Knights of Columbus Beaver Valley Chapter Electronic Books

New Jerusalem Bible with Apocrypha
The Book of Deuteronomy

The Book of Deuteronomy is, as its name implies, a second version or copy of the Law. It may well be the book of the Law discovered in the Temple at the time of the reform of King Josiah (622 bc). Although it clearly incorporates a great deal of earlier material, it contains many religious emphases characteristic of the prophets and must have received its definitive moulding at that time. After an introductory summary on Israel's history and the need for fidelity, it is structured on three great discourses of Moses, the second of which sandwiches the Deuteronomic Code of Law (12:1-26:15). It is dominated by the twin ideas of love and law: God's passionate and exclusive love for Israel, his chosen nation, and his affectionate intimacy with Israel, and Israel's response in whole-hearted love and filial obedience to the Law. This response is expressed in the tribute of tithes, first-born and first-fruits, a recognition that Yahweh is master of the land and its produce. But the Israelites must also imitate God's generosity to themselves through a code of law which excludes exploitation or humiliation of one Israelite by another.

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Chapter 1

INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSES
THE FIRST DISCOURSE OF MOSES
Time and place

^1:1These are the words which Moses addressed to all Israel beyond the Jordan, in the desert, in the Arabah facing Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and Dizahab. ²It is eleven days' journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-Barnea. ³It was in the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, that Moses told the Israelites everything that Yahweh had ordered him to tell them. ⁴He had defeated Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who lived at Ashtaroth and Edrei. ⁵There, in Moab beyond the Jordan, Moses resolved to expound this Law. He said:

The final instructions at Horeb

⁶"Yahweh our God said to us at Horeb, 'You have stayed long enough at this mountain. ⁷Move on, continue your journey, go to the highlands of the Amorites, to all those who live in the Arabah, in the highlands, in the lowlands, in the Negeb and in the coastland; go into Canaan and to Lebanon as far as the great River Euphrates. ⁸Look, that is the country I have given you; go and take possession of the country that Yahweh promised on oath to give to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and to their descendants after them." ⁹*At the same time, I told you,^{*[Ex 18:13-26]}"I cannot be responsible for you by myself. ¹⁰Yahweh your God has increased your numbers, until you are now as numerous as the stars of heaven. ¹¹And Yahweh your God is going to increase you a thousand times more, and bless you as he has promised you. ¹²So how can I cope by myself with the bitter burden that you are, and with your bickering? ¹³From each of your tribes pick wise, shrewd and experienced men for me to make your leaders.* ¹⁴You replied, *Your plan is good.* ¹⁵So I took your tribal leaders, wise, experienced men, and appointed them to lead you, as captains of thousands, hundreds, fifties, tens, and as scribes for your tribes. ¹⁶At that same time I told your judges, *You must give your brothers a fair hearing and see justice done between one person and his brother or the foreigner living with him. ¹⁷You must be impartial in judgement and give an equal hearing to small and great alike. Do not be afraid of any human person, for the verdict is God's. Should a case be too difficult, bring it for me to hear. ¹⁸And on that occasion I gave you instructions about everything you were to do.*

Kadesh: the Israelites lose faith
^{*[Nb 13:1-14:9]}

¹⁹*So, as Yahweh our God had ordered, we left Horeb and made our way through that vast and terrible desert, which you saw on the way to the Amorite highlands, and arrived at Kadesh*Barnea. ²⁰I then said, *You have now reached the Amorite highlands, which Yahweh our God has given us. ²¹Look, Yahweh your God has given you this country. March in, take possession of it as Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, has said; do not be afraid or discouraged.* ²²Then you all came to me and said, *Let us send men ahead of us to explore the country; they shall report to us which way we ought to take and what towns we shall come to.* ²³This seemed good advice to me and I selected twelve men from among you, one from each tribe. ²⁴These men made towards the highlands and went up into them; they reached the Valley of Eshcol and reconnoitred it. ²⁵They collected some of the produce of the country and brought it down to us; and they made us this report, *Yahweh our God has given us a fine country.* ²⁶You, however, refused to go up there and rebelled against the voice of Yahweh your God. ²⁷You muttered in your tents, saying, *Yahweh hates us, and that is why he has brought us out of Egypt, to put us into the Amorites* power and so destroy us. ²⁸What kind of place are we making for? Our brothers have discouraged us by saying that the people are stronger and taller than we are, the cities immense, with walls reaching to the sky. And we have seen Anakim ^{*[According to legend, the Anakim and Rephaim are the original dwellers in Palestine, pictured as giants.]} there too.* ²⁹*And I said to you, *Do not take fright, do not be afraid of them. ³⁰Yahweh your God goes ahead of you and will be fighting on your side, just as you saw him act in Egypt. ³¹You have seen him in the desert too: Yahweh your God continued to support you, as a man supports his son, all along the road you followed until you arrived here.* ³²But for all this, you put no faith in Yahweh your God, ³³going ahead of you on the journey to find you a camping ground, by night in the fire to light your path, and in the cloud by day.

Yahweh's instructions at Kadesh
^{*[Nb 14:21*35]}

³⁴*Yahweh heard what you were saying and in his anger swore this oath, ³⁵*Not one of these people, this perverse generation, will see the fine country I swore to give your ancestors, ³⁶except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it. To him and to his children I shall give the land he has set foot on, for he has been perfectly obedient to Yahweh.* ³⁷Yahweh was angry with me too, because of you. *You will not go in either,* he said. ³⁸*Your assistant, Joshua son of Nun, will be the one to enter. Encourage him, since he is to bring Israel into possession of the country. ³⁹And your little ones too, who, you said, would be seized as booty, these children of yours who do not yet know good from evil, they will go in; I shall give it to them and they will own it. ⁴⁰But, as regards yourselves, turn round, go back into the desert, towards the Sea of Suph.* ⁴¹*In reply, you then said to me, *We have sinned against Yahweh our God. We shall go up and fight just as Yahweh our God has ordered us.* And each one of you buckled on his arms and equipped himself to march up into the highlands. ⁴²But Yahweh said to me, *Tell them this: Do not go up and fight. I am not with you. Do not let yourselves be defeated by your enemies.* ⁴³So I told you, but you would not listen, and you rebelled against the voice of Yahweh; presumptuously you marched into the highlands. ⁴⁴The Amorites, who live in that country of hills, came swarming out against you like bees, pursued you and beat you from Seir to Hormah. ⁴⁵On your return, you wept in Yahweh's presence, but he would not listen to your cries or pay attention. ⁴⁶That was why you had to stay at Kadesh as long as you did.*

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Chapter 2

From Kadesh to the Arnon

²*We then turned round and made for the desert, in the direction of the Sea of Suph, as Yahweh had ordered me. For many days we skirted Mount Seir. ²Yahweh then said to me, ³*You have gone far enough round this mountain; now turn north. ⁴And give the people this order: You are about to pass through the territory of your kinsmen, the sons of Esau who live in Seir. They are afraid of you, and you will be well protected. ⁵Do not provoke them, for I shall give you none of their land, no, not so much as a foot's length of it. I have given the highlands of Seir to Esau as his domain. ⁶Pay them in money for what food you eat; and pay them in money for the water you drink. ⁷Yahweh your God has blessed you in all you do; he has watched over your journeying through this vast desert. Yahweh your God has been with you these forty years and you have never been in want.* ⁸*So we passed beyond those relatives of ours, the children of Esau who live in Seir, by the road through the Arabah, Elath and Ezion*Geber; then, changing direction, we took the road towards the Plains of Moab. ⁹Yahweh then said to me, *Do not attack Moab, do not provoke him to fight, for I shall give you none of his land, since I have given Ar to the children of Lot as their domain.* ¹⁰(At one time the Emim lived there, a great and numerous people, tall as the Anakim; ¹¹and, like the Anakim, they were considered to be Rephaim, though the Moabites call them Emim. ¹²The Horites, too, lived in Seir at one time; these, however, were dispossessed and exterminated by the children of Esau who settled there in place of them, just as Israel has done in the country given to it by Yahweh as a heritage.) ¹³*On your way, then! Cross the Wadi Zered!* *And so we crossed the Wadi Zered. ¹⁴From Kadesh*Barnea to the crossing of the Wadi Zered our wanderings had taken thirty*eight years; as a result of which, the entire generation of those of age to bear arms had been eliminated, as Yahweh had sworn to them. ¹⁵Yahweh's hand had been against them, to eliminate them completely from the camp. ¹⁶*When death had carried off from the people those of age to bear arms, to the last man, ¹⁷Yahweh said this to me, ¹⁸*You are now crossing Ar, the country of Moab, ¹⁹and soon you will encounter the children of Ammon. Do not attack them, do not provoke them, for I shall give you none of the land belonging to the children of Ammon as your domain. I have given it to the children of Lot as theirs.* ²⁰(This used also to be considered as Rephaim territory; at one time the Rephaim lived there, though the Ammonites call them Zamzummim, ²¹a great and numerous people, and tall like the Anakim. Yahweh exterminated them for the Ammonites who dispossessed them and settled there in place of them, ²²just as he had done for the children of Esau who live in Seir, so that they dispossessed the Horites and settled there instead of them and are still there now. ²³It was the same with the Avvites who occupied encampments as far as Gaza: the Caphtorim, coming from Caphtor, exterminated them and settled there instead.) ²⁴*On your way! Break camp and cross the Wadi Arnon. See, I am putting Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, at your mercy, and his country too. Set about the conquest; engage him in battle. ²⁵Today and henceforth, I shall fill the peoples under all heaven with fear and terror of you; whoever hears word of your approach will tremble and writhe in anguish because of you.*

