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Revised
Standard Version of the Holy Bible

Deuteronomy
Chapter 1 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 1
1 These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the
Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah over against Suph, between Paran
and Tophel, Laban, Haze'roth, and Di'-zahab.
2 It is eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Se'ir to
Ka'desh-bar'nea.
3 And in the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month,
Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the LORD had
given him in commandment to them,
4 after he had defeated Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in
Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ash'taroth and in Ed're-i.
5 Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain
this law, saying,
6 "The LORD our God said to us in Horeb, 'You have stayed long
enough at this mountain;
7 turn and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the
Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country
and in the lowland, and in the Negeb, and by the seacoast, the land of the
Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphra'tes.
8 Behold, I have set the land before you; go in and take possession
of the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac,
and to Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them.'
9 "At that time I said to you, 'I am not able alone to bear you;
10 the LORD your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are this day
as the stars of heaven for multitude.
11 May the LORD, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times
as many as you are, and bless you, as he has promised you!
12 How can I bear alone the weight and burden of you and your strife?
13 Choose wise, understanding, and experienced men, according to your
tribes, and I will appoint them as your heads.'
14 And you answered me, 'The thing that you have spoken is good for
us to do.'
15 So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and
set them as heads over you, commanders of thousands, commanders of
hundreds, commanders of fifties, commanders of tens, and officers,
throughout your tribes.
16 And I charged your judges at that time, 'Hear the cases between
your brethren, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the
alien that is with him.
17 You shall not be partial in judgment; you shall hear the small and
the great alike; you shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the
judgment is God's; and the case that is too hard for you, you shall bring
to me, and I will hear it.'
18 And I commanded you at that time all the things that you should
do.
19 "And we set out from Horeb, and went through all that great
and terrible wilderness which you saw, on the way to the hill country of
the Amorites, as the LORD our God commanded us; and we came to
Ka'desh-bar'nea.
20 And I said to you, 'You have come to the hill country of the
Amorites, which the LORD our God gives us.
21 Behold, the LORD your God has set the land before you; go up, take
possession, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has told you; do not
fear or be dismayed.'
22 Then all of you came near me, and said, 'Let us send men before
us, that they may explore the land for us, and bring us word again of the
way by which we must go up and the cities into which we shall come.'
23 The thing seemed good to me, and I took twelve men of you, one man
for each tribe;
24 and they turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the
Valley of Eshcol and spied it out.
25 And they took in their hands some of the fruit of the land and
brought it down to us, and brought us word again, and said, 'It is a good
land which the LORD our God gives us.'
26 "Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of
the LORD your God;
27 and you murmured in your tents, and said, 'Because the LORD hated
us he has brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to give us into the
hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.
28 Whither are we going up? Our brethren have made our hearts melt,
saying, "The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are
great and fortified up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of
the Anakim there."'
29 Then I said to you, 'Do not be in dread or afraid of them.
30 The LORD your God who goes before you will himself fight for you,
just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes,
31 and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the LORD your God
bore you, as a man bears his son, in all the way that you went until you
came to this place.'
32 Yet in spite of this word you did not believe the LORD your God,
33 who went before you in the way to seek you out a place to pitch
your tents, in fire by night, to show you by what way you should go, and
in the cloud by day.
34 "And the LORD heard your words, and was angered, and he
swore,
35 'Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good
land which I swore to give to your fathers,
36 except Caleb the son of Jephun'neh; he shall see it, and to him
and to his children I will give the land upon which he has trodden,
because he has wholly followed the LORD!'
37 The LORD was angry with me also on your account, and said, 'You
also shall not go in there;
38 Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter;
encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.
39 Moreover your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and
your children, who this day have no knowledge of good or evil, shall go in
there, and to them I will give it, and they shall possess it.
40 But as for you, turn, and journey into the wilderness in the
direction of the Red Sea.'
41 "Then you answered me, 'We have sinned against the LORD; we
will go up and fight, just as the LORD our God commanded us.' And every
man of you girded on his weapons of war, and thought it easy to go up into
the hill country.
42 And the LORD said to me, 'Say to them, Do not go up or fight, for
I am not in the midst of you; lest you be defeated before your enemies.'
43 So I spoke to you, and you would not hearken; but you rebelled
against the command of the LORD, and were presumptuous and went up into
the hill country.
44 Then the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against
you and chased you as bees do and beat you down in Se'ir as far as Hormah.
45 And you returned and wept before the LORD; but the LORD did not
hearken to your voice or give ear to you.
46 So you remained at Kadesh many days, the days that you remained
there.
Deuteronomy
Chapter 2 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 2
1 "Then we turned, and journeyed into the wilderness in the
direction of the Red Sea, as the LORD told me; and for many days we went
about Mount Se'ir.
2 Then the LORD said to me,
3 'You have been going about this mountain country long enough; turn
northward.
4 And command the people, You are about to pass through the territory
of your brethren the sons of Esau, who live in Se'ir; and they will be
afraid of you. So take good heed;
5 do not contend with them; for I will not give you any of their
land, no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on, because I
have given Mount Se'ir to Esau as a possession.
6 You shall purchase food from them for money, that you may eat; and
you shall also buy water of them for money, that you may drink.
7 For the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your
hands; he knows your going through this great wilderness; these forty
years the LORD your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.'
8 So we went on, away from our brethren the sons of Esau who live in
Se'ir, away from the Arabah road from Elath and E'zion-ge'ber. "And
we turned and went in the direction of the wilderness of Moab.
9 And the LORD said to me, 'Do not harass Moab or contend with them
in battle, for I will not give you any of their land for a possession,
because I have given Ar to the sons of Lot for a possession.'
10 (The Emim formerly lived there, a people great and many, and tall
as the Anakim;
11 like the Anakim they are also known as Reph'aim, but the Moabites
call them Emim.
12 The Horites also lived in Se'ir formerly, but the sons of Esau
dispossessed them, and destroyed them from before them, and settled in
their stead; as Israel did to the land of their possession, which the LORD
gave to them.)
13 'Now rise up, and go over the brook Zered.' So we went over the
brook Zered.
14 And the time from our leaving Ka'desh-bar'nea until we crossed the
brook Zered was thirty-eight years, until the entire generation, that is,
the men of war, had perished from the camp, as the LORD had sworn to them.
15 For indeed the hand of the LORD was against them, to destroy them
from the camp, until they had perished.
16 "So when all the men of war had perished and were dead from
among the people,
17 the LORD said to me,
18 'This day you are to pass over the boundary of Moab at Ar;
19 and when you approach the frontier of the sons of Ammon, do not
harass them or contend with them, for I will not give you any of the land
of the sons of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to the sons
of Lot for a possession.'
20 (That also is known as a land of Reph'aim; Reph'aim formerly lived
there, but the Ammonites call them Zamzum'mim,
21 a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim; but the LORD
destroyed them before them; and they dispossessed them, and settled in
their stead;
22 as he did for the sons of Esau, who live in Se'ir, when he
destroyed the Horites before them, and they dispossessed them, and settled
in their stead even to this day.
23 As for the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the
Caph'torim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and settled in their
stead.)
24 'Rise up, take your journey, and go over the valley of the Arnon;
behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon,
and his land; begin to take possession, and contend with him in battle.
25 This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the
peoples that are under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you
and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.'
26 "So I sent messengers from the wilderness of Ked'emoth to
Sihon the king of Heshbon, with words of peace, saying,
27 'Let me pass through your land; I will go only by the road, I will
turn aside neither to the right nor to the left.
28 You shall sell me food for money, that I may eat, and give me
water for money, that I may drink; only let me pass through on foot,
29 as the sons of Esau who live in Se'ir and the Moabites who live in
Ar did for me, until I go over the Jordan into the land which the LORD our
God gives to us.'
30 But Sihon the king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him; for
the LORD your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that
he might give him into your hand, as at this day.
31 And the LORD said to me, 'Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and
his land over to you; begin to take possession, that you may occupy his
land.'
32 Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to battle
at Jahaz.
33 And the LORD our God gave him over to us; and we defeated him and
his sons and all his people.
34 And we captured all his cities at that time and utterly destroyed
every city, men, women, and children; we left none remaining;
35 only the cattle we took as spoil for ourselves, with the booty of
the cities which we captured.
36 From Aro'er, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and
from the city that is in the valley, as far as Gilead, there was not a
city too high for us; the LORD our God gave all into our hands.
37 Only to the land of the sons of Ammon you did not draw near, that
is, to all the banks of the river Jabbok and the cities of the hill
country, and wherever the LORD our God forbade us.
Deuteronomy
Chapter 3 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 3
1 "Then we turned and went up the way to Bashan; and Og the king
of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Ed're-i.
2 But the LORD said to me, 'Do not fear him; for I have given him and
all his people and his land into your hand; and you shall do to him as you
did to Sihon the king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon.'
3 So the LORD our God gave into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan,
and all his people; and we smote him until no survivor was left to him.
4 And we took all his cities at that time -- there was not a city
which we did not take from them -- sixty cities, the whole region of Argob,
the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
5 All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars,
besides very many unwalled villages.
6 And we utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon the king of
Heshbon, destroying every city, men, women, and children.
7 But all the cattle and the spoil of the cities we took as our
booty.
8 So we took the land at that time out of the hand of the two kings
of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, from the valley of the Arnon
to Mount Hermon
9 (the Sido'nians call Hermon Si'rion, while the Amorites call it
Senir),
10 all the cities of the tableland and all Gilead and all Bashan, as
far as Sal'ecah and Ed're-i, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
11 (For only Og the king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the
Reph'aim; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbah
of the Ammonites? Nine cubits was its length, and four cubits its breadth,
according to the common cubit.)
12 "When we took possession of this land at that time, I gave to
the Reubenites and the Gadites the territory beginning at Aro'er, which is
on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and half the hill country of
Gilead with its cities;
13 the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, that is,
all the region of Argob, I gave to the half-tribe of Manas'seh. (The whole
of that Bashan is called the land of Reph'aim.
14 Ja'ir the Manas'site took all the region of Argob, that is, Bashan,
as far as the border of the Gesh'urites and the Ma-ac'athites, and called
the villages after his own name, Hav'voth-ja'ir, as it is to this day.)
15 To Machir I gave Gilead,
16 and to the Reubenites and the Gadites I gave the territory from
Gilead as far as the valley of the Arnon, with the middle of the valley as
a boundary, as far over as the river Jabbok, the boundary of the
Ammonites;
17 the Arabah also, with the Jordan as the boundary, from Chin'nereth
as far as the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, under the slopes of Pisgah
on the east.
18 "And I commanded you at that time, saying, 'The LORD your God
has given you this land to possess; all your men of valor shall pass over
armed before your brethren the people of Israel.
19 But your wives, your little ones, and your cattle (I know that you
have many cattle) shall remain in the cities which I have given you,
20 until the LORD gives rest to your brethren, as to you, and they
also occupy the land which the LORD your God gives them beyond the Jordan;
then you shall return every man to his possession which I have given you.'
21 And I commanded Joshua at that time, 'Your eyes have seen all that
the LORD your God has done to these two kings; so will the LORD do to all
the kingdoms into which you are going over.
22 You shall not fear them; for it is the LORD your God who fights
for you.'
23 "And I besought the LORD at that time, saying,
24 'O Lord GOD, thou hast only begun to show thy servant thy
greatness and thy mighty hand; for what god is there in heaven or on earth
who can do such works and mighty acts as thine?
25 Let me go over, I pray, and see the good land beyond the Jordan,
that goodly hill country, and Lebanon.'
26 But the LORD was angry with me on your account, and would not
hearken to me; and the LORD said to me, 'Let it suffice you; speak no more
to me of this matter.
