Deuteronomy

11In this book are speeches that Moses said to all the Israelites. He spoke to them after they had set up their tents east of the Jordan River. They were in the desert plain along the Jordan near a place named Suph. Suph is between the desert of Paran {on one side of the Jordan River} and the towns of Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Di Zahab {on the other side of the river}. 2It usually takes 11 days to walk from Mount Horeb to Kadesh Barnea. People go by way of Mount Seir.

3Forty years had passed since the Israelites had left Egypt, and it was the first day of the eleventh month. Moses told the Israelite people everything that Yahweh had commanded him to tell them. 4He did this after they had defeated Sihon and Og. Sihon, the king of the Amorite people, lived in the city of Heshbon. Og, the king of the region of Bashan, ruled in the towns of Ashtaroth and Edrei.

5The people were in Moab, on the east side of the Jordan River. There, Moses explained to them God’s instructions, saying,

6“Yahweh our God said to our ancestors at Mount Horeb, ‘You have stayed for a very long time at the base of this mountain. 7Now you must continue traveling. Go to the hilly area where the Amorite people live and go to the nearby areas. These areas include the plain along the Jordan, the hilly area, the smaller hills in the west, the wilderness in the south, the coast of the Great Sea, the land of Canaan, the Lebanon mountains, and northeast to the great Euphrates River. 8Know that I will give that land to you. I, Yahweh, promised the land to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I promised that I would give it to them and to their descendants. So go and occupy it.’

9I said to your ancestors during that time, ‘I am not able to govern all of you by myself. 10Yahweh our God has caused us Israelites to become numerous. Today we are as numerous as the stars in the sky. 11I pray that Yahweh, the God whom our ancestors worshiped, will cause us to become a great many times more numerous than we are now. I pray that he will bless us just as he promised to do. 12But I cannot solve all of your problems by myself. 13So choose some men from your tribes who are wise and who have good sense and whom people respect. Then I will assign them to be your leaders.’

14Your parents replied, ‘We agree with what you have suggested.’

15So I took the wise men, those whom people respected and whom your families chose from your tribes, and I appointed them to be your leaders. I appointed some to lead groups of 1,000 people, some to lead groups of 100 people, some to lead groups of 50 people, and some to lead groups of 10 people. I also appointed other officers from throughout your tribes. 16Then, I instructed your leaders, ‘Listen when your people are quarreling. Consider each case fairly, including cases where Israelites quarrel with each other. Also consider cases where an Israelite quarrels with someone from another land who lives among you. 17You must not favor one person more than another. You must treat unimportant people and important people equally. You must not worry about what anyone will think, because you will decide matters as God wants you to decide them. If you are not sure what to decide when people are quarreling, tell me, and I will decide.’ 18At that time I also told you other things that you should do.

19Then, just as Yahweh our God told us to do, we left Horeb. We went through a huge and dangerous wilderness. The wilderness was on the road to the hilly area where the Amorite people live. We arrived at Kadesh Barnea. 20I said to your parents, ‘You have now come to the hilly area where the Amorite people live. This is part of the area that Yahweh our God is giving to us. 21Know that Yahweh our God is giving this land to us. So go and occupy it as he commanded. Yahweh is the God whom your ancestors worshiped. Do not be at all afraid.’

22But your fathers all came to me and said, ‘We should first send some men ahead of us to explore the land. Then, they can return and tell us which will be the best road to go there and what kind of towns are there.’

23I thought that what they had planned was good, so I chose 12 men, one man from each tribe. 24They went into the hilly area as far as the Valley of Eshkol, and they explored the area. 25They picked some of the fruit that they found there and brought it to us. They reported that the land that Yahweh our God was giving to us was very good.

26But your parents refused to go and conquer that land. They rebelled against what Yahweh our God had commanded them to do. 27Your parents stayed in their tents and complained. They said, ‘Yahweh hates us, so he has brought us here from Egypt to allow the Amorite people to destroy us. 28We do not want to go there. The men whom we sent there have caused us to become very afraid. They have told us that the people there are stronger and bigger than we are. They said that there are very high walls around their towns. They also said that they saw giants there that are descendants of Anak.’

29Then I said to your fathers, ‘Do not be even a little bit afraid of those people! 30Yahweh our God will go before you. He will fight for you just as you saw him do for you in Egypt 31and in the wilderness. You saw how he brought you safely here, just like a man holds and protects his son.’

32Your parents would not trust Yahweh our God, even though I reminded them of what Yahweh had done. 33He always went ahead of them while they traveled in the desert. He showed them places to set up their tents. He directed them with the fire during the night and with the cloud during the day.

34Yahweh heard your parents complaining, and he became angry. He solemnly declared, 35-36‘Only Caleb son of Jephunneh will enter the land. He has obeyed me completely. So I will give to him and to his descendants some of the land that he explored. None of the rest of these evil people will ever live in that good land that I solemnly promised to give to your ancestors.’

37But because of what your fathers did, Yahweh was also angry with me. He said to me, ‘You also will not enter that land. 38Joshua son of Nun, who is your helper, will enter it. Support him, because he will enable the Israelite people to occupy that land.’

39Yahweh continued to declare, ‘You said that your enemies would capture your children, {but this did not happen}. Your children are very young, so they do not yet know what is good and what is evil. However, they are the ones who will enter that land. I will give them the land, and they will occupy it. 40As for you, turn around and go back into the desert, toward the Sea of Reeds.’

41Then your fathers replied, ‘We have sinned by disobeying Yahweh. We promise now that we will go and attack the people who live in that land, just as Yahweh our God has told us to do.’ Then each of their men equipped himself with weapons. They thought that it would be easy to invade the hill country.

42But Yahweh said to me, ‘Tell them not to go there and attack those people, because I will not help them. If they go, their enemy will certainly defeat them.’

43So I said that to your fathers, but they did not obey what I said. They again rebelled against what Yahweh commanded them to do. Their soldiers proudly marched up into that hilly area. 44Then the men of the Amorite people who lived in that region came out of their towns. They attacked those soldiers. They chased our soldiers like a swarm of bees would chase a person. The Amorites pursued your ancestors’ soldiers south from the area of Seir and defeated them at the city of Hormah. 45So your fathers went back to Kadesh Barnea and cried out to request Yahweh to help them, but he did not pay any attention to them. 46So we stayed there at Kadesh Barnea for a long time.

21Then we turned around and went through the desert toward the Sea of Reeds as Yahweh told us to do. We wandered near Mount Seir for a long time.

2Then Yahweh said to me, 3‘You have been wandering around this hilly area for a long enough time. Now turn and travel toward the north. 4And tell the people that they are about to travel near the land that belongs to the descendants of Esau, {who are also descendants of Isaac}, as you are. They live in the hilly area near Mount Seir. They will be afraid of you, but be very careful. 5Do not start to fight against them, because I am not going to give you even a tiny bit of their land. That is because I have given Mount Seir to the descendants of Esau. 6{When you travel near their land}, buy food and water from them.’

7Remember that Yahweh our God has blessed you in everything that you have done. He knows {what has happened to you} while you have wandered in this huge desert. Yahweh our God has protected you during those 40 years, and as a result you have had everything that you needed.

8So we continued to travel. We avoided going through the hilly area of Seir where the descendants of Esau, who are also descendants of Isaac, live. We turned from the road {that goes along} the plain of the Jordan valley, and {comes up} from the city of Elath and the city of Ezion Geber. We traveled along the wilderness road of the kingdom of Moab.

9Yahweh said to me, ‘Do not bother the people of Moab by starting to fight against them, because I am not going to give you any of their land. The reason is that they are descendants of Lot. I gave them the city of Ar, {their capital, and the other areas in that country}.’”

10(There were people called the Emites that formerly lived there. They were as populous and tall as the descendants of Anak. 11People also call both the Emites and the Anakites, Raphaites. The people of Moab call them Emites. 12The Horite people also formerly lived in the area of Seir, but the descendants of Esau expelled them. They killed them and settled in their land, just as the Israelite people later expelled their enemies from the land that Yahweh gave to them.)

13“Then we crossed Zered Gorge, as Yahweh told us to do. 14It had been 38 years from the time we first left Kadesh Barnea until we crossed Zered Gorge. During those years, all the fighting men of that generation of Israelites died, as Yahweh had solemnly said would happen. 15Furthermore, Yahweh opposed them, so he caused them to die.

16After all the men who had been old enough to fight had died, 17Yahweh said to me, 18‘Today you must travel through the region of Moab, near Ar, their city. 19When you come near the border of the land where the descendants of Ammon live, do not bother them or start to fight against them. The reason is that they are also descendants of Lot, so I am not going to give you any of the land that I have given to them.’”

20(People also call that region the land of the Raphaites, who formerly lived there. The Ammonite people call them the Zamzummites. 21They were as populous and tall as the Anakite people. But Yahweh caused them to die when the Ammonite people expelled them and settled in their land. 22Yahweh had done the same thing for the descendants of Esau living in the hilly area of Seir. Yahweh eliminated the Horite people on behalf of the descendants of Esau who took over their land and who still live there. 23As for the Avvite people, they lived in towns as far {south} as Gaza. The Caphtorite people from the island of Caphtor killed the Avvite people and settled in their land.)

24“After we had gone through the region of Moab, Yahweh said to us, ‘Now cross the Arnon River valley. Know that I will help you to defeat the army of Sihon. Sihon is the king of the Amorites who live in the city of Heshbon. So attack their army and start to take their land from them. 25Today I will begin to cause everyone, everywhere to be afraid of you. Everyone who hears about you will be very afraid of you.’

26Then I sent messengers to go from where we were in the Desert of Kedemoth to King Sihon at Heshbon. {I told them to give him} this peaceful message, 27‘Please allow us to travel through your land. {We promise that} we will stay on the road. We will not turn off to the right or to the left. 28We will pay you for food and water. We want only to walk through your land 29until we cross the Jordan River into the land that Yahweh our God is giving to us. Do for us just as the descendants of Esau who live in the area of Seir and the Moabite people who live in the city of Ar did {for us when they allowed us to go through their land.}’ 30But King Sihon of Heshbon would not allow us to go through his country. That is because Yahweh our God caused him to be stubborn so that Yahweh could cause us to defeat his army and take his land, in which we still live.

31Yahweh said to me, ‘Know that I am starting to allow you to defeat Sihon’s army and to take the people’s land from them. So enter it now until you occupy it fully!’

32Then Sihon and his soldiers marched out to fight against us at the town of Jahaz. 33But Yahweh our God caused us to defeat them. We killed Sihon, his son, and all his soldiers. 34We captured and destroyed all of King Sihon’s cities. {We killed} the men, women, and children. We did not allow any of them to remain alive. 35However, we did take the livestock and valuable things from the cities that we captured. 36Yahweh our God enabled us to capture all their towns from the city of Aroer in the south, which is at the edge of the Arnon River valley, to the region of Gilead in the north. Some of their cities had walls around them, but we were still able to capture them. 37But we did not go near the area where the descendants of Ammon live, the banks of the Jabbok River, the towns of the hilly area, or any other place where Yahweh our God told us not to go.

31Then we turned north and went toward the region of Bashan. Og, the king of that area, and all his soldiers marched south to fight against us at the city of Edrei. 2Yahweh said to me, ‘Do not be afraid of him, because I will cause your army to defeat him and all his army. I will also cause you to capture all their land. Do to him what you did to Sihon, the king of the Amorite people, who ruled in the city of Heshbon.’

3So Yahweh our God caused us to defeat King Og and his soldiers. We killed them all. We did not allow any of them to remain alive. 4There were 60 cities in that region of Argob, in King Og’s kingdom of Bashan, but we captured all of them. 5All those cities had high walls around them with gates and bars. We also captured many villages that did not have walls around them. 6We completely destroyed those cities, just as we had done in the area that King Sihon ruled. We killed all the men, women, and children. 7But from those cities we took for ourselves all the livestock and valuable things.

8So at that time we took all the land from those two kings of the Amorite people. We took the land east of the Jordan River, from the Arnon River in the south to Mount Hermon in the north.” 9(The people of Sidon city call that mountain Sirion. The Amorite people call it Senir.) 10“We captured all the towns on the plateau and all the region of Gilead. We also captured all of Bashan as far east as the cities of Salekah and Edrei, which also belonged to Og’s kingdom.” 11(Og was the last king who was a descendant of the Raphaite people. His bed was iron. It was four meters long and two meters wide, according to the standard measurement. It was in the city of Rabbah in the region of the Ammonites.)

12“From the land that we captured at that time, I allotted to the tribes of Reuben and Gad the land north of the city of Aroer near the Arnon River. I also allotted to them some of the hilly areas of Gilead, along with the nearby cities. 13The other part of Gilead and all of Bashan, which was the region of Argob that King Og had ruled, I allotted to half of the tribe of Manasseh.” (People call the entire region of Bashan the land of the Raphaites. 14Jair, a man from the tribe of Manasseh, conquered all of Bashan as far north as the border of the Geshur and Maacath territories. He gave his own name to the villages there. {People still call them} the villages of Jair.)

15“The northern part of the Gilead region I allotted to the Machir clan, {who are descendants of the tribe of Manasseh}. 16I allotted to the tribes of Reuben and Gad the southern part of Gilead, extending south to the Arnon River. The middle of the river is the southern boundary. The northern boundary is the Jabbok River, which is part of the border of the region where the Ammonites live. 17The border extends from the plain along the east side of the Jordan valley, from the Chinnereth Sea in the north to the Sea of the Arabah” (people also call it the Salt Sea) “in the south and to the slopes of Mount Pisgah on the east.

18At that time, I told you three tribes, ‘Yahweh our God is giving you this land east of the Jordan River. So now, your soldiers must cross the Jordan River ahead of the men from the other Israelite tribes. {Help them to conquer the land}. 19But your wives and children and your very numerous cattle must stay in the towns that I have allotted to you. 20{Your men must help} your fellow Israelites until Yahweh enables them to live there peacefully. Help them until they also capture all of the land that Yahweh our God is giving to them, which is on the west side of the Jordan River, just as he did for you {here on the east side of the river}. After that, you all may return to this land that I have allotted to you.’

21And I told Joshua, ‘You have seen everything that Yahweh our God did to those two kings, Sihon and Og. He will do the same thing to the people who are now in the land that you will be entering. 22Do not be afraid of those people, because Yahweh our God is the one who will fight on your behalf.’

23At that time, I earnestly prayed, 24‘Yahweh my Lord, you are the one who has {merely} begun to show me how very great you are and that you can do powerful things. There is certainly no god in heaven or on earth who can do the powerful things that you have done. 25So please allow me to cross the Jordan River. Let me see the good land on the west side, the good hilly area, and the mountains in Lebanon.’

26But Yahweh was angry with me because of what your parents had done. He would not pay attention to me. Instead, he said, ‘That is enough {talk} from you! Do not talk to me about that again! 27Climb up to the top of Mount Pisgah. Then look toward the west, east, north, and south. Look at it all carefully because you will not cross the Jordan River {to see the land from there}. 28But tell Joshua what he must do. Encourage him because he is the one who will lead the people across the river. He is the one who will lead them to occupy the land that you will see {from the top of the mountain}.’

29So we remained in the {Jordan River} valley close to the town of Beth Peor.

41Now, you Israelite people, obey all the rules and regulations that I will teach you. If you do that, you will remain alive. You will be able to enter and occupy the land that Yahweh, the God whom your ancestors worshiped, is giving to you. 2Do not change the words of my commands to you. Obey all the commands of Yahweh our God that I am giving to you.

3You have seen what Yahweh did at Baal Peor, for example, when he destroyed all the people who worshiped {the god} Baal there. 4However, all of you who faithfully continued to worship Yahweh our God are still alive today.

