16:18 You must appoint judges and civil servants 1 for each tribe in all your villages 2 that the Lord your God is giving you, and they must judge the people fairly. 3 16:19 You must not pervert justice or show favor. Do not take a bribe, for bribes blind the eyes of the wise and distort 4 the words of the righteous. 5 16:20 You must pursue justice alone 6 so that you may live and inherit the land the Lord your God is giving you.
8:1 You must keep carefully all these commandments 8 I am giving 9 you today so that you may live, increase in number, 10 and go in and occupy the land that the Lord promised to your ancestors. 11 8:2 Remember the whole way by which he 12 has brought you these forty years through the desert 13 so that he might, by humbling you, test you to see if you have it within you to keep his commandments or not. 8:3 So he humbled you by making you hungry and then feeding you with unfamiliar manna. 14 He did this to teach you 15 that humankind 16 cannot live by bread 17 alone, but also by everything that comes from the Lord’s mouth. 18 8:4 Your clothing did not wear out nor did your feet swell all these forty years. 8:5 Be keenly aware that just as a parent disciplines his child, 19 the Lord your God disciplines you. 8:6 So you must keep his 20 commandments, live according to his standards, 21 and revere him. 8:7 For the Lord your God is bringing you to a good land, a land of brooks, 22 springs, and fountains flowing forth in valleys and hills, 8:8 a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates, of olive trees and honey, 8:9 a land where you may eat food 23 in plenty and find no lack of anything, a land whose stones are iron 24 and from whose hills you can mine copper. 8:10 You will eat your fill and then praise the Lord your God because of the good land he has given you.
8:11 Be sure you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments, ordinances, and statutes that I am giving you today. 8:12 When you eat your fill, when you build and occupy good houses, 8:13 when your cattle and flocks increase, when you have plenty of silver and gold, and when you have abundance of everything, 8:14 be sure 25 you do not feel self-important and forget the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt, the place of slavery, 8:15 and who brought you through the great, fearful desert of venomous serpents 26 and scorpions, an arid place with no water. He made water flow 27 from a flint rock and 8:16 fed you in the desert with manna (which your ancestors had never before known) so that he might by humbling you test you 28 and eventually bring good to you. 8:17 Be careful 29 not to say, “My own ability and skill 30 have gotten me this wealth.” 8:18 You must remember the Lord your God, for he is the one who gives ability to get wealth; if you do this he will confirm his covenant that he made by oath to your ancestors, 31 even as he has to this day. 8:19 Now if you forget the Lord your God at all 32 and follow other gods, worshiping and prostrating yourselves before them, I testify to you today that you will surely be annihilated. 8:20 Just like the nations the Lord is about to destroy from your sight, so he will do to you 33 because you would not obey him. 34
9:1 Listen, Israel: Today you are about to cross the Jordan so you can dispossess the nations there, people greater and stronger than you who live in large cities with extremely high fortifications. 35 9:2 They include the Anakites, 36 a numerous 37 and tall people whom you know about and of whom it is said, “Who is able to resist the Anakites?” 9:3 Understand today that the Lord your God who goes before you is a devouring fire; he will defeat and subdue them before you. You will dispossess and destroy them quickly just as he 38 has told you. 9:4 Do not think to yourself after the Lord your God has driven them out before you, “Because of my own righteousness the Lord has brought me here to possess this land.” It is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out ahead of you. 9:5 It is not because of your righteousness, or even your inner uprightness, 39 that you have come here to possess their land. Instead, because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out ahead of you in order to confirm the promise he 40 made on oath to your ancestors, 41 to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 9:6 Understand, therefore, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is about to give you this good land as a possession, for you are a stubborn 42 people!
9:7 Remember – don’t ever forget 43 – how you provoked the Lord your God in the desert; from the time you left the land of Egypt until you came to this place you were constantly rebelling against him. 44 9:8 At Horeb you provoked him and he was angry enough with you to destroy you. 9:9 When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I remained there 45 forty days and nights, eating and drinking nothing. 9:10 The Lord gave me the two stone tablets, written by the very finger 46 of God, and on them was everything 47 he 48 said to you at the mountain from the midst of the fire at the time of that assembly. 9:11 Now at the end of the forty days and nights the Lord presented me with the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. 9:12 And he said to me, “Get up, go down at once from here because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have sinned! They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them and have made for themselves a cast metal image.” 49 9:13 Moreover, he said to me, “I have taken note of these people; they are a stubborn 50 lot! 9:14 Stand aside 51 and I will destroy them, obliterating their very name from memory, 52 and I will make you into a stronger and more numerous nation than they are.”