27 Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift up your eyes westward and
northward and southward and eastward, and behold it with your eyes; for
you shall not go over this Jordan.
28 But charge Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him; for he shall
go over at the head of this people, and he shall put them in possession of
the land which you shall see.'
29 So we remained in the valley opposite Beth-pe'or.
Deuteronomy
Chapter 4 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 4
1 "And now, O Israel, give heed to the statutes and the
ordinances which I teach you, and do them; that you may live, and go in
and take possession of the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers,
gives you.
2 You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from
it; that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I
command you.
3 Your eyes have seen what the LORD did at Ba'al-pe'or; for the LORD
your God destroyed from among you all the men who followed the Ba'al of
Pe'or;
4 but you who held fast to the LORD your God are all alive this day.
5 Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, as the LORD my
God commanded me, that you should do them in the land which you are
entering to take possession of it.
6 Keep them and do them; for that will be your wisdom and your
understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these
statutes, will say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding
people.'
7 For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the
LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him?
8 And what great nation is there, that has statutes and ordinances so
righteous as all this law which I set before you this day?
9 "Only take heed, and keep your soul diligently, lest you
forget the things which your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from
your heart all the days of your life; make them known to your children and
your children's children --
10 how on the day that you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb,
the LORD said to me, 'Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my
words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live upon
the earth, and that they may teach their children so.'
11 And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the
mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness,
cloud, and gloom.
12 Then the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire; you heard
the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice.
13 And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to
perform, that is, the ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables
of stone.
14 And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and
ordinances, that you might do them in the land which you are going over to
possess.
15 "Therefore take good heed to yourselves. Since you saw no
form on the day that the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of
the fire,
16 beware lest you act corruptly by making a graven image for
yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female,
17 the likeness of any beast 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, the likeness
of any fish that is in the water under the earth.
19 And beware lest you lift up your eyes to heaven, and when you see
the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn
away and worship them and serve them, things which the LORD your God has
allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.
20 But the LORD has taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron
furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own possession, as at this
day.
21 Furthermore the LORD was angry with me on your account, and he
swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and that I should not enter the
good land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance.
22 For I must die in this land, I must not go over the Jordan; but
you shall go over and take possession of that good land.
23 Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD
your God, which he made with you, and make a graven image in the form of
anything which the LORD your God has forbidden you.
24 For the LORD your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.
25 "When you beget children and children's children, and have
grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a graven image in
the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the LORD
your God, so as to provoke him to anger,
26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you
will soon utterly perish from the land which you are going over the Jordan
to possess; you will not live long upon it, but will be utterly destroyed.
27 And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be
left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you.
28 And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of men's
hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
29 But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find
him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.
30 When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in
the latter days, you will return to the LORD your God and obey his voice,
31 for the LORD your God is a merciful God; he will not fail you or
destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers which he swore to
them.
32 "For ask now of the days that are past, which were before
you, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from one
end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever
happened or was ever heard of.
33 Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the
midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live?
34 Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself
from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by
war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors,
according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your
eyes?
35 To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD is God;
there is no other besides him.
36 Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline
you; and on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words
out of the midst of the fire.
37 And because he loved your fathers and chose their descendants
after them, and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his
great power,
38 driving out before you nations greater and mightier than
yourselves, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as
at this day;
39 know therefore this day, and lay it to your heart, that the LORD
is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.
40 Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which
I command you this day, that it may go well with you, and with your
children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which
the LORD your God gives you for ever."
41 Then Moses set apart three cities in the east beyond the Jordan,
42 that the manslayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor
unintentionally, without being at enmity with him in time past, and that
by fleeing to one of these cities he might save his life:
43 Bezer in the wilderness on the tableland for the Reubenites, and
Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manas'sites.
44 This is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel;
45 these are the testimonies, the statutes, and the ordinances, which
Moses spoke to the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt,
46 beyond the Jordan in the valley opposite Beth-pe'or, in the land
of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and
the children of Israel defeated when they came out of Egypt.
47 And they took possession of his land and the land of Og the king
of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who lived to the east beyond the
Jordan;
48 from Aro'er, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, as
far as Mount Si'rion (that is, Hermon),
49 together with all the Arabah on the east side of the Jordan as far
as the Sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.
Deuteronomy
Chapter 5 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 5
1 And Moses summoned all Israel, and said to them, "Hear, O
Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I speak in your hearing this
day, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them.
2 The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.
3 Not with our fathers did the LORD make this covenant, but with us,
who are all of us here alive this day.
4 The LORD spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the
midst of the fire,
5 while I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to declare to
you the word of the LORD; for you were afraid because of the fire, and you
did not go up into the mountain. He said:
6 "'I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of
Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
7 "'You shall have no other gods before me.
8 "'You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any
likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth
beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;
9 you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your
God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
10 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and
keep my commandments.
11 "'You shall 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.
12 "'Observe the sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your
God commanded you.
13 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work;
14 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; in it you
shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, or your
manservant, or your maidservant, or your ox, or your ass, or any of your
cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your manservant
and your maidservant may rest as well as you.
15 You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt,
and the LORD your God brought you out thence with a mighty hand and an
outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the
sabbath day.
16 "'Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God
commanded you; that your days may be prolonged, and that it may go well
with you, in the land which the LORD your God gives you.
17 "'You shall not kill.
18 "'Neither shall you commit adultery.
19 "'Neither shall you steal.
20 "'Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor.
21 "'Neither shall you covet your neighbor's wife; and you shall
not desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his manservant, or his
maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor's.'
22 "These words the LORD spoke to all your assembly at the
mountain out of the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness,
with a loud voice; and he added no more. And he wrote them upon two tables
of stone, and gave them to me.
23 And when you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness,
while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, all the
heads of your tribes, and your elders;
24 and you said, 'Behold, the LORD our God has shown us his glory and
greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire; we
have this day seen God speak with man and man still live.
25 Now therefore why should we die? For this great fire will consume
us; if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any more, we shall die.
26 For who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the
living God speaking out of the midst of fire, as we have, and has still
lived?
27 Go near, and hear all that the LORD our God will say; and speak to
us all that the LORD our God will speak to you; and we will hear and do
it.'
28 "And the LORD heard your words, when you spoke to me; and the
LORD said to me, 'I have heard the words of this people, which they have
spoken to you; they have rightly said all that they have spoken.
29 Oh that they had such a mind as this always, to fear me and to
keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their
children for ever!
30 Go and say to them, "Return to your tents."
31 But you, stand here by me, and I will tell you all the commandment
and the statutes and the ordinances which you shall teach them, that they
may do them in the land which I give them to possess.'
32 You shall be careful to do therefore as the LORD your God has
commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
33 You shall walk in all the way which the LORD your God has
commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and
that you may live long in the land which you shall possess.
Deuteronomy
Chapter 6 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 6
1 "Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the ordinances
which the LORD your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in
the land to which you are going over, to possess it;
2 that you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your
son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I
command you, all the days of your life; and that your days may be
prolonged.
3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them; that it may go
well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the God of
your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
4 "Hear, O Israel The LORD our God is one LORD;
5 and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with
all your soul, and with all your might.
6 And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your
heart;
7 and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall
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.
8 And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be
as frontlets between your eyes.
9 And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your
gates.
10 "And when the LORD your God brings you into the land which he
swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you,
with great and goodly cities, which you did not build,
11 and houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, and
cisterns hewn out, which you did not hew, and vineyards and olive trees,
which you did not plant, and when you eat and are full,
12 then take heed lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of
the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
13 You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve him, and swear
by his name.
14 You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who
are round about you;
15 for the LORD your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; lest
the anger of the LORD your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you
from off the face of the earth.
16 "You shall not put the LORD your God to the test, as you
tested him at Massah.
17 You shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God,
and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he has commanded you.
18 And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD,
that it may go well with you, and that you may go in and take possession
of the good land which the LORD swore to give to your fathers
19 by thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the LORD has
promised.
20 "When your son asks you in time to come, 'What is the meaning
of the testimonies and the statutes and the ordinances which the LORD our
God has commanded you?'
21 then you shall say to your son, 'We were Pharaoh's slaves in
Egypt; and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand;
22 and the LORD showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against
Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes;
23 and he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and
give us the land which he swore to give to our fathers.
24 And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the
LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as at
this day.
25 And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all
this commandment before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us.'
Deuteronomy
Chapter 7 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 7
1 "When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you are
entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before
you, the Hittites, the Gir'gashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the
Per'izzites, the Hivites, and the Jeb'usites, seven nations greater and
mightier than yourselves,
2 and when the LORD your God gives them over to you, and you defeat
them; then you must utterly destroy them; you shall make no covenant with
them, and show no mercy to them.
3 You shall not make marriages with them, giving your daughters to
their sons or taking their daughters for your sons.
4 For they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve
other gods; then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and
he would destroy you quickly.
5 But thus shall you deal with them you shall break down their
altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and hew down their Ashe'rim, and
burn their graven images with fire.
6 "For you are a people holy to the LORD your God; the LORD your
God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, out of all the
peoples that are on the face of the earth.
7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people
that the LORD set his love upon you and chose you, for you were the fewest
of all peoples;
8 but it is because the LORD loves you, and is keeping the oath which
he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty
hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh
king of Egypt.
9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who
keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his
commandments, to a thousand generations,
10 and requites to their face those who hate him, by destroying them;
he will not be slack with him who hates him, he will requite him to his
face.
11 You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment, and the
statutes, and the ordinances, which I command you this day.
12 "And because you hearken to these ordinances, and keep and do
them, the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast
love which he swore to your fathers to keep;
13 he will love you, bless you, and multiply you; he will also bless
the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your
wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the young of your
flock, in the land which he swore to your fathers to give you.
14 You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be male or
female barren among you, or among your cattle.
15 And the LORD will take away from you all sickness; and none of the
evil diseases of Egypt, which you knew, will he inflict upon you, but he
will lay them upon all who hate you.
16 And you shall destroy all the peoples that the LORD your God will
give over to you, your eye shall not pity them; neither shall you serve
their gods, for that would be a snare to you.
17 "If you say in your heart, 'These nations are greater than I;
how can I dispossess them?'
18 you shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember what the
LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt,
19 the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the
mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which the LORD your God brought
you out; so will the LORD your God do to all the peoples of whom you are
afraid.
20 Moreover the LORD your God will send hornets among them, until
those who are left and hide themselves from you are destroyed.
21 You shall not be in dread of them; for the LORD your God is in the
midst of you, a great and terrible God.
22 The LORD your God will clear away these nations before you little
by little; you may not make an end of them at once, lest the wild beasts
grow too numerous for you.
23 But the LORD your God will give them over to you, and throw them
into great confusion, until they are destroyed.
24 And he will give their kings into your hand, and you shall make
their name perish from under heaven; not a man shall be able to stand
against you, until you have destroyed them.
25 The graven images of their gods you shall burn with fire; you
shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, or take it for
yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it; for it is an abomination to the
LORD your God.
26 And you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house, and
become accursed like it; you shall utterly detest and abhor it; for it is
an accursed thing.
Deuteronomy
Chapter 8 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 8
1 "All the commandment which I command you this day you shall be
careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the
land which the LORD swore to give to your fathers.
2 And you shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led
you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing
you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his
commandments, or not.
3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which
you did not know, nor did your fathers know; that he might make you know
that man does not live by bread alone, but that man lives by everything
that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.
4 Your clothing did not wear out upon you, and your foot did not
swell, these forty years.
5 Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the
LORD your God disciplines you.