Conquest of the kingdom of Sihon

^{*[Nb 21:21-25]}

²⁶*So, from the desert of Kedemoth I sent envoys to Sihon king of Heshbon with this peaceful message, ²⁷*I intend to cross your country. I shall go my way, straying neither to right nor to left. ²⁸I shall eat and pay for the food you choose to sell me, and I shall drink and pay for the water you let me have. I only want to march through, ²⁹just as the children of Esau who live in Seir permitted, as well as the Moabites who live in Ar, until I cross the Jordan into the country that Yahweh our God is giving us.* ³⁰*But Sihon king of Heshbon would not give us leave to pass through his territory; Yahweh our God had made his spirit obstinate and his heart stubborn, to put him at your mercy, as he still is. ³¹Yahweh said to me, *You see, I am starting to give you Sihon and his country. Begin the conquest by seizing his country.* ³²Sihon marched out against us, he and all his people, to give battle at Jahaz. ³³And Yahweh our God handed him over to us: we defeated him and his sons and all his people. ³⁴We captured all his towns and laid all these towns under the curse of destruction: men, women and children, we left no survivors ³⁵except the livestock which we took as our booty, and the spoils of the captured towns. ³⁶From Aroer on the edge of the Arnon valley and from the town down in the valley, as far as Gilead, not one town was beyond our reach; Yahweh our God delivered them all to us. ³⁷You did not, however, go near the country of the Ammonites, or the region of the River Jabbok, or the towns in the highlands, or anywhere forbidden us by Yahweh our God.*

Conquest of the kingdom of Og

^{*[Nb 21:33-35]}

^3:1*We then turned on Bashan and invaded that. And Og king of Bashan marched out against us, he and all his people, to give battle at Edrei. ²Yahweh said to me, *Do not be afraid of him, for I have put him at your mercy, him, all his people and his country. You will treat him as you treated Sihon king of the Amorites who lived in Heshbon.* ³So, Yahweh our God put Og king of Bashan at our mercy too, with all his people. We beat him so thoroughly that nobody was left. ⁴That was when we captured all his towns; there was not a town of theirs we did not take: sixty towns, the whole confederation of Argob, Og's kingdom in Bashan, ⁵all of them fortresses defended by high walls and fortified with gates and bars, not to mention the Perizzite towns, which were very numerous. ⁶We laid them under the curse of destruction as we had done Sihon king of Heshbon, laying all these towns under the curse of destruction: men, women and children* ⁷but we seized the livestock and spoils of the towns as booty for ourselves. ⁸*Thus, by then we had taken the country of the two Amorite kings beyond the Jordan, stretching from the Wadi Arnon to Mount Hermon ⁹(the Sidonians call Hermon *Sirion* and the Amorites call it *Senir*): ¹⁰all the towns of the tableland, all Gilead, and all Bashan as far as Salecah and Edrei, the capital cities of Og in Bashan. ¹¹(Og king of Bashan was the last survivor of the Rephaim; his bed was the iron bed that can be seen at Rabbah*of*the*Ammonites, nine cubits long and four wide, according to the human cubit.)

The partitioning of Transjordan

^{*[Nb 32]}

¹²*Then we took possession of this country, from Aroer on the Wadi Arnon. To the Reubenites and Gadites I gave half the highlands of Gilead with its towns. ¹³To the half*tribe of Manasseh I gave the rest of Gilead and the whole of Bashan, Og's kingdom. (The whole confederation of Argob and the whole of Bashan is called the country of the Rephaim. ¹⁴Since Jair son of Manasseh occupied the whole confederation of Argob as far as the frontiers of the Geshurites and Maacathites, after him Bashan is called the Encampments of Jair even today.) ¹⁵To Machir I gave Gilead. ¹⁶To the Reubenites and the Gadites I gave the region from Gilead to the Wadi Arnon, the middle of the ravine marking the boundary, and up as far as the Jabbok, the ravine marking the frontier of the Ammonites. ¹⁷The Arabah and the Jordan serve as frontiers from Chinnereth down to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea), at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah on the east.

Further instructions from Moses

¹⁸*I then gave you this order: *Yahweh your God has given you this country to be yours. Armed, every one of you fit to fight must go ahead of your brothers the Israelites. ¹⁹Only your wives, your children and your flocks (you have many flocks, I know) must stay behind in the towns which I have given you, ²⁰until Yahweh has brought your brothers to rest as he has already brought you, and they too possess the territory which Yahweh your God is giving them on the other side of the Jordan; after that, you can go home, each to the domain I have given you.* ²¹I then gave Joshua this order, *You can see for yourself everything that Yahweh our God has done to these two kings; Yahweh will do the same to all the kingdoms through which you pass. ²²Do not be afraid of them: Yahweh your God himself is fighting for you.* ²³*I then pleaded with Yahweh. ²⁴*My Lord Yahweh,* I said, *now that you have begun to reveal your greatness and your power to your servant with works and mighty deeds no God in heaven or on earth can rival, ²⁵may I not go across and see this fine country on the other side of the Jordan, that fine upland country and the Lebanon?* ²⁶But, because of you, Yahweh was angry with me and would not listen. *Enough!* he said, *Do not mention this subject again! ²⁷Climb to the top of Pisgah; turn your eyes to the west, the north, the south, the east. Look well, for across this Jordan you shall not go. ²⁸Give Joshua your instructions; encourage him, strengthen him; for he will be the one to cross at the head of this people; he will be the one to bring them into possession of the country which you will see.* ²⁹*We then stayed in the valley, close to Beth*Peor.*

The apostasy at Beth*Peor contrasted with true wisdom

⁴*And now, Israel, listen to the laws and customs which I am teaching you today, so that, by observing them, you may survive to enter and take possession of the country which Yahweh, God of your ancestors, is giving you. ²You must add nothing to what I command you, and take nothing from it, but keep the commandments of Yahweh your God just as I lay them down for you. ³You can see for yourselves what Yahweh has done about the Baal of Peor; Yahweh your God has destroyed all those of you who followed the Baal of Peor; ⁴but those of you who stayed faithful to Yahweh your God are all alive today. ⁵Look: as Yahweh my God commanded me, I have taught you laws and customs, for you to observe in the country of which you are going to take possession. ⁶Keep them, put them into practice, and other peoples will admire your wisdom and prudence. Once they know what all these laws are, they will exclaim, *No other people is as wise and prudent as this great nation!* ⁷And indeed, what great nation has its gods as near as Yahweh our God is to us whenever we call to him? ⁸And what great nation has laws and customs as upright as the entirety of this Law which I am laying down for you today?

The revelation at Horeb; its demands

⁹*But take care, as you value your lives! Do not forget the things which you yourselves have seen, or let them slip from your heart as long as you live; teach them, rather, to your children and to your children's children. ¹⁰The day you stood at Horeb in the presence of Yahweh your God, Yahweh said to me, *Summon the people to me; I want them to hear me speaking, so that they will learn to fear me all the days they live on earth, and teach this to their children.* ¹¹So you came and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain flamed to the very sky, a sky darkened by cloud, murky and thunderous. ¹²Yahweh then spoke to you from the heart of the fire; you heard the sound of words but saw no shape; there was only a voice. ¹³He revealed his covenant to you and commanded you to observe it, the Ten Words which he inscribed on two tablets of stone. ¹⁴Yahweh then ordered me to teach you the laws and customs that you were to observe in the country into which you are about to cross, to take possession of it. ¹⁵*Hence, be very careful what you do. Since you saw no shape that day at Horeb when Yahweh spoke to you from the heart of the fire, ¹⁶see that you do not corrupt yourselves by making an image in the shape of anything whatever: be it statue of man or of woman, ¹⁷or of any animal on the earth, or of any bird that flies in the heavens, ¹⁸or of any reptile that crawls on the ground, or of any fish in the waters under the earth. ¹⁹When you raise your eyes to heaven, when you see the sun, the moon, the stars*the entire array of heaven*do not be tempted to worship them and serve them. Yahweh your God has allotted these to all the other peoples under heaven, ²⁰but Yahweh has chosen you, bringing you out of the iron*foundry, Egypt, to be his own people, his own people as you still are today.

Of punishment to come, and of conversion

²¹*Yahweh is angry with me because of you; he has sworn that I shall not cross the Jordan or enter the fine country which Yahweh your God is giving you as your heritage. ²²Yes, I am to die in this country; I shall not cross this Jordan; you will go over and take possession of that rich land. ²³Be careful not to forget the covenant which Yahweh your God has made with you, by sculpting an image or making a statue of anything, since Yahweh your God has forbidden this; ²⁴for Yahweh your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. ²⁵*When you have fathered children and grandchildren and have grown old in the country, when you have grown corrupt and made some image, doing what Yahweh regards as wrong and so provoking his anger* ²⁶today I call heaven and earth to witness against you*you will quickly vanish from the country which you are crossing the Jordan to possess. Your days will not be prolonged there, for you will be utterly destroyed. ²⁷Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and only a small number of you will remain among the nations where Yahweh will have driven you. ²⁸There you will serve gods made by human hand, of wood and of stone, that cannot see or hear, eat or smell. ²⁹*If, however, from there you start searching once more for Yahweh your God, and if you search for him honestly and sincerely, you will find him. ³⁰You will suffer; everything I have said will befall you, but in the final days you will return to Yahweh your God and listen to his voice. ³¹For Yahweh your God is a merciful God and will not desert or destroy you or forget the covenant which he made on oath with your ancestors.

The glory of having been chosen by God

³²*Put this question, then, to the ages that are past, that have gone before you, from when God created the human race on earth: Was there ever a word so majestic, from one end of heaven to the other? Was anything like it ever heard? ³³Did ever a people hear the voice of the living God speaking from the heart of the fire, as you have heard it, and remain alive? ³⁴Has it ever been known before that any god took action himself to bring one nation out of another one, by ordeals, signs, wonders, war with mighty hand and outstretched arm, by fearsome terrors*all of which things Yahweh your God has done for you before your eyes in Egypt? ³⁵*This he showed you, so that you might know that Yahweh is the true God and that there is no other. ³⁶To instruct you, he made you hear his voice from heaven, and on earth he let you see his great fire, and from the heart of the fire you heard his words. ³⁷Because he loved your ancestors and, after them, chose their descendants, he has brought you out of Egypt, displaying his presence and mighty power, ³⁸dispossessing for you nations who were larger and stronger than you, to make way for you and to give you their country as your heritage, as it still is today. ³⁹*Hence, grasp this today and meditate on it carefully: Yahweh is the true God, in heaven above as on earth beneath, he and no other. ⁴⁰Keep his laws and commandments as I give them to you today, so that you and your children after you may prosper and live long in the country that Yahweh your God is giving you for ever.*

The cities of refuge

⁴¹Moses then set aside three towns in the east, beyond the Jordan, ⁴²to which any killer might flee who had accidentally, without any previous feud, killed his fellow; by taking refuge in one of these towns he could save his life. ⁴³These were, for the Reubenites, Bezer in the desert on the tableland; for the Gadites, Ramoth in Gilead; for the Manassehites, Golan in Bashan.