5Never forget that I have taught you all the rules and regulations, just as Yahweh our God told me to do. He wants you to obey them {when you are living} in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. 6Obey them faithfully because, if you do that, you will show the people of other nations that you are very wise. When they hear about all these rules, they will say, ‘The people of this great nation of Israel are certainly very wise!’ 7Even if other nations are great, there is none of them that has a god who cares for them as Yahweh our God cares for us! 8And there is no other nation, even if it is a great nation, which has laws that are as just as the laws that I am speaking to you today.

9But be very careful! Do not forget what you have seen God do. Remember those things as long as you are alive. Tell them to your children and your grandchildren. 10Tell them about the day that your parents stood in the presence of Yahweh our God at Mount Horeb, when he said to me, ‘Gather the people together in order that they can hear what I say. I want them to learn to respect me and honor me as long as they are alive. I want them to teach their children to do the same.’ 11Tell your children that your parents came near to the foot of the mountain while the mountain burned with a fire that went up to the sky, and Yahweh covered the mountain with darkness, clouds, and smoke. 12Then Yahweh spoke to your parents out of the middle of the fire. Your parents only heard him speak, but they did not see him. 13And he declared to them his covenant that he wants you also to obey. He gave them the Ten Commandments. He wrote those on two stone tablets. 14Yahweh told me to teach all the rules and regulations to you in order that you would obey them. He wants you to obey them in the land that you are about to enter and occupy.

15On the day that Yahweh spoke to your parents from the fire at Mount Horeb, they did not see him. So be very careful! 16Do not sin by making for yourselves any carved figure! Do not make anything that resembles the likeness of anything: man, woman, 17any animal, any bird, 18any reptile, or any fish. 19Do not look up toward the sky and desire to worship anything that you see there, the sun or the moon or the stars. Yahweh our God has given those to {help} all people everywhere. 20Yahweh has brought your families out of Egypt, where they were suffering as though they were in a blazing furnace. That is so that they would be people who belong to him, which is what you are today.

21But Yahweh was angry with me because of what your parents did. He declared that I would never enter the land that he is giving to you. 22He swore that I would die here in this land and never cross the Jordan River. But you will go across it, and you will occupy that land. 23Be sure that you do not forget the covenant that Yahweh our God made with you, and do not make a carved figure in the likeness of anything about which he has forbidden you. 24This is because Yahweh your God wants everyone to worship him alone. He will destroy anyone who worships idols.

25After you have been in the land of Canaan for a long time and you have children and grandchildren, do not sin by making a carved figure that represents anything. Yahweh says that is evil, and if you do that, you will cause him to become angry. 26Today I am requesting everyone who is in heaven and earth to watch what you are doing. But {if you disobey what I am telling you}, you will soon all die in the land that you will be crossing the Jordan River to occupy. You will not live very long there, because Yahweh will completely get rid of many of you. 27Yahweh will force the rest of you to go and live among the people of many other nations. Only a few of you will survive there. 28When you are in those nations, you will worship gods that humans have made from wood and stone. {They will be gods} that cannot see, hear, eat, or smell {anything}. 29But while you are there, you will try to know Yahweh your God. If you try with all that you are to know him, he will answer you. 30In the future, when people mistreat you {there} and all those {bad} things happen to you, you will again worship only Yahweh and obey him. 31Yahweh is a God who acts mercifully. {If you obey him}, he will not abandon you, cause you to die, or forget the agreement that he solemnly made with your ancestors.

32Now please think about the past, about the time before you were alive, about all the time since God first created people here on the earth. You could search everywhere. Certainly, nothing has ever happened that is as great {as what Yahweh did for the Israelite people}. 33Certainly no group has ever remained alive after they heard their God speak to them from the middle of a fire as you yourselves have heard. 34Certainly God has never before tried to take a huge group of people from one nation {to another location} as he did for us when he brought us out of Egypt. We saw Yahweh our God use his power when he performed miracles, sent plagues, terrified people, and fought the Egyptians for us.

35Yahweh showed all these things especially to you in order that you would know that only he is truly God and that there is no other God. 36He allowed your parents to hear him speak from heaven in order that he could discipline them. Here on the earth, he allowed them to see his great fire. He spoke to them from the middle of the fire. 37Because he loved our ancestors, he chose you Israelites, who are their descendants. By his great power, he brought us out of Egypt. 38{As they traveled}, he expelled the people of nations that were greater and more powerful than we were. This is so that we could capture and live in their land, as we are about to do today.

39So today you should think about the fact that Yahweh is God, that {he rules} in heaven and also on the earth, and that there is no other god. 40Obey all the rules and regulations that I am giving to you today. This is so that things will go well for you and your descendants and so that you will live a long time in the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you, so {it will belong to you} forever.”

41Then Moses chose three cities that are on the east side of the Jordan River. 42If someone accidentally killed another person, a person who had not been his enemy previously, he could escape to one of those cities. He would be safe there {because the people there would protect him}. 43For the tribe of Reuben, Moses chose the city of Bezer in the wilderness. For the tribe of Gad, he chose the city of Ramoth in the region of Gilead. For the tribe of Manasseh, he chose the city of Golan in the region of Bashan.

44Moses gave God’s instructions to the Israelite people. 45They included all the instructions, rules, and regulations that Moses told the Israelite people after they had come out of Egypt, 46when they were in the valley east of the Jordan River. They were across from the town of Beth Peor, in the land Sihon, the king of the Amorite people, who lived in the city of Heshbon, had {previously} ruled. Moses and the other Israelites had defeated his army when they came out of Egypt. 47They captured Sihon’s land and the land that Og, the king of the region of Bashan, had ruled. Those were the two kings who ruled the Amorite people in the area east of the Jordan River. 48Their land extended from the city of Aroer in the south along the edge of the valley of Arnon, as far north as Mount Sion, which people also call Mount Hermon. 49It also included all the area in the plain east of the Jordan River, extending to the Sea of the Arabah and east to the slopes of Mount Pisgah.

51Moses summoned all the people of Israel and said to them, “You Israelite people, listen to all the rules that I am commanding you today. Learn them and be sure to obey them. 2When we were at Mount Horeb, Yahweh our God made a covenant with us. 3But this covenant was not only for our ancestors; he made it also for us who are alive now. 4Yahweh personally spoke with us on that mountain, from the middle of the fire. 5On that day, I stood between Yahweh and your parents in order to tell them what he said. That was because they were afraid of the fire, and they did not want to climb up the mountain. This is what Yahweh said,

6‘I am Yahweh your God, the one you worship. I am the one who brought you out of the land of Egypt. I am the one who freed you from being slaves there.

7Do not worship any god other than me.

8Do not carve yourself a figure that looks like anything in the sky or that is on the ground or that is in the water under the ground.

9Do not bow down to any idol or worship it, because I am Yahweh your God. I demand that you worship me only! I will punish the descendants of those who hate me. I will punish their descendants for three, even four {generations}. 10However, I will faithfully love forever all of those who love me and obey my commandments.

11{I am} Yahweh your God, so do not use my name for the wrong purpose. This is because I will certainly punish those who use my name for wrong purposes.

12Remember that the seventh day of every week belongs to me. This is according to what I, Yahweh your God, am commanding you.

13There are six days each week for you to do all your labor. 14But the seventh day is a day of rest, a day dedicated to me, Yahweh your God. On that day you must not do any work. Neither you nor your sons, your daughters, your male or female slaves, your livestock, and not even foreigners who are living in your country may work. 15Remember that your families were slaves in Egypt. I, Yahweh your God, brought you out of there by my very great power. As a result, I am commanding that all of you must rest on the seventh day of each week.

16Honor your father and your mother, just like I, Yahweh your God, am commanding you. Do this in order that you may live a long time in the land that I, Yahweh your God, will give you. Also do this in order that things will go well for you there.

17Do not murder anyone.

18Do not commit adultery with anyone.

19Do not steal anything.

20Do not tell lies about someone in court.

21Do not covet someone else’s wife, someone else’s house, someone else’s field, someone else’s male or female slave, someone else’s livestock, someone else’s donkeys, or anything else that another person owns.’

22Those are the commandments that Yahweh commanded your families when they were at {the bottom of} the mountain. Yahweh spoke with a very loud voice from the middle of the fire, and there were dark clouds {around the mountain}. He spoke only those Ten Commandments. Then he wrote them on two stone tablets and gave them to me.

23Your parents heard Yahweh’s voice when he spoke to them out of the darkness, while there was a big fire burning on the mountain. After that, their leaders came to me. 24{One of} them said, ‘Listen to us! Yahweh our God showed us that he is very glorious and great when we heard him speak from the fire. Today we have realized that it is possible for us human beings to continue to live even though God has spoken to us. 25But we are afraid that we will die. We are afraid that this immense fire will burn us all up if we go on hearing Yahweh’s voice. 26We are the only people on earth who have remained alive after hearing the all-powerful God speak to them from a fire! 27{So Moses}, you go {up the mountain} and listen to everything that Yahweh our God says. Then {come back} and tell us everything that he has said, and we will listen to what he has said and obey it.’

28Yahweh heard your leaders say that. {When I went back up the mountain}, Yahweh said to me, ‘I have heard what your leaders have said. What they have said is right. 29I surely wish that they would always have awesome respect for me and obey all my commandments. I desire their worship so that things may go well for them and for their descendants forever.

30So go {down} and tell them to return to their tents. 31But {then,} you {come back up} here and stand near me. I will give you all the rules and decrees that I {want them to obey}. Then you can teach them to the people so that they will obey them when they are in the land that I am giving to them.’

32Be sure that you do everything that Yahweh our God has commanded us to do. Be sure to obey his commandments. 33Conduct your lives as Yahweh our God has commanded us to do. This is so that you may live a long time. Also, this is so that things may go well for you {when you are living} in the land that you will occupy.

61These are the commandments, rules, and decrees that Yahweh our God commanded me to teach to you. He wants you to obey them in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. 2He wants you to honor him. He wants you and your descendants to always obey all these rules and regulations that I am giving to you. This is so that you may live for a long time. 3So, you Israelite people, listen to them carefully and obey them. If you do that, things will go well with you. Also, you will become a very numerous nation when you are {living} in that very fertile land. That is what Yahweh, the God whom our ancestors worshiped, promised would happen.

4You Israelite people, listen! Only Yahweh is our God. 5You must love him with all your inner being and with all that you feel and in every way that you can. 6Remember these commands that I am giving to you today. 7Teach them to your children again and again. Talk about them {at every opportunity,} such as when you are in your houses and when you are walking outside. Talk about them also when you are resting and when you are working. 8{Write copies of them} and tie them to your arms and foreheads {to help you to remember them}. 9Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your city gates.

10Yahweh our God solemnly promised to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that he would give you a land that already has in it large and prosperous cities that you did not build. 11He said that the houses in those cities will already be full of many good things that someone else put there. There will be wells that someone else dug. There will be vineyards and olive trees that someone else planted. So when Yahweh brings you into that land, and you have all that you want to eat, 12be sure to remember Yahweh, who rescued you from being slaves in Egypt {and gave all these things to you}.

13You must deeply respect Yahweh our God, and you must worship him alone. When you make a solemn oath, say that he should punish you if you do not do what you have promised. 14You must not worship any other gods, the gods that the peoples who live near you worship. 15This is because Yahweh our God, who has a special relationship with you will not accept people who worship anyone or anything other than him. So if you worship any other god, Yahweh will be very angry with you, and he will destroy you completely. 16Do not do sinful things to find out whether Yahweh will punish you or not, as your parents did at Massah. 17Be sure that you always obey all the laws, the weighty instructions, and the regulations that he has given to you. 18Do what Yahweh says is right and good. If you do that, things will go well with you. You will be able to enter and occupy the good land that Yahweh solemnly promised to give to our ancestors. 19He will do that by driving out your enemies from that land, just as he promised to do.

20In the future, your children will ask you, ‘Why did Yahweh our God command us to obey all these rules and decrees?’ 21Then you will tell them, ‘Our families were slaves of the king in Egypt. Yahweh brought them out of Egypt by his great power. 22They saw him do many kinds of miracles and terrifying things to the people of Egypt and to the king and his officials. 23He rescued our families from Egypt and brought them here to give them this land. This is just as he solemnly promised our ancestors that he would do. 24And he commanded us to obey all these laws and to honor him. This is so that things will always go well with us and so that he will protect our nation, as he is doing now. 25Yahweh our God will approve of us if we carefully obey everything that he has commanded us to do.’

71Yahweh our God will take you into the land that you will soon enter and occupy. As you advance, he will expel these people groups that are more powerful and more numerous than you are. They are the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 2When Yahweh our God enables you to defeat them, you must kill them all. You must make no agreement with them, and you must not act mercifully toward them. 3You must not marry any of them. You must not allow your daughters to marry any of their sons or allow your sons to marry any of their daughters. 4If you did that, those people would persuade your children to stop worshiping Yahweh and to worship other gods. If that happens, Yahweh will be very angry with you, and he will destroy you very quickly. 5This is what you must do to those people: Tear down their altars, break apart the stone pillars {that they have dedicated to their gods}, cut down the poles {that they use when they worship the goddess Asherah}, and burn their molded idols. 6You must do that because you are a group of people who belong only to Yahweh our God. He has chosen you from all the peoples in the world to be his own special people.

7It was not because you were more numerous than any other people group that Yahweh chose you. In fact, you are one of the smallest people groups on the earth. 8Instead, it is because Yahweh loved you and because he wanted to do what he solemnly promised to your ancestors. That is why he rescued you by his great power from slavery in Egypt and from Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. 9So remember that Yahweh is our God. He is faithful to us. He will do what he agreed to do. He will faithfully love forever people who love him and who obey his commandments. 10But as for those who hate him, he will pay them back. He will punish them and quickly destroy them.

11So you must be sure to obey all the commandments, rules, and decrees that I am giving to you today. 12If you pay attention to these decrees and always obey them, Yahweh our God will do what he has agreed to do for you. He will also faithfully love you, which is what he solemnly promised to your ancestors that he would do. 13He will love you and bless you. He will enable you to have many children. He will bless your fields. As a result, you will have plenty of grain and {grapes to make} wine and plenty of olive oil. You will have many cattle and sheep. He will do all these things for you in the land that he promised to your ancestors that he would give to you. 14He will bless you more than he will bless any other people group. All of you will be able to have children. All of your livestock will be able to produce offspring. 15And Yahweh will protect you from all illnesses. He will not make you become sick with any of the dreadful diseases that {our ancestors} knew about in Egypt. But, he will make all your enemies sick with them. 16You must destroy all the peoples that Yahweh our God enables you to conquer. Do not act mercifully toward any of them and do not worship their gods. If you do that, it would be like falling into a trap {from which you will never be able to escape}.

17Do not think to yourselves, ‘These people groups are more numerous than we are. We will never be able to drive them out.’ 18Do not be afraid of them. Instead, think about what Yahweh our God did to the king of Egypt and to all the people whom he {ruled}. 19Remember the terrible plagues that your parents saw him inflict on the people of Egypt. Remember the various kinds of miracles that God did in order to bring your families out {of Egypt}. Yahweh our God will do the same kind of things to the peoples that you are afraid of now. 20Furthermore, he will cause them to become terrified. He will destroy those who remain alive and run away to hide from you. 21Do not be afraid of those people, because Yahweh our God will be with you. He is a great God. He is the one that people are afraid of. 22He will gradually expel those people groups. You should not {try to} expel all of them at one time. If you did that, the number of wild animals would quickly increase, {and you would not be able to get rid of them}. 23Instead, Yahweh will enable you to defeat your enemies {one people group at a time}. He will cause them to panic until you have destroyed them. 24He will enable you to defeat their kings. After you kill them, people will forget them. No people group will be able to stop you. You will destroy all of them. 25You must burn the carved figures {that represent} their gods. Do not desire to take the silver or gold {decorations} that are on those idols. If you take them for yourselves, they will be like a trap {to cause you to disobey God}. Yahweh hates every part of those idols. 26You must not bring any of those disgusting idols into your houses, because if you do that, God will curse you just as he curses them. You must hate and despise those idols, because they are things that Yahweh has cursed, and he promises to destroy them.