6 So you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, by walking
in his ways and by fearing him.
7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of
brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and
hills,
8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and
pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey,
9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you
will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills
you can dig copper.
10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your
God for the good land he has given you.
11 "Take heed lest you forget the LORD your God, by not keeping
his commandments and his ordinances and his statutes, which I command you
this day:
12 lest, when you have eaten and are full, and have built goodly
houses and live in them,
13 and when your herds and flocks multiply, and your silver and gold
is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied,
14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage,
15 who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its
fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water,
who brought you water out of the flinty rock,
16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna which your fathers did
not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the
end.
17 Beware lest you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my
hand have gotten me this wealth.'
18 You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you
power to get wealth; that he may confirm his covenant which he swore to
your fathers, as at this day.
19 And if you forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and
serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you this day that you shall
surely perish.
20 Like the nations that the LORD makes to perish before you, so
shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your
God.
Deuteronomy
Chapter 9 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 9
1 "Hear, O Israel; you are to pass over the Jordan this day, to
go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves, cities
great and fortified up to heaven,
2 a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and
of whom you have heard it said, 'Who can stand before the sons of Anak?'
3 Know therefore this day that he who goes over before you as a
devouring fire is the LORD your God; he will destroy them and subdue them
before you; so you shall drive them out, and make them perish quickly, as
the LORD has promised you.
4 "Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust
them out before you, 'It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has
brought me in to possess this land'; whereas it is because of the
wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out before you.
5 Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart
are you going in to possess their land; but because of the wickedness of
these nations the LORD your God is driving them out from before you, and
that he may confirm the word which the LORD swore to your fathers, to
Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
6 "Know therefore, that the LORD your God is not giving you this
good land to possess because of your righteousness; for you are a stubborn
people.
7 Remember and do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to
wrath in the wilderness; from the day you came out of the land of Egypt,
until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD.
8 Even at Horeb you provoked the LORD to wrath, and the LORD was so
angry with you that he was ready to destroy you.
9 When I went up the mountain to receive the tables of stone, the
tables of the covenant which the LORD made with you, I remained on the
mountain forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water.
10 And the LORD gave me the two tables of stone written with the
finger of God; and on them were all the words which the LORD had spoken
with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the
assembly.
11 And at the end of forty days and forty nights the LORD gave me the
two tables of stone, the tables of the covenant.
12 Then the LORD said to me, 'Arise, go down quickly from here; for
your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly; they
have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them; they have
made themselves a molten image.'
13 "Furthermore the LORD said to me, 'I have seen this people,
and behold, it is a stubborn people;
14 let me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from
under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than
they.'
15 So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was
burning with fire; and the two tables of the covenant were in my two
hands.
16 And I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the LORD your
God; you had made yourselves a molten calf; you had turned aside quickly
from the way which the LORD had commanded you.
17 So I took hold of the two tables, and cast them out of my two
hands, and broke them before your eyes.
18 Then I lay prostrate before the LORD as before, forty days and
forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin
which you had committed, in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD,
to provoke him to anger.
19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure which the LORD
bore against you, so that he was ready to destroy you. But the LORD
hearkened to me that time also.
20 And the LORD was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy
him; and I prayed for Aaron also at the same time.
21 Then I took the sinful thing, the calf which you had made, and
burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was
as fine as dust; and I threw the dust of it into the brook that descended
out of the mountain.
22 "At Tab'erah also, and at Massah, and at Kib'roth-hatta'avah,
you provoked the LORD to wrath.
23 And when the LORD sent you from Ka'desh-bar'nea, saying, 'Go up
and take possession of the land which I have given you,' then you rebelled
against the commandment of the LORD your God, and did not believe him or
obey his voice.
24 You have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew
you.
25 "So I lay prostrate before the LORD for these forty days and
forty nights, because the LORD had said he would destroy you.
26 And I prayed to the LORD, 'O Lord GOD, destroy not thy people and
thy heritage, whom thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, whom thou
hast brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
27 Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not regard
the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness, or their sin,
28 lest the land from which thou didst bring us say, "Because
the LORD was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them,
and because he hated them, he has brought them out to slay them in the
wilderness."
29 For they are thy people and thy heritage, whom thou didst bring
out by thy great power and by thy outstretched arm.'
Deuteronomy
Chapter 10 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 10
1 "At that time the LORD said to me, 'Hew two tables of stone
like the first, and come up to me on the mountain, and make an ark of
wood.
2 And I will write on the tables the words that were on the first
tables which you broke, and you shall put them in the ark.'
3 So I made an ark of acacia wood, and hewed two tables of stone like
the first, and went up the mountain with the two tables in my hand.
4 And he wrote on the tables, as at the first writing, the ten
commandments which the LORD had spoken to you on the mountain out of the
midst of the fire on the day of the assembly; and the LORD gave them to
me.
5 Then I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tables
in the ark which I had made; and there they are, as the LORD commanded me.
6 (The people of Israel journeyed from Be-er'oth Bene-ja'akan to
Mose'rah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried; and his son Elea'zar
ministered as priest in his stead.
7 From there they journeyed to Gud'godah, and from Gud'godah to
Jot'bathah, a land with brooks of water.
8 At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark
of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister to him
and to bless in his name, to this day.
9 Therefore Levi has no portion or inheritance with his brothers; the
LORD is his inheritance, as the LORD your God said to him.)
10 "I stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty days
and forty nights, and the LORD hearkened to me that time also; the LORD
was unwilling to destroy you.
11 And the LORD said to me, 'Arise, go on your journey at the head of
the people, that they may go in and possess the land, which I swore to
their fathers to give them.'
12 "And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you,
but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to
serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I
command you this day for your good?
14 Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of
heavens, the earth with all that is in it;
15 yet the LORD set his heart in love upon your fathers and chose
their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as at this day.
16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer
stubborn.
17 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great,
the mighty, and the terrible God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.
18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves
the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.
19 Love the sojourner therefore; for you were sojourners in the land
of Egypt.
20 You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve him and cleave
to him, and by his name you shall swear.
21 He is your praise; he is your God, who has done for you these
great and terrible things which your eyes have seen.
22 Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons; and now the LORD
your God has made you as the stars of heaven for multitude.
Deuteronomy
Chapter 11 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 11
1 "You shall therefore love the LORD your God, and keep his
charge, his statutes, his ordinances, and his commandments always.
2 And consider this day (since I am not speaking to your children who
have not known or seen it), consider the discipline of the LORD your God,
his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm,
3 his signs and his deeds which he did in 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; how he made the water of the Red Sea overflow them as they
pursued after you, and how the LORD has destroyed them to this day;
5 and what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this
place;
6 and what he did to Dathan and Abi'ram the sons of Eli'ab, son of
Reuben; how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their
households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the
midst of all Israel;
7 for your eyes have seen all the great work of the LORD which he
did.
8 "You shall therefore keep all the commandment which I command
you this day, that you may be strong, and go in and take possession of the
land which you are going over to possess,
9 and that you may live long in the land which the LORD swore to your
fathers to give to them and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk
and honey.
10 For the land which you are entering to take possession of it is
not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your
seed and watered it with your feet, like a garden of vegetables;
11 but the land which you are going over to possess is a land of
hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven,
12 a land which the LORD your God cares for; the eyes of the LORD
your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of
the year.
13 "And if you will obey my commandments which 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 he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain
and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and
your oil.
15 And he will give grass in your fields for your cattle, and you
shall eat and be full.
16 Take heed lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and
serve other gods and worship them,
17 and the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and he shut up
the heavens, so that there be no rain, and the land yield no fruit, and
you perish quickly off the good land which the LORD gives you.
18 "You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart
and in your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and
they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
19 And you shall teach them to your children, talking of them when
you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and
when you lie down, and when you rise.
20 And you shall write them upon the doorposts of your house and upon
your gates,
21 that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in
the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the
heavens are above the earth.
22 For if you will be careful to do all this commandment which I
command you to do, loving the LORD your God, walking in all his ways, and
cleaving to him,
23 then the LORD will drive out all these nations before you, and you
will dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves.
24 Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours;
your territory shall be from the wilderness and Lebanon and from the
River, the river Euphra'tes, to the western sea.
25 No man shall be able to stand against you; the LORD your God will
lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that you shall
tread, as he promised 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,
which I command you this day,
28 and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD
your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you this day, to go
after other gods which you have not known.
29 And when the LORD your God brings you into the land which you are
entering to take possession of it, you shall set the blessing on Mount
Ger'izim and the curse on Mount Ebal.
30 Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the road, toward the going
down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah,
over against Gilgal, beside the oak of Moreh?
31 For you are to pass over the Jordan to go in to take possession of
the land which the LORD your God gives you; and when you possess it and
live in it,
32 you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the ordinances
which I set before you this day.
Deuteronomy
Chapter 12 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 12
1 "These are the statutes and ordinances which you shall be
careful to do in the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, has
given you to possess, all the days that you live upon the earth.
2 You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you
shall dispossess served their gods, upon the high mountains and upon the
hills and under every green tree;
3 you shall tear down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars,
and burn their Ashe'rim with fire; you shall hew down the graven images of
their gods, and destroy their name out of that place.
4 You shall not do so to the LORD your God.
5 But you shall seek the place which the LORD your God will choose
out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there;
thither you shall go,
6 and thither you shall bring your burnt offerings and your
sacrifices, your tithes and the offering that you present, your votive
offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herd and of
your flock;
7 and there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall
rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the
LORD your God has blessed you.
8 You shall not do according to all that we are doing here this day,
every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes;
9 for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance
which the LORD your God gives you.
10 But when you go over the Jordan, and live in the land which the
LORD your God gives you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all
your enemies round about, so that you live in safety,
11 then to the place which the LORD your God will choose, to make his
name dwell there, thither you shall bring all that I command you your
burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the offering that you
present, and all your votive offerings which you vow to the LORD.
12 And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your sons
and your daughters, your menservants and your maidservants, and the Levite
that is within your towns, since he has no portion or inheritance with
you.
13 Take heed that you do not offer your burnt offerings at every
place that you see;
14 but at the place which the LORD will choose in one of your tribes,
there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all
that I am commanding you.
15 "However, you may slaughter and eat flesh within any of your
towns, as much as you desire, according to the blessing of the LORD your
God which he has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of
the gazelle and as of the hart.
16 Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out upon the
earth like water.
17 You may not eat within your towns the tithe of your grain or of
your wine or of your oil, or the firstlings of your herd or of your flock,
or any of your votive offerings which you vow, or your freewill offerings,
or the offering that you present;
18 but you shall eat them before the LORD your God in the place which
the LORD your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter, your
manservant and your maidservant, and the Levite who is within your towns;
and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all that you undertake.
19 Take heed that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live
in your land.
20 "When the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as he has
promised you, and you say, 'I will eat flesh,' because you crave flesh,
you may eat as much flesh as you desire.
21 If the place which the LORD your God will choose to put his name
there is too far from you, then you may kill any of your herd or your
flock, which the LORD has given you, as I have commanded you; and you may
eat within your towns as much as you desire.
22 Just as the gazelle or the hart is eaten, so you may eat of it;
the unclean and the clean alike may eat of it.
23 Only be sure that you do not eat the blood; for the blood is the
life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh.
24 You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out upon the earth like
water.
25 You shall not eat it; that all may go well with you and with your
children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD.
26 But the holy things which are due from you, and your votive
offerings, you shall take, and you shall go to the place which the LORD
will choose,
27 and offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the
altar of the LORD your God; the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured
out on the altar of the LORD your God, but the flesh you may eat.
