surely hide My face in that day because of all the evils that they will have done in that they have turned to other gods.

19 “Now therefore write this song for yourselves and teach it to the children of Israel. Put it in their mouths so that this song may be a n witness for Me against the children of Israel.

20 “For when I will have brought them into the land that I swore to their fathers, that flows with milk and honey, and they will have eaten and filled themselves and o become fat, then p they will turn to other gods and serve them and provoke Me, and break My covenant.

21 “And it will come to pass q when many evils and troubles have come upon them, that this song will testify against them as a witness. For it will not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed; for r I know their imagination that s they are developing today, even now before I have brought them into the land that I swore.”

22 ¶ Moses therefore wrote this song the same day and taught it to the children of Israel.

23 t And he gave Joshua the son of Nun a charge, and said, u “Be strong and courageous, for you will bring the children of Israel into the land that I swore to them. And I will be with you.”

24 ¶ Now it came to pass when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished,

25 that Moses commanded the Levites who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying,

26 “Take this book of the law and v place it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God so that it may be there for a w witness against you.

27 x “For I know your rebellion and y your stubbornness. Behold, while I am still alive with you this day you have been rebellious against the LORD, and how much more after my death?

28 “Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, so that I may speak these words in their ears and z call heaven and earth to witness against them.

29 “For I know that after my death you will a utterly corrupt yourselves and turn aside from the way that I have commanded you. And b evil will befall you in the c latter days because you will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands.”

30 ¶ So Moses spoke in the ears of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song, until they were ended.

Chapter 31 References: a Dt 34:7; b 1 Kg 3:7; c Nm 20:12; d Dt 9:3; e Nm 27:18; f Nm 27:21; g Dt 3:21; h Nm 21:24,33; i Dt 7:2; 20:10-20; j Ja 10:25; k Dt 1:29; l Dt 20:4; m Hb 13:5; n Dt 31:23; o Dt 32:15-17; p Dt 31:16; q Dt 31:17; r Hs 5:3; s Am 5:25,26; t Nm 27:23; u Dt 31:7; v 2 Kg 22:8; w Dt 31:19; x Dt 9:7,24; y Ex 32:9; z Dt 30:19; a Jg 2:19; b Dt 28:15; c Gn 49:1

Chapter 33 — Blessing of the Tribes

1 ¶ And this is the a blessing with which Moses the b man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death.

2 And he said, c“The LORD came from Sinai and rose up on them from d Seir. He shone forth from e Mount Paran and He came with f ten thousand holy ones. From His right hand went a fiery law for them.

3 “Yes, g He loved the people. h All His holy ones are in Your hand. And they i sat down at Your feet; everyone will j receive of Your words.

4 k“Moses commanded us a law, even the l inheritance of the assembly of Jacob.

5 “And He was m king in n Jeshurun, when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together.

6 ¶ “Let o Reuben live and not die; and let not his men be few.”

7 And this is the blessing of p Judah: and he said, “Hear, O LORD, the voice of Judah, and bring him to his people. q Let his hands be sufficient for him, and be a r help to him against his enemies.”

8 ¶ And of s Levi he said, t“Let Your Thummim and Your Urim be with Your holy one u whom You did prove at Massah, and with whom You did strive at the waters of Meribah;

9 v“who said to his father and to his mother, ‘I have not w seen him,’ x nor did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own children; for y they have observed Your word and kept Your covenant.

10 z“They will teach Jacob Your judgments and Israel Your law. They will put incense before You and a a whole burnt sacrifice on Your altar.

11 “Bless, O LORD, his substance and b accept the work of his hands. Smite through the loins of those who rise against him, and of those who hate him, so that they do not rise again.”

12 ¶ And of Benjamin he said, “The beloved of the LORD will dwell in safety by him. And the LORD will cover him all the day long, and he will dwell between his shoulders.”

13 ¶ And of Joseph he said, c“Blessed of the LORD is his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the d dew and for the deep lying beneath,

14 “and for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon,

15 “and for the chief things of the e ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the f lasting hills,

16 “and for the precious things of the earth and its fulness, and for the good will of him g who dwells in the bush. Let the blessing come upon the h head of Joseph and upon the top of the head of him who was separated from his brethren.

17 “His glory is like the i firstborn of his bull, and his j horns are like the horns of unicorns. With them k he will push the people together to the ends of the earth; and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and l they are the thousands of Manasseh.”

18 ¶ And of Zebulun he said, m“Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out, and Issachar, in your tents.