THE SECOND DISCOURSE OF MOSES
Time and place

⁴⁴This is the Law which Moses presented to the Israelites. ⁴⁵These are the stipulations, the laws and the customs which Moses gave the Israelites after they had left Egypt, ⁴⁶beyond the Jordan in the valley near Beth*Peor, in the country of Sihon the Amorite king who had lived at Heshbon. Moses and the Israelites had defeated him when they left Egypt, ⁴⁷and had taken possession of his country, as well as that of Og king of Bashan*two Amorite kings to the east beyond the Jordan, ⁴⁸from Aroer on the edge of the Arnon Valley, all the way to Mount Sion (that is, Hermon) * ⁴⁹and of the whole Arabah east of the Jordan as far as the Sea of the Arabah, at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah.

The Ten Commandments

⁵Moses called all Israel together and said to them, *Listen, Israel, to the laws and customs that I proclaim to you today. Learn them and take care to observe them. ²*Yahweh our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. ³Yahweh made this covenant not with our ancestors, but with us, with all of us alive here today. ⁴On the mountain, from the heart of the fire, Yahweh spoke to you face to face, ⁵while I stood between you and Yahweh to let you know what Yahweh was saying, since you were afraid of the fire and had not gone up the mountain. He said: ⁶* *I am Yahweh your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the place of slave-labour. ^{*[Ex 20:1*17] 7}* *You will have no gods other than me. ⁸* *You must not make yourselves any image or any likeness of anything in heaven above or on earth beneath or in the waters under the earth; ⁹you must not bow down to these gods or serve them. For I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God and I punish the parents* fault in the children, the grandchildren and the great*grandchildren, among those who hate me; ¹⁰but I show faithful love to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments. ¹¹* *You must not misuse the name of Yahweh your God, for Yahweh will not leave unpunished anyone who uses his name for what is false. ¹²* *Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy, as Yahweh your God has commanded you. ¹³Labour for six days, doing all your work, ¹⁴but the seventh day is a Sabbath for Yahweh your God. You must not do any work that day, neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your servants*male or female*nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your animals, nor the foreigner who has made his home with you; ¹⁵so that your servants, male and female, may rest, as you do. Remember that you were once a slave in Egypt, and that Yahweh your God brought you out of there with mighty hand and outstretched arm; this is why Yahweh your God has commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. ¹⁶* *Honour your father and your mother, as Yahweh your God has commanded you, so that you may have long life and may prosper in the country which Yahweh your God is giving you. ¹⁷* *You must not kill. ¹⁸* *You must not commit adultery. ¹⁹* *You must not steal. ²⁰* *You must not give false evidence against your fellow. ²¹* *You must not set your heart on your neighbour's spouse, you must not set your heart on your neighbour's house, or field, or servant*man or woman*or ox, or donkey or any of your neighbour's possessions.* ²²*These were the words Yahweh spoke to you when you were all assembled on the mountain. Thunderously, he spoke to you from the heart of the fire, in cloud and thick darkness. He added nothing, but wrote them on two tablets of stone which he gave to me.

Moses the mediator

²³*Now, having heard this voice coming out of the darkness, while the mountain was all on fire, you came to me, all of you, heads of tribes and elders, ²⁴and said, *Yahweh our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice from the heart of the fire. Today we have seen that God can speak with a human being and that person still live. ²⁵So why should we expose ourselves to death again? For this great fire might devour us if we go on listening to the voice of Yahweh our God, and then we should die. ²⁶For what creature of flesh could possibly live after hearing, as we have heard, the voice of the living God speaking from the heart of the fire? ²⁷Go nearer yourself and listen to everything that Yahweh our God may say, and then tell us everything that Yahweh our God has told you; we shall listen and put it into practice!* ²⁸*Yahweh heard what you were saying to me, and he then said to me, *I have heard what these people are saying. Everything they have said is well said. ²⁹If only their heart were always so, set on fearing me and on keeping my commandments, so that they and their children might prosper for ever! ³⁰Go and tell them to go back to their tents. ³¹But you yourself stay here with me, and I shall tell you all the commandments, the laws and the customs which you are to teach them and which they are to observe in the country which I am giving them as their possession.*

To love Yahweh is the essence of the Law

³²*Keep them and put them into practice: such is Yahweh's command to you. Stray neither to right nor to left. ³³Follow the whole way that Yahweh has marked for you, and you will survive to prosper and live long in the country which you are going to possess.*

⁶*Such, then, are the commandments, the laws and the customs which Yahweh your God has instructed me to teach you, for you to observe in the country which you are on your way to possess. ²And hence, if, throughout your lives, you fear Yahweh your God and keep all his laws and commandments, which I am laying down for you today, you will live long, you and your child and your grandchild. ³Listen then, Israel, keep and observe what will make you prosperous and numerous, as Yahweh, God of your ancestors, has promised you, in giving you a country flowing with milk and honey. ⁴*Listen, Israel: Yahweh our God is the one, the only Yahweh. ⁵You must love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. ⁶Let the words I enjoin on you today stay in your heart. ⁷You shall tell them to your children, and keep on telling them, when you are sitting at home, when you are out and about, when you are lying down and when you are standing up; ⁸you must fasten them on your hand as a sign and on your forehead as a headband; ⁹you must write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. ¹⁰*When Yahweh has brought you into the country which he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that he would give you, with great and prosperous cities you have not built, ¹¹with houses full of good things you have not provided, with wells you have not dug, with vineyards and olive trees you have not planted, and then, when you have eaten as much as you want, ¹²be careful you do not forget Yahweh who has brought you out of Egypt, out of the place of slave*labour. ¹³Yahweh your God is the one you must fear, him alone you must serve, his is the name by which you must swear.

An appeal for loyalty

¹⁴*Do not follow other gods, gods of the peoples round you, ¹⁵for Yahweh your God among you is a jealous God; the wrath of Yahweh your God would blaze out against you, and he would wipe you off the face of the earth. ¹⁶Do not put Yahweh your God to the test as you tested him at Massah. ¹⁷Keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, and his instructions and laws which he has laid down for you, ¹⁸and do what Yahweh regards as right and good, so that you may prosper and take possession of the fine country which Yahweh swore to give your ancestors, ¹⁹driving out your enemies before you; such was Yahweh's promise. ²⁰*In times to come, when your child asks you, *What is the meaning of these instructions, laws and customs which Yahweh our God has laid down for you?* ²¹you are to tell your child, *Once we were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt, and Yahweh brought us out of Egypt by his mighty hand. ²²Before our eyes, Yahweh worked great and terrible signs and wonders against Egypt, against Pharaoh and his entire household. ²³And he brought us out of there, to lead us into the country which he had sworn to our ancestors that he would give us. ²⁴And Yahweh has commanded us to observe all these laws and to fear Yahweh our God, so as to be happy for ever and to survive, as we do to this day. ²⁵For us, right living will mean this: to keep and observe all these commandments in obedience to Yahweh our God, as he has commanded us.* *

Israel a people apart

⁷*When Yahweh your God has brought you into the country which you are going to make your own, many nations will fall before you: Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than yourselves. ²Yahweh your God will put them at your mercy and you will conquer them. You must put them under the curse of destruction. You must not make any treaty with them or show them any pity. ³You must not intermarry with them; you must not give a daughter of yours to a son of theirs, or take a daughter of theirs for a son of yours, ⁴for your son would be seduced from following me into serving other gods; the wrath of Yahweh would blaze out against you and he would instantly destroy you. ⁵Instead, treat them like this: tear down their altars, smash their standing'stones, cut down their sacred poles and burn their idols. ⁶For you are a people consecrated to Yahweh your God; of all the peoples on earth, you have been chosen by Yahweh your God to be his own people.

God's election and his favour

⁷*Yahweh set his heart on you and chose you not because you were the most numerous of all peoples*for indeed you were the smallest of all* ⁸but because he loved you and meant to keep the oath which he swore to your ancestors: that was why Yahweh brought you out with his mighty hand and redeemed you from the place of slave*labour, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ⁹From this you can see that Yahweh your God is the true God, the faithful God who, though he is true to his covenant and his faithful love for a thousand generations as regards those who love him and keep his commandments, ¹⁰punishes in their own persons those that hate him. He destroys anyone who hates him, without delay; and it is in their own persons that he punishes them. ¹¹Hence, you must keep and observe the commandments, laws and customs which I am laying down for you today. ¹²*Listen to these ordinances, be true to them and observe them, and in return Yahweh your God will be true to the covenant and love which he promised on oath to your ancestors. ¹³He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers; he will bless the fruit of your body and the produce of your soil, your corn, your new wine, your oil, the issue of your cattle, the young of your flock, in the country which he swore to your ancestors that he would give you. ¹⁴You will be the most blessed of all peoples. None of you, man or woman, will be sterile, no male or female of your beasts infertile. ¹⁵Yahweh will deflect all illness from you; he will not afflict you with those evil plagues of Egypt which you have known, but will inflict them on all who hate you. ¹⁶*So, devour all the peoples whom Yahweh your God puts at your mercy, show them no pity, do not serve their gods: or you will be ensnared.