28 Be careful to heed all these words which I command you, that it
may go well with you and with your children after you for ever, when you
do what is good and right in the sight of the LORD your God.
29 "When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations whom
you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land,
30 take heed that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have
been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods,
saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods? -- that I also may do
likewise.'
31 You shall not do so to the LORD your God; for every abominable
thing which the LORD hates they have done for their gods; for they even
burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.
32 "Everything that I command you you shall be careful to do;
you shall not add to it or take from it.
Deuteronomy
Chapter 13 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 13
1 "If a prophet arises among you, or a dreamer of dreams, and
gives you a sign or a wonder,
2 and the sign or wonder which he tells you comes to pass, and if he
says, 'Let us go after other gods,' which you have not known, 'and let us
serve them,'
3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or to that
dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether
you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
4 You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear him, and keep his
commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and cleave to
him.
5 But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death,
because he has taught rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you
out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to
make you leave the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk.
So you shall purge the evil from the midst of you.
6 "If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or your
daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own
soul, entices you secretly, saying, 'Let us go and serve other gods,'
which neither you nor your fathers have known,
7 some of the gods of the peoples that are round about you, whether
near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other,
8 you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye
pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him;
9 but you shall kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put
him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.
10 You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to
draw you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of
Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
11 And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and never again do any such
wickedness as this among you.
12 "If you hear in one of your cities, which the LORD your God
gives you to dwell there,
13 that certain base fellows have gone out among you and have drawn
away the inhabitants of the city, saying, 'Let us go and serve other
gods,' which you have not known,
14 then you shall inquire and make search and ask diligently; and
behold, if it be true and certain that such an abominable thing has been
done among you,
15 you shall surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword,
destroying it utterly, all who are in it and its cattle, with the edge of
the sword.
16 You shall gather all its spoil into the midst of its open square,
and burn the city and all its spoil with fire, as a whole burnt offering
to the LORD your God; it shall be a heap for ever, it shall not be built
again.
17 None of the devoted things shall cleave to your hand; that the
LORD may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and show you mercy, and
have compassion on you, and multiply you, as he swore to your fathers,
18 if you obey the voice of the LORD your God, keeping all his
commandments which I command you this day, and doing what is right in the
sight of the LORD your God.
Deuteronomy
Chapter 14 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 14
1 "You are the sons of the LORD your God; you shall not cut
yourselves or make any baldness on your foreheads for the dead.
2 For you are a people holy to the LORD your God, and the LORD has
chosen you to be a people for his own possession, out of all the peoples
that are on the face of the earth.
3 "You shall not eat any abominable thing.
4 These are the animals you may eat the ox, the sheep, the goat,
5 the hart, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the
antelope, and the mountain-sheep.
6 Every animal that parts the hoof and has the hoof cloven in two,
and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat.
7 Yet of those that chew the cud or have the hoof cloven you shall
not eat these the camel, the hare, and the rock badger, because they
chew the cud but do not part the hoof, are unclean for you.
8 And the swine, because it parts the hoof but does not chew the cud,
is unclean for you. Their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you
shall not touch.
9 "Of all that are in the waters you may eat these whatever
has fins and scales you may eat.
10 And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it
is unclean for you.
11 "You may eat all clean birds.
12 But these are the ones which you shall not eat the eagle, the
vulture, the osprey,
13 the buzzard, the kite, after their kinds;
14 every raven after its kind;
15 the ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull, the hawk, after their
kinds;
16 the little owl and the great owl, the water hen
17 and the pelican, the carrion vulture and the cormorant,
18 the stork, the heron, after their kinds; the hoopoe and the bat.
19 And all winged insects are unclean for you; they shall not be
eaten.
20 All clean winged things you may eat.
21 "You shall not eat anything that dies of itself; you may give
it to the alien who is within your towns, that he may eat it, or you may
sell it to a foreigner; for you are a people holy to the LORD your God.
"You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk.
22 "You shall tithe all the yield of your seed, which comes
forth from the field year by year.
23 And before the LORD your God, in the place which he will choose,
to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of
your wine, and of your oil, and the firstlings of your herd and flock;
that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always.
24 And if the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to
bring the tithe, when the LORD your God blesses you, because the place is
too far from you, which the LORD your God chooses, to set his name there,
25 then you shall turn it into money, and bind up the money in your
hand, and go to the place which the LORD your God chooses,
26 and spend the money for whatever you desire, oxen, or sheep, or
wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves; and you shall eat
there before the LORD your God and rejoice, you and your household.
27 And you shall not forsake the Levite who is within your towns, for
he has no portion or inheritance with you.
28 "At the end of every three years you shall bring forth all
the tithe of your produce in the same year, and lay it up within your
towns;
29 and the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you,
and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your
towns, shall come and eat and be filled; that the LORD your God may bless
you in all the work of your hands that you do.
Deuteronomy
Chapter 15 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 15
1 "At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release.
2 And this is the manner of the release every creditor shall
release what he has lent to his neighbor; he shall not exact it of his
neighbor, his brother, because the LORD's release has been proclaimed.
3 Of a foreigner you may exact it; but whatever of yours is with your
brother your hand shall release.
4 But there will be no poor among you (for the LORD will bless you in
the land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance to possess),
5 if only you will obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful
to do all this commandment which I command you this day.
6 For the LORD your God will bless you, as he promised you, and you
shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; and you shall rule
over many nations, but they shall not rule over you.
7 "If there is among you a poor man, one of your brethren, in
any of your towns within your land which the LORD your God gives you, you
shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother,
8 but you shall open your hand to him, and lend him sufficient for
his need, whatever it may be.
9 Take heed lest there be a base thought in your heart, and you say,
'The seventh year, the year of release is near,' and your eye be hostile
to your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the LORD
against you, and it be sin in you.
10 You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging
when you give to him; because for this the LORD your God will bless you in
all your work and in all that you undertake.
11 For the poor will never cease out of the land; therefore I command
you, You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to
the poor, in the land.
12 "If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold to
you, he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall let
him go free from you.
13 And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go
empty-handed;
14 you shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your
threshing floor, and out of your wine press; as the LORD your God has
blessed you, you shall give to him.
15 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and
the LORD your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today.
16 But if he says to you, 'I will not go out from you,' because he
loves you and your household, since he fares well with you,
17 then you shall take an awl, and thrust it through his ear into the
door, and he shall be your bondman for ever. And to your bondwoman you
shall do likewise.
18 It shall not seem hard to you, when you let him go free from you;
for at half the cost of a hired servant he has served you six years. So
the LORD your God will bless you in all that you do.
19 "All the firstling males that are born of your herd and flock
you shall consecrate to the LORD your God; you shall do no work with the
firstling of your herd, nor shear the firstling of your flock.
20 You shall eat it, you and your household, before the LORD your God
year by year at the place which the LORD will choose.
21 But if it has any blemish, if it is lame or blind, or has any
serious blemish whatever, you shall not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.
22 You shall eat it within your towns; the unclean and the clean
alike may eat it, as though it were a gazelle or a hart.
23 Only you shall not eat its blood; you shall pour it out on the
ground like water.
Deuteronomy
Chapter 16 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 16
1 "Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover to the LORD
your God; for in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of
Egypt by night.
2 And you shall offer the passover sacrifice to the LORD your God,
from the flock or the herd, at the place which the LORD will choose, to
make his name dwell there.
3 You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat
it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction -- for you came out of
the land of Egypt in hurried flight -- that all the days of your life you
may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt.
4 No leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory for seven
days; nor shall any of the flesh which you sacrifice on the evening of the
first day remain all night until morning.
5 You may not offer the passover sacrifice within any of your towns
which the LORD your God gives you;
6 but at the place which the LORD your God will choose, to make his
name dwell in it, there you shall offer the passover sacrifice, in the
evening at the going down of the sun, at the time you came out of Egypt.
7 And you shall boil it and eat it at the place which the LORD your
God will choose; and in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents.
8 For six days you shall eat unleavened bread; and on the seventh day
there shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD your God; you shall do no
work on it.
9 "You shall count seven weeks; begin to count the seven weeks
from the time you first put the sickle to the standing grain.
10 Then you shall keep the feast of weeks to the LORD your God with
the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as
the LORD your God blesses you;
11 and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your son
and your daughter, your manservant and your maidservant, the Levite who is
within your towns, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are
among you, at the place which the LORD your God will choose, to make his
name dwell there.
12 You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt; and you shall
be careful to observe these statutes.
13 "You shall keep the feast of booths seven days, when you make
your ingathering from your threshing floor and your wine press;
14 you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your
daughter, your manservant and your maidservant, the Levite, the sojourner,
the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns.
15 For seven days you shall keep the feast to the LORD your God at
the place which the LORD will choose; because the LORD your God will bless
you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you
will be altogether joyful.
16 "Three times a year all your males shall appear before the
LORD your God at the place which he will choose at the feast of
unleavened bread, at the feast of weeks, and at the feast of booths. They
shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed;
17 every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of
the LORD your God which he has given you.
18 "You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns
which the LORD your God gives you, according to your tribes; and they
shall judge the people with righteous judgment.
19 You shall not pervert justice; you shall not show partiality; and
you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and
subverts the cause of the righteous.
20 Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and
inherit the land which the LORD your God gives you.
21 "You shall not plant any tree as an Ashe'rah beside the altar
of the LORD your God which you shall make.
22 And you shall not set up a pillar, which the LORD your God hates.
Deuteronomy
Chapter 17 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 17
1 "You shall not sacrifice to the LORD your God an ox or a sheep
in which is a blemish, any defect whatever; for that is an abomination to
the LORD your God.
2 "If there is found among you, within any of your towns which
the LORD your God gives you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the
sight of the LORD your God, in transgressing his covenant,
3 and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun
or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have forbidden,
4 and it is told you and you hear of it; then you shall inquire
diligently, and if it is true and certain that such an abominable thing
has been done in Israel,
5 then you shall bring forth to your gates that man or woman who has
done this evil thing, and you shall stone that man or woman to death with
stones.
6 On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses he that is
to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the
evidence of one witness.
7 The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to
death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the
evil from the midst of you.
8 "If any case arises requiring decision between one kind of
homicide and another, one kind of legal right and another, or one kind of
assault and another, any case within your towns which is too difficult for
you, then you shall arise and go up to the place which the LORD your God
will choose,
9 and coming to the Levitical priests, and to the judge who is in
office in those days, you shall consult them, and they shall declare to
you the decision.
10 Then you shall do according to what they declare to you from that
place which the LORD will choose; and you shall be careful to do according
to all that they direct you;
11 according to the instructions which they give you, and according
to the decision which they pronounce to you, you shall do; you shall not
turn aside from the verdict which they declare to you, either to the right
hand or to the left.
12 The man who acts presumptuously, by not obeying the priest who
stands to minister there before the LORD your God, or the judge, that man
shall die; so you shall purge the evil from Israel.
13 And all the people shall hear, and fear, and not act
presumptuously again.
14 "When you come to the land which the LORD your God gives you,
and you possess it and dwell in it, and then say, 'I will set a king over
me, like all the nations that are round about me';
15 you may indeed set as king over you him whom the LORD your God
will choose. One from among your brethren you shall set as king over you;
you may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.
16 Only he must not multiply horses for himself, or cause the people
to return to Egypt in order to multiply horses, since the LORD has said to
you, 'You shall never return that way again.'
17 And he shall not multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn
away; nor shall he greatly multiply for himself silver and gold.