81You must faithfully obey all the commandments that I am giving you today. If you do that, you will live a long time and you will become very numerous. Your people will occupy the land that Yahweh solemnly promised your ancestors {that he would give to you}. 2And think about how Yahweh our God led us as we traveled through the desert during these past 40 years. He {caused you to have many problems}. This was to cause you to realize that you needed to trust him and not trust in yourselves. He also wanted to test you, to find out what you intended to do, whether you would obey his commandments or not. 3So he caused you to have problems. He allowed you to become hungry. Then he gave you manna, {food from heaven}, food that you and your parents had never eaten before. He did that to teach you that people need food {for their bodies}, but {they also need food for their spirits. This comes from paying attention to} everything that Yahweh says. 4During those 40 years, our clothes did not wear out. Also, our feet did not swell {from walking through the desert}. 5Remember that Yahweh our God corrects us and punishes us, like parents correct their children.

6So obey the commandments of Yahweh our God. Conduct your lives as he wants you to do and honor him. 7He is about to bring you into a good land. It has streams that flow down from the hills and flow out of springs in the valleys. 8It is a land on which wheat and barley grow. It has vineyards, fig trees, and pomegranates. It is a land where there are olive trees and honey. 9It is a land where there will be plenty of food for you. You will have everything you need. It is a land which has iron {ore} in its rocks and from which you can dig copper {ore} from its hills. 10{Every day} you will eat until your stomachs are full. You will thank Yahweh our God for the fertile land that he has given you.

11But {when that happens}, be sure not to forget Yahweh our God by disobeying his commandments, rules, and regulations that I am giving to you today. 12Do this even when your stomachs are full {every day}, and when you have built good houses and are living in them. 13One day the number of your cattle and sheep will greatly increase. You will accumulate a large amount of silver and gold. The amount of all your other possessions will also greatly increase. 14Even then, be sure that you do not become proud and forget Yahweh our God. He rescued your parents from being slaves in Egypt and brought them out from there. 15Remember that he guided them while they traveled through that huge and terrible desert. There were poisonous snakes and scorpions there. Remember that the ground was very dry and there was no water. In spite of that, he caused water to flow for them out of solid rock. 16Remember that in that desert he gave your families manna to eat. Manna was food that they had never eaten before. He did this so they would realize that they needed to trust him and not themselves. He wanted to test them to find out if they would obey him. This is so that he could do many good things for them {when those difficulties ended}. 17Be sure that you do not think to yourselves that you have acquired all these things by your own power and ability. 18Remember that it is Yahweh our God who has enabled you to become rich. He does this because he faithfully does what he solemnly promised our ancestors that he would do.

19Today I solemnly warn you: If you forget Yahweh our God and start to worship and serve other gods, then he will certainly destroy you. 20If you do not obey Yahweh our God, then he will certainly destroy you just like he will destroy the people groups against which you will fight.

91You people of Israel, listen to me! You will soon cross the Jordan River. In the land that you will enter, there are people groups that are more numerous and more powerful than you are. In that land, there are large cities that have very high walls {around them}. The walls are so high that they {seem to} extend up to the sky. You will take possession of the land that these people groups occupy. 2The people in the land are strong and tall. Some of them are descendants of the Anakites. You have encountered them, and you certainly have heard people say that no one can defeat the descendants of Anak. 3I want you to know that Yahweh our God will go ahead of you. He will be like a raging fire. He will be the one defeating and destroying them in front of you. As a result, you will quickly be able to drive out some of them and kill the others. This is just as Yahweh promised that you would do.

4After Yahweh our God has expelled them before you, do not say to yourselves, ‘It is because we are righteous that Yahweh has enabled us to capture this land.’ Rather, it is because the people in that land are wicked that Yahweh will drive them out for you. 5{Again}, it is not because you are righteous or do things that are righteous that you will inhabit that land. It is because those people groups are very wicked that Yahweh our God will expel them as you advance. It is also because he intends to do what he solemnly promised to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that he would do. 6I want you to know that it is not because you are righteous that Yahweh our God is giving you this good land. I say this because you are a very stubborn people.

7Never forget what your parents did in the desert that caused Yahweh our God to become angry. From the day that we left Egypt until the day that we arrived here, you have continually rebelled against him. 8Even at Mount Horeb your parents caused Yahweh to become angry. Because he was very angry, he was ready to get rid of {all of} them. 9I climbed the mountain to receive from him the stone tablets on which he had written the Ten Commandments. I stayed there 40 days and nights. During that time I did not eat or drink anything. 10Yahweh gave me the two stone tablets on which he had written {the commandments} with his own fingers. They were the words that he had spoken to your parents from the fire on that mountain. This was when they gathered together {at the bottom of the mountain}.

11At the end of those 40 days and nights, Yahweh gave me those two stone tablets on which he had written those commandments. 12But then he said to me, ‘Go down the mountain immediately! This is because {the people whom you are leading}, the people whom you led out of Egypt, have committed a terrible sin! They have very quickly done what I commanded them not to do. They have made for themselves a metal figure {of a calf to worship}.’

13Then Yahweh said to me, ‘I have been watching these people. I see that they are very stubborn. 14Let me alone. I am going to destroy all of them, with the result that no one anywhere will remember their names. Then I will enable you to become {the ancestor} of a nation that will be more powerful and numerous than them.’

15So I turned and went down the mountain. In my hands I carried the two stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were {written}. Fire was burning all over the mountain. 16I looked, and I was shocked to see that your parents had committed a great sin against Yahweh. They very quickly had begun to do what Yahweh our God had commanded them not to do. They had {requested Aaron} to make for them a metal figure of a calf {to worship}. 17I lifted up those two stone tablets and threw them {on the ground}. They broke into pieces. I did this while they were watching.

18Then I prostrated myself on the ground in Yahweh’s presence as I had done before. I did not eat or drink anything for 40 days and nights. I did that because your parents had sinned against Yahweh and caused him to become very angry. 19I was afraid that because Yahweh was very angry with them, he would get rid of all of them. {But again I prayed that he would not do that}, and again he listened to me {and answered my prayer}. 20Yahweh was also very angry with Aaron {for making that golden calf}. Yahweh was ready to kill him. But at the same time I prayed for Aaron also, {and Yahweh answered my prayer}. 21Your parents had sinned {by requesting Aaron} to make {a metal figure of} a calf. So I took that figure and I melted it in a fire. Then, I crushed it and ground it into very tiny pieces. Then I threw those tiny pieces into the stream that flowed down the mountain.

22Your parents also caused Yahweh to become very angry {by what they did at places that they named} Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth Hattaavah.

23And when we were at Kadesh Barnea, Yahweh said to your parents, ‘Go and capture the land that I am about to give to you!’ But they rebelled against him. They did not trust him, and they did not obey what he told them to do. 24Your parents rebelled against Yahweh from the first day that I knew them {in Egypt}.

25So, as I said, I lay on the ground in Yahweh’s presence for 40 days and nights because Yahweh had said that he would get rid of your ancestors. 26And I prayed to Yahweh, saying, ‘Lord Yahweh, these people belong to you. Do not destroy them. They are people whom you rescued and brought out of Egypt by your very great power. 27Do not forget {what you promised} to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Ignore how stubborn and wicked these people have been, and the sin that they have committed. 28If you destroy them, the people of Egypt will {hear about it}. They will say that you were not able to bring them into the land that you promised to give to them. They will say that you took them into the desert only to kill them there because you hated them. 29{Remember} that they are your people. You chose them to belong to you. You brought them out {from Egypt} by your very great power.’

101Then Yahweh said to me, ‘Cut two stone tablets like the first ones and make a wooden chest to put them in. Then {bring the tablets} up to me on this mountain. 2I will write on those tablets the same words that I wrote on the first tablets, the ones that you broke. Then you can put them in the chest.’

3So I made a chest. I used wood from an acacia tree to make it. I cut two stone tablets like the first ones. Then I went up the mountain carrying the tablets. 4There Yahweh wrote on the tablets the {same} Ten Commandments {that he had written on the first tablets}. They are the commandments that he had spoken to your parents from the midst of the fire on the mountain. This was when they had gathered {at the bottom of the mountain}. Then Yahweh gave the tablets to me. 5{Carrying the tablets}, I went down the mountain. Then, just as he had commanded, I put them in the chest that I had made and they are still there.”

6(Then, from Beeroth Bene Jaakan, the Israelite people traveled to Moserah. There Aaron died and people buried him. His son Eleazar took his place and became the great priest. 7From there, the Israelites traveled to Gudgodah. From there, they traveled to Jotbathah, which was a place that had many streams. 8At that time, Yahweh chose the tribe of Levi to carry the sacred chest {that had the stone tablets}, stand in Yahweh’s presence {in the sacred tent}, offer sacrifices, and pray for Yahweh to bless {the people}. They are still doing those things at the present time. 9That is the reason that the tribe of Levi did not receive any land like the other tribes did. What they received was the honor of being Yahweh’s {priests}. This is according to what he said they should do.)

10{Moses continued to speak,} “As for me, I stayed on the mountain 40 days and nights, just like I did the first time. {I prayed,} and Yahweh answered my prayers again. He said that he would not destroy your families. 11Then Yahweh said to me, ‘Continue your journey and lead the people to occupy the land. This is the land that I solemnly promised your ancestors that I would give to you.’

12Now, you Israelite people, I will tell you what Yahweh our God says that you do. He requires you to honor him, to conduct your lives as he wants you to, to love him, and to serve him with all that you desire and all that you feel, 13and to obey all of his commandments which I am giving to you today. This is for your benefit.

14Be aware that Yahweh our God owns even the sky and everything that is in it. He also owns the earth and everything that is on it. 15But {although he owns all those things}, Yahweh also loved our ancestors. From all the peoples {on the earth} he chose us, their descendants, and we are still his people. 16You must humble yourself and obey Yahweh’s covenant. Stop being stubborn! 17Yahweh our God is greater than all gods, and he is greater than all rulers. He is very powerful. He is impartial, and he does not accept bribes. 18He makes sure that people treat orphans and widows fairly. He loves even foreigners who live among us Israelite people. He gives them food and clothes. 19So you must love those foreigners too. This is because you were once foreigners when you were living in Egypt. 20You must deeply respect Yahweh our God, and you must worship him alone. Be faithful to him. When you make a solemn oath, say that he should punish you if you do not do what you have promised. 21He is the one whom you must praise. He is our God. We have seen the great and awesome things that he has done for us. 22When our ancestors, {Jacob and his family}, went down to Egypt, there were only 70 of them. But now Yahweh our God has caused us to be as numerous as the stars in the sky.

111{Because of all that} Yahweh your God {has done for you}, you must love him. Also, you must continually obey all his rules, decrees, and commandments. 2Remember that {it was you and your parents,} not your children, who experienced all of the things that Yahweh did to teach you. So I am telling you today to think about everything he did that shows how very great and very powerful he is. 3Remember the many different miracles that he performed in Egypt. Think about what he did to the king of Egypt and everything there. 4Your children did not see Yahweh destroy the army of Egypt, their horses, or their chariots. Your children did not see how Yahweh caused the Sea of Reeds to flood and drown the army of Egypt as they were coming after their ancestors. Yahweh continues to make Egypt’s army weak even to this day. 5Your children did not see how Yahweh took care of their families in the desert before they all came to this place. 6Your children did not see what Yahweh did to the rebels, Dathan and Abiram, the two sons of Eliab from the tribe of Reuben. While all of your families were watching, the earth split open, and they fell into the opening and disappeared. Their families, their tents, their servants, and their animals also disappeared with them. 7You and your parents have seen all these miracles that Yahweh performed.

8So obey all the commandments that I am giving you today. This is so that you will be strong and able to enter and occupy the land after crossing the river. 9This is also so that you will live for a long time in that land. That land is the land that Yahweh solemnly promised your ancestors that he would give to them and to their descendants. The land is very fertile. 10It is not like the land of Egypt, where your ancestors lived. In Egypt, they struggled to plant seeds and water the plants. 11But the land that you are about to enter is a land where there are many hills and valleys. In that land there is plenty of rain. 12Yahweh takes care of that land. He watches over it every day, from the beginning of each year to the end of each year.

13Today I am commanding you to love Yahweh our God and to serve him with your entire inner being. If you do that, 14each year he will send rain on your land at the right times. As a result, you will have grain and grapes to make wine and olives to make olive oil. 15And he will cause grass to grow in your fields for your livestock to eat. You will have all the food that you want.

16I warn you to be careful. Otherwise, you might stop worshiping Yahweh and worship false gods. 17If that happens, Yahweh will become very angry with you. He will prevent any rain from falling. As a result, the crops will not grow. You will soon die {from hunger} in the good land that Yahweh is about to give to you. 18So, keep thinking about what Yahweh has commanded you. {Write copies of them} and tie them to your arms and foreheads {to help you to remember them}. 19Teach them to your children again and again. Talk about them {at every opportunity,} such as when you are in your houses and when you are walking outside. Talk about them also when you are resting and when you are working. 20Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your city gates. 21Do this so that you and your descendants will live for a very long time in the land. It is the land that Yahweh promised to our ancestors that he would give to them. That land will belong to you and your descendants forever.

22Faithfully obey what I am commanding you to do. Love Yahweh our God, conduct your lives as he wants you to, and be faithful to him. If you do this, 23then Yahweh will drive out all the people groups {in that land} as you advance. These are people groups that are more numerous and more powerful than you are. 24Everywhere you go, the land will be yours. Your territory will extend from the desert in the south to the Lebanon Mountains in the north. It will extend from the Euphrates River in the east to the great sea in the west. 25Yahweh our God will cause all the people in that land to be very afraid of you. No people group will be able to stop you. It will be just as he promised.

26Be aware that today I am telling you that Yahweh will either bless you or he will curse you. 27If you obey the commandments of Yahweh our God that I am giving to you today, he will bless you. 28But if you do not obey them, stop worshiping him and start worshiping other gods to whom you were never faithful before, he will curse you. 29And when Yahweh brings you into the land that you are about to enter and occupy, this is what you must do. {Some of} you {must stand} on top of Mount Gerizim and proclaim what will cause Yahweh to bless you. {The others must stand} on top of Mount Ebal and proclaim what will cause Yahweh to curse you.” 30(Those two mountains are west of the Jordan River, west of the plain along the Jordan River, in the land where the Canaanites live. They live close to the sacred trees near Gilgal.) 31“You will soon cross the Jordan River to occupy the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you. When you start to live in that land, 32be sure to obey all the rules and decrees that I am giving to you today.

121I will now tell you the rules and decrees that you must faithfully obey in the land. Yahweh, the God whom our ancestors worshiped, is giving to you the land to occupy. You must obey these laws all the time that you are alive. 2When you drive out those people groups, you must destroy all the places where they worshiped their gods. These places include places on the tops of mountains and hills and beside large trees. 3Tear down their altars, demolish the stone pillars {that they have dedicated to their gods}, burn the poles {that they use when they worship the goddess Asherah}, and chop down their carved idols. This is so that no one will ever worship them in those places again.

4Do not worship Yahweh as {the people in Canaan worship their gods}. 5Instead, you must go to the place that Yahweh will choose for his presence to be. It will be in the area where one of your tribes will live. Look for his house, and go worship him there. 6That is the place where you must bring all of your offerings. These include the wholly burned sacrifice, other sacrifices, one tenth of all your produce and animals, special contributions, sacrifices for promises, unprompted sacrifices, and the firstborn animals from your cattle and sheep. 7There, in the presence of Yahweh our God, you and your families will eat the good things that you have worked to produce, and you will be happy, because he has blessed you {very much}.