The power of Yahweh

¹⁷*You may say in your heart, *These nations outnumber me; how shall I be able to dispossess them?* ¹⁸Do not be afraid of them: remember how Yahweh your God treated Pharaoh and all Egypt, ¹⁹the great ordeals that you yourselves have seen, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and outstretched arm with which Yahweh your God brought you out. This is how Yahweh your God will treat all the peoples whom you fear to face. ²⁰And what is more, Yahweh your God will send hornets to destroy those who are left and who hide from you. ²¹*Do not be afraid of them, for Yahweh your God is among you, a great and terrible God. ²²Little by little, Yahweh your God will clear away these nations before you; you cannot destroy them all at once, or wild animals will breed and be disastrous for you. ²³But Yahweh your God will put them at your mercy, and disaster after disaster will overtake them until they are finally destroyed. ²⁴He will put their kings at your mercy and you will blot out their names under heaven; no one will be able to resist you*until you have destroyed them all. ²⁵*You must burn the statues of their gods, not coveting the gold and silver that covers them; take it and you will be caught in a snare: it is detestable to Yahweh your God. ²⁶You must not bring any detestable thing into your house: or you, like it, will come under the curse of destruction. You must regard them as unclean and loathsome, for they are under the curse of destruction.*

The ordeal in the desert

⁸*You must keep and put into practice all the commandments which I enjoin on you today, so that you may survive and increase in numbers and enter the country which Yahweh promised on oath to your ancestors, and make it your own. ²Remember the long road by which Yahweh your God led you for forty years in the desert, to humble you, to test you and know your inmost heart*whether you would keep his commandments or not. ³He humbled you, he made you feel hunger, he fed you with manna which neither you nor your ancestors had ever known, to make you understand that human beings live not on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of Yahweh. ⁴The clothes on your back did not wear out and your feet were not swollen, all those forty years. ⁵*Learn from this that Yahweh your God was training you as a man trains his child, ⁶and keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, and so follow his ways and fear him.

The Promised Land and its temptations

⁷*But Yahweh your God is bringing you into a fine country, a land of streams and springs, of waters that well up from the deep in valleys and hills, ⁸a land of wheat and barley, of vines, of figs, of pomegranates, a land of olives, of oil, of honey, ⁹a land where you will eat bread without stint, where you will want nothing, a land where the stones are iron and where the hills may be quarried for copper. ¹⁰You will eat and have all you want and you will bless Yahweh your God in the fine country which he has given you. ¹¹*Be careful not to forget Yahweh your God, by neglecting his commandments, customs and laws which I am laying down for you today. ¹²When you have eaten all you want, when you have built fine houses to live in, ¹³when you have seen your flocks and herds increase, your silver and gold abound and all your possessions grow great, ¹⁴do not become proud of heart. Do not then forget Yahweh your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the place of slave*labour, ¹⁵who guided you through this vast and dreadful desert, a land of fiery snakes, scorpions, thirst; ¹⁶who in this waterless place brought you water out of the flinty rock; who in this desert fed you with manna unknown to your ancestors, to humble you and test you and so make your future the happier. ¹⁷*Beware of thinking to yourself, *My own strength and the might of my own hand have given me the power to act like this.* ¹⁸Remember Yahweh your God; he was the one who gave you the strength to act effectively like this, thus keeping then, as today, the covenant which he swore to your ancestors. ¹⁹Be sure: if you forget Yahweh your God, if you follow other gods, if you serve them and bow down to them*I testify to you today*you will perish. ²⁰Like the nations Yahweh is to destroy before you, so you yourselves will perish, for not having listened to the voice of Yahweh your God.*

Yahweh, not Israel, wins the victory

⁹*Listen, Israel; today you are about to cross the Jordan, to go and dispossess nations greater and stronger than yourself, and cities immense, with walls reaching to the sky. ²A people great and tall, these Anakim, as you know; you have heard the saying: Who can stand up to the sons of Anak? ³Know then today that Yahweh your God himself will go ahead of you, destroying them like a devouring fire, and that he himself will subdue them before you so that you can dispossess and quickly make an end of them, as Yahweh has already said. ⁴Do not think to yourself, once Yahweh your God has driven them before you, *Yahweh has brought me into possession of this country because I am upright,* when Yahweh is dispossessing these nations for you, because they do wrong. ⁵You are not going into their country to take possession because of any right behaviour or uprightness on your part; rather, it is because of their wickedness that Yahweh is dispossessing these nations for you, and also to keep the pact which he swore to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. ⁶Be clear about this: Yahweh is not giving you possession of this fine country because of any right conduct on your part, for you are an obstinate people.

Israel's conduct at Horeb; Moses intercedes ^{* [ Ex 32.]}

⁷*Remember; never forget how you provoked Yahweh your God in the desert. From the very day that you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebels against Yahweh. ⁸At Horeb, you provoked Yahweh, and Yahweh was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you. ⁹I had gone up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that Yahweh was making with you. I stayed forty days and forty nights on the mountain, with nothing to eat or drink. ¹⁰Yahweh gave me the two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God, exactly corresponding to what Yahweh had said to you on the mountain, from the heart of the fire, on the day of the Assembly. ¹¹After forty days and forty nights, having given me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant, ¹²Yahweh said to me, *Get up, go down quickly, for your people, whom you have brought out of Egypt, are corrupting one another. They have been quick to leave the way I marked out for them; they have cast themselves a metal idol.* ¹³Yahweh then said to me, *I have seen this people, and what an obstinate people they are! ¹⁴Leave me, I am going to destroy them and wipe out their name under heaven; and I shall make you into a mightier and more numerous nation than they are!* ¹⁵*I went back down the mountain, which was blazing with fire, and in my hands were the two tablets of the covenant. ¹⁶When I looked, I saw that you had been sinning against Yahweh your God. You had cast yourselves a metal calf; you had been quick to leave the way marked out for you by Yahweh. ¹⁷I seized the two tablets and with my two hands threw them down and broke them before your eyes. ¹⁸Then I fell prostrate before Yahweh; as before, I spent forty days and forty nights with nothing to eat or drink, on account of all the sins which you had committed, by doing what was displeasing to Yahweh and thus arousing his anger. ¹⁹For I was afraid of this anger, of the fury which so roused Yahweh against you that he was ready to destroy you. And, once again, Yahweh heard my prayer. ²⁰Yahweh was enraged with Aaron and was ready to destroy him too; I also pleaded for Aaron on that occasion. ²¹That work of sin, the calf you had made, I took and burned and broke to pieces; having ground it to the finest dust, I threw its dust into the stream that comes down from the mountain.

Israel sins again. A prayer of Moses

²²*At Taberah too and at Massah and Kibroth*ha*Taavah, you provoked Yahweh. ²³And when Yahweh, meaning you to leave Kadesh*Barnea, said, *Go up and take possession of the country which I have given you,* you rebelled against the command of Yahweh your God and would not believe him or listen to his voice. ²⁴You have been rebels against Yahweh from the day he first knew you. ²⁵*So I fell prostrate before Yahweh and lay there those forty days and forty nights, Yahweh having said that he was going to destroy you. ²⁶And I pleaded with Yahweh. *My Lord Yahweh,* I said, *do not destroy your people, your heritage whom in your greatness you have redeemed, whom you have brought out of Egypt with your mighty hand. ²⁷Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; take no notice of this people's stubbornness, their wickedness, and their sin, ²⁸so that, in the country from which you have brought us, it may not be said, *Yahweh was not able to bring them to the country which he had promised them. He hated them; that was why he brought them out*to slaughter them in the desert.* ²⁹But these are your people, your heritage, whom you yourself have brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm.* *

The ark of the covenant; the choice of Levi

¹⁰*Yahweh then said to me, *Cut two stone tablets like the first ones, and come up to me on the mountain. Make an ark of wood; ²on the tablets I shall inscribe the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke; put them in the ark.* ³So I made an ark of acacia wood, cut two stone tablets like the first and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. ⁴And he inscribed the tablets, as he had inscribed them before, with the Ten Words which Yahweh had said to you on the mountain, from the heart of the fire, on the day of the Assembly. Yahweh then gave them to me. ⁵I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tablets in the ark I had made, and there they stayed, as Yahweh had commanded me. ⁶*The Israelites left the wells of the Bene*Jaakan for Moserah, where Aaron died; he was buried there, and his son Eleazar succeeded him in the priesthood. ⁷From there, they set out for Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah for Jotbathah, an area rich in streams. ⁸Yahweh then set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of Yahweh's covenant, to stand in the presence of Yahweh, to serve him and to bless in his name, as they still do today. ⁹This is why Levi has no share or heritage with his brothers: Yahweh is his heritage, as Yahweh your God then told him. ¹⁰*And, as before, I stayed on the mountain for forty days and forty nights. And again Yahweh heard my prayer and agreed not to destroy you. ¹¹And Yahweh said to me, *Be on your way at the head of this people, so that they can go and take possession of the country which I swore to their ancestors that I would give them.*

Circumcision of the heart

¹²*And now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God ask of you? Only this: to fear Yahweh your God, to follow all his ways, to love him, to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and all your soul, ¹³to keep the commandments and laws of Yahweh, which I am laying down for you today for your own good. ¹⁴*Look, to Yahweh your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth and everything on it; ¹⁵yet it was on your ancestors, for love of them, that Yahweh set his heart to love them, and he chose their descendants after them, you yourselves, out of all nations, up to the present day. ¹⁶Circumcise your heart then and be obstinate no longer; ¹⁷for Yahweh your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, triumphant and terrible, free of favouritism, never to be bribed. ¹⁸He it is who sees justice done for the orphan and the widow, who loves the stranger and gives him food and clothing. ¹⁹(Love the stranger then, for you were once strangers in Egypt.) ²⁰Yahweh your God is the one whom you must fear and serve; to him you must hold firm; in his name take your oaths. ²¹Him you must praise, he is your God: for you he has done these great and terrible things which you have seen for yourselves; ²²and, although your ancestors numbered only seventy persons when they went down to Egypt, Yahweh your God has now made you as many as the stars of heaven.*

Israel's past experiences

¹¹*You must love Yahweh your God and always keep his observances, his laws, his customs, his commandments. ²You are the ones who have had the experience, not your children. They have not had the experience, they have not witnessed the lessons of Yahweh your God, his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm, ³the signs and the deeds which he performed in the heart of Egypt, against Pharaoh king of Egypt and his entire country, ⁴what he did to the armies of Egypt, to their horses and their chariots, by overwhelming them with the waters of the Sea of Reeds when they were pursuing you, and leaving no trace of them to this day; ⁵what he did for you in the desert, until you arrived here; ⁶what he did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when, with all Israel standing round, the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, with their families, their tents and all their supporters. ⁷All these great deeds of Yahweh you have seen with your own eyes.