18 "And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall
write for himself in a book a copy of this law, from that which is in the
charge of the Levitical priests;
19 and it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of
his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, by keeping all the
words of this law and these statutes, and doing them;
20 that his heart may not be lifted up above his brethren, and that
he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to
the left; so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his
children, in Israel.
Deuteronomy
Chapter 18 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 18
1 "The Levitical priests, that is, all the tribe of Levi, shall
have no portion or inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the offerings
by fire to the LORD, and his rightful dues.
2 They shall have no inheritance among their brethren; the LORD is
their inheritance, as he promised them.
3 And this shall be the priests' due from the people, from those
offering a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep they shall give to
the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach.
4 The first fruits of your grain, of your wine and of your oil, and
the first of the fleece of your sheep, you shall give him.
5 For the LORD your God has chosen him out of all your tribes, to
stand and minister in the name of the LORD, him and his sons for ever.
6 "And if a Levite comes from any of your towns out of all
Israel, where he lives -- and he may come when he desires -- to the place
which the LORD will choose,
7 then he may minister in the name of the LORD his God, like all his
fellow-Levites who stand to minister there before the LORD.
8 They shall have equal portions to eat, besides what he receives
from the sale of his patrimony.
9 "When you come into the land which the LORD your God gives
you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those
nations.
10 There shall not be found among you any one who burns his son or
his daughter as an offering, any one who practices divination, a
soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer,
11 or a charmer, or a medium, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
12 For whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD; and
because of these abominable practices the LORD your God is driving them
out before you.
13 You shall be blameless before the LORD your God.
14 For these nations, which you are about to dispossess, give heed to
soothsayers and to diviners; but as for you, the LORD your God has not
allowed you so to do.
15 "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me
from among you, from your brethren -- him you shall heed --
16 just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of
the assembly, when you said, 'Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD
my God, or see this great fire any more, lest I die.'
17 And the LORD said to me, 'They have rightly said all that they
have spoken.
18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their
brethren; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them
all that I command him.
19 And whoever will not give heed to my words which he shall speak in
my name, I myself will require it of him.
20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name which I
have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods,
that same prophet shall die.'
21 And if you say in your heart, 'How may we know the word which the
LORD has not spoken?' --
22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does
not come to pass or come true, that is a word which the LORD has not
spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously, you need not be afraid
of him.
Deuteronomy
Chapter 19 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 19
1 "When the LORD your God cuts off the nations whose land the
LORD your God gives you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities
and in their houses,
2 you shall set apart three cities for you in the land which the LORD
your God gives you to possess.
3 You shall prepare the roads, and divide into three parts the area
of the land which the LORD your God gives you as a possession, so that any
manslayer can flee to them.
4 "This is the provision for the manslayer, who by fleeing there
may save his life. If any one kills his neighbor unintentionally without
having been at enmity with him in time past --
5 as when a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood,
and his hand swings the axe to cut down a tree, and the head slips from
the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies -- he may flee to one
of these cities and save his life;
6 lest the avenger of blood in hot anger pursue the manslayer and
overtake him, because the way is long, and wound him mortally, though the
man did not deserve to die, since he was not at enmity with his neighbor
in time past.
7 Therefore I command you, You shall set apart three cities.
8 And if the LORD your God enlarges your border, as he has sworn to
your fathers, and gives you all the land which he promised to give to your
fathers --
9 provided you are careful to keep all this commandment, which I
command you this day, by loving the LORD your God and by walking ever in
his ways -- then you shall add three other cities to these three,
10 lest innocent blood be shed in your land which the LORD your God
gives you for an inheritance, and so the guilt of bloodshed be upon you.
11 "But if any man hates his neighbor, and lies in wait for him,
and attacks him, and wounds him mortally so that he dies, and the man
flees into one of these cities,
12 then the elders of his city shall send and fetch him from there,
and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die.
13 Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall purge the guilt of
innocent blood from Israel, so that it may be well with you.
14 "In the inheritance which you will hold in the land that the
LORD your God gives you to possess, you shall not remove your neighbor's
landmark, which the men of old have set.
15 "A single witness shall not prevail against a man for any
crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has
committed; only on the evidence of two witnesses, or of three witnesses,
shall a charge be sustained.
16 If a malicious witness rises against any man to accuse him of
wrongdoing,
17 then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the LORD,
before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days;
18 the judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false
witness and has accused his brother falsely,
19 then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother; so
you shall purge the evil from the midst of you.
20 And the rest shall hear, and fear, and shall never again commit
any such evil among you.
21 Your eye shall not pity; it shall be life for life, eye for eye,
tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Deuteronomy
Chapter 20 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 20
1 "When you go forth to war against your enemies, and see horses
and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of
them; for the LORD your God is with you, who brought you up out of the
land of Egypt.
2 And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward
and speak to the people,
3 and shall say to them, 'Hear, O Israel, you draw near this day to
battle against your enemies let not your heart faint; do not fear, or
tremble, or be in dread of them;
4 for the LORD your God is he that goes with you, to fight for you
against your enemies, to give you the victory.'
5 Then the officers shall speak to the people, saying, 'What man is
there that has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go back
to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it.
6 And what man is there that has planted a vineyard and has not
enjoyed its fruit? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle
and another man enjoy its fruit.
7 And what man is there that has betrothed a wife and has not taken
her? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another
man take her.'
8 And the officers shall speak further to the people, and say, 'What
man is there that is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go back to his
house, lest the heart of his fellows melt as his heart.'
9 And when the officers have made an end of speaking to the people,
then commanders shall be appointed at the head of the people.
10 "When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer
terms of peace to it.
11 And if its answer to you is peace and it opens to you, then all
the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall
serve you.
12 But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then
you shall besiege it;
13 and when the LORD your God gives it into your hand you shall put
all its males to the sword,
14 but the women and the little ones, the cattle, and everything else
in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as booty for yourselves; and
you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the LORD your God has
given you.
15 Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far from you,
which are not cities of the nations here.
16 But in the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God gives
you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes,
17 but you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittites and the Amorites,
the Canaanites and the Per'izzites, the Hivites and the Jeb'usites, as the
LORD your God has commanded;
18 that they may not teach you to do according to all their
abominable practices which they have done in the service of their gods,
and so to sin against the LORD your God.
19 "When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against
it in order to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe
against them; for you may eat of them, but you shall not cut them down.
Are the trees in the field men that they should be besieged by you?
20 Only the trees which you know are not trees for food you may
destroy and cut down that you may build siegeworks against the city that
makes war with you, until it falls.
Deuteronomy
Chapter 21 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 21
1 "If in the land which the LORD your God gives you to possess,
any one is found slain, lying in the open country, and it is not known who
killed him,
2 then your elders and your judges shall come forth, and they shall
measure the distance to the cities which are around him that is slain;
3 and the elders of the city which is nearest to the slain man shall
take a heifer which has never been worked and which has not pulled in the
yoke.
4 And the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley
with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the
heifer's neck there in the valley.
5 And the priests the sons of Levi shall come forward, for the LORD
your God has chosen them to minister to him and to bless in the name of
the LORD, and by their word every dispute and every assault shall be
settled.
6 And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man shall wash
their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley;
7 and they shall testify, 'Our hands did not shed this blood, neither
did our eyes see it shed.
8 Forgive, O LORD, thy people Israel, whom thou hast redeemed, and
set not the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of thy people Israel; but
let the guilt of blood be forgiven them.'
9 So you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst,
when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD.
10 "When you go forth to war against your enemies, and the LORD
your God gives them into your hands, and you take them captive,
11 and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you have desire
for her and would take her for yourself as wife,
12 then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave
her head and pare her nails.
13 And she shall put off her captive's garb, and shall remain in your
house and bewail her father and her mother a full month; after that you
may go in to her, and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.
14 Then, if you have no delight in her, you shall let her go where
she will; but you shall not sell her for money, you shall not treat her as
a slave, since you have humiliated her.
15 "If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other
disliked, and they have borne him children, both the loved and the
disliked, and if the first-born son is hers that is disliked,
16 then on the day when he assigns his possessions as an inheritance
to his sons, he may not treat the son of the loved as the first-born in
preference to the son of the disliked, who is the first-born,
17 but he shall acknowledge the first-born, the son of the disliked,
by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the first
issue of his strength; the right of the first-born is his.
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, though they
chastise him, will not give heed to them,
19 then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring
him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives,
20 and they shall 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 the city shall stone him to death with stones;
so you shall purge the evil from your midst; and all Israel shall hear,
and fear.
22 "And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and
he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree,
23 his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but you shall
bury him the same day, for a hanged man is accursed by God; you shall not
defile your land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance.
Deuteronomy
Chapter 22 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 22
1 "You shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep go astray,
and withhold your help from them; you shall take them back to your
brother.
2 And if he is not near you, or if you do not know him, you shall
bring it home to your house, and it shall be with you until your brother
seeks it; then you shall restore it to him.
3 And so you shall do with his ass; so you shall do with his garment;
so you shall do with any lost thing of your brother's, which he loses and
you find; you may not withhold your help.
4 You shall not see your brother's ass or his ox fallen down by the
way, and withhold your help from them; you shall help him to lift them up
again.
5 "A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor
shall a man put on a woman's garment; for whoever does these things is an
abomination to the LORD your God.
6 "If you chance to come upon a bird's nest, in any tree or on
the ground, with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting upon the young
or upon the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young;
7 you shall let the mother go, but the young you may take to
yourself; that it may go well with you, and that you may live long.
8 "When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your
roof, that you may not bring the guilt of blood upon your house, if any
one fall from it.
9 "You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest
the whole yield be forfeited to the sanctuary, the crop which you have
sown and the yield of the vineyard.
10 You shall not plow with an ox and an ass together.
11 You shall not wear a mingled stuff, wool and linen together.
12 "You shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of your
cloak with which you cover yourself.
13 "If any man takes a wife, and goes in to her, and then spurns
her,
14 and charges her with shameful conduct, and brings an evil name
upon her, saying, 'I took this woman, and when I came near her, I did not
find in her the tokens of virginity,'
15 then the father of the young woman and her mother shall take and
bring out the tokens of her virginity to the elders of the city in the
gate;
16 and the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, 'I gave
my daughter to this man to wife, and he spurns her;
17 and lo, he has made shameful charges against her, saying, "I
did not find in your daughter the tokens of virginity." And yet these
are the tokens of my daughter's virginity.' And they shall spread the
garment before the elders of the city.
18 Then the elders of that city shall take the man and whip him;
19 and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver, and give them
to the father of the young woman, because he has brought an evil name upon
a virgin of Israel; and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all
his days.
20 But if the thing is true, that the tokens of virginity were not
found in the young woman,
21 then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her
father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with
stones, because she has wrought folly in Israel by playing the harlot in
her father's house; so you shall purge the evil from the midst of you.
22 "If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both
of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman; so you
shall purge the evil from Israel.
23 "If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the
city and lies with her,
24 then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and
you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did
not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he
violated his neighbor's wife; so you shall purge the evil from the midst
of you.
25 "But if in the open country a man meets a young woman who is
betrothed, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who
lay with her shall die.
26 But to the young woman you shall do nothing; in the young woman
there is no offense punishable by death, for this case is like that of a
man attacking and murdering his neighbor;
27 because he came upon her in the open country, and though the
betrothed young woman cried for help there was no one to rescue her.
28 "If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her
and lies with her, and they are found,
29 then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the
young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he
has violated her; he may not put her away all his days.
30 "A man shall not take his father's wife, nor shall he uncover
her who is his father's.
Deuteronomy
Chapter 23 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 23
1 "He whose testicles are crushed or whose male member is cut
off shall not enter the assembly of the LORD.