8{When you are in that land,} you must not do some of the things that we have been doing. Until now, you have all been worshiping Yahweh the way you want to. 9This is because you have not yet arrived in the land that he will allow you to permanently possess. There, you will be able to live peacefully. 10After you cross the Jordan River, you will start to live in the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you. He will protect you from all your enemies that will surround you. You will live peacefully.

11Yahweh will choose one place where he wants you to worship him. That is the place to which you must bring all the offerings that I command you to bring. These include the wholly burned sacrifice, other sacrifices, one tenth of all your produce and animals, special contributions, and sacrifices for promises you make to Yahweh. 12Celebrate there in the presence of Yahweh, with your children, your servants, and the Levites who live in your towns. Remember that the Levites will not have their own land, like you do. 13Do not offer your wholly burnt sacrifice anywhere else. 14Only offer them in the place that Yahweh will choose. The place will be in an area that belongs to one of your tribes. That is the only place where you may offer the wholly burnt sacrifice and do the other things that I am commanding you to do {when you worship him}.

15However, you may kill and eat your animals wherever you live as much as you want. These animals are blessings from Yahweh your God. Impure and pure people may eat that meat, just like you would eat the meat of a gazelle or a deer. 16But do not eat the blood {of any animal}. Let the blood drain onto the ground {before you cook the meat}. 17Do not eat any offering for Yahweh where you live. Do not eat the one tenth of your produce and animals that you are set aside for Yahweh. Do not eat any of the offerings for promises, unprompted offerings, or special contributions. 18Instead, you must eat those offerings in the presence of Yahweh in the place that he chooses. You must do this along with your children, your servants, and the Levites who live in your towns. You should rejoice in the presence of Yahweh in everything that you do. 19Be sure that you take care of the Levites all during the time that you live in your land.

20In the future, Yahweh will give you more territory, as he has promised. At that time, if you want to eat meat in that new territory, you may eat as much as you want. 21If the place that Yahweh our God chooses for you to worship him is far from {where} you {live}, I will tell you what to do. You may kill and eat some of your animals where you live, as much as you want. 22Impure and pure people may eat that meat, just like you would eat the meat of a gazelle or a deer. 23But be sure that you do not eat the blood of any animal. This is because blood keeps humans and animals alive. You must not eat that which sustains life along with the meat. 24Do not eat the blood. Instead, let it drain onto the ground. 25If you obey this command and do what Yahweh says is right for you to do, you and your descendants will prosper.

26But this is what you must do with your offerings and anything that you promise to give to Yahweh. You must take those things to the place that he will choose. 27There you will offer the animals for the wholly burned sacrifice on the altar. {You will also offer the fellowship sacrifice there. After you kill the animals, the priest} will take the blood from the animals and splatter it onto every side of the altar. {Then, the priests will receive their portion of the meat.} You may eat {the rest of} the meat. 28Faithfully obey all these commands. If you do that, you and your descendants will prosper forever. This is because you will be doing what Yahweh our God says is right for you to do.

29When you enter the land that you will occupy, Yahweh our God will destroy the people groups that live there as you advance. 30After he does that, be sure that you do not worship the gods of those people groups. If you do, it will be like a trap that will catch you. Do not ask them how they worshiped their gods just so you can worship Yahweh in the same way. 31Do not try to worship Yahweh our God as they have worshiped their gods. This is because they do disgusting things when they worship them. Yahweh hates those disgusting things. The worst thing that they do is that they burn their own children on altars for their gods.

32Be sure to obey all these commands. Do not add anything to these commands, and do not take anything away from them.

131In the future, there could be people in your community who say that they are prophets. They may say that they are able to interpret the meaning of dreams or perform various kinds of miracles. 2They will say those things to convince you to worship gods that you have never known about before. But even if what they predict happens, 3then do not pay attention to what they say. This is because Yahweh our God will observe how you behave to find out if you love him with all your inner being. 4You must conduct your lives as Yahweh our God wants you to. You must honor him, obey him, do what he tells you to do, and be faithful to him.

5But you must execute anyone who tells you to disobey Yahweh our God. This includes anyone who says he is a prophet, or anyone who says that he can interpret dreams. This is because Yahweh himself rescued your families from being slaves in Egypt. Those people want to convince you to disobey what Yahweh has told you to do. Execute them to make sure no one in your community does those kinds of evil acts. 6Your brother, son, daughter, wife, or some close friend might privately urge you to disobey. They might urge you to worship other gods that you and your ancestors never knew about before. 7They might urge you to worship gods that nearby or faraway peoples worship. 8If any of them do that, then do not do what they suggest. Do not even listen to them. Do not act mercifully toward them, and do not keep secret what they have done. 9Execute them! Be the first one to {throw stones} at them to kill them. Then, everyone else must {throw stones at them}, too. 10Kill such people by throwing stones at them. This is because they tell you to disobey Yahweh our God, who rescued your ancestors from being slaves in Egypt. 11When you have executed that person, all the Israelite people will hear what happened. They will become afraid, and none of them will do such an evil thing again.

12When you are living in one of the towns in the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you, you may hear 13that some worthless people among you are deceiving the people of their town. They might urge you to worship other gods. 14Examine the facts about it thoroughly. Suppose you find out that it is true that such a disgraceful thing has happened. 15Then kill all the people in that town and kill all their livestock, too. Destroy the town completely. 16Gather all the possessions that belonged to the people who lived there and pile them up in the city plaza. Then burn the town and everything in it. It will be like a burnt offering to Yahweh. The ruins must stay there forever. People must never rebuild that town. 17You must not take for yourselves anything that Yahweh has said you must destroy. If you do what I say, Yahweh will stop being angry with you, and he will act mercifully toward you. He will cause you to have many children, which is what he promised our ancestors that he would do. 18Yahweh our God will do all those things if you do what he is telling you to do, obey all the commandments that I am giving to you today, and do what Yahweh says is right for you to do.

141We are people who belong to Yahweh our God. Do not gash yourselves or shave the hair on your foreheads when you grieve {like the other people groups do}. 2We belong to Yahweh alone. Yahweh chose us from all the other people groups on the earth to be his special people.

3Do not eat anything that Yahweh detests. 4The animals whose meat you may eat are cattle, sheep, goats, 5all kinds of deer, gazelles, wild goats, and mountain sheep. 6Those are animals that have split hooves and that also chew the cud. 7But there are other animals that chew the cud that you must not eat. Those are camels, rabbits, and rock badgers. They chew the cud, but they do not have split hooves. So they are not acceptable for you to eat. 8Do not eat pigs. They are unacceptable for you to eat. They have split hooves, but they do not {chew} the cud. Do not eat the meat of those animals; do not even touch their dead bodies. 9You may eat any fish that has fins and scales. 10But anything else that lives in the water that does not have fins and scales you must not eat. They are unacceptable for you to eat.

11You may eat the flesh of any bird that is acceptable to Yahweh. 12But the birds that you may not eat are eagles, large or black vultures, 13red kites, falcons, or any kind of kite, 14any kind of raven, 15ostriches, owls, sea gulls, any kind of hawk, 16little owls, great owls, white owls, 17pelicans, carrion vultures, cormorants, 18storks, any kind of heron, hoopoes, or bats.

19You must not eat any insect with wings and which swarm. They are unacceptable to Yahweh for you to eat. 20But other insects with wings are acceptable to eat.

21Do not eat any animal that has died naturally. You may allow foreigners who live among you to eat those things. You may also sell them to other foreigners. But you are a people group that belongs to Yahweh our God. You must not cook a young sheep or goat in its mother’s milk.

22Once each year you must set apart a tenth of all the crops that you gather from your fields. 23Take them to the place that Yahweh our God will choose for you to worship him. There you must eat the tenth of your grain, your wine, your olive oil, and the meat of the firstborn male animals of your cattle and your sheep. Do this in order that you may learn to always honor Yahweh. {He has blessed you by giving you these things.} 24It could be that the place that Yahweh has chosen for you to worship him is very far from your home. As a result, you might not be able to take the tenth of your crops which are a blessing from Yahweh. 25In that case, you must sell the tenth of your crops for money. Then, wrap the money carefully in a cloth and take it with you to the place of worship that Yahweh has chosen. 26There, with that money, you may buy whatever you want to. It could be beef, lamb, wine, or fermented drinks. There, in the presence of Yahweh, you and your families should eat and drink those things and be happy. 27But be sure to not neglect to help the descendants of Levi who live in your towns, because they will not own any land.

28At the end of every three years, bring a tenth of all your crops that you have produced in that year and store it in your towns. 29That food will be for the descendants of Levi, because they will not have their own land. That food will also be for the foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your towns. They may come {to where the food is stored} and take what they need. Do that in order that Yahweh our God will bless you in everything that you do.

151At the end of {every} seven years, you must cancel all debts. 2Do it like this: Each of you who has lent money to a fellow Israelite must cancel that debt. You must not insist that he pay it back. You must do that because Yahweh has declared the cancelation of debts every seven years. 3During that year you may require foreigners who live among you to pay what they owe you, but you must not demand that from any fellow Israelite. 4-5Yahweh our God will bless you in the land that he is giving to you. If you obey Yahweh our God and obey all the commandments that I am giving to you today, then there will not be any poor people among you. 6Yahweh our God will bless you like he has promised to do. You will be able to lend money to people of other people groups, but, for your part, you will not need a loan from any of them. You will control many people groups, but they will not control you.

7In the towns that Yahweh our God is giving to you, if it happens that there are any Israelites there who are poor, then do not be selfish and refuse to help them. 8Instead, be generous and lend them the money that they need. 9When the year of canceling debts is near, do not think to yourself that {you should not lend anyone money because} they will not need to pay it back. It would be evil to withhold help from a needy fellow Israelite. If you do that, he could pray to Yahweh against you. Then {Yahweh will say that} you have sinned by not helping that person. 10Give generously to poor people and not grudgingly. If you give generously to them, Yahweh will bless you in everything that you do. 11There will always be some poor people in your land, so I command you to give generously to poor people, to your fellow Israelites.

12If any of your fellow Israelite men or women sell themselves to one of you {to become your slave}, then you must free them after they have worked for you for six years. When the seventh year comes, you must free them. 13When you free them, do not allow them to go empty-handed. 14Instead, give to them generously from the things with which Yahweh has blessed you—sheep, grain, and wine. 15Do not forget that your ancestors were once slaves in Egypt and that Yahweh our God freed them. So, I am now commanding you to do this.

16It may happen that one of your slaves tells you they do not want to leave you. Perhaps he loves you and your household because you have treated him well. 17In that case, take him to the door of your house. While he is standing against the doorway, pierce one of his earlobes with an awl. That will indicate that he will be your slave for the rest of his life. Do the same thing to any female slave {who does not want to leave you}.

18Do not complain when you are required to free your slaves. Keep in mind that they served you for six years, and you got double the value in comparison with a hired worker. If you free them, Yahweh our God will bless you in everything that you do.

19Set aside for the honor of Yahweh our God the firstborn male animals from your cattle and sheep. Do not force them to do any work for you, and do not shear the wool of the firstborn animals. 20Each year, you and your family must kill them and eat their meat in the presence of Yahweh at the place that he chooses for you to worship him. 21But if the animals have any defects, if they are lame or blind, or if they have any other serious defect, then you must not sacrifice them to Yahweh our God. 22You may kill and eat the meat of those animals in your towns. The impure and pure people {may eat it}, just like {anyone may eat} the meat of a gazelle or a deer. 23But you must not eat any of the blood. You must drain all the blood on the ground when you kill those animals.

161{Each year} honor Yahweh our God in the early spring with the Passover Celebration. It was on a night in the early spring that Yahweh rescued your families from Egypt. 2In order to celebrate, go to the place that Yahweh will choose for you to worship him. There, sacrifice one young animal from your sheep or cattle to Yahweh. 3When you eat the Passover meal, the bread that you eat must not have yeast in it. You must eat this kind of bread, called the bread of suffering, for seven days. This is to help you to always remember {that your families were suffering in Egypt because they were slaves.} When they left Egypt, they left very quickly. 4During the Passover Celebration, which will last for seven days, you must not have any yeast {in any house} in your land. Furthermore, you must eat the meat of the animal that you sacrifice on the evening of the first day of the Passover Festival during that night. Do not allow any of it to remain until the next day.

5-6You must offer the Passover sacrifice only at the place that he chooses for you to worship him. Do not offer that sacrifice in any other town in the land that Yahweh is giving to you. Offer that sacrifice when the sun is setting, at the same time of day that your ancestors started to leave Egypt. 7Cook the meat and eat it at the place of worship that Yahweh our God chooses. The next morning, you may return to your tents. 8Each day for six days the bread that you eat must have no yeast in it. On the seventh day, you must all gather to worship Yahweh our God. You must not do any work on that day.

9Each year, from the day that you start to harvest your grain, count seven weeks. 10Then, to honor Yahweh our God, celebrate the Celebration of Weeks. Do that by bringing to him an offering {of grain}. Yahweh has blessed you by causing it to grow in your fields during that year. If you had a big harvest, bring a big offering. If you had a small harvest, bring a small offering. 11You should be joyful in the presence of Yahweh. Their children, their servants, the descendants of Levi who are in that town, and the foreigners, orphans, and widows who are living among you, should also be joyful. Bring those offerings to the place of worship that Yahweh will choose.

12When you celebrate these festivals by obeying these commands, remember that your families were slaves in Egypt.

13Each year, after you have threshed all your grain and pressed the juice from all your grapes, you must celebrate the Festival of Shelters for seven days. 14Each married couple along with their children, their servants, the descendants of Levi who are in that town, and the foreigners, orphans, and widows who are living among you, should be joyful in the presence of Yahweh. 15Honor Yahweh our God by celebrating this festival for seven days in the place that he chooses for you to worship him. You should all be joyful, because Yahweh will have blessed your harvest and all the other work that you have done.

16So, each year all of you Israelite men must gather to worship Yahweh our God at the place that he will choose, to celebrate three festivals: The Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Celebration of Weeks, and the Festival of Shelters. No one should come before Yahweh without an offering. 17Every man {must give} in proportion to the blessings that Yahweh has given you {during that year}.

18Appoint judges and other officials throughout your tribes, in all the towns in the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you. They must judge people fairly. 19They must not judge unjustly. They must not favor one person more than another. The judges must not accept bribes because a bribe causes a wise person to ignore what is right and misrepresent the words of righteous people. 20You must be completely fair and just, in order that you may live long enough to occupy the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you.

21When you make an altar to worship Yahweh our God, do not put next to it any wooden pole that represents the goddess Asherah. 22And do not set up any stone pillar to worship any idol, because Yahweh hates them.

171Do not sacrifice to Yahweh our God any cattle, sheep, or goat that has any defect. This is because Yahweh detests that kind of gift.

2{When you are living in the land} in one of your towns that Yahweh our God is giving to you, suppose that you discover that some man or woman sins against Yahweh by disobeying the agreement that he has made with you. 3Suppose that the person has worshiped other gods, the sun, the moon, or the stars. Remember that I commanded you not to do this. 4Suppose that someone tells you of this idol worship, and you confirm that this detestable thing has happened in Israel. 5In that case, you must take the man or woman who has sinned outside of your town. Then you must kill that person by throwing stones at him or her. 6At least two people must confirm that they saw the person sin before you execute that person. If only one person says they saw the sin happen, you must not kill the accused person. 7The people who saw the sin happen should throw stones at the guilty person. Then all the other people from that town should throw stones until the guilty person dies. By doing that, you will make sure no one from your community does this evil action of worshiping idols.