Promises and warnings

⁸*You must keep all the commandments which I enjoin on you today, so that you may have the strength to conquer the country into which you are about to cross, to take possession of it, ⁹and so that you may live long in the country which Yahweh promised on oath to bestow on your ancestors and their descendants, a country flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰*For the country which you are about to enter and make your own is not like the country of Egypt from which you have come, where, having done your sowing, you had to water the seed by foot, as though in a vegetable garden. ¹¹No, the country which you are about to enter and make your own, is a country of hills and valleys watered by the rain of heaven. ¹²Yahweh your God looks after this country, the eyes of Yahweh your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end. ¹³Depend on it: if you faithfully obey the commandments I enjoin on you today, loving Yahweh your God and serving him with all your heart and all your soul, ¹⁴I shall give your country rain at the right time, rain in autumn, rain in spring, so that you can harvest your wheat, your new wine and your oil. ¹⁵I shall provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat to your heart's content. ¹⁶Beware of letting your heart be seduced: if you go astray, serve other gods and bow down to them, ¹⁷Yahweh's anger will be kindled against you, he will shut the heavens, there will be no more rain, the soil will not yield its produce and, in the fine country given you by Yahweh, you will quickly perish.

Conclusion

¹⁸*Let these words of mine remain in your heart and in your soul; fasten them on your hand as a sign and on your forehead as a headband. ¹⁹Teach them to your children, and keep on telling them, when you are sitting at home, when you are out and about, when you are lying down and when you are standing up. ²⁰Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, ²¹so that you and your children may live long in the country which Yahweh swore to your ancestors that he would give them for as long as there is a sky above the earth. ²²*For if you faithfully keep and observe all these commandments that I enjoin on you today, loving Yahweh your God, following all his ways and holding fast to him, ²³Yahweh will dispossess all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and more powerful than yourselves. ²⁴Wherever the sole of your foot treads will be yours; your territory will run from the desert all the way to the Lebanon; and from the River, from the River Euphrates, as far as the Western Sea, will be your territory. ²⁵No one will be able to resist you; Yahweh your God will make you feared and dreaded throughout the territory you tread, as he has promised you. ²⁶*Today, look, I am offering you a blessing and a curse: ²⁷a blessing, if you obey the commandments of Yahweh your God which I enjoin on you today; ²⁸a curse, if you disobey the commandments of Yahweh your God and leave the way which today I have marked out for you, by following other gods hitherto unknown to you. ²⁹And when Yahweh your God has brought you into the country which you are about to enter and make your own, you must set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. ³⁰(These mountains, as everyone knows, are on the other side of the Jordan on the westward road, in the territory of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, near the Oak of Moreh.) ³¹For you are about to cross the Jordan, to enter and take possession of the country given you by Yahweh your God. You will possess it, you will live in it, ³²and you must keep and observe all the laws and customs promulgated by me to you today.*

II: THE DEUTERONOMIC CODE

¹²*Now, these are the laws and customs which you must keep in the country which Yahweh, God of your ancestors, is giving you as yours, and which you must observe every day that you live in that country.

The place of worship

²*You must completely destroy all the places where the nations you dispossess have served their gods, on high mountains, on hills, under any spreading tree; ³you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones, burn their sacred poles, hack to bits the statues of their gods and obliterate their name from that place. ⁴*Not so must you behave towards Yahweh your God. ⁵You must seek Yahweh your God in the place which he will choose from all your tribes, there to set his name and give it a home: that is where you must go. ⁶That is where you must bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and offerings held high, your votive offerings and your voluntary offerings, and the first*born of your herd and flock; ⁷and that is where you must eat in the presence of Yahweh your God, rejoicing over your labours, you and your households, because Yahweh your God has blessed you. ⁸*You must not behave as we are behaving here today, each of you doing what he himself sees fit, ⁹since you have not yet come to the resting place and the heritage that Yahweh your God is going to give you. ¹⁰You are about to cross the Jordan and live in the country given you by Yahweh your God as your heritage; he will grant you peace from all the enemies surrounding you, and you will live in safety. ¹¹To the place chosen by Yahweh your God as a home for his name, to that place you must bring all the things that I am laying down for you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and offerings held high, and all the best of your possessions dedicated by you to Yahweh. ¹²That is where you will rejoice in the presence of Yahweh your God, you and your sons and daughters, your serving men and women, and the Levite living in your community since he has no share or heritage of his own among you.

Sacrificial regulations

¹³*Take care you do not offer your burnt offerings in all the sacred places you see; ¹⁴only in the place that Yahweh chooses in one of your tribes may you offer your burnt offerings and do all the things which I have commanded you. ¹⁵*This notwithstanding, and whenever you wish, you may slaughter and eat meat wherever you live*as much as the blessing of Yahweh affords you. Clean or unclean may eat it, as though it were gazelle or deer. ¹⁶You will not, however, eat the blood, but will pour that like water on the ground. ¹⁷*You must not eat the tithe of your wheat, of your new wine or of your oil, or the first*born of your herd or flock, or any of your votive offerings or voluntary offerings, or your offerings held high to Yahweh, at home. ¹⁸You must eat these in the presence of Yahweh your God in the place Yahweh your God chooses and there alone, you, your son and your daughter, your serving man and serving woman, and the Levite living in your community, expressing your joy in all your labours in the presence of Yahweh your God. ¹⁹As long as you live on your soil, be careful not to neglect the Levite. ²⁰*When Yahweh your God enlarges your territory as he has promised you, and you say, *I should like to eat meat,* if you want to eat meat you may eat as much as you like. ²¹If the place in which Yahweh your God chooses to set his name is too far away, you may slaughter any of your herd or flock that Yahweh has given you, as I have prescribed for you; you may eat as much of it as you please at home. ²²But you must eat it as you would gazelle or deer; clean and unclean may eat it together. ²³Take care, however, not to eat the blood, since blood is life, and you must not eat the life with the meat. ²⁴You must not eat it, but must pour it like water on the ground. ²⁵You must not eat it'so that you, and your children after you, may prosper, doing what is right in Yahweh's eyes. ²⁶But the holy things of yours and the things which you have dedicated, you must go and take to the place chosen by Yahweh. ²⁷The burnt offerings of meat and blood must be presented on the altar of Yahweh your God; whereas, in your sacrifices, the blood must be poured on the altar of Yahweh your God; the meat you yourselves may eat. ²⁸Faithfully keep and obey all these orders which I am giving you, so that you and your children after you may prosper for ever, doing what is good and right in the eyes of Yahweh your God.

Against Canaanite cults

²⁹*When Yahweh your God has annihilated the nations confronting you, whom you are going to dispossess, and when you have dispossessed them and made your home in their country, ³⁰beware of being entrapped into copying them, after they have been destroyed to make way for you, and do not enquire about their gods, saying, *How did these nations worship their gods? I am going to do the same too.* ³¹This is not the way to treat Yahweh your God. For in honour of their gods they have done everything detestable that Yahweh hates; yes, in honour of their gods, they even burn their own sons and daughters as sacrifices!*

¹³*Whatever I am now commanding you, you must keep and observe, adding nothing to it, taking nothing away.

Against the enticements of idolatry

²*If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you, offering you some sign or wonder, ³and the sign or wonder comes about; and if he then says to you, *Let us follow other gods (hitherto unknown to you) and serve them,* ⁴you must not listen to that prophet's words or to that dreamer's dreams. Yahweh your God is testing you to know if you love Yahweh your God with all your heart and all your soul. ⁵Yahweh your God is the one whom you must follow, him you must fear, his commandments you must keep, his voice you must obey, him you must serve, to him you must hold fast. ⁶That prophet or that dreamer of dreams must be put to death, since he has preached apostasy from Yahweh your God who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the place of slave*labour; and he would have diverted you from the way in which Yahweh your God has commanded you to walk. You must banish this evil from among you. ⁷*If your brother, the son of your father or of your mother, or your son or daughter, or the spouse whom you embrace, or your most intimate friend, tries secretly to seduce you, saying, *Let us go and serve other gods,* unknown to you or your ancestors before you, ⁸gods of the peoples surrounding you, whether near you or far away, anywhere throughout the world, ⁹you must not consent, you must not listen to him; you must show him no pity, you must not spare him or conceal his guilt. ¹⁰No, you must kill him, your hand must strike the first blow in putting him to death and the hands of the rest of the people following. ¹¹You must stone him to death, since he has tried to divert you from Yahweh your God who brought you out of Egypt, from the place of slave*labour. ¹²All Israel, hearing of this, will be afraid, and none of you will do such a wicked thing again. ¹³*If you hear that in one of the towns which Yahweh your God has given you for a home, ¹⁴there are men, scoundrels from your own stock, who have led their fellow*citizens astray, saying, *Let us go and serve other gods,* hitherto unknown to you, ¹⁵it is your duty to look into the matter, examine it, and enquire most carefully. If it is proved and confirmed that such a hateful thing has taken place among you, ¹⁶you must put the inhabitants of that town to the sword; you must lay it under the curse of destruction*the town and everything in it. ¹⁷You must pile up all its loot in the public square and burn the town and all its loot, offering it all to Yahweh your God. It is to be a ruin for all time, and never rebuilt. ¹⁸From what is thus put under the curse of destruction you must keep nothing back, so that Yahweh may turn from the ferocity of his anger and show you mercy, and have pity on you and increase your numbers, as he swore he would to your ancestors, ¹⁹on condition that you listen to the voice of Yahweh your God by keeping all his commandments which I am enjoining on you today, and by doing what is right in the eyes of Yahweh your God.*

Against an idolatrous practice

¹⁴*You are children of Yahweh your God. You must not gash yourselves or shave your foreheads for the dead. ²For you are a people consecrated to Yahweh your God, and Yahweh has chosen you to be his own people from all the peoples on the earth.