19 “They will n call the people to the mountain. There o they will offer sacrifices of righteousness, for they will suck of the abundance of the seas and of treasures hidden in the sand.”

20 ¶ And of Gad he said, “Blessed be he who p enlarges Gad. He dwells as a lion and tears the arm with the crown of the head.

21 q“And he provided the first part for himself because there, in a portion of the lawgiver, he was seated. And r he came with the heads of the people. He executed the justice of the LORD and his judgments with Israel.”

22 ¶ And of Dan he said, “Dan is a lion’s whelp. s He will leap from Bashan.”

23 ¶ And of Naphtali he said, “O Naphtali, t satisfied with favor and full with the blessing of the LORD, u possess the west and the south.”

24 ¶ And of Asher he said, “Let v Asher be blessed with children. Let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him w dip his foot in oil.

25 “Your locks will be x iron and bronze; and as your days, so will your strength be.

26 “There is y none like to the God of z Jeshurun, a who rides upon the heaven in your help, and in His majesty on the sky.

27 “The eternal God is your b refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. And c He will thrust out the enemy from before you and will say, ‘Destroy them!’

28 “So d Israel will dwell in safety e alone. f The fountain of Jacob will be upon a land of corn and wine, also His g heavens will drop down dew.

29 h“Happy are you, O Israel. i Who is like you, O people saved by the LORD, the j shield of your help, and who is the sword of your majesty! And k your enemies will be found liars to you, and l you will tread upon their high places.”

Chapter 33: a Gn 49:28 b Ps 90 c Ps 68:8,17 d Dt 2:1,4 e Nm 10:12 f Dn 7:10 g Hs 11:1 h 1 Sm 2:9 i Lk 10:39 j Pv 2:1 k Jn 1:17; 7:19 l Ps 119:111 m Ex 15:18 n Dt 32:15 o Gn 49:3,4 p Gn 49:8-12 q Gn 49:8 r Ps 146:5 s Gn 49:5 t Ex 28:30 u Ps 81:7 v Nm 25:5-8 w Gn 29:32 x Ex 32:26-28 y Ml 2:5,6 z Lv 10:11 a Ps 51:19 b 2 Sm 24:23 c Gn 49:22-26 d Gn 27:38 e Gn 49:26 f Hb 3:6 g Ex 3:2-4 h Gn 49:26 i 1 Ch 5:1 j Nm 23:22 k Ps 44:5 l Gn 48:19 m Gn 49:13-15 n Is 2:3 o Ps 4:5; 51:19 p 1 Ch 12:8 q Nm 32:16,17 r Ja 4:12 s Ja 19:47 t Gn 49:21 u Ja 19:32 v Gn 49:20 w Jb 29:6 x Dt 8:9 y Ez 15:11 z Dt 32:15 a Ps 68:3,33,34; 104:3 b Ps 90:1; 91:2,9 c Dt 9:3-5 d Jr 23:6; 33:16 e Nm 23:9 f Dt 8:7,8 g Gn 27:28 h Ps 144:15 i 2 Sm 7:23 j Ps 115:9 k Ps 18:44; 66:3 l Nm 33:52

Chapter 34 — The Death of Moses

1 ¶ Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to the mountain of a Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the LORD showed him all the land of Gilead, to Dan,

2 and all Naphtali and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, as far as the western sea,

3 and the Negev and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the b city of palm trees, to Zoar.

4 Then the LORD said to him, c“This is the land that I swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your seed.’ d I have caused you to see it with your eyes, but you will not go over there.”

5eSo Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD.

6 And He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth Peor. But f no man knows of his burial place to this day.

7 gAnd Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died. h His eye was not dim, nor his natural vigor abated.

8 And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab i thirty days. Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.

9 ¶ Now Joshua the son of Nun was full of the j spirit of wisdom, for k Moses had laid his hands on him. And the children of Israel hearkened to him and did as the LORD commanded Moses.

10 Since then there l has not risen a prophet in Israel like unto Moses, m whom the LORD knew face to face,

11 in all the n signs and the wonders that the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land,

12 and in all the mighty power and in all the great terror that Moses showed in the sight of all Israel.

Chapter 34: a Dt 32:49 b 2 Ch 28:15 c Gn 12:7 d Dt 3:27 e Dt 32:50; Ja 1:1,2 f Jd 9 g Dt 31:2 h Gn 27:1; 48:10 i Gn 50:3,10 j Is 11:2 k Nm 27:18,23 l Dt 18:15,18 m Ex 33:11 n Dt 7:19