2 "No bastard shall enter the assembly of the LORD; even to the
tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the
LORD.
3 "No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the LORD;
even to the tenth generation none belonging to them shall enter the
assembly of the LORD for ever;
4 because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way,
when you came forth out of Egypt, and because they hired against you
Balaam the son of Be'or from Pethor of Mesopota'mia, 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 loved you.
6 You shall not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days
for ever.
7 "You shall not abhor an E'domite, for he is your brother; you
shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were a sojourner in his land.
8 The children of the third generation that are born to them may
enter the assembly of the LORD.
9 "When you go forth against your enemies and are in camp, then
you shall keep yourself from every evil thing.
10 "If there is among you any man who is not clean by reason of
what chances to him by night, then he shall go outside the camp, he shall
not come within the camp;
11 but when evening comes on, he shall bathe himself in water, and
when the sun is down, he may come within the camp.
12 "You shall have a place outside the camp and you shall go out
to it;
13 and you shall have a stick with your weapons; and when you sit
down outside, you shall dig a hole with it, and turn back and cover up
your excrement.
14 Because the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp, to save
you and to give up your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be
holy, that he may not see anything indecent among you, and turn away from
you.
15 "You shall not give up to his master a slave who has escaped
from his master to you;
16 he shall dwell with you, in your midst, in the place which he
shall choose within one of your towns, where it pleases him best; you
shall not oppress him.
17 "There shall be no cult prostitute of the daughters of
Israel, neither shall there be a cult prostitute of the sons of Israel.
18 You shall not bring the hire of a harlot, or the wages of a dog,
into the house of the LORD your God in payment for any vow; for both of
these are an abomination to the LORD your God.
19 "You shall not lend upon interest to your brother, interest
on money, interest on victuals, interest on anything that is lent for
interest.
20 To a foreigner you may lend upon interest, but to your brother you
shall not lend upon interest; that the LORD your God may bless you in all
that you undertake in the land which you are entering to take possession
of it.
21 "When you make a vow to the LORD your God, you shall not be
slack to pay it; for the LORD your God will surely require it of you, and
it would be sin in you.
22 But if you refrain from vowing, it shall be no sin in you.
23 You shall be careful to perform what has passed your lips, for you
have voluntarily vowed to the LORD your God what you have promised with
your mouth.
24 "When you go into your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat your
fill of grapes, as many as you wish, but you shall not put any in your
vessel.
25 When you go into your neighbor's standing grain, you may pluck the
ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor's
standing grain.
Deuteronomy
Chapter 24 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 24
1 "When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no
favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he
writes her a bill of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of
his house, and she departs out of his house,
2 and if she goes and becomes another man's wife,
3 and the latter husband dislikes her and writes her a bill of
divorce 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 then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again
to be his wife, after she has been defiled; for that is an abomination
before the LORD, and you shall not bring guilt upon the land which the
LORD your God gives you for an inheritance.
5 "When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the
army or be charged with any business; he shall be free at home one year,
to be happy with his wife whom he has taken.
6 "No man shall take a mill or an upper millstone in pledge; for
he would be taking a life in pledge.
7 "If a man is found stealing one of his brethren, the people of
Israel, and if he treats him as a slave or sells him, then that thief
shall die; so you shall purge the evil from the midst of you.
8 "Take heed, in an attack of leprosy, to be very careful to do
according to all that the Levitical priests shall direct you; as I
commanded them, so you shall be careful to do.
9 Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam on the way as you
came forth out of Egypt.
10 "When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall
not go into his house to fetch his pledge.
11 You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you make the loan
shall bring the pledge out to you.
12 And if he is a poor man, you shall not sleep in his pledge;
13 when the sun goes down, you shall restore to him the pledge that
he may sleep in his cloak and bless you; and it shall be righteousness to
you before the LORD your God.
14 "You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy,
whether he is one of your brethren or one of the sojourners who are in
your land within your towns;
15 you shall give him his hire on the day he earns it, before the sun
goes down (for he is poor, and sets his heart upon it); lest he cry
against you to the LORD, and it be sin in you.
16 "The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor
shall the children be put to death for the fathers; every man shall be put
to death for his own sin.
17 "You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to
the fatherless, or take a widow's garment in pledge;
18 but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the LORD
your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this.
19 "When you reap your harvest in your field, and have forgotten
a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the
sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow; that the LORD your God may bless
you in all the work of your hands.
20 When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over the boughs
again; it shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.
21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean
it afterward; it shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the
widow.
22 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt;
therefore I command you to do this.
Deuteronomy
Chapter 25 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 25
1 "If there is a dispute between men, and they come into court,
and the judges decide between them, acquitting the innocent and condemning
the guilty,
2 then if the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall cause
him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with a number of stripes in
proportion to his offense.
3 Forty stripes may be given him, but not more; lest, if one should
go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded
in your sight.
4 "You shall not muzzle an ox when 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 the family to a
stranger; her husband's brother shall go in to her, and take her as his
wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her.
6 And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his
brother who is dead, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.
7 And if the man does not wish to take his brother's wife, then his
brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders, and say, 'My
husband's brother refuses to perpetuate his brother's name in Israel; he
will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me.'
8 Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak to him and
if he persists, saying, 'I do not wish to take her,'
9 then his brother's wife shall go up to him in the presence of the
elders, and pull his sandal off his foot, and spit in his face; and she
shall answer and say, 'So shall it be done to the man who does not build
up his brother's house.'
10 And the name of his house shall be called in Israel, The house of
him that had his sandal pulled off.
11 "When men fight with one another, and the wife of the one
draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of him who is beating him,
and puts out her hand and seizes him by the private parts,
12 then you shall cut off her hand; your eye shall have no pity.
13 "You shall not have in your bag two kinds of weights, a large
and a small.
14 You shall not have in your house two kinds of measures, a large
and a small.
15 A full and just weight you shall have, a full and just measure you
shall have; that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD
your God gives you.
16 For all who do such things, all who act dishonestly, are an
abomination to the LORD your God.
17 "Remember what Am'alek did to you on the way as you came out
of Egypt,
18 how he attacked you on the way, when you were faint and weary, and
cut off at your rear all who lagged behind you; and he did not fear God.
19 Therefore when the LORD your God has given you rest from all your
enemies round about, in the land which the LORD your God gives you for an
inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the remembrance of Am'alek from
under heaven; you shall not forget.
Deuteronomy
Chapter 26 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 26
1 "When you come into the land which the LORD your God gives you
for an inheritance, and have taken possession of it, and live in it,
2 you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground,
which you harvest from your land that the LORD your God gives you, and you
shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the place which the LORD
your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there.
3 And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and
say to him, 'I declare this day to the LORD your God that I have come into
the land which the LORD swore to our fathers to give us.'
4 Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand, and set it
down before the altar of the LORD your God.
5 "And you shall make response before the LORD your God, 'A
wandering Aramean was my father; and he went down into Egypt and sojourned
there, few in number; and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and
populous.
6 And the Egyptians treated us harshly, and afflicted us, and laid
upon us hard bondage.
7 Then we cried to the LORD the God of our fathers, and the LORD
heard our voice, and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression;
8 and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an
outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs and wonders;
9 and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land
flowing with milk and honey.
10 And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground,
which thou, O LORD, hast given me.' And you shall set it down before the
LORD your God, and worship before the LORD your God;
11 and you shall rejoice in all the good which the LORD your God has
given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who
is among you.
12 "When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce
in the third year, which is the year of tithing, giving it to the Levite,
the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat within
your towns and be filled,
13 then you shall say before the LORD your God, 'I have removed the
sacred portion out of my house, and moreover I have given it to the
Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all thy
commandment which thou hast commanded me; I have not transgressed any of
thy commandments, neither have I forgotten them;
14 I have not eaten of the tithe while I was mourning, or removed any
of it while I was unclean, or offered any of it to the dead; I have obeyed
the voice of the LORD my God, I have done according to all that thou hast
commanded me.
15 Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy
people Israel and the ground which thou hast given us, as thou didst swear
to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.'
16 "This day the LORD your God commands you to do these statutes
and ordinances; you shall therefore be careful to do them with all your
heart and with all your soul.
17 You have declared this day concerning the LORD that he is your
God, and that you will walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his
commandments and his ordinances, and will obey his voice;
18 and the LORD has declared this day concerning you that you are a
people for his own possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to
keep all his commandments,
19 that he will set you high above all nations that he has made, in
praise and in fame and in honor, and that you shall be a people holy to
the LORD your God, as he has spoken."
Deuteronomy
Chapter 27 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 27
1 Now Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying,
"Keep all the commandment which I command you this day.
2 And on the day you pass over the Jordan to the land which the LORD
your God gives you, you shall set up large stones, and plaster them with
plaster;
3 and you shall write upon them all the words of this law, when you
pass over to enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, a land
flowing with milk and honey, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has
promised you.
4 And when you have passed over the Jordan, you shall set up these
stones, concerning which I command you this day, on Mount Ebal, and you
shall plaster them with plaster.
5 And there you shall build an altar to the LORD your God, an altar
of stones; you shall lift up no iron tool upon them.
6 You shall build an altar to the LORD your God of unhewn stones; and
you shall offer burnt offerings on it to the LORD your God;
7 and you shall sacrifice peace offerings, and shall eat there; and
you shall rejoice before the LORD your God.
8 And you shall write upon the stones all the words of this law very
plainly."
9 And Moses and the Levitical priests said to all Israel, "Keep
silence and hear, O Israel this day you have become the people of the
LORD your God.
10 You shall therefore obey the voice of the LORD your God, keeping
his commandments and his statutes, which I command you this day."
11 And Moses charged the people the same day, saying,
12 "When you have passed over the Jordan, these shall stand upon
Mount Ger'izim to bless the people Simeon, Levi, Judah, Is'sachar,
Joseph, and Benjamin.
13 And these shall stand upon Mount Ebal for the curse Reuben,
Gad, Asher, Zeb'ulun, Dan, and Naph'tali.
14 And the Levites shall declare to all the men of Israel with a loud
voice:
15 "'Cursed be the man who makes a graven or molten image, an
abomination to the LORD, a thing made by the hands of a craftsman, and
sets it up in secret.' And all the people shall answer and say, 'Amen.'
16 "'Cursed be he who dishonors his father or his mother.' And
all the people shall say, 'Amen.'
17 "'Cursed be he who removes his neighbor's landmark.' And all
the people shall say, 'Amen.'
18 "'Cursed be he who misleads a blind man on the road.' And all
the people shall say, 'Amen.'
19 "'Cursed be he who perverts the justice due to the sojourner,
the fatherless, and the widow.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.'
20 "'Cursed be he who lies with his father's wife, because he
has uncovered her who is his father's.' And all the people shall say,
'Amen.'
21 "'Cursed be he who lies with any kind of beast.' And all the
people shall say, 'Amen.'
22 "'Cursed be he who lies with his sister, whether the daughter
of his father or the daughter of his mother.' And all the people shall
say, 'Amen.'
23 "'Cursed be he who lies with his mother-in-law.' And all the
people shall say, 'Amen.'
24 "'Cursed be he who slays his neighbor in secret.' And all the
people shall say, 'Amen.'
25 "'Cursed be he who takes a bribe to slay an innocent person.'
And all the people shall say, 'Amen.'
26 "'Cursed be he who does not confirm the words of this law by
doing them.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.'
Deuteronomy
Chapter 28 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 28
1 "And if you obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful
to do all his commandments which I command you this day, the LORD your God
will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if
you obey the voice of the LORD your God.
3 Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the
field.
4 Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your
ground, and the fruit of your beasts, the increase of your cattle, and the
young of your flock.