8Sometimes it will be very difficult for a judge to decide what really happened. It could be that he must decide whether someone killed another on purpose or accidentally. Or, it could be that he must decide if one person or another has the legal right in a case. Or, it could be that he must decide whether someone hurt another, or the property of another. If in any town it is very difficult to know what really happened, and the judge cannot decide it, then you should go to the place where Yahweh our God will choose for you to worship him. 9There, you should explain the case to the descendants of Levi who are priests, and to the judge who is serving at that time. They should decide what should be done. 10After they make their decision, you must do what they tell you to do. 11Accept what they have decided, by doing what they say that you should do. Do not try to change in any way what they have decided. 12You must execute anyone who proudly disobeys the judge or the priest who stands there in the presence of Yahweh and decides what should be done. By doing that, you will make sure no one from all the Israelites does this evil action. 13Then after that person is executed, all the people will hear about it, and they will be afraid. None of them will proudly disobey anymore.

14After you occupy and live in the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you, you might want a king to rule over you, as the nearby peoples do. 15{Yahweh our God will permit you to have a king.} But, be sure that you appoint someone whom he has chosen. Your king must be an Israelite. A foreigner cannot be your king. 16After he becomes the king, he should not own a large number of horses. He should not send people to Egypt to buy horses for him. Remember that Yahweh told you that you would never return to Egypt. 17And he must not marry a lot of wives. If he did that, they might cause him to stop worshiping Yahweh. He must not obtain a lot of silver and gold.

18When he becomes your king, he must copy these laws on a scroll. He must copy them from the scroll the priests descended from Levi keep. 19He must keep this new scroll near him and read from it every day of his life. This is so that he may learn to have an awesome respect for Yahweh. Also, this is so that he may faithfully obey all the rules of his law. 20If he does that, he will not think that he is more important than his fellow Israelites and he will completely obey Yahweh’s commands. As a result, he and his descendants will rule as kings in Israel for many years.

181The priests, who are all from the tribe of Levi, will not receive any land in Israel. Instead, they will receive some of the food that other people offer to Yahweh. 2They will not receive any land like the other tribes will. What they will receive is the honor of being Yahweh’s priests, which is what he promised them.

3This is what the law requires that the people do for the priests. When the people bring an ox or a sheep as a sacrifice, they must give to the priests the shoulder, the cheeks, and the stomach of those animals. 4You must also give to them the first part of the grain that you harvest, the wine and olive oil that you make, and the wool that you shear from your sheep. 5You must do this because Yahweh our God has chosen the tribe of Levi from all of your tribes. He did this so that they would always be the priests who would serve him.

6Suppose that a man from the tribe of Levi who has been living in one of the towns in Israel wants to live in the place of worship that Yahweh has chosen. 7In that case, he may serve Yahweh there as a priest, just like the other men from the tribe of Levi who have been serving there. 8He must receive the same amount of food that the other priests receive. He may keep any money that he gets from selling family possessions.

9When you enter the land that Yahweh our God is giving you, you must not imitate the disgusting things that the people groups who are there now do. 10You must not sacrifice any of your children by burning them {on your altars}. Do not try to use magic or omens to discover what will happen in the future. Do not practice sorcery. 11Do not put spells on people. Do not try to talk with spirits of dead people. 12You must not do those things, because Yahweh hates people who do any of those disgusting things. He is going to drive out these people groups to benefit you because they do those disgusting things. 13But you must be completely pure for Yahweh {and avoid doing any of those disgusting things}.

14The people groups that you are about to expel from the land rely on fortune-tellers and people who practice divination. But as for you, Yahweh our God does not allow you to do that. 15Some day he will send from your people a prophet like me. You must obey him. 16On the day that your ancestors gathered at the bottom of the mountain at Horeb, they begged me for help. They told me that they did not want Yahweh to speak to them again. They did not want to see the huge fire {that burned on the mountain}. They were afraid that they would die if Yahweh spoke to them again.

17Then Yahweh said to me, ‘I agree with them. 18So I will send them a prophet from their people like you. I will tell him what to say, and then he will tell people everything that I tell him to say. 19If any person does not obey what I have told him to say, then I myself will punish that person. 20There could be someone who pridefully says that he is a prophet and that his message comes from me, but I did not send him. Or, there could be someone who speaks a message that he says other gods have revealed to him. You must execute that person.’

21Maybe you wonder how you can tell if a message that someone tells you does not come from Yahweh. 22If a person claims to be a prophet who speaks for Yahweh, but what that person said will happen does not happen, then {you will know that} Yahweh did not reveal that message to him. That person said it just so that others would think that he is important, and you do not need to take that person seriously.

191Yahweh our God will destroy the people groups from the land that he is giving to you. You will drive them out from their towns and you start to live in their homes. After that, 2-3you must divide into three parts the land that Yahweh is giving to you. Then select a city in each part. You must make good roads {in order that people can get to those cities easily}. Someone who kills another person can escape to one of those cities to be safe.

4This is the rule for someone who has killed another person. If someone accidentally kills another person who was not his enemy, he may escape to one of those cities and be safe. 5There could be a case where two men go into the forest to cut some wood. The ax head might come off the handle while one of the men cuts wood. Then, the ax head might hit and kill the other man. In that case, the man who was using the ax may run to one of those cities and be safe there. {The people of that city will protect him.} 6{If there were only one city for the killer to run to,} the killer could be very far away from a safe city. A judge may decide not to execute the killer because the killing was an accident. Then, a relative of the victim may seek revenge and kill the man in anger before the man can arrive at a safe city. 7Therefore, I order you to choose three cities {for this purpose}.

8-9Do everything that I am today commanding you to do. Love Yahweh our God and obey his instructions continually. If you do that, Yahweh our God will give you much more land {than you will have when you first inhabit the land}. You will receive all the land according to what he promised your ancestors. When that happens, select three more cities {in the new land for people to escape to}. 10As a result, innocent people will not die, and you will not be guilty for allowing them to die in the land that Yahweh is giving to you.

11In a case where someone hates another person, he might hide and wait for this person to pass by. Then, he might attack and murder this person. In this situation, if the attacker flees to one of those cities, 12the elders of the murderer’s hometown {are responsible for punishing him. They} must send someone to the city where the murderer is hiding and arrest him. Then they must bring him to the victim’s relative who is responsible for avenging the murder so that the relative may execute the murderer. 13Do not pity killers! {Instead, you must execute them.} This is so that you Israelites will not be responsible for the deaths of innocent people. This is also so that you may prosper.

14In the land that Yahweh is giving you, your ancestors placed stones to mark the borders of properties. When you occupy that land, do not move those markers.

15When someone accuses another person of any kind of wrong activity or of sinning in any way, one person who says, ‘I saw him do it’ is not enough {to convict him}. There must be at least two or three people who say that they saw him do it in order for the judge to accept that what he says is true.

16Suppose that someone falsely testifies that they saw a man sin. 17Both the accuser and the accused must go to the place of worship. There, they must talk to the priests and judges who are serving at that time. 18The judges must investigate the case carefully. If the judges discover that one man falsely testified against the other, 19then the people must punish the false witness. The punishment must be the same as the punishment he suggested for the man that he accused. As a result, you will make sure no one from Israel does this evil action. 20The rest of the Israelites will learn about the punishment. They will be afraid of the punishment, so they will not testify falsely. 21Do not pity that person. If he killed someone, you must kill him. In the same way, {if he harmed} someone’s eye, tooth, hand, or foot, {you must cause the same harm to him}.

201When your fighting men go to fight your enemies and see that they have many horses and chariots and that their army is much bigger than yours, do not be afraid of them, because Yahweh our God, who brought the Israelites safely out of Egypt, will be with you. 2When you are ready to start the battle, the high priest must stand in front of the fighting men. 3He must say to them, ‘Listen to me Israelite men! Today you are going to fight against our enemies. Do not be timid! Do not be afraid of them in any way at all, 4because Yahweh our God will go with you. He will fight your enemies for you, and he will enable you to defeat them.’ 5Then the leaders must say to the fighting men, ‘If anyone among you has just built a new house and has not dedicated it {to God}, he should go home {and dedicate the house}. If he does not do that, if he dies in the battle, someone else will dedicate the house {and live in it}. 6If anyone among you has planted a vineyard and has not yet harvested any grapes from it, he should go home. If he stays here and dies in the battle, someone else will harvest the grapes and enjoy the wine made from them. 7If anyone among you has become engaged to marry a woman but has not married her yet, he should go home {and marry her}. If he stays here and dies in the battle, someone else will marry her.’ 8Then the leaders must also say to the fighting men, ‘If anyone among you is afraid or timid, he should go home, in order that he does not cause his fellow soldiers to be afraid like him.’ 9When the leaders have finished speaking to the fighting men, they must appoint commanders over them. 10When you go up to a city {that is far away} to attack it, first tell the people there that if they surrender, you will not attack them. 11If they open the gates of the city and surrender, they will all become your slaves to work for you. 12But if they refuse to surrender peacefully and decide instead to fight against you, your troops must surround the city and break through the walls. 13Then, when Yahweh our God enables you to capture the city, you must kill all the men in the city. 14But you may take for yourselves the women, the children, the livestock, and everything else that you want to take from the city. You may enjoy all the things that belonged to your enemies, the things that Yahweh our God has given to you. 15That is how you should make war against all the people in cities that are far from the land in which you will settle, not the people in cities in your land. 16But in the cities that are in the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you forever, you must kill all the people and all the animals. 17You must completely get rid of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Yahweh our God commands you to do this. 18If you do not do that, they will teach you to sin against Yahweh our God by doing the disgusting things that they do when they worship their gods. 19When you surround a city for a long time, trying to capture it, do not cut down the fruit trees outside the city. You are allowed to eat the fruit from the trees, but do not destroy the trees, because they certainly are not your enemies. 20You are permitted to cut down trees you know do not bear fruit and use the wood to make ladders and towers to enable you to go over the walls and capture the city that is resisting you.

211Suppose that while you are living in the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you to inherit, you find the body of a person that someone murdered. If you do not know who killed that person because it was in a field, 2your elders and judges must go out to where someone found the body and measure the distance from there to each of the nearby towns. 3Then the elders in the closest town must select a cow that has not had a baby and has never pulled with a yoke, that is, she has never done any work. 4They must take it to a place near a stream where the ground has never been plowed or planted. There they must break its neck. 5The priests must go there also, because Yahweh our God has chosen them from the tribe of Levi to serve him and to be his representatives when they bless people. He has also chosen them to settle disputes involving injuries. 6The elders from the closest town to the body must wash their hands over the young cow whose neck they break, there in the valley. 7They must say, ‘We did not murder this person, and we did not see who did it. 8Yahweh, forgive us, your Israelite people whom you rescued {from Egypt}. Do not consider us guilty for murdering an innocent person.’ When they do this, Yahweh will forgive the Israelites for the murder, 9because you will be doing what Yahweh considers to be right. You will not be considered guilty for murdering that person.

10When your fighting men go to fight against your enemies, and Yahweh our God enables you to defeat them, and they become your prisoners, 11one of you may see among them a beautiful woman that he likes, and he may want to marry her. 12He should take her to his home, and there she must shave all the hair off her head and cut her fingernails. 13She must change out of the clothes that she was wearing when she was captured. She must stay in that man’s house and mourn for her parents for a month. After that, he may marry her and have sex with her. 14Later, if he no longer is pleased with her, he must let her leave him and go wherever she wants. But because {sending her away} will humiliate her, he may not sell her to anyone else like a slave.

15Suppose that a man has two wives, but he loves one of them more than the other. Suppose that they both give birth to sons, and that the oldest son is the child of the woman that he does not favor. 16On the day when that man decides which of his possessions each son will obtain after he dies, he must not favor the son of the wife that he loves by giving him the larger share that should go to the firstborn son of the wife he does not favor. 17He must give the firstborn son twice as much of his possessions as he gives to any other sons, even though he is from the wife whom he does not favor. That son is the first proof that the father can reproduce, and the largest share belongs to him because he was born first.

18Suppose there is a young man who is very stubborn and is always rebelling against his parents, and who will not heed what they say to him. Suppose that they punish him but he still does not pay attention to what they tell him. 19If that happens, his parents must take him to the gate of the city where they live and have him stand in front of the elders of the city. 20Then the parents must say to the elders of that city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and always rebelling against us. He will not pay attention to what we tell him. He eats too much, and he gets drunk.’ 21Then all the men of that city must execute him by throwing stones at him. By doing that, you will make sure no one from among you does this evil action. Everyone in Israel will hear about what happened and they will be afraid to do what he did.

22If you execute someone for committing a crime for which he deserves to die, and you hang his corpse on a post, 23you must not allow his corpse to remain there all night. You must bury it on the day that he died, because if you keep the corpse on a post, God will curse the land. You must bury the corpse that day, in order that you do not defile the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you to inherit.

221If you see an Israelite’s ox or sheep that has strayed away, do not act as though you did not see it. Take it back to its owner. 2But if the owner does not live near you, or if you do not know who he is, take the animal to your house. It can stay with you until the owner comes, searching for it. Then you must give the animal to him. 3You must do that same thing if you see a donkey, a piece of clothing, or anything else that someone has lost. Do not refuse to do what you should do.

4And if you see a fellow Israelite’s donkey or cow that has fallen down on the road, do not act as though you did not see it. Help the owner to lift the animal up so that it can stand on its feet again.

5Women must not wear men’s clothes, and men must not wear women’s clothes. Yahweh our God hates people who do things like that.

6If you happen to find a bird’s nest in a tree or on the ground, and the mother bird is sitting in the nest on its eggs or with the baby birds, do not take both the mother bird and the babies. 7You may take the baby birds, but you must allow the mother bird to fly away. Do this in order that things will go well for you and that you will live for a long time.

8If you build a new house, you must put a railing around the roof. In this way, you will not be guilty of having caused someone’s death if a person falls from it and dies.

9Do not plant any crop in the area where your grapevines are growing. If you do, the harvest of both will become sacred.

10Do not hitch together an ox and a donkey for plowing your fields.

11Do not wear clothing that is made by weaving together wool and linen.

12Twist threads together to make tassels and sew them on the four bottom corners of your cloak.

13Suppose a man marries a young woman and has sex with her and later decides that he does not want her anymore, 14and suppose that he says false things about her, making people think badly about her by claiming that she was not a virgin when he married her. 15If that happens, the young woman’s parents must take the sheet that was on the bed when the man and their daughter were married, which still has bloodstains on it, and show it to the elders of the city at the gate of the city. 16Then the father of the young woman must say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to be his wife. But now he says that he does not want her anymore. 17And he has falsely said that she was not a virgin when he married her. But look! Here is what proves that my daughter was a virgin! Look at the bloodstains on the sheet where they slept the night that they were married!’ And he will show the sheet to the city elders. 18Then the elders of that city must punish that man. 19They must force him to pay 100 pieces of silver to the father of the young woman, because the man has shamed a young Israelite woman. Also, that woman will be his wife for the rest of his life. He is not allowed to divorce her.

20But if what the man said is true, and there is nothing to prove that she was a virgin when he married her, 21they must take that young woman to the door of her father’s house. Then the men of that city must execute her by throwing stones at her. They must do that because she has done something in Israel that is very disgraceful, by sleeping with some man while she was still living in her father’s house. By executing her like that, you will make sure no one from among you does this evil action.

22If someone catches a man having sex with another man’s wife, you must execute both of them, the man and the woman. By doing that, you will make sure no one from Israel does this evil action.

23Suppose in some town a man sees a young woman who is engaged to another man and has sex with her. 24You must take both of them to the gate of that town. There you must execute them both by throwing stones at them. You must execute the young woman because she did not shout for help even though she was in the town. You must execute the man because he has defiled someone who was supposed to be someone else’s wife. By doing that, you will make sure no one among you does this evil action.