Clean and unclean animals ^{* [ Lv 11:1.]}

³*You must not eat anything disgusting. ⁴These are the animals you may eat: ox, sheep, goat, ⁵deer, gazelle, roebuck, ibex, antelope, oryx, mountain sheep. ⁶You may eat any animal that has a divided and cloven hoof and that is a ruminant. ⁷Of those, however, that are ruminants and of those that have a divided and cloven hoof you may not eat the following: the camel, the hare and the coney, which are ruminants but have no cloven hoof; you must class them as unclean. ⁸So also the pig, which though it has a cloven hoof is not a ruminant; you must class it as unclean. You must neither eat the meat of such animals nor touch their dead bodies. ⁹*Of whatever lives in water you may eat the following: you may eat anything that has fins and scales. ¹⁰But you must not eat anything without fins and scales: you must class it as unclean. ¹¹*You may eat all clean birds, ¹²but the following birds you must not eat: the tawny vulture, the griffon, the osprey, ¹³the kite and the several kinds of buzzard, ¹⁴all kinds of raven, ¹⁵the ostrich, the screech owl, the seagull, the several kinds of hawk, ¹⁶owl, barn owl, ibis, ¹⁷pelican, white vulture, cormorant, ¹⁸stork, the several kinds of heron, hoopoe and bat. ¹⁹You are to class all winged insects as unclean and must not eat them. ²⁰You may eat any clean fowl. ²¹*You must not eat any animal that has died a natural death. You may give it to a resident foreigner to eat, or sell it to a foreigner. For you are a people consecrated to Yahweh your God. *You must not boil a kid in its mother's milk.

The annual tithe

²²*Every year, you must take a tithe of what your fields produce from what you have sown ²³and, in the presence of Yahweh your God, in the place where he chooses to give his name a home, you must eat the tithe of your wheat, of your new wine and of your oil, and the first*born of your herd and flock; and by so doing, you will learn always to fear Yahweh your God. ²⁴*If the road is too long for you, if you cannot bring your tithe because the place in which Yahweh chooses to make a home for his name is too far away, when Yahweh your God has blessed you, ²⁵you must convert it into money and, with the money clasped in your hand, you must go to the place chosen by Yahweh your God; ²⁶there you may spend the money on whatever you like, oxen, sheep, wine, fermented liquor, anything you please. There you must eat in the presence of Yahweh your God and rejoice, you and your household. ²⁷Do not neglect the Levite living in your community, since he has no share or heritage of his own among you.

The third*year tithe

²⁸*At the end of every three years, you must take all the tithes of your harvests for that year and collect them in your community. ²⁹Then the Levite'since he has no share or heritage of his own among you*the foreigner, the orphan and the widow living in your community, will come and eat all they want. And so Yahweh your God will bless you in all the labours that you undertake.*

The sabbatical year

¹⁵*At the end of every seven years, you must grant remission. ²The nature of the remission is as follows: any creditor holding a personal pledge obtained from his fellow must release him from it; he must not exploit his fellow or his brother once the latter has appealed to Yahweh for remission. ³A foreigner you may exploit, but you must remit whatever claim you have on your brother. ⁴There must, then, be no poor among you. For Yahweh will grant you his blessing in the country which Yahweh your God is giving you to possess as your heritage, ⁵only if you pay careful attention to the voice of Yahweh your God, by keeping and practising all these commandments which I am enjoining on you today. ⁶If Yahweh your God blesses you as he has promised, you will be creditors to many nations but debtors to none; you will rule over many nations, and be ruled by none. ⁷*Is there anyone poor among you, one of your brothers, in any town of yours in the country which Yahweh your God is giving you? Do not harden your heart or close your hand against that poor brother of yours, ⁸but be open handed with him and lend him enough for his needs. ⁹Do not allow this mean thought in your heart, *The seventh year, the year of remission, is near,* and scowl at your poor brother and give him nothing; he could appeal against you to Yahweh, and you would incur guilt! ¹⁰When you give to him, you must give with an open heart; for this, Yahweh your God will bless you in all your actions and in all your undertakings. ¹¹Of course, there will never cease to be poor people in the country, and that is why I am giving you this command: Always be open handed with your brother, and with anyone in your country who is in need and poor.

Slaves

¹²*If your fellow Hebrew, man or woman, sells himself to you, he can serve you for six years. In the seventh year you must set him free, ¹³and in setting him free you must not let him go empty handed. ¹⁴By way of present, you will load his shoulders with things from your flock, from your threshing*floor and from your winepress; as Yahweh your God has blessed you, so you must give to him. ¹⁵Remember that you were once a slave in Egypt and that Yahweh your God redeemed you; that is why I am giving you this order today. ¹⁶*But if he says to you, *I do not want to leave you,* because he loves you and your household and is happy with you, ¹⁷you must take an awl and drive it through his ear into the door and he will be your servant for ever. You must do the same to a female slave. ¹⁸*Do not think it hard on you to have to give him his freedom; he is worth twice what a paid servant would cost you, and has served you for six years. And Yahweh your God will bless you in everything you do.

The first*born

¹⁹*You must consecrate every first*born male from your herd and flock to Yahweh your God. You must not put the first*born of your herd to work, or shear the first*born of your flock. ²⁰You must eat it, you and your household, each year, in the presence of Yahweh your God, in the place which Yahweh chooses. ²¹If it has any defect, if it is lame or blind*any serious defect*you must not sacrifice it to Yahweh your God. ²²You will eat it at home, unclean and clean together, as you would gazelle or deer; ²³only, you will not eat its blood, but pour that like water on the ground.*

The feasts: Passover and Unleavened Bread

¹⁶*Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover for Yahweh your God, because it was in the month of Abib that Yahweh your God brought you out of Egypt by night. ²You must sacrifice a Passover from your flock or herd for Yahweh your God in the place where Yahweh chooses to give his name a home. ³You must not eat leavened bread with this; for seven days you must eat it with unleavened bread*the bread of affliction'since you left Egypt in great haste; this is so that, as long as you live, you will remember the day you came out of Egypt. ⁴For seven days no leaven must be found in any house throughout your territory, nor must any of the meat that you sacrifice in the evening of the first day be kept overnight until the next day. ⁵You must sacrifice the Passover not in any of the towns given you by Yahweh your God, ⁶but in the place where Yahweh your God chooses to give his name a home; there you must sacrifice the Passover, in the evening at sunset, at the hour when you came out of Egypt. ⁷You will cook it and eat it in the place chosen by Yahweh your God, and in the morning you must return and go to your tents. ⁸For six days you will eat unleavened bread; on the seventh day there will be an assembly for Yahweh your God; and you must do no work.

Other feasts

⁹*You must count seven weeks, counting these seven weeks from the time you begin to put your sickle into the standing corn. ¹⁰You will then celebrate the feast of Weeks for Yahweh your God with the gift of a voluntary offering proportionate to the degree in which Yahweh your God has blessed you. ¹¹You must rejoice in the presence of Yahweh your God, in the place where Yahweh your God chooses to give his name a home, you, your son and your daughter, your serving men and women, the Levite living in your community, the foreigner, the orphan and the widow living among you. ¹²Remember that you were once a slave in Egypt, and carefully observe these laws. ¹³*You must celebrate the feast of Shelters for seven days, at the time when you gather in the produce of your threshing*floor and winepress. ¹⁴You must rejoice at your feast, you, your son and your daughter, your serving men and women, the Levite, the foreigner, the orphan and the widow living in your community. ¹⁵For seven days, you must celebrate the feast for Yahweh your God in the place chosen by Yahweh; for Yahweh your God will bless you in all your produce and in all your undertakings, so that you will have good reason to rejoice. ¹⁶*Three times a year all your menfolk must appear before Yahweh your God in the place chosen by him: at the feast of Unleavened Bread, at the feast of Weeks, at the feast of Shelters. No one must appear empty*handed before Yahweh, ¹⁷but each must give what he can, in proportion to the blessing which Yahweh your God has bestowed on you.

Judges

¹⁸*You must appoint judges and scribes in each of the towns that Yahweh your God is giving you, for all your tribes; these are to mete out proper justice to the people. ¹⁹You must not pervert the law; you must be impartial; you will take no bribes, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and ruins the cause of the upright. ²⁰Strict justice must be your ideal, so that you may live long in possession of the country given you by Yahweh your God.

Abuses in worship

²¹*You must not plant a sacred pole of any wood whatsoever beside the altar which you erect for Yahweh your God; ²²nor will you set up a standing'stone, a thing Yahweh your God would abhor.*

¹⁷*To Yahweh your God you must sacrifice nothing from herd or flock that has any blemish or defect whatsoever, for Yahweh your God holds this detestable. ²*If there is anyone, man or woman, among you in any of the towns given you by Yahweh your God, who does what is wrong in the eyes of Yahweh your God by violating his covenant, ³who goes and serves other gods and worships them, or the sun or the moon or any of heaven's array*a thing I have forbidden* ⁴and this person is denounced to you: if after careful enquiry it is found true and confirmed that this hateful thing has been done in Israel, ⁵you must take the man or woman guilty of this evil deed outside your city gates, and there you must stone that man or woman to death. ⁶A death sentence may be passed only on the word of two witnesses or three; and no one must be put to death on the word of one witness alone. ⁷The witnesses* hands must strike the first blow in putting the condemned to death, the rest of the people following. You must banish this evil from among you.

Levitical judges

⁸*If a case comes before you which is too difficult for you, a case of murder, conflicting claims, damage to property*any kind of dispute*in your towns, you must make your way to the place chosen by Yahweh your God, ⁹and approach the levitical priests and the judge then in office. They will hold an enquiry and let you know their sentence. ¹⁰You must abide by the verdict which they give you in this place chosen by Yahweh, and you will take care to carry out all their instructions. ¹¹You will abide by the decision which they give you and by the sentence which they pronounce, not deviating to right or to left from the verdict which they have given you. ¹²If anyone presumes to disobey either the priest who is there in the service of Yahweh your God, or the judge, that person must die. You must banish this evil from Israel. ¹³And when the people hear of this they will all be afraid and not act presumptuously any more.