9:15 So I turned and went down the mountain while it 53 was blazing with fire; the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands. 9:16 When I looked, you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God and had cast for yourselves a metal calf; 54 you had quickly turned aside from the way he 55 had commanded you! 9:17 I grabbed the two tablets, threw them down, 56 and shattered them before your very eyes. 9:18 Then I again fell down before the Lord for forty days and nights; I ate and drank nothing because of all the sin you had committed, doing such evil before the Lord as to enrage him. 9:19 For I was terrified at the Lord’s intense anger 57 that threatened to destroy you. But he 58 listened to me this time as well. 9:20 The Lord was also angry enough at Aaron to kill him, but at that time I prayed for him 59 too. 9:21 As for your sinful thing 60 that you had made, the calf, I took it, melted it down, 61 ground it up until it was as fine as dust, and tossed the dust into the stream that flows down the mountain. 9:22 Moreover, you continued to provoke the Lord at Taberah, 62 Massah, 63 and Kibroth-Hattaavah. 64 9:23 And when he 65 sent you from Kadesh-Barnea and told you, “Go up and possess the land I have given you,” you rebelled against the Lord your God 66 and would neither believe nor obey him. 9:24 You have been rebelling against him 67 from the very first day I knew you!
9:25 I lay flat on the ground before the Lord for forty days and nights, 68 for he 69 had said he would destroy you. 9:26 I prayed to him: 70 O, Lord God, 71 do not destroy your people, your valued property 72 that you have powerfully redeemed, 73 whom you brought out of Egypt by your strength. 74 9:27 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; ignore the stubbornness, wickedness, and sin of these people. 9:28 Otherwise the people of the land 75 from which you brought us will say, “The Lord was unable to bring them to the land he promised them, and because of his hatred for them he has brought them out to kill them in the desert.” 76 9:29 They are your people, your valued property, 77 whom you brought out with great strength and power. 78
10:1 At that same time the Lord said to me, “Carve out for yourself two stone tablets like the first ones and come up the mountain to me; also make for yourself a wooden ark. 79 10:2 I will write on the tablets the same words 80 that were on the first tablets you broke, and you must put them into the ark.” 10:3 So I made an ark of acacia 81 wood and carved out two stone tablets just like the first ones. Then I went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. 10:4 The Lord 82 then wrote on the tablets the same words, 83 the ten commandments, 84 which he 85 had spoken to you at the mountain from the middle of the fire at the time of that assembly, and he 86 gave them to me. 10:5 Then I turned, went down the mountain, and placed the tablets into the ark I had made – they are still there, just as the Lord commanded me.
10:6 “During those days the Israelites traveled from Beeroth Bene-Yaaqan 87 to Moserah. 88 There Aaron died and was buried, and his son Eleazar became priest in his place. 10:7 From there they traveled to Gudgodah, 89 and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, 90 a place of flowing streams. 10:8 At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi 91 to carry the ark of the Lord’s covenant, to stand before the Lord to serve him, and to formulate blessings 92 in his name, as they do to this very day. 10:9 Therefore Levi has no allotment or inheritance 93 among his brothers; 94 the Lord is his inheritance just as the Lord your God told him. 10:10 As for me, I stayed at the mountain as I did the first time, forty days and nights. The Lord listened to me that time as well and decided not to destroy you. 10:11 Then he 95 said to me, “Get up, set out leading 96 the people so they may go and possess 97 the land I promised to give to their ancestors.” 98
10:12 Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you except to revere him, 99 to obey all his commandments, 100 to love him, to serve him 101 with all your mind and being, 102 10:13 and to keep the Lord’s commandments and statutes that I am giving 103 you today for your own good? 10:14 The heavens – indeed the highest heavens – belong to the Lord your God, as does the earth and everything in it. 10:15 However, only to your ancestors did he 104 show his loving favor, 105 and he chose you, their descendants, 106 from all peoples – as is apparent today. 10:16 Therefore, cleanse 107 your heart and stop being so stubborn! 108 10:17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God who is unbiased and takes no bribe, 10:18 who justly treats 109 the orphan and widow, and who loves resident foreigners, giving them food and clothing. 10:19 So you must love the resident foreigner because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. 10:20 Revere the Lord your God, serve him, be loyal to him and take oaths only in his name. 10:21 He is the one you should praise; 110 he is your God, the one who has done these great and awesome things for you that you have seen. 10:22 When your ancestors went down to Egypt, they numbered only seventy, but now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of the sky. 111
11:1 You must love the Lord your God and do what he requires; keep his statutes, ordinances, and commandments 112 at all times. 11:2 Bear in mind today that I am not speaking 113 to your children who have not personally experienced the judgments 114 of the Lord your God, which revealed 115 his greatness, strength, and power. 116 11:3 They did not see 117 the awesome deeds he performed 118 in the midst of Egypt against Pharaoh king of Egypt and his whole land, 11:4 or what he did to the army of Egypt, including their horses and chariots, when he made the waters of the Red Sea 119 overwhelm them while they were pursuing you and he 120 annihilated them. 121 11:5 They did not see 122 what he did to you in the desert before you reached this place, 11:6 or what he did to Dathan and Abiram, 123 sons of Eliab the Reubenite, 124 when the earth opened its mouth in the middle of the Israelite camp 125 and swallowed them, their families, 126 their tents, and all the property they brought with them. 127 11:7 I am speaking to you 128 because you are the ones who saw all the great deeds of the Lord!