25But suppose out in the open countryside a man meets a young woman who is engaged to be married, and he forces her to have sex with him. If that happens, you must execute only that man who forced her to have sex. 26You must not punish the young woman, because she did not do anything to die for. This case is like when one man attacks another man in the countryside and murders him, 27because the man who forced her to have sex with him saw her when she was in the open countryside, and even though she called out for help, there was no one there who could rescue her.

28If a man forces a young woman who is not engaged to be married to have sex with him, and if someone sees him while he is doing that, 29the man who forced her to have sex with him must pay 50 pieces of silver to the young woman’s father, and he must marry her, because he defiled her. He is not allowed to divorce her during the rest of his life.

30A man must not disgrace his father by having sex with any of his father’s wives.

231No man with crushed testicles or a severed penis may worship with Yahweh’s people.

2No child of an Israelite father and a non-Israelite mother or his descendants, extending to the tenth generation, may worship with Yahweh’s people.

3No Ammonites or Moabites may worship with Yahweh’s people, extending to the tenth generation. 4One reason for this is that their leaders refused to give you food and water when they were traveling from the nation of Egypt {to the region of Canaan}. Another reason is that they paid Balaam son of Beor from the town of Pethor in the region of Aram Naharaim to curse you Israelites. 5But Yahweh our God did not pay attention to Balaam; instead, he caused Balaam to bless you rather than curse you, because Yahweh our God loves you. 6As long as Israel is a nation, you must not do anything to cause things to go well for those two people groups to enable them to prosper.

7But do not despise any Edomites, because they are descendants of your ancestor Isaac, just like you are. Likewise, do not despise people from Egypt, because they treated your ancestors well when they first lived in Egypt. 8The grandchildren of people from Edom and Egypt who live among you now may worship with Yahweh’s people.

9When your fighting men are living in a camp in time of war, they must avoid doing things that would make them unacceptable to God. 10If any soldier becomes unacceptable to God because semen comes out of his body during the night, the next morning he must go outside the camp and stay there during that day. 11But in the evening of that day he must bathe, and at sunset he will be allowed to come back into the camp.

12Your fighting men must have a toilet area outside the camp where you can go when you need to. 13{When you go to fight against your enemies,} carry something to dig with along with your weapons, in order that when you need to defecate, you can dig a hole, and then cover up the hole when you have finished defecating in it. 14You must keep the camp acceptable to Yahweh our God, because he is with you in your camp to protect you and to enable you to defeat your enemies. Do not do anything disgraceful that would cause Yahweh to abandon you.

15If slaves who escape from their masters come to you and request you to protect them, do not send them back to their masters. 16Allow them to stay among you, in whatever town they choose because they like it, and do not mistreat them.

17Do not allow any Israelite man or woman to become religious prostitutes. 18Also, do not allow any woman who earned money from being a prostitute or any man who earned money being a homosexual prostitute to bring any of that money into the temple of Yahweh our God, even if they solemnly promised to pay that money to him. Both of these sexual practices are disgusting to Yahweh our God.

19When you lend money or food or anything else to a fellow Israelite, do not charge them interest. 20You are allowed to charge interest when you lend money to foreigners, but not when you lend money to Israelites. Do this in order that Yahweh our God will bless you in everything that you do in the land that you are about to enter and occupy.

21When you solemnly promise to give something to Yahweh your God or to do something for him, do not delay in doing it. Yahweh expects you to do what you promised, and if you do not do it, you will be sinning. 22But it is not sinful not to solemnly promise things to Yahweh. 23But if you voluntarily promise to do something for Yahweh our God, you must surely do it.

24When you walk through someone else’s vineyard, you are allowed to {pick and} eat as many grapes as you want, but you must not put any in a container {and take them away}. 25When you walk along a path in someone else’s field of grain, you are allowed to pluck some of the grain by hand {and eat it}, but you must not cut any of his grain with a sickle.

241Suppose a man marries a woman and later decides that he does not want her because he finds something about her offensive. Then he must write a paper in which he says that he is divorcing her, give the paper to her, and send her away from his house. 2After she leaves his house she is allowed to marry another man. 3Suppose that that man later also decides that he does not like her, and that he also writes a paper in which he says that he is divorcing her, gives it to her, and sends her away from his house. Or, suppose that the second husband dies. 4If either of those things happen, her first husband must not marry her again. She is now unclean to him. Yahweh would consider it to be disgusting if he married her again. You must not desecrate the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you by doing that.

5When a man has just married a woman, he must not become a soldier in the army. He must not have to do any other kind of government work. He must not do those things during the first year after he gets married. Instead, he must stay at home and do what he can to make his new wife happy.

6If someone lends money to another person, he may take something from that person as a guarantee that he will pay the money back. But he must not take a millstone. That is what the family needs to grind grain into flour in order to bake bread and stay alive.

7If someone kidnaps a fellow Israelite to make that person his slave or to sell him to become someone else’s slave, you must execute the person-stealer. By doing that, you will make sure no one among you does this evil action.

8If you are suffering from leprosy, be sure to do everything that the priests, who are from the tribe of Levi, tell you to do. Obey carefully the instructions that I have given to them. 9Remember that Yahweh our God caused Miriam to have leprosy as your ancestors were coming out of Egypt. That is a warning for you.

10When you lend something to someone, do not go into his house to take whatever item he says that he will give you to guarantee that he will return what he has borrowed. 11Stand outside his house, and the man to whom you are lending something will bring the item out to you. 12But if he is poor {and can only give you his cloak as a guarantee}, do not keep that cloak overnight. 13When the sun sets, be sure to take the cloak back to him, in order that he may wear it while he sleeps. If you do that, he will ask God to bless you, and Yahweh our God will be pleased with you.

14Do not mistreat any servants whom you have hired who are poor and needy, whether they are Israelites or foreigners who are living in your towns. 15Every day, before sunset, you must pay them the money that they have earned. They are poor and they need to get their pay. If you do not pay them right away, they will cry out against you to Yahweh, and he will punish you for having sinned like that.

16You must not execute any parents for crimes that their children have committed, and you must not execute any children for crimes that their parents have committed. You should only execute someone for the crimes that they themselves have committed.

17You must do for foreigners who live among you and for orphans the things that the law commands you to do for them. Also, if you lend something to a widow, do not take her coat from her as a guarantee that she will return it. 18Do not forget that you had great troubles when you were slaves in Egypt, and that Yahweh our God rescued you from there. That is why I am commanding you to help others who have troubles.

19When you harvest your crops, if you forget a bundle in the field, do not go back to get it. Leave it there for foreigners, orphans, and widows. If you do that, Yahweh our God will bless you in everything that you do. 20And when you have harvested all your olives from the trees once, do not go back to pick the ones that are still on the trees. Leave them for foreigners, orphans, and widows. 21Similarly, when you pick the grapes in your vineyard, do not go back a second time to try to find more. Leave them for foreigners, orphans, and widows. 22Do not forget that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I am commanding you to be kind to those who are needy.

251If people have a dispute and they go to a court, the judge will decide who is innocent and who is guilty. 2If the judge says that someone must punish the guilty person, he will command him to lie on the ground. While the judge watches, someone will strike the guilty person with a whip a certain number of times depending on what kind of crime he committed. 3The judge may order someone to strike him up to forty times. Do not strike him more than that, since that would humiliate him publicly.

4When your ox is walking on the grain to separate it from the stalks, do not prevent it from eating some of grain.

5If two brothers live on the same property, and one of them who has no son dies, the man’s widow should not marry someone who is not a member of his family. The dead man’s brother must marry her and sleep with her. It is his duty to do that. 6If she later gives birth to a son, everyone should consider that first son as the son of the man who died, in order that the dead man’s name will not disappear from Israel.

7But if the dead man’s brother does not want to marry that woman, she must go to the city leaders at the city gate. She must say to them, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to marry me in order that I may give birth to a son who will prevent the dead man’s name from disappearing in Israel. He does not want to do his duty to me as a brother-in-law.’ 8Then the elders must summon that man and talk to him. Perhaps he will still refuse to marry that widow. 9In that case, she must go up to him while the elders are watching, and take off one of his sandals {to symbolize that he would not receive any of her property}, spit in his face, and say to him, ‘This is what happens to the man who refuses to preserve his brother’s family line.’ 10After that happens, people will know that man’s family as ‘the family of the man of the pulled-off sandal.’

11When two men are fighting with each other, and the one man’s wife comes up to help her husband by grabbing hold of the other man’s private parts, 12do not act mercifully toward her; cut off her hand.

13Do not cheat people by having one weight which you use when you buy something and a different weight which you use when you sell something, 14or by having one measure which you use when you buy something and a different measure which you use when you sell something. 15Always be honest in your transactions by using correct weights and correct measures, in order that Yahweh our God will allow you to live a long time in the land that he is giving to you. 16Yahweh our God hates all those who act dishonestly.

17Continue to remember what the people of Amalek did to your ancestors when they were coming out of Egypt. 18They attacked your ancestors as they were traveling, when they were weak and exhausted. Those people were not afraid of God at all, so they attacked your ancestors from the rear and killed all those who were unable to walk as fast as the others. 19Therefore, when Yahweh our God has given you the land that he promised to give you, and when he has enabled you to rest from fighting all your enemies around you, kill all the people of Amalek, with the result that no one will remember them anymore. Do not forget to do this!

261After you arrive and settle in the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you to own forever, 2each of you must put some of the first crops that you harvest from the land that Yahweh our God is giving you in a basket. Take them to the place that Yahweh will have chosen for you to worship. 3Go to the high priest who is serving at that time and say to him, ‘Yahweh our God solemnly promised our ancestors to give us this land. Today {by this offering} I declare to him that I am settled here {in fulfillment of his promise}.’ 4Then the priest must take the basket of food from you and hold it in front of the altar for sacrificing to Yahweh our God. 5There in Yahweh our God’s presence you must say this: ‘My ancestor was a nomadic man in Aram. He took his family to Egypt. They were a small group when they went there, but they lived there and their descendants became a very large and powerful nation. 6Then the people of Egypt acted very harshly toward them, and they forced them to become their slaves and to work very hard. 7Then our ancestors prayed to you, Yahweh our God, and you heard them. You saw that they were suffering, and that the Egyptians were forcing them to work very hard and oppressing them. 8Then by your great power and by performing many kinds of miracles, and other terrifying things, you brought them out of Egypt. 9You brought us to this land and gave it to us, a land that is very fertile. 10So now, Yahweh, I have brought to you the first part of the harvest from the land that you gave me.’ Then you must set the basket down in Yahweh’s presence and worship him there. 11Then you must celebrate {by eating a meal together} to thank Yahweh our God for all the good things that he has given to you and to your family. You must invite the descendants of Levi and the foreigners who are living among you to also rejoice {and eat with you}.

12Every third year, you must bring to the descendants of Levi, to the foreigners who are living among you, to the orphans, and to the widows the offering of a tenth of your crops, in order that in every town they will have plenty to eat. 13Then you must say to Yahweh our God, ‘I have brought to you, from my house, all of the tenth from my harvest this year that I have set aside for you. I am giving it to the descendants of Levi, to the foreigners, to the orphans, and to the widows, as you commanded us to do. I have not disobeyed any of your commands {about the tenth portion}, and I have not forgotten any of your commands {about it}. 14I have not eaten any food from the tenth portion while I was mourning {for someone who died}. I have not taken any of it out of my house while I was in any condition unacceptable to you. I have not offered any of it to spirits of dead people. Yahweh my God, I have obeyed you and done everything that you have commanded us concerning the tenth portion. 15So please look down from your holy living place in heaven, and bless us, your Israelite people. Also bless this very fertile land which you have given to us, as you promised our ancestors you would give it to us.’

16Today Yahweh our God is commanding you to obey all these rules and decrees. So obey them faithfully, with all that you are. 17Today you have declared that it is Yahweh who is your God, and that you will conduct your lives as he wants you to do, that you will obey all his commands, rules, and decrees, and that you will do all that he tells you to do. 18And today Yahweh has declared that you are his people, like a prized possession, which is what he promised that you would be, and he commands you to obey all his commands. 19If you do that, he will cause you to become greater than any other nation that he has established. Other nations will consider you famous and beautiful, and they will praise you. You will be a special people to Yahweh, set apart and holy to him, just as he promised.”

271Moses, along with the other Israelite leaders, said this to the people, “Obey all the commandments that I am giving to you today. 2Soon you will cross the Jordan River and enter the land that Yahweh, our God, promised to give to you. There, set up some large stones and cover them with plaster. 3Write on those stones all these laws and teachings, when you enter that very fertile land that Yahweh, the God whom our ancestors worshiped, promised to give to you. 4When you have crossed the Jordan River, set up some large stones on Mount Ebal, just as I told you, and cover them with plaster. 5And build a stone altar there to offer sacrifices to Yahweh our God, but do not do any work on those stones with iron tools. 6You must make Yahweh our God’s alter with uncut stones. You must present wholly burnt sacrifices to him on it. 7You must make fellowship sacrifices to Yahweh and eat them there. You must rejoice in the presence of Yahweh our God. 8When you write these laws on those stones, you must write them very clearly.”

9Then Moses, along with the priests descended from Levi, said to all the Israelites, “Israelites! Be quiet and listen to what I am saying! Today you have become the people who belong to Yahweh, our God. 10So you must do what he tells you, and obey all the rules and regulations that I am giving to you today.”

11On that same day Moses said to the Israelites, 12“After you have crossed over the Jordan River, the tribes descended from Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin must stand on Mount Gerizim {and request Yahweh} to bless the people. 13And the tribes descended from Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali must stand on Mount Ebal and listen to the {things that Yahweh will do when he} curses {the people}.

14The descendants of Levi must shout these words loudly so the Israelites can hear:

15‘Yahweh will curse anyone who carves a figure from wood or stone or casts a figure from metal, and secretly sets it up and worships it.

Yahweh considers that those things are detestable.’

And all the people must reply, ‘Amen.’

16‘Yahweh will curse anyone who dishonors his father or his mother.’

And all the people must reply, ‘Amen.’

17‘Yahweh will curse anyone who removes someone else’s markers of property boundaries.’

And all the people must reply, ‘Amen.’

18‘Yahweh will curse anyone who leads a blind person to go in the wrong direction.’

And all the people must reply, ‘Amen.’

19‘Yahweh will curse anyone who refuses to act toward foreigners, orphans, or widows in the way that the law requires.’

And all the people must reply, ‘Amen.’

20‘Yahweh will curse anyone who violates his father’s marriage rights

by having sexual relations with any of his father’s wives.’

And all the people must reply, ‘Amen.’

21‘Yahweh will curse anyone who has sexual relations with any animal.’

And all the people must reply, ‘Amen.’

22‘Yahweh will curse anyone who has sexual relations with his sister or with his half-sister.’

And all the people must reply, ‘Amen.’

23‘Yahweh will curse anyone who has sexual relations with his mother-in-law.’

And all the people must reply, ‘Amen.’

24‘Yahweh will curse anyone who secretly murders someone else.’

And all the people must reply, ‘Amen.’

25‘Yahweh will curse anyone who murders someone who is innocent because someone else has given him money or something else to do that.’

And all the people must reply, ‘Amen.’

26‘Yahweh will curse anyone who does not carefully obey these laws.’

And all the people must reply, ‘Amen.’

281If you do what Yahweh our God tells you to do and faithfully obey everything that I am today commanding you to do, he will cause you to become greater than any other people group on the earth. 2If you obey Yahweh your God, he will bless you in all these ways:

3He will bless everything that you do when you are in the cities, and he will bless everything that you do when you are working in the fields.

4He will bless you by giving you many children, abundant crops, plenty of fertile cattle, and many sheep.

5He will bless you by giving you plenty of grain to make bread.