Kings

¹⁴*If, having reached the country given by Yahweh your God and having taken possession of it and, while living there, you think, *I should like to appoint a king to rule me*like all the surrounding nations,* ¹⁵the king whom you appoint to rule you must be chosen by Yahweh your God; the appointment of a king must be made from your own brothers; on no account must you appoint as king some foreigner who is not a brother of yours. ¹⁶*He must not, however, acquire more and more horses, or send the people back to Egypt with a view to increasing his cavalry, since Yahweh has told you, *You must never go back that way again.* ¹⁷Nor must he keep on acquiring more and more wives, for that could lead his heart astray. Nor must he acquire vast quantities of silver and gold. ¹⁸Once seated on his royal throne, and for his own use, he must write a copy of this Law on a scroll, at the dictation of the levitical priests. ¹⁹It must never leave him, and he must read it every day of his life and learn to fear Yahweh his God by keeping all the words of this Law and observing these rules, ²⁰so that he will not think himself superior to his brothers, and not deviate from these commandments either to right or to left. So doing, long will he occupy his throne, he and his sons, in Israel.*

The levitical priesthood

¹⁸*The levitical priests, the whole tribe of Levi will be without share or heritage of their own in Israel; they will live on the foods offered to Yahweh and on his heritage. ²Levi will have no heritage of his own among his brothers; Yahweh will be his heritage, as he has promised him. ³*This is what is due to the priests from the people, from those who offer an ox or a sheep in sacrifice: the priest must be given the shoulder, the cheeks and the stomach. ⁴You must give him the first*fruits of your wheat, of your new wine and of your oil, as well as the first*fruits of your sheep'shearing. ⁵For Yahweh your God has chosen him from all your tribes to stand before Yahweh your God, to do the duties of the sacred ministry, and to bless in Yahweh's name*him and his sons for all time. ⁶*If a Levite living in one of your towns anywhere in Israel decides to move to the place chosen by Yahweh, ⁷he shall minister there in the name of Yahweh his God like all his fellow Levites who stand ministering there in the presence of Yahweh, ⁸eating equal shares with them*what he has from the sale of his patrimony notwithstanding.

Prophets

⁹*When you have entered the country given you by Yahweh your God, you must not learn to imitate the detestable practices of the nations there already. ¹⁰There must never be anyone among you who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire of sacrifice, who practises divination, who is soothsayer, augur or sorcerer, ¹¹weaver of spells, consulter of ghosts or mediums, or necromancer. ¹²For anyone who does these things is detestable to Yahweh your God; it is because of these detestable practices that Yahweh your God is driving out these nations before you. ¹³*You must be faultless in your relationship with Yahweh your God. ¹⁴For these nations whom you are going to dispossess have listened to soothsayers and mediums, but Yahweh your God does not permit you to do this. From among yourselves, from among your own brothers, ¹⁵Yahweh your God will raise up a prophet like me; you will listen to him. ¹⁶This is exactly what you asked Yahweh your God to do*at Horeb, on the day of the Assembly, when you said, *Never let me hear the voice of Yahweh my God or see this great fire again, or I shall die.* ¹⁷Then Yahweh said to me, ¹⁸*What they have said is well said. From their own brothers I shall raise up a prophet like yourself; ¹⁹I shall put my words into his mouth and he will tell them everything I command him. Anyone who refuses to listen to my words, spoken by him in my name, will have to render an account to me. ²⁰But the prophet who presumes to say something in my name which I have not commanded him to say, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die.* ²¹*You may be privately wondering, *How are we to tell that a prophecy does not come from Yahweh?* ²²When a prophet speaks in the name of Yahweh and the thing does not happen and the word is not fulfilled, then it has not been said by Yahweh. The prophet has spoken presumptuously. You have nothing to fear from him.*

Homicide and cities of refuge

¹⁹*When Yahweh your God has annihilated the nations whose country Yahweh your God is going to give you, and you have dispossessed them and are living in their towns and in their houses, ²you must set aside three towns, centrally placed in the country which Yahweh your God is giving you for your own. ³You will keep the approaches to them in good order, dividing the area of the country which Yahweh your God is giving you as your heritage, into three parts, so that any killer can flee to these towns. ⁴Here is an example of how someone may save his life by fleeing to them. *If anyone has struck his fellow accidentally, without any previous feud with him ⁵(for example, he goes with his fellow into the forest to cut wood; his arm swings the axe to fell a tree; the head slips off the handle and strikes his companion dead), that man may take refuge in one of these towns and save his life. ⁶It must not be allowed that the avenger of blood, in the heat of his anger, should pursue the killer and that the length of the road should help him to overtake and wound him fatally; for the man has not deserved to die, having had no previous feud with his victim. ⁷*Hence I am giving you this order: You must set aside three towns, ⁸and if Yahweh your God enlarges your territory, as he swore to your ancestors that he would, and gives you the whole country which he promised to give to your ancestors* ⁹provided that you keep and observe all the commandments which I am enjoining on you today, loving Yahweh your God and always following his ways*then, to those three towns you will add three more. ¹⁰In this way, innocent blood will not be shed in the country which Yahweh your God is going to give you as your heritage; otherwise you would incur blood*guilt. ¹¹*But if it happens that a man has a feud with his fellow and lies in wait for him and attacks him and fatally wounds him and he dies, and the man takes refuge in one of these towns, ¹²the elders of his own town must send there and have him taken and handed over to the avenger of blood, to be put to death. ¹³You must show him no pity. You must banish the shedding of innocent blood from Israel, and then you will prosper.

Boundaries

¹⁴*You must not displace your neighbour's boundary mark, positioned by men of old in the heritage soon to be yours, in the country which Yahweh your God is about to give you.

Witnesses

¹⁵*A single witness will not suffice to convict anyone of a crime or offence of any kind; whatever the misdemeanour, the evidence of two witnesses or three is required to sustain the charge. ¹⁶*If someone gives false evidence against anyone, laying a charge of apostasy, ¹⁷both parties to this dispute before Yahweh must appear before the priests and judges then in office. ¹⁸The judges will make a careful enquiry, and if it turns out that the witness is a liar and has made a false accusation against his brother, ¹⁹you must treat the witness as he would have treated his brother. You must banish this evil from among you. ²⁰The rest, hearing of this, will be afraid and never again do such an evil thing among you. ²¹You must show no pity.

Limits of retaliation

*Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.*

War and combatants

²⁰*When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than your own, you must not be afraid of them; Yahweh your God is with you, he who brought you out of Egypt. ²When you are about to join battle, the priest must come forward and address the people. ³He must say to them, *Listen, Israel: today you are about to join battle with your enemies. Do not be faint hearted. Let there be no fear or trembling or alarm as you face them. ⁴Yahweh your God is marching with you, to fight your enemies for you and make you victorious.* ⁵*The scribes will then address the people, as follows: *Has anyone built a new house and not yet dedicated it? Let him go home, in case he dies in battle and someone else performs the dedication. ⁶*Has anyone planted a vineyard and not yet enjoyed its fruit? Let him go home, in case he dies in battle and someone else enjoys its fruit. ⁷*Has anyone contracted to marry a girl and not yet married her? Let him go home, in case he dies in battle and someone else marries her.* ⁸*Finally, the scribes will say to the people: *Is anyone frightened or faint hearted? Let him go home, in case he makes his brothers faint hearted too!* ⁹*Then, when the scribes have finished speaking to the people, commanders will be appointed to lead them.

Captured towns

¹⁰*When you advance on a town to attack it, first offer it peace*terms. ¹¹If it accepts these and opens its gates to you, all the people inside will owe you forced labour and work for you. ¹²But if it refuses peace and gives battle, you must besiege it. ¹³Yahweh your God having handed it over to you, you will put the whole male population to the sword. ¹⁴But the women, children, livestock and whatever the town contains by way of spoil, you may take for yourselves as booty. You will feed on the spoils of the enemies whom Yahweh your God has handed over to you. ¹⁵*That is how you will treat towns far away and not belonging to the nations near you. ¹⁶But as regards the towns of those peoples whom Yahweh your God is giving you as your heritage, you must not spare the life of any living thing. ¹⁷Instead, you must lay them under the curse of destruction: Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, as Yahweh your God has commanded, ¹⁸so that they may not teach you to do all the detestable things which they do to honour their gods: in doing these, you would sin against Yahweh your God. ¹⁹*If, when attacking a town, you have to besiege it for a long time before you capture it, you must not destroy its trees by taking the axe to them: eat their fruit but do not cut them down. Is the tree in the fields human, that you should besiege it too? ²⁰Any trees, however, which you know are not fruit trees, you may destroy and cut down and use to build siege*works against the hostile town until it falls.*

The unidentified murderer

²¹*If, in the country which Yahweh your God gives you as your possession, a victim of murder is found lying in the open country and it is not known who has killed that person, ²your elders and scribes must measure the distance between the victim and the surrounding towns, ³and establish which town is the nearest to the victim. The elders of that town must then take a heifer that has not yet been put to work or used as a draught animal under the yoke. ⁴The elders of that town must bring the heifer down to a permanently flowing river, to a spot that has been neither ploughed nor sown, and there by the river they must break the heifer's neck. ⁵The priests, the sons of Levi, will then step forward, these being the men whom Yahweh your God has chosen to serve him and to bless in Yahweh's name, and it being their business to settle all cases of dispute or of violence. ⁶All the elders of the town nearest to the victim of murder must then wash their hands in the stream, over the slaughtered heifer. ⁷They must pronounce these words, *Our hands have not shed this blood and our eyes have seen nothing. ⁸O Yahweh, forgive your people Israel whom you have redeemed, and let no innocent blood be shed among your people Israel. May this bloodshed be forgiven them!* ⁹You must banish all shedding of innocent blood from among you, if you mean to do what is right in the eyes of Yahweh.

Women taken in war

¹⁰*When you go to war against your enemies and Yahweh your God delivers them into your power and you take prisoners, ¹¹and among the prisoners you see a beautiful woman, and you fall in love with her, and you take her to be your wife ¹²and bring her home; she must shave her head and cut her nails, ¹³and take off her prisoner's garb; she must stay inside your house and mourn her father and mother for a full month. You may then go to her and be a husband to her, and she will be your wife. ¹⁴Should she cease to please you, you will let her go where she wishes, not selling her for money: you must not make any profit out of her, since you have exploited her.

Birthright

¹⁵*If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and the loved one and the unloved both bear him children, and if the first*born son is of the unloved wife, ¹⁶when the man comes to bequeath his goods to his sons, he may not treat the son of the wife whom he loves as the first*born, at the expense of the son of the wife whom he does not love, the true first*born. ¹⁷As his first*born he must acknowledge the son of the wife whom he does not love, giving him a double share of his estate; this son being the first*fruit of his vigour, the right of the first*born is his.