5 Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading-trough.
6 Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be
when you go out.
7 "The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be
defeated before you; they shall come out against you one way, and flee
before you seven ways.
8 The LORD will command the blessing upon you in your barns, and in
all that you undertake; and he will bless you in the land which the LORD
your God gives you.
9 The LORD will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has
sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and walk
in his ways.
10 And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by
the name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of you.
11 And the LORD will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of
your body, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your
ground, within the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you.
12 The LORD will open to you his good treasury the heavens, to give
the rain of your land in its season and to bless all the work of your
hands; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.
13 And the LORD will make you the head, and not the tail; and you
shall tend upward only, and not downward; if you obey the commandments of
the LORD your God, which I command you this day, being careful to do them,
14 and if you do not turn aside from any of the words which I command
you this day, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to
serve them.
15 "But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or
be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you
this day, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.
16 Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the
field.
17 Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading-trough.
18 Cursed shall be the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your
ground, the increase of your cattle, and the young of your flock.
19 Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when
you go out.
20 "The LORD will send upon you curses, confusion, and
frustration, in all that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and
perish quickly, on account of the evil of your doings, because you have
forsaken me.
21 The LORD will make the pestilence cleave to you until he has
consumed you off the land which you are entering to take possession of it.
22 The LORD will smite you with consumption, and with fever,
inflammation, and fiery heat, and with drought, and with blasting, and
with mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish.
23 And the heavens over your head shall be brass, and the earth under
you shall be iron.
24 The LORD will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from
heaven it shall come down upon you until you are destroyed.
25 "The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies;
you shall go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them;
and you shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
26 And your dead body shall be food for all birds of the air, and for
the beasts of the earth; and there shall be no one to frighten them away.
27 The LORD will smite you with the boils of Egypt, and with the
ulcers and the scurvy and the itch, of which you cannot be healed.
28 The LORD will smite you with madness and blindness and confusion
of mind;
29 and you shall grope at noonday, as the blind grope in darkness,
and you shall not prosper in your ways; and you shall be only oppressed
and robbed continually, and there shall be no one to help you.
30 You shall betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her; you
shall build a house, and you shall not dwell in it; you shall plant a
vineyard, and you shall not use the fruit of it.
31 Your ox shall be slain before your eyes, and you shall not eat of
it; your ass shall be violently taken away before your face, and shall not
be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and there
shall be no one to help you.
32 Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people,
while your eyes look on and fail with longing for them all the day; and it
shall not be in the power of your hand to prevent it.
33 A nation which you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your
ground and of all your labors; and you shall be only oppressed and crushed
continually;
34 so that you shall be driven mad by the sight which your eyes shall
see.
35 The LORD will smite you on the knees and on the legs with grievous
boils of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the
crown of your head.
36 "The LORD will bring you, and your king whom you set over
you, to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known; and there
you shall serve other gods, of wood and stone.
37 And you shall become a horror, a proverb, and a byword, among all
the peoples where the LORD will lead you away.
38 You shall carry much seed into the field, and shall gather little
in; for the locust shall consume it.
39 You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither
drink of the wine nor gather the grapes; for the worm shall eat them.
40 You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you
shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives shall drop off.
41 You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours;
for they shall go into captivity.
42 All your trees and the fruit of your ground the locust shall
possess.
43 The sojourner who is among you shall mount above you higher and
higher; and you shall come down lower and lower.
44 He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him; he shall be
the head, and you shall be the tail.
45 All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake
you, till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the
LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he
commanded you.
46 They shall be upon you as a sign and a wonder, and upon your
descendants for ever.
47 "Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joyfulness
and gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things,
48 therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send
against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and in want of all
things; and he will put a yoke of iron upon your neck, until he has
destroyed you.
49 The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end
of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you do
not understand,
50 a nation of stern countenance, who shall not regard the person of
the old or show favor to the young,
51 and shall eat the offspring of your cattle and the fruit of your
ground, until you are destroyed; who also shall not leave you grain, wine,
or oil, the increase of your cattle or the young of your flock, until they
have caused you to perish.
52 They shall besiege you in all your towns, until your high and
fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout all your land;
and they shall besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land,
which the LORD your God has given you.
53 And you shall eat the offspring of your own body, the flesh of
your sons and daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you, in the
siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you.
54 The man who is the most tender and delicately bred among you will
grudge food to his brother, to the wife of his bosom, and to the last of
the children who remain to him;
55 so that he will not give to any of them any of the flesh of his
children whom he is eating, because he has nothing left him, in the siege
and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your
towns.
56 The most tender and delicately bred woman among you, who would not
venture to set the sole of her foot upon the ground because she is so
delicate and tender, will grudge to the husband of her bosom, to her son
and to her daughter,
57 her afterbirth that comes out from between her feet and her
children whom she bears, because she will eat them secretly, for want of
all things, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall
distress you in your towns.
58 "If you are not careful to do all the words of this law which
are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awful name,
the LORD your God,
59 then the LORD will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary
afflictions, afflictions severe and lasting, and sicknesses grievous and
lasting.
60 And he will bring upon you again all the diseases of Egypt, which
you were afraid of; and they shall cleave to you.
61 Every sickness also, and every affliction which is not recorded in
the book of this law, the LORD will bring upon you, until you are
destroyed.
62 Whereas you were as the stars of heaven for multitude, you shall
be left few in number; because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your
God.
63 And as the LORD took delight in doing you good and multiplying
you, so the LORD will take delight in bringing ruin upon you and
destroying you; and you shall be plucked off the land which you are
entering to take possession of it.
64 And the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of
the earth to the other; and there you shall serve other gods, of wood and
stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.
65 And among these nations you shall find no ease, and there shall be
no rest for the sole of your foot; but the LORD will give you there a
trembling heart, and failing eyes, and a languishing soul;
66 your life shall hang in doubt before you; night and day you shall
be in dread, and have no assurance of your life.
67 In the morning you shall say, 'Would it were evening!' and at
evening you shall say, 'Would it were morning!' because of the dread which
your heart shall fear, and the sights which your eyes shall see.
68 And the LORD will bring you back in ships to Egypt, a journey
which I promised that you should never make again; and there you shall
offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but
no man will buy you."
Deuteronomy
Chapter 29 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 29
1 These are the words of the covenant which the LORD commanded Moses
to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the
covenant which he had made with them at Horeb.
2 And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them "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 the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, and those great
wonders;
4 but to this day the LORD has not given you a mind to understand, or
eyes to see, or ears to hear.
5 I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes have not
worn out upon you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet;
6 you have not eaten bread, and you have not drunk wine or strong
drink; that you may know that I am the LORD your God.
7 And when you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og
the king of Bashan came out against us to battle, but we defeated them;
8 we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance to the
Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manas'sites.
9 Therefore be careful to do the words of this covenant, that you may
prosper in all that you do.
10 "You stand this day all of you before the LORD your God; the
heads of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, all the men of
Israel,
11 your little ones, your wives, and the sojourner who is in your
camp, both he who hews your wood and he who draws your water,
12 that you may enter into the sworn covenant of the LORD your God,
which the LORD your God makes with you this day;
13 that he may establish you this day as his people, and that he may
be your God, as he promised you, and as he swore to your fathers, to
Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
14 Nor is it with you only that I make this sworn covenant,
15 but with him who is not here with us this day as well as with him
who stands here with us this day before the LORD our God.
16 "You know how we dwelt in the land of Egypt, and how we came
through the midst of the nations through which you passed;
17 and you have seen their detestable things, their idols of wood and
stone, of silver and gold, which were among them.
18 Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or family or tribe,
whose heart turns away this day from the LORD our God to go and serve the
gods of those nations; lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous
and bitter fruit,
19 one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses
himself in his heart, saying, 'I shall be safe, though I walk in the
stubbornness of my heart.' This would lead to the sweeping away of moist
and dry alike.
20 The LORD would not pardon him, but rather the anger of the LORD
and his jealousy would smoke against that man, and the curses written in
this book would settle upon him, and the LORD would blot out his name from
under heaven.
21 And the LORD would single him out from all the tribes of Israel
for calamity, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in
this book of the law.
22 And the generation to come, your children who rise up after you,
and the foreigner who comes from a far land, would say, when they see the
afflictions of that land and the sicknesses with which the LORD has made
it sick --
23 the whole land brimstone and salt, and a burnt-out waste, unsown,
and growing nothing, where no grass can sprout, an overthrow like that of
Sodom and Gomor'rah, Admah and Zeboi'im, which the LORD overthrew in his
anger and wrath --
24 yea, all the nations would say, 'Why has the LORD done thus to
this land? What means the heat of this great anger?'
25 Then men would say, 'It is because they forsook the covenant of
the LORD, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he
brought them out of the land of Egypt,
26 and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they
had not known and whom he had not allotted to them;
27 therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land,
bringing upon it all the curses written in this book;
28 and the LORD uprooted them from their land in anger and fury and
great wrath, and cast them into another land, as at this day.'
29 "The secret things belong to the LORD our God; but the things
that are revealed belong to us and to our children for ever, that we may
do all the words of this law.
Deuteronomy
Chapter 30 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 30
1 "And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the
curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all
the nations where the LORD your God has driven you,
2 and return to the LORD your God, you and your children, and obey
his voice in all that I command you this day, with all your heart and with
all your soul;
3 then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes, and have
compassion upon you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples
where the LORD your God has scattered you.
4 If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there
the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will fetch you;
5 and the LORD your God will bring you into the land which your
fathers possessed, that you may possess it; and he will make you more
prosperous and numerous than your fathers.
6 And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of
your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your
heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
7 And the LORD your God will put all these curses upon your foes and
enemies who persecuted you.
8 And you shall again obey the voice of the LORD, and keep all his
commandments which I command you this day.
9 The LORD your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the
work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your
cattle, and in the fruit of your ground; for the LORD will again take
delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers,
10 if you obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his
commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law,
if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your
soul.
11 "For this commandment which I command you this day is not too
hard for you, neither is it far off.
12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will go up for us
to heaven, and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?'
13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will go
over the sea for us, and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?'
14 But the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your
heart, so that you can do it.
15 "See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and
evil.
16 If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God which I command
you this day, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by
keeping his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, then you
shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land
which you are entering to take possession of it.
17 But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn
away to worship other gods and serve them,
18 I declare to you this day, that you shall perish; you shall not
live long in the land which you are going over the Jordan to enter and
possess.
19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I
have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose
life, that you and your descendants may live,
20 loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him;
for that means life to you and length of days, that you may dwell in the
land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to
Jacob, to give them."
Deuteronomy
Chapter 31 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 31
1 So Moses continued to speak these words to all Israel.
2 And he said to them, "I am a hundred and twenty years old this
day; I am no longer able to go out and come in. The LORD has said to me,
'You shall not go over this Jordan.'
3 The LORD your God himself will go over before you; he will destroy
these nations before you, so that you shall dispossess them; and Joshua
will go over at your head, as the LORD has spoken.
4 And the LORD will do to them as he did to Sihon and Og, the kings
of the Amorites, and to their land, when he destroyed them.
5 And the LORD will give them over to you, and you shall do to them
according to all the commandment which I have commanded you.
6 Be strong and of good courage, do not fear or be in dread of them for
it is the LORD your God who goes with you; he will not fail you or forsake
you."
7 Then Moses summoned Joshua, and said to him in the sight of all
Israel, "Be strong and of good courage; for you shall go with this
people into the land which the LORD has sworn to their fathers to give
them; and you shall put them in possession of it.