6He will bless you everywhere—whether you are at home or elsewhere.

7Yahweh will enable you to defeat the armies of your enemies; they will attack you from one direction, but they will run away from you in many directions.

8Yahweh will bless you by filling your barns with grain, and he will bless all the work that you do; he will bless you in the land that he is giving to you.

9If you obey all that Yahweh our God is commanding you to do, he will keep you as his own holy people, just as he promised you. 10Then all the peoples on the earth will realize that you belong to Yahweh, and they will be afraid of you. 11And Yahweh will cause you to prosper very much. He will give you many children, many cattle, and abundant crops in the land that he solemnly promised to our ancestors that he would give to you.

12At the time that your land needs rain, Yahweh will send it from where he stores it in the sky, and he will bless all your work, with the result that you will be able to lend money to many other people groups, but you will not need to borrow money from them. 13If you faithfully obey all of the commands of Yahweh our God that I am giving you today, then Yahweh will cause your people group to be superior {to other people groups}, not inferior {to them}. 14{Yahweh will do all these things for you if} you do not stop obeying what I am commanding you today, and if you never worship other gods.

15But if you do not do what Yahweh our God tells you to do and do not faithfully obey all his rules and regulations that I am today commanding you to do, he will curse you in all these ways:

16He will curse everything that you do when you are in the cities, and he will curse everything that you do when you are working in the fields.

17He will curse you by not giving you much grain to make bread.

18He will curse you by giving you few and sickly children, crops, cattle, and sheep.

19He will curse you everywhere—whether you are at home or elsewhere.

20Yahweh will curse you by confusing and frustrating you in all that you do until your enemies destroy you. They will quickly kill you for your wicked sins and for rebelling against him. 21Yahweh will make you very sick, until all of you die in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. 22Yahweh will afflict you with diseases that shrivel your bodies, with fever, with inflammation. It will be extremely hot, there will be violence everywhere, there will be scorching winds, and he will cause your crops to rot. He will afflict you with these until you die. 23It will not rain so the ground will be very hard and unproductive. 24Instead of sending rain, Yahweh will send strong winds to blow sand and dust over your land to {ruin your crops and} starve you to death.

25Yahweh will enable your enemies to defeat you; your soldiers will attack them from one direction, but will run away from them in many directions. People from every other nation will be horrified at what Yahweh has done to you. 26You will die, and birds and wild animals will come and eat your corpses, and there will not be anyone to scare them away. 27Yahweh will cause you to have boils on your skin, like he caused the people of Egypt to have many years ago. He will cause you to have tumors, open sores, and your skin will itch, but there will be nothing that will cure those diseases. 28Yahweh will cause some of you to become insane; he will cause some of you to become blind, and he will cause some of your minds to become confused. 29At midday you will feel around with your hands, like you are blind or in the dark. You will not prosper in anything that you do. Enemies will continually oppress and rob you, and there will not be anyone to help you.

30A man will formally arrange to marry a young woman, but someone else will rape her. You will build houses, but you will never live in them. You will plant grapevines, but you will not pick any grapes or drink any wine. 31Your enemies will butcher your cattle while you watch them, but you will not get any of the meat to eat. They will drag away your donkeys while you watch them do it, and they will not give them back to you. They will take away your sheep and there will not be anyone to help you rescue them. 32Foreigners will steal your sons and daughters. You will constantly watch for your children to return, but you will not be able to do anything for them. 33People from a foreign nation will eat all the crops that you worked hard to produce, and they will constantly treat you harshly and cruelly. 34All these terrible things that you see will cause you to become insane. 35Yahweh will cause painful boils that no one can heal to cover your knees and legs, and you will have boils from the bottom of your feet to the top of your head.

36Yahweh will cause enemies to take your king (who you will have chosen for yourself) and the rest of you to another country where you and your ancestors have never lived. There you will worship strange gods that men made of wood or stone. 37The people in the nations where Yahweh drives you will use what has happened to you as a horror story, a proverb, and something to mock.

38You will plant plenty of seeds in your fields, but you will reap only a small harvest, because locusts will eat the crops. 39You will plant grapevines and take care of them, but you will not pick any grapes or drink any wine, because worms will eat the vines. 40Olive trees will grow everywhere in your land, but you will not get any olive oil to rub on your skin because the olives will drop on the ground before they are ripe. 41You will have sons and daughters, but they will not stay with you, because enemies will capture and take them away. 42Swarms of crickets will eat your crops and the leaves of all your trees.

43Foreigners who live in your land will become more and more powerful, and you will become less and less powerful. 44They will have money to lend to you, but you will not have any money to lend to them.

They will be superior to you, and you will be inferior to them.

45When all these disasters happen to you and continue to happen to you until they destroy you, you will know it is because you did not do what Yahweh your God told you to do and did not obey all the rules and regulations that he gave to you. 46These disasters that Yahweh will bring on you and your descendants will forever show everyone his mighty power. 47Because Yahweh our God blessed you abundantly in many ways, you should have served him very joyfully, but you did not do that. 48Therefore, you will work for the enemies whom Yahweh will send to attack you. You will be hungry and thirsty; you will not have clothes to wear and you will lack everything else that you need. Yahweh will cause you to become slaves and work hard until he destroys you.

49Yahweh will bring against you an army from very far away. Their soldiers will speak a language that you will not understand. They will swoop down on you quickly like an eagle. 50They will be fierce looking. They will not act mercifully toward anyone, not even old people or young children. 51They will kill and eat your livestock, and they will eat your crops, and you will starve. They will not leave for you any grain, wine, olive oil, calves, or lambs. You will all die from hunger. 52Your enemies will surround your towns throughout the land that Yahweh your God is about to give to you. They will break down the high and strong walls around your towns, walls which you trusted would protect you.

53When your enemies are surrounding your towns, you will be so extremely hungry that you will eat your own sons and daughters whom Yahweh your God has given to you. 54-55When your enemies have surrounded your towns, even the most dainty and sensitive men among you will want food very desperately, with the result that they will kill their own children and eat them, because they will not have anything else to eat. They will be greedy and not even share any of it with their brothers or wives whom they love very much or with any of their other children who are still alive. 56-57Even the most dainty and sensitive women among you, so sensitive and dainty that they have never walked barefoot, will do the same thing. When your enemies have surrounded your towns, those women will be extremely hungry, with the result that, after they give birth to a child, they will secretly kill the baby and eat it and also eat the afterbirth. They will be greedy and will not share any of it with their husbands whom they love very much or with any of their other children.

58If you do not faithfully obey all of the laws that I am writing, and if you do not have the utmost respect for Yahweh our glorious and amazing God, 59he will punish you by sending on you and on your descendants great afflictions and plagues which will last for many years. 60He will bring on you all the plagues that he sent on the people of Egypt, which terrified you, and you will always be sick. 61He will also send on you many other sicknesses and diseases that I have not talked about in these laws, until you all will die. 62You became as numerous as the stars in the sky, but only a few of you will remain alive, if you do not obey Yahweh your God. 63Yahweh was very happy to do good things for you and to cause you to become very numerous, but now he will be happy to ruin you and get rid of you. Those of you who do not die from these plagues, he will snatch away from the land that you will soon be entering to possess.

64Yahweh will scatter you among all the peoples of the earth, and in those places, you will worship other gods that men made of wood or stone, gods which you and your ancestors have never known. 65In those areas you will not have any peace or rest. Yahweh will make you afraid, hopeless, and discouraged. 66You will always be afraid that your enemies will kill you. You will be very fearful, all day and all night. 67Because you will be very fearful and because you will very distressed because of the terrible things that you see, each morning you will say ‘I wish it were evening already!’ and each evening you will say ‘I wish it were morning already!’ 68Yahweh will send some of you back to Egypt in ships, even though he promised that he would never force you to go there again. There in Egypt you will try to sell yourselves to become slaves of your enemies {in order to have food to eat}, but no one will buy you.”

291Yahweh commanded Moses to have the Israelites commit to all the following things when they were in the Moab region {on the east side of the Jordan River}. This was in addition to what they and Yahweh promised each other at Horeb:

2Moses summoned all the Israelites and said to them, “You saw for yourselves what Yahweh did to the king of Egypt and to his officials and to his entire country. 3You saw all the plagues that Yahweh sent on them, and all the various miracles that he performed. 4But to this day, Yahweh has not enabled you to understand the meaning of all that you have seen and heard. 5For forty years Yahweh has led you while you traveled through the desert. During that time, your clothes and your sandals have not worn out. 6You did not have bread to eat or wine or other fermented drinks to drink, {but Yahweh took care of you,} in order that you would know that he is your God.

7And when we came to this place, Sihon, the king who ruled in the city of Heshbon, and Og, the king who ruled the region of Bashan, came out with their armies to attack us, but we defeated them. 8We took their land and divided it among the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and half of the tribe of Manasseh.

9So obey faithfully all that you have promised Yahweh you will do, in order that you will prosper in everything that you do. 10Today all of us are standing in the presence of Yahweh our God—I, the leaders of all your tribes, your elders, your officials, all you Israelite men, 11your wives, your children, and the foreigners who live among us and cut wood for us and carry water for us. 12You are all here today to agree with Yahweh our God, and to commit to obey him. 13He is agreeing with you in order to make sure that you are his people, and that he is your God. This is what he promised to do for you, and what he solemnly promised to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that he would do. 14It is not just that you and Yahweh are agreeing today. 15What we agree with Yahweh our God here today we are committing for us and also for our descendants who are not yet born.

16You remember the things that our ancestors suffered in Egypt, and how they traveled through the land that belonged to other people groups after they came out of Egypt. 17In those countries they saw those disgusting idols made of wood and stone and decorated with silver and gold. 18So be sure that no man or woman or family or tribe that is here today stops worshiping Yahweh our God and starts worshiping any of the gods of those people groups. That would start to make you seem like something very bad tasting to Yahweh.

19Be sure that no one here today who hears us agreeing with Yahweh says to himself, ‘Everything will go well with me, even if I stubbornly do what I want to.’ If you do that, the result will be that Yahweh will eventually destroy all of you, both good people and evil people. 20Yahweh will not forgive anyone who is stubborn like that. Instead, he will be extremely angry with that person. He will cause all the curses that I have written down here to happen to that person, until Yahweh destroys that person and his family forever. 21From all the tribes of Israel, Yahweh will choose that individual to suffer all the disasters that I have listed in the scroll that contains this agreement and its laws.

22In future years, your descendants and people from other countries will see the disasters and the illnesses that Yahweh has caused to happen to you. They will exclaim, 23‘This land is a wasteland full of sulfur and burning salt! No one is planting anything! Nothing grows, not even weeds! This land is like the place where the cities Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboyim used to be. Yahweh destroyed those when he was very angry with those people.’ 24And the people from those other people groups will ask, ‘Why did Yahweh do this to this land? Why was he so angry with the people who lived here?’

25Then other people will reply, ‘It is because they refused to do what they had agreed with Yahweh, the God whom their ancestors worshiped, when he brought them out of Egypt. 26Instead, they worshiped other gods that they had never worshiped before, gods that Yahweh had told them not to worship. 27So Yahweh became very angry with the people of this land, and he has caused to happen to them all the disasters that their leader warned them about. 28Yahweh became extremely angry with them and took them out of their land, and threw them into another land, and they are still there.’

29There are some things that Yahweh our God has kept secret, but he has revealed his law to us, and he expects us and our descendants to obey it forever.

301If, despite Yahweh our God blessing you in all the ways I have just told you about, {you disobey him, and when} he curses you in all the ways I have just told you about, and you are living in the countries to which he will have scattered you, you may realize what you have done. 2Then, if you and your children begin to worship Yahweh our God again and faithfully obey all that I have today commanded you to do, 3he will act mercifully toward you by rescuing you. He will bring you back from the nations to which he scattered you. 4Even if he scatters you to the most distant places on the earth, Yahweh our God will gather you from there and bring you back to your land. 5He will enable you to possess again the land where your ancestors lived. He will cause you to be more prosperous and more numerous than you are now. 6Yahweh our God will change your and your children’s inner beings, with the result that you will love him with all that you desire and with all that you feel and that you will continue to live {in that land}. 7Yahweh our God will send all the disasters {that I have told you about} on your enemies and on those who oppressed you. 8As you did before, you will do what Yahweh wants you to do and you will obey all that I have commanded you today. 9Yahweh our God will cause you to be very prosperous in all that you do. You will have many children and many cattle, and you will produce abundant crops. He will again be happy to enable you to prosper, just like he was happy to enable your ancestors to prosper. 10But he will do those things only if you do what he has told you to do, and only if you obey all his rules and regulations that I have written about in this instruction book, and only if you again worship Yahweh with all that you desire and with all that you feel.

11The commands that I am giving to you today are not very difficult for you to obey, and they are not difficult to know. 12They are not hiding in heaven. You do not need to say, ‘Someone will need to go up to heaven for us and bring them back to us, in order than we can hear them and obey them.’ 13And they are not on the other side of the sea. You do not need to say, ‘Someone will need to cross the sea for us and bring them back to us, in order than we can hear them and obey them.’ 14No, his commands are here with you. You have memorized them and you can tell them to anyone. So you can easily obey them.

15So listen! Today I am allowing you to choose between doing what is good resulting in you living and doing what is evil resulting in you dying. 16I say again, if you love Yahweh our God, conduct your lives as he wants you to do and obey everything he commands you, you will prosper and become very numerous. Yahweh our God will bless you in the land that you are about to enter and possess.

17But if you stop worshiping Yahweh, and if you refuse to obey what he says, and if you allow others to persuade you to worship other gods, 18I am warning you today that you will soon die. Your people will not live for very long in the land that you are about to cross the Jordan River to enter and possess.

19I am requesting everyone in heaven and on the earth to testify to you, that today I am allowing you to choose whether you want to live for a long time or to soon die, whether you want Yahweh to bless you or to curse you. So choose to obey and therefore live; choose for you and for your descendants. 20Decide to love Yahweh our God, to obey him and to always be faithful to him. If you do that, he will enable you and your descendants to live for a long time in the land that Yahweh solemnly promised to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he would give to them.”

311Then Moses also told the Israelites, 2“I am 120 years old. I am no longer able to go everywhere that you need to go{, so I cannot be your leader any longer}. Furthermore, Yahweh has told me that I will not cross the Jordan River. 3Instead of me, Yahweh our God will lead you across {the Jordan River}. He will destroy the people groups that are living there for you, in order that you can occupy their land. Yahweh has appointed Joshua to lead you across {the Jordan River} in my place. 4Yahweh will do to those people groups what he did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites when, he destroyed them and their people. 5Yahweh will enable you to conquer those people groups, but you must kill all of those people, which is what I have commanded you to do. 6Be brave and confident. Do not be afraid of those people. Do not forget that it is Yahweh our God who will go with you. He will always help you and never abandon you.”

7Then Moses summoned Joshua, and while all the Israelites were listening, he said to him, “Be brave and confident. You are the one who will lead these people into the land that Yahweh promised to our ancestors that he would give to them, and you will enable them to occupy it. 8It is Yahweh who will go ahead of you. He will be with you. He will always help you. He will never abandon you. So do not be afraid or dismayed.”

9Moses wrote down all these laws and gave the scroll to the priests, the descendants of Levi, who carried Yahweh’s sacred chest. He gave another copy of the laws to all the Israelite elders. 10Moses told them, “At the end of every seven years, at the time that you must cancel all debts, that is, during the Festival of Shelters, 11when all the Israelites gather at the place that Yahweh our God chooses for them to worship him, read this law to them all. 12Gather together everyone—men, women, children, even the foreigners who are living in your towns—in order that they may hear these laws and learn to fear and respect Yahweh our God, and to faithfully obey everything that I have written in these laws. 13This is so that your descendants, who will not yet know these laws, will hear them and learn to fear and respect Yahweh our God, during all the years that they live in the land that you are about to cross the Jordan River to occupy.”

14Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Listen carefully. You will soon die. Summon Joshua, and you will go to the sacred tent with him, in order that I may appoint him to be the new leader.” So Joshua and Moses went to the sacred tent.

15There Yahweh appeared to them in a pillar of cloud, and that cloud was over the entrance to the tent. 16Yahweh said to Moses, “Listen, you will soon die. Then these people will become unfaithful to me. They will stop obeying the covenant that I made with them. They will begin to worship the foreign gods the people of the land that they will enter are worshiping. 17When that happens, I will become very angry with them. I will abandon them and refuse to help them any longer. I will cause many bad things to happen to them, and I will destroy them. Then they will realize that I stopped protecting them. 18Because of all the evil things that they will have done, and especially because they will have started to worship other gods, I will refuse to help them.

19So I am going to give you, Moses, a song. Write it on a scroll, teach it to the Israelites, and make them memorize it. It will be like a witness that accuses them. 20I am about to take them into a very fertile land, a land that I solemnly promised their ancestors that I would give to them. There they will have plenty to eat, with the result that their stomachs will always be full and they will become complacent. But then they will turn to other gods and start to worship them, and they will despise me and break the covenant that I have made with them. 21When many terrible disasters are happening to them, their descendants will remember this song. It will be like a witness that saw them commit to worship me and accuses them of breaking their promises. I will soon take them into the land that I solemnly promised that I would give to them, but even now, before I do that, I know what they are thinking that they will do when they are living there.” 22So on the day {that Yahweh gave Moses this song,} he wrote it down and taught it to the Israelites.

23Then Yahweh commanded Joshua, whose father was Nun, “Be brave and confident, because you will lead the Israelites into the land that I solemnly promised that I would give to them. I will be with you.”

24Moses finished writing all the law onto a scroll. 25Then he told the descendants of Levi, whose job was carrying the sacred chest that contained the agreement with Yahweh, 26“Take this law scroll and place it beside the sacred chest that contains the agreement with Yahweh our God, in order that it may remain there to testify about what Yahweh will do to the people if they disobey him. 27I say this because I know that these people are very stubborn. They have rebelled against Yahweh all during the time that I have been with them, and they will rebel much more after I die! 28So gather all the elders of the tribes and your officials, in order that I can teach them the words of this song, and so that I can request all those who are in heaven and on the earth to be witnesses to testify against these people. 29I say this because I know that after I die, the people will become very wicked. They will stop doing everything that I have commanded them to do. In the future, because of all the evil things that they will do, they will cause Yahweh to become angry with them. Then he will cause them to experience disasters.”

30Then, while all the Israelites listened, Moses sang the entire song to them {(people will sing this in the future)}:

321“Listen to me, all you who are in the heavens, let me sing {this song},

all you who are on the earth, {do the same:} listen to what I sing.

2I wish that my song may help you like the rain helps you,

may it refresh you like the dew on the ground in the morning,

like a gentle rain on the young plants,

or like showers of rain on the grass.

3{This song will refresh you if you listen to it} because I will praise Yahweh.

All you people should praise how great our God is.

4He is like a rock on top of which we are safe;

everything that he does is perfect and completely just.

He always does what he says that he will do, and he never breaks his promises;

he always does the right thing.

5But you Israelite people have been very unfaithful to him;

because of your sins, you no longer deserve to be his children.

You are extremely wicked and deceitful.

6You foolish and senseless people,

this is certainly not the way that you should repay Yahweh for all that he has done for you.

He is your father; he created you;

he caused you to become a nation.

7Think about what happened long ago

by considering what happened to your ancestors.

Ask your parents, and they will inform you;

{ask} the older people, and they will tell you.

8Long ago when the Greatest God divided humanity into people groups and gave them their lands,

he set their boundaries according to the number of Jacob’s descendants,

9because Yahweh decided that we would be his people.

He chose us, Jacob’s descendants, to belong to him.

10He saw our ancestors when they were in a desert,

wandering in a land that was desolate.

He protected them and took care of them,

as every person takes good care of his own eyes.

11Yahweh trained and protected his people just like an eagle encourages its babies to fly

and flutters over them,

spreading its wings and catching them if they start to fall.

12Yahweh was the only one who led them;

no other foreign god helped them.

13Yahweh enabled them to rule the hill country;

they ate the crops that grew in the fields.

They found honey in the rocks,

and their olive trees grew even in stony ground.

14Their cows produced very creamy milk,

the sheep and goats gave them plenty of milk,

they ate choice lamb fat, Bashan-bred rams, and goats,

they had choice wheat kernels,

and they made and drank delicious wine from their grapes.

15The Israelites became so rich and prosperous that they became very fat,

but then they rebelled against God;

they abandoned him, the one who created them.

They disregarded the God who powerfully saves them.

16The Israelites made God jealous by worshiping other gods.

Because they did disgusting things while worshiping idols, he became angry.

17They offered sacrifices to gods who were really demons instead of sacrificing to God,

to gods that they had not known before.

They offered sacrifices to gods that they had recently found out about,

to gods whom your ancestors had never been afraid of.

18They ignored their Protector who created them,

forgetting the {true} God who made them {a nation}.

19When Yahweh saw {that they had abandoned him}, he became angry,

so he rejected the Israelites who were like his sons and daughters.

20He said, ‘They are very wicked people,

very unfaithful,

so I will no longer help them,

and then I will watch and see what happens to them.

21Because they worship worthless idols that are not real gods,

they have made me angry like a jealous husband.

So I will make them angry in return by using a foolish nation that is not really a people.

22My anger is like a fierce fire that burns in my nostrils;

it will burn all the way down to the place where dead people are.

That fire will destroy the land and the crops,

it will even burn deep under the mountains.

23I will cause so many disasters to happen to them

that they will feel like I am shooting all my arrows into them.

24They will die because of being hungry and because of having hot fevers

and because of terrible diseases.

I will send wild animals to attack them,

and poisonous snakes to bite them.

25Outside their houses, their enemies will kill them with swords,

and in their homes, their enemies will terrify them.

Their enemies will kill young men and young women,

and they will kill infants and old people with gray hair.

26I almost completely destroyed them

in order that no one would ever remember them.

27But I worried that if I did that, their enemies would boast.

They would think the wrong thing.

I did not want them to say, “We are the stronger than the Israelites;

it was us, not Yahweh who destroyed them.”’

28You are a nation of people who do not have any sense.

None of you are wise.

29If you were wise, you would understand why I would punish you;

you would have realized what was going to happen to you.

30You would have realized why one soldier could defeat a thousand soldiers,

and why two soldiers could chase away ten thousand soldiers.

You would realize that this could happen only if the Israelites’ Protector, Yahweh, had given their enemies power to defeat them.

31Even our enemies know

that their protector gods are not like our Protector God.

32Their gods are as deeply evil as those of Sodom and Gomorrah,

so those who worship them are bitter and toxic,

33they love celebrating things as deadly as snakes’ poison.

34Yahweh says, ‘The things I will do to punish them, I have kept hidden with me,

protected like a treasure.

35It is for me to punish and to pay back.

When everything sudden goes wrong

I am starting to destroy them.

I am prepared to punish them quickly.’

36Yahweh will see that his people are helpless

and that almost no one remains—neither prisoner nor free person.

Then he will pity his servants

and judge on behalf of them.

37Then Yahweh will ask you, ‘Where are the gods

that you thought would protect you?

38You gave to those gods the best parts of the animals that you sacrificed,

and you poured out wine for them to drink.

So they should take action to help you;

they should be the ones who will protect you!

39But now you will realize that I, only I, am God;

there is no other god who is a real god.

I alone can kill people and can cause people to live;

I can wound people, and I alone can heal people,

and there is no one who can prevent me from doing those things.

40I solemnly swear

that just as surely as I live forever, I will act.

41I will prepare to judge my enemies

like a warrior sharpens his sword until it shines.

I will strike my enemies back

by repaying those who hate me for what they have done.

42The arrows {of the army that I send to destroy my enemies} will have so much blood on them that it would make them drunk if it were wine and they were people.

Their swords will kill a lot of people.

The blood will come from enemies that they kill or that they wound and capture,

some will come from the enemies’ leaders’ heads.’

43Everyone joyfully praise Yahweh,

because Yahweh gets revenge on those who kill the people who serve him,

and he cleanses his people’s land

{which has become defiled because of their sins}.”

44Moses and Joshua son of Nun sang that song while the Israelites listened. 45Then Moses finished telling all the Israelites all Yahweh’s instructions. 46He concluded by telling them, “Never forget all these commands that I have been giving you today. Teach these laws to your children, in order that they will faithfully obey all of them. 47These instructions are very important. If you obey them, you will live a long time in the land that you are about to cross the Jordan River to occupy.”

48On that same day, Yahweh said to Moses,

49“Go to the Abarim mountain range here in the region of Moab, across from the city of Jericho. Climb Mount Nebo and look {toward the west} to see Canaan, the land that I am about to give to the Israelites. 50You will die on the mountain after you go up. You will join your people {in the place where dead people stay}, just like your older brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and went to join your people {in the place where dead people stay}. 51You will die because both of you disobeyed me in the presence of the Israelites, when you all were at the springs of Meribah near Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin. You did not honor and respect me in the presence of the Israelites in the way that I deserve because I am God. 52When you are on that mountain where I told you to go, you will see in the distance in front of you the land that I am about to give to the Israelites, but you will not enter it.”

331Before God’s prophet Moses died, he blessed the Israelites. 2This is what he said,

“Yahweh came from Mount Sinai,

he came to Israel like the sun rising over Mount Seir,

his light shone from near Mount Paran.

He came with ten thousand holy angels,

and there was a flaming fire at his right side.

3Yahweh truly loves his people

and protects all his special people.

So they worship him

and listen to his instructions.

4{They said that} I gave them laws to obey,

laws that would forever be for the descendants of Jacob.

5So Yahweh became the king of his precious people

when all the tribes and their leaders had gathered together.

6I say this about the tribe of Reuben,

I desire that their tribe will never disappear,

but that they will never become numerous.

7I say this about the tribe of Judah,

Yahweh, listen to them {when they call out for help}.

When they are fighting a battle,

help them against the enemy,

and bring them back home safely.

8I say this about the tribe of Levi,

Yahweh’s {sacred lots called} Thummim and Urim belong to the tribe that stayed loyal to him

after he tested them at Massah

and where they quarreled with him at Meribah spring.

9They did what you told them to do

by faithfully keeping the solemn agreement between Yahweh and the Israelites.

Obeying Yahweh was much more important to them

than their parents, siblings, or children.

10They teach Yahweh’s decrees and laws to the Israelites,

they will burn incense for him to enjoy and will completely burn the offerings {that the people bring} on Yahweh’s altar.

11Yahweh, make them prosper

and accept all that they do.

Crush their attackers’ ability to have children,

so those that hate them will never be able to fight against them again.

12I say this about the tribe of Benjamin,

Yahweh loves them;

he keeps them safe.

He protects them continually,

and he lives among their hills.

13I say this about the tribes of Joseph,

I desire that Yahweh will bless their land

by giving them dew from the sky,

and water from deep in the ground

14to produce for them wonderful fruit that the sun makes ripe,

wonderful crops in the right months,

15and wonderful things produced on their ancient hills and mountains.

16Indeed, may he give them plenty of wonderful things from all that the earth produces

and may {Yahweh who} lived in the {burning} bush be kind to them.

I desire that Yahweh will bless the tribes of Joseph in all those ways,

because he was the leader over his brothers {when they were in Egypt}.

17There are ten thousand upon ten thousand people in the tribe of Ephraim

and thousands upon thousands of people in the tribe of Manasseh

which will be as strong as a bull;

with their weapons they will wound their enemies like a wild ox gores other animals with its horns.

Together they will push other people groups

to the most distant places on the earth.

18I say this about the tribes of Zebulun {and Issachar},

I desire that the people of Zebulun will prosper whenever they go {across the seas},

and that the people of Issachar will prosper while they stay at home {and take care of their cattle and crops}.

19They will invite people {from the other Israelite tribe}s to the mountain

{where they worship Yahweh by} offering correct sacrifices to him.

They will become rich from {the work that they do on} the seas

and from {using} the sand along the sea {to make things}.

20I say this about the tribe of Gad,

Praise Yahweh, the one who made their territory large.

The people of their tribe will attack their enemies fiercely like a lion that crouches,

waiting to tear off the arm or the scalp of some animal.

21They chose the best part of the land for themselves;

they got a share big enough for a leader.

When the leaders of the tribes of Israel gathered together,

the tribe of Gad did the righteous things Yahweh commanded Israel to do.

22I say this about the tribe of Dan,

The people of the tribe of Dan are like a young lion;

they leap out from their caves in the region of Bashan to attack their enemies.

23I say this about the tribe of Naphtali,

Yahweh has blessed and been very kind to the people of the tribe of Naphtali;

their land extends far south from the Sea of Chenneroth.

24I say this about the tribe of Asher,

May Yahweh bless the descendants of Asher more than he will bless the other tribes.

I desire that they have a lot of olive trees that will produce a lot of olives to make olive oil.

25Their towns will have high walls with gates that have bronze and iron bars.

They will be strong as long as they live.”

26{Then Moses said to all the Israelites,} “You Israelites, there is no god like your God,

who travels swiftly through the heavens to rescue you.

27God, who lives forever, is the one who gives you refuge;

it is as though he puts his everlasting arms under you to support you.

He will drive out your enemies while you advance;

he has told you to destroy all of them.

28So you Israelite people will live safely;

no one will disturb you descendants of Jacob;

in the land {where you will live}, there will be plenty of grain and wine,

and plenty of dew will fall from the sky.

29You people of Israel are very fortunate.

There is certainly no nation like your nation,

whom Yahweh has rescued {from being slaves in Egypt}.

He will be like a shield to protect you

and like a powerful sword to enable you to defeat your enemies.

Your enemies will come to you begging for you to act mercifully toward them,

but you will thoroughly overcome them.”

341Then Moses climbed up from the plains in the region of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the highest point on Mount Pisgah, which is across {the Jordan River} from Jericho. {There} Yahweh showed him all the {land that the Israelites would occupy. He showed him the region of} Gilead as far north as the city of Dan; 2all the land that the tribes of Naphtali, Ephraim, Manasseh, and Judah would occupy as far the sea to the west, 3the desert area in the south part of Judah, and the plain in the valley with Jericho (which is called the City of Palms), from there {on the north end of the Salt Sea} to the city of Zoar {on the south end}. 4Then Yahweh said to him, “This is the land that I solemnly promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that I would give to their descendants. I have allowed you to see it clearly from a distance, but you will not go there.”

5So Moses, who always served Yahweh faithfully, died there in the land of Moab, which is what Yahweh said would happen. 6Yahweh buried Moses’ body in the valley in the land of Moab, across from the town of Beth Peor, but until now, no one knows where Yahweh buried him. 7Moses was 120 years old when he died, but he was still very strong, and he could still see very well. 8The Israelites mourned for Moses in the plains of Moab for thirty days and then they stopped crying for him.

9Because Moses had put his hands on Joshua the son of Nun {to appoint him to be the Israelites’ new leader}, God gave Joshua a spirit that made him very wise. The Israelites obeyed Joshua, and they obeyed all that Yahweh had commanded them through Moses.

10Since the time that Moses lived, there has never been a prophet in Israel like him, for Yahweh spoke with him personally. 11No other prophet has performed all the kinds of powerful miracles that Yahweh caused him to do against Pharaoh, king of Egypt, against all his servants, and against the people of Egypt. 12No other prophet has been able to perform all the great and terrifying deeds that all the Israelites saw Moses perform.