The rebellious son

¹⁸*If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not listen to the voice either of his father or of his mother and, even when they punish him, still will not pay attention to them, ¹⁹his father and mother must take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town at the gate of that place. ²⁰To the elders of his town, they will say, *This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious and will not listen to us; he is a wastrel and a drunkard.* ²¹All his fellow*citizens must then stone him to death. You must banish this evil from among you. All Israel, hearing of this, will be afraid.

Various rulings

²²*If a man guilty of a capital offence is to be put to death, and you hang him from a tree, ²³his body must not remain on the tree overnight; you must bury him the same day, since anyone hanged is a curse of God, and you must not bring pollution on the soil which Yahweh your God is giving you as your heritage.*

²²*If you see your brother's ox or one of his sheep straying, you must not disregard it: you must take it back to your brother. ²And if he is not close at hand or you do not know who he is, you must take it home with you and keep it by you until your brother comes to look for it; you will then return it to him. ³*You must do the same with his donkey, the same with his cloak, the same with anything that your brother loses and that you find; you must not disregard it. ⁴*If you see your brother's donkey or ox fall over on the road, you must not disregard it, but must help your brother get it on its feet again. ⁵*A woman must not dress like a man, nor a man like a woman; anyone who does this is detestable to Yahweh your God. ⁶*If, when out walking, you come across a bird's nest, in a tree or on the ground, with chicks or eggs and the mother bird sitting on the chicks or the eggs, you must not take the mother as well as the chicks. ⁷Let the mother go; the young you may take for yourself. Thus will you have prosperity and long life. ⁸*When you build a new house, you must give your roof a parapet; then your house will not incur blood*vengeance, should anyone fall off the top. ⁹*You must not sow any other crop in your vineyard, or the whole yield may become forfeit, both the crop you have sown and the yield of your vines. ¹⁰*You must not plough with ox and donkey together. ¹¹*You must not wear clothing woven part of wool, part of linen. ¹²*You must make tassels for the four corners of the cloak in which you wrap yourself.

A young wife's reputation

¹³*If a man marries a woman, has sexual intercourse with her and then, turning against her, ¹⁴taxes her with misconduct and publicly defames her by saying, *I married this woman and when I had sexual intercourse with her I did not find evidence of her virginity,* ¹⁵the girl's father and mother must take the evidence of her virginity and produce it before the elders of the town, at the gate. ¹⁶To the elders, the girl's father will say, *I gave this man my daughter for a wife and he has turned against her, ¹⁷and now he taxes her with misconduct, saying, I have found no evidence of virginity in your daughter. Here is the evidence of my daughter's virginity!* ¹⁸They must then display the cloth to the elders of the town. ¹⁹The elders of the town in question will have the man arrested and flogged, and fine him a hundred silver shekels for publicly defaming a virgin of Israel, and give this money to the girl's father. She will remain his wife; as long as he lives, he may not divorce her. ²⁰*But if the accusation that the girl cannot show evidence of virginity is substantiated, ²¹she must be taken out, and at the door of her father's house her fellow*citizens must stone her to death for having committed an infamy in Israel by bringing disgrace on her father's family. You must banish this evil from among you.

Adultery and fornication

²²*If a man is caught having sexual intercourse with another man's wife, both must be put to death: the man who has slept with her and the woman herself. You must banish this evil from Israel. ²³*If a virgin is engaged to a man, and another man encounters her in the town and has sexual intercourse with her, ²⁴you will take them both to the gate of the town in question and stone them to death: the girl, for not having called for help in the town; the man, for having exploited his fellow*citizen's wife. You must banish this evil from among you. ²⁵But if the man ran into the betrothed girl in the open country and slept with her, having taken her by force, her ravisher alone must die; ²⁶you must do nothing to the girl, she has not committed a capital offence. The case is like that of a man who attacks and kills his fellow: ²⁷since he came across her in the open country, the betrothed girl may have called out, without anyone's coming to her rescue. ²⁸*If a man meets a young virgin who is not betrothed and seizes her, sleeps with her and is caught in the act, ²⁹her ravisher must give the girl's father fifty silver shekels; since he has exploited her, she must be his wife and, as long as he lives, he may not divorce her.*

²³*A man must not take his father's wife; he must not withdraw the skirt of his father's cloak from her.

Participation in public worship

²*A man whose testicles have been crushed or whose male member has been cut off must not be admitted to the assembly of Yahweh. ³No half*breed may be admitted to the assembly of Yahweh; not even his descendants to the tenth generation may be admitted to the assembly of Yahweh. ⁴No Ammonite or Moabite may be admitted to the assembly of Yahweh; not even his descendants to the tenth generation may be admitted to the assembly of Yahweh, and this is for all time; ⁵since they did not come to meet you with food and drink when you were on your way out of Egypt, and even hired Balaam son of Beor to oppose you by cursing you, from Pethor in Aram Naharaim. ⁶But Yahweh your God refused to listen to Balaam, and Yahweh your God turned the curse on you into a blessing, because Yahweh your God loved you. ⁷Never, as long as you live, must you seek their welfare or their prosperity. ⁸*You must not regard the Edomite as detestable, for he is your brother; you must not regard the Egyptian as detestable, since you were once a foreigner in his country. ⁹The third generation of children born to these may be admitted to the assembly of Yahweh.

Hygiene in camp

¹⁰*When you are in camp, at war with your enemies, you must avoid anything bad. ¹¹If any one of you is unclean by reason of a nocturnal emission, he must leave and not come back into camp, ¹²but towards evening wash himself, and return to camp at sunset. ¹³*You must have a latrine outside the camp, and go out to this; ¹⁴you must have a trowel in your equipment and, when you squat outside, you must scrape a hole with it, then turn round and cover up your excrement. ¹⁵For Yahweh your God goes about the inside of your camp to guard you and put your enemies at your mercy. Your camp must therefore be a holy place; Yahweh must not see anything indecent there or he will desert you.

Miscellaneous

¹⁶*You must not allow a master to imprison a slave who has escaped from him and come to you. ¹⁷Let him make his home with you and yours, wherever he pleases in whichever of your towns he prefers; you must not molest him. ¹⁸*There must be no sacred prostitute among the women of Israel, and no sacred prostitute among the men of Israel. ¹⁹You must not bring the wages of a prostitute or the earnings of a *dog* ^{* [ Contemptuous term for a male prostitute.]} to the house of Yahweh your God, whatever vow you may have made: both are detestable to Yahweh your God. ²⁰*You must not lend on interest to your brother, whether the loan be of money, of food, or of anything else that may earn interest. ²¹You may demand interest on a loan to a foreigner, but you must not demand interest from your brother; so that Yahweh your God may bless you in all your labours, in the country which you are about to enter and make your own. ²²*If you make a vow to Yahweh your God, you must not be slack about fulfilling it: Yahweh your God will certainly hold you answerable for it and you will incur guilt. ²³If, however, you make no vow, you do not incur guilt. ²⁴Whatever passes your lips you must keep to, and the vow that you have made to Yahweh, your generous God, you must fulfil. ²⁵*If you go into your neighbour's vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as you please, but you must not put any in your basket. ²⁶If you go into your neighbour's standing corn, you may pick ears by hand, but you must not put a sickle into your neighbour's corn.*

Divorce

²⁴*Suppose a man has taken a wife and consummated the marriage; but she has not pleased him and he has found some impropriety of which to accuse her; he has therefore made out a writ of divorce for her and handed it to her and then dismissed her from his house; ²she leaves his home and goes away to become the wife of another man. ³Then suppose this second man who has married her takes a dislike to her and makes out a writ of divorce for her and hands it to her and dismisses her from his house or if this other man who took her as his wife dies, ⁴her first husband, who has repudiated her, may not take her back as his wife now that she has been made unclean in this way. For that is detestable in Yahweh's eyes and you must not bring guilt on the country which Yahweh your God is giving you as your heritage.

Protection of the individual

⁵*If a man is newly married, he must not join the army, nor must he be pestered at home; he must be left at home, free of all obligations for one year, to make his new wife happy. ⁶*No one may take a mill or a millstone in pledge; that would be to take life itself in pledge. ⁷*If anyone is caught, having kidnapped one of his brother*Israelites, whether he makes him his slave or sells him, that thief must die. You must banish this evil from among you. ⁸*In a case of a virulent skin*disease, take care you faithfully observe and exactly carry out everything that the levitical priests direct you to do. You must keep and observe everything that I have commanded them. ⁹Remember what Yahweh your God did to Miriam when you were on your way out of Egypt. ¹⁰*If you are making your brother a loan on pledge, you must not go into his house and seize the pledge, whatever it may be. ¹¹You must stay outside, and the man to whom you are making the loan must bring the pledge out to you. ¹²And if the man is poor, you must not go to bed with his pledge in your possession; ¹³you must return it to him at sunset so that he can sleep in his cloak and bless you; and it will be an upright action on your part in God's view. ¹⁴*You must not exploit a poor and needy wage*earner, be he one of your brothers or a foreigner resident in your community. ¹⁵You must pay him his wages each day, not allowing the sun to set before you do, since he, being poor, needs them badly; otherwise he may appeal to Yahweh against you, and you would incur guilt. ¹⁶*Parents may not be put to death for their children, nor children for parents, but each must be put to death for his own crime. ¹⁷*You must not infringe the rights of the foreigner or the orphan; you must not take a widow's clothes in pledge. ¹⁸Remember that you were once a slave in Egypt and that Yahweh your God redeemed you from that. That is why I am giving you this order. ¹⁹*If, when reaping the harvest in your field, you overlook a sheaf in that field, do not go back for it. The foreigner, the orphan and the widow shall have it, so that Yahweh your God may bless you in all your undertakings. ²⁰*When you beat your olive tree, you must not go over the branches twice. The foreigner, the orphan and the widow shall have the rest. ²¹*When you harvest your vineyard, you must not pick it over a second time. The foreigner, the orphan and the widow shall have the rest. ²²*Remember that you were once a slave in Egypt. That is why I am giving you this order.*

²⁵*If people fall out, they must go to court for judgement; the judges