8 It is the LORD who goes before you; he will be with you, he will
not fail you or forsake you; do not fear or be dismayed."
9 And Moses wrote this law, and gave it to the priests the sons of
Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the
elders of Israel.
10 And Moses commanded them, "At the end of every seven years,
at the set time of the year of release, at the feast of booths,
11 when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God at the
place which he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in
their hearing.
12 Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the
sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the LORD
your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law,
13 and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn
to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live in the land which you are
going over the Jordan to possess."
14 And the LORD said to Moses, "Behold, the days approach when
you must die; call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tent of meeting,
that I may commission him." And Moses and Joshua went and presented
themselves in the tent of meeting.
15 And the LORD appeared in the tent in a pillar of cloud; and the
pillar of cloud stood by the door of the tent.
16 And the LORD said to Moses, "Behold, you are about to sleep
with your fathers; then this people will rise and play the harlot after
the strange gods of the land, where they go to be among them, and they
will forsake me and break my covenant which I have made with them.
17 Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will
forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured; and
many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that
day, 'Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?'
18 And I will surely hide my face in that day on account of all the
evil which they have done, because they have turned to other gods.
19 Now therefore write this song, and teach it to the people of
Israel; put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me
against the people of Israel.
20 For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and
honey, which I swore to give to their fathers, and they have eaten and are
full and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them, and
despise me and break my covenant.
21 And when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song
shall confront them as a witness (for it will live unforgotten in the
mouths of their descendants); for I know the purposes which they are
already forming, before I have brought them into the land that I swore to
give."
22 So Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the people
of Israel.
23 And the LORD commissioned Joshua the son of Nun and said, "Be
strong and of good courage; for you shall bring the children of Israel
into the land which I swore to give them I will be with you."
24 When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book,
to the very end,
25 Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of
the LORD,
26 "Take this book of the law, and put it by the side of the ark
of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness
against you.
27 For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are; behold, while I am
yet alive with you, today you have been rebellious against the LORD; how
much more after my death!
28 Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers,
that I may speak these words in their ears and call heaven and earth to
witness against them.
29 For I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly, and
turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and in the days to
come evil will befall you, because you will do what is evil in the sight
of the LORD, provoking him to anger through the work of your hands."
30 Then Moses spoke the words of this song until they were finished,
in the ears of all the assembly of Israel:
Deuteronomy
Chapter 32 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 32
1 "Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; and let the earth hear
the words of my mouth.
2 May my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distil as the dew, as
the gentle rain upon the tender grass, and as the showers upon the herb.
3 For I will proclaim the name of the LORD. Ascribe greatness to our
God!
4 "The Rock, his work is perfect; for all his ways are justice.
A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is he.
5 They have dealt corruptly with him, they are no longer his children
because of their blemish; they are a perverse and crooked generation.
6 Do you thus requite the LORD, you foolish and senseless people? Is
not he your father, who created you, who made you and established you?
7 Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations;
ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell
you.
8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he
separated the sons of men, he fixed the bounds of the peoples according to
the number of the sons of God.
9 For the LORD's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.
10 "He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of
the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the
apple of his eye.
11 Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its
young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its
pinions,
12 the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no foreign god with
him.
13 He made him ride on the high places of the earth, and he ate the
produce of the field; and he made him suck honey out of the rock, and oil
out of the flinty rock.
14 Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock, with fat of lambs
and rams, herds of Bashan and goats, with the finest of the wheat -- and
of the blood of the grape you drank wine.
15 "But Jesh'urun waxed fat, and kicked; you waxed fat, you grew
thick, you became sleek; then he forsook God who made him, and scoffed at
the Rock of his salvation.
16 They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominable
practices they provoked him to anger.
17 They sacrificed to demons which were no gods, to gods they had
never known, to new gods that had come in of late, whom your fathers had
never dreaded.
18 You were unmindful of the Rock that begot you, and you forgot the
God who gave you birth.
19 "The LORD saw it, and spurned them, because of the
provocation of his sons and his daughters.
20 And he said, 'I will hide my face from them, I will see what their
end will be, for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no
faithfulness.
21 They have stirred me to jealousy with what is no god; they have
provoked me with their idols. So I will stir them to jealousy with those
who are no people; I will provoke them with a foolish nation.
22 For a fire is kindled by my anger, and it burns to the depths of
Sheol, devours the earth and its increase, and sets on fire the
foundations of the mountains.
23 "'And I will heap evils upon them; I will spend my arrows
upon them;
24 they shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat
and poisonous pestilence; and I will send the teeth of beasts against
them, with venom of crawling things of the dust.
25 In the open the sword shall bereave, and in the chambers shall be
terror, destroying both young man and virgin, the sucking child with the
man of gray hairs.
26 I would have said, "I will scatter them afar, I will make the
remembrance of them cease from among men,"
27 had I not feared provocation by the enemy, lest their adversaries
should judge amiss, lest they should say, "Our hand is triumphant,
the LORD has not wrought all this."'
28 "For they are a nation void of counsel, and there is no
understanding in them.
29 If they were wise, they would understand this, they would discern
their latter end!
30 How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to
flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had given them up?
31 For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves
being judges.
32 For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom, and from the fields
of Gomor'rah; their grapes are grapes of poison, their clusters are
bitter;
33 their wine is the poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of asps.
34 "Is not this laid up in store with me, sealed up in my
treasuries?
35 Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot
shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes
swiftly.
36 For the LORD will vindicate his people and have compassion on his
servants, when he sees that their power is gone, and there is none
remaining, bond or free.
37 Then he will say, 'Where are their gods, the rock in which they
took refuge,
38 who ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their
drink offering? Let them rise up and help you, let them be your
protection!
39 "'See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside
me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that
can deliver out of my hand.
40 For I lift up my hand to heaven, and swear, As I live for ever,
41 if I whet my glittering sword, and my hand takes hold on judgment,
I will take vengeance on my adversaries, and will requite those who hate
me.
42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour
flesh -- with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the
long-haired heads of the enemy.'
43 "Praise his people, O you nations; for he avenges the blood
of his servants, and takes vengeance on his adversaries, and makes
expiation for the land of his people."
44 Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing
of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun.
45 And when Moses had finished speaking all these words to all
Israel,
46 he said to them, "Lay to heart all the words which I enjoin
upon you this day, that you may command them to your children, that they
may be careful to do all the words of this law.
47 For it is no trifle for you, but it is your life, and thereby you
shall live long in the land which you are going over the Jordan to
possess."
48 And the LORD said to Moses that very day,
49 "Ascend this mountain of the Ab'arim, Mount Nebo, which is in
the land of Moab, opposite Jericho; and view the land of Canaan, which I
give to the people of Israel for a possession;
50 and die on the mountain which you ascend, and be gathered to your
people, as Aaron your brother died in Mount Hor and was gathered to his
people;
51 because you broke faith with me in the midst of the people of
Israel at the waters of Mer'i-bath-ka'desh, in the wilderness of Zin;
because you did not revere me as holy in the midst of the people of
Israel.
52 For you shall see the land before you; but you shall not go there,
into the land which I give to the people of Israel."
Deuteronomy
Chapter 33 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 33
1 This is the blessing with which Moses the man of God blessed the
children of Israel before his death.
2 He said, "The LORD came from Sinai, and dawned from Se'ir upon
us; he shone forth from Mount Paran, he came from the ten thousands of
holy ones, with flaming fire at his right hand.
3 Yea, he loved his people; all those consecrated to him were in his
hand; so they followed in thy steps, receiving direction from thee,
4 when Moses commanded us a law, as a possession for the assembly of
Jacob.
5 Thus the LORD became king in Jesh'urun, when the heads of the
people were gathered, all the tribes of Israel together.
6 "Let Reuben live, and not die, nor let his men be few."
7 And this he said of Judah "Hear, O LORD, the voice of
Judah, and bring him in to his people. With thy hands contend for him, and
be a help against his adversaries."
8 And of Levi he said, "Give to Levi thy Thummim, and thy Urim
to thy godly one, whom thou didst test at Massah, with whom thou didst
strive at the waters of Mer'ibah;
9 who said of his father and mother, 'I regard them not'; he disowned
his brothers, and ignored his children. For they observed thy word, and
kept thy covenant.
10 They shall teach Jacob thy ordinances, and Israel thy law; they
shall put incense before thee, and whole burnt offering upon thy altar.
11 Bless, O LORD, his substance, and accept the work of his hands;
crush the loins of his adversaries, of those that hate him, that they rise
not again."
12 Of Benjamin he said, "The beloved of the LORD, he dwells in
safety by him; he encompasses him all the day long, and makes his dwelling
between his shoulders."
13 And of Joseph he said, "Blessed by the LORD be his land, with
the choicest gifts of heaven above, and of the deep that couches beneath,
14 with the choicest fruits of the sun, and the rich yield of the
months,
15 with the finest produce of the ancient mountains, and the
abundance of the everlasting hills,
16 with the best gifts of the earth and its fulness, and the favor of
him that dwelt in the bush. Let these come upon the head of Joseph, and
upon the crown of the head of him that is prince among his brothers.
17 His firstling bull has majesty, and his horns are the horns of a
wild ox; with them he shall push the peoples, all of them, to the ends of
the earth; such are the ten thousands of E'phraim, and such are the
thousands of Manas'seh."
18 And of Zeb'ulun he said, "Rejoice, Zeb'ulun, in your going
out; and Is'sachar, in your tents.
19 They shall call peoples to their mountain; there they offer right
sacrifices; for they suck the affluence of the seas and the hidden
treasures of the sand."
20 And of Gad he said, "Blessed be he who enlarges Gad! Gad
couches like a lion, he tears the arm, and the crown of the head.
21 He chose the best of the land for himself, for there a commander's
portion was reserved; and he came to the heads of the people, with Israel
he executed the commands and just decrees of the LORD."
22 And of Dan he said, "Dan is a lion's whelp, that leaps forth
from Bashan."
23 And of Naph'tali he said, "O Naph'tali, satisfied with favor,
and full of the blessing of the LORD, possess the lake and the
south."
24 And of Asher he said, "Blessed above sons be Asher; let him
be the favorite of his brothers, and let him dip his foot in oil.
25 Your bars shall be iron and bronze; and as your days, so shall
your strength be.
26 "There is none like God, O Jesh'urun, who rides through the
heavens to your help, and in his majesty through the skies.
27 The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the
everlasting arms. And he thrust out the enemy before you, and said,
Destroy.
28 So Israel dwelt in safety, the fountain of Jacob alone, in a land
of grain and wine; yea, his heavens drop down dew.
29 Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the
LORD, the shield of your help, and the sword of your triumph! Your enemies
shall come fawning to you; and you shall tread upon their high
places."
Deuteronomy
Chapter 34 (Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 34
1 And Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top
of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And the LORD showed him all the
land, Gilead as far as Dan,
2 all Naph'tali, the land of E'phraim and Manas'seh, all the land of
Judah as far as the Western Sea,
3 the Negeb, and the Plain, that is, the valley of Jericho the city
of palm trees, as far as Zo'ar.
4 And the LORD said to him, "This is the land of which I swore
to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, 'I will give it to your descendants.'
I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over
there."
5 So 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 the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-pe'or;
but no man knows the place of his burial to this day.
7 Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died; his eye was
not dim, nor his natural force abated.
8 And the people of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab
thirty days; then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.
9 And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for
Moses had laid his hands upon him; so the people of Israel obeyed him, and
did as the LORD had commanded Moses.
10 And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses,
whom the LORD knew face to face,
11 none like him for all the signs and the wonders which 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 for all the mighty power and all the great and terrible deeds
which Moses wrought in the sight of all Israel.
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