11:8 Now pay attention to all the commandments 129 I am giving 130 you today, so that you may be strong enough to enter and possess the land where you are headed, 131 11:9 and that you may enjoy long life in the land the Lord promised to give to your ancestors 132 and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. 11:10 For the land where you are headed 133 is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, a land where you planted seed and which you irrigated by hand 134 like a vegetable garden. 11:11 Instead, the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy 135 is one of hills and valleys, a land that drinks in water from the rains, 136 11:12 a land the Lord your God looks after. 137 He is constantly attentive to it 138 from the beginning to the end of the year. 139 11:13 Now, if you pay close attention 140 to my commandments that I am giving you today and love 141 the Lord your God and serve him with all your mind and being, 142 11:14 then he promises, 143 “I will send rain for your land 144 in its season, the autumn and the spring rains, 145 so that you may gather in your grain, new wine, and olive oil. 11:15 I will provide pasture 146 for your livestock and you will eat your fill.”
11:16 Make sure you do not turn away to serve and worship other gods! 147 11:17 Then the anger of the Lord will erupt 148 against you and he will close up the sky 149 so that it does not rain. The land will not yield its produce, and you will soon be removed 150 from the good land that the Lord 151 is about to give you. 11:18 Fix these words of mine into your mind and being, 152 and tie them as a reminder on your hands and let them be symbols 153 on your forehead. 11:19 Teach them to your children and speak of them as you sit in your house, as you walk along the road, 154 as you lie down, and as you get up. 11:20 Inscribe them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates 11:21 so that your days and those of your descendants may be extended in the land which the Lord promised to give to your ancestors, like the days of heaven itself. 155 11:22 For if you carefully observe all of these commandments 156 I am giving you 157 and love the Lord your God, live according to his standards, 158 and remain loyal to him, 11:23 then he 159 will drive out all these nations ahead of you, and you will dispossess nations greater and stronger than you. 11:24 Every place you set your foot 160 will be yours; your border will extend from the desert to Lebanon and from the River (that is, the Euphrates) as far as the Mediterranean Sea. 161 11:25 Nobody will be able to resist you; the Lord your God will spread the fear and terror of you over the whole land on which you walk, just as he promised you.
11:26 Take note – I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: 162 11:27 the blessing if you take to heart 163 the commandments of the Lord your God that I am giving you today, 11:28 and the curse if you pay no attention 164 to his 165 commandments and turn from the way I am setting before 166 you today to pursue 167 other gods you have not known. 11:29 When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are to possess, you must pronounce the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. 168 11:30 Are they not across the Jordan River, 169 toward the west, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah opposite Gilgal 170 near the oak 171 of Moreh? 11:31 For you are about to cross the Jordan to possess the land the Lord your God is giving you, and you will possess and inhabit it. 11:32 Be certain to keep all the statutes and ordinances that I am presenting to you today.
12:1 These are the statutes and ordinances you must be careful to obey as long as you live in the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, 172 has given you to possess. 173 12:2 You must by all means destroy 174 all the places where the nations you are about to dispossess worship their gods – on the high mountains and hills and under every leafy tree. 175 12:3 You must tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, 176 burn up their sacred Asherah poles, 177 and cut down the images of their gods; you must eliminate their very memory from that place. 12:4 You must not worship the Lord your God the way they worship. 12:5 But you must seek only the place he 178 chooses from all your tribes to establish his name as his place of residence, 179 and you must go there. 12:6 And there you must take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the personal offerings you have prepared, 180 your votive offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. 12:7 Both you and your families 181 must feast there before the Lord your God and rejoice in all the output of your labor with which he 182 has blessed you. 12:8 You must not do like we are doing here today, with everyone 183 doing what seems best to him, 12:9 for you have not yet come to the final stop 184 and inheritance the Lord your God is giving you. 12:10 When you do go across the Jordan River 185 and settle in the land he 186 is granting you as an inheritance and you find relief from all the enemies who surround you, you will live in safety. 187 12:11 Then you must come to the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to reside, bringing 188 everything I am commanding you – your burnt offerings, sacrifices, tithes, the personal offerings you have prepared, 189 and all your choice votive offerings which you devote to him. 190 12:12 You shall rejoice in the presence of the Lord your God, along with your sons, daughters, male and female servants, and the Levites in your villages 191 (since they have no allotment or inheritance with you). 192 12:13 Make sure you do not offer burnt offerings in any place you wish, 12:14 for you may do so 193 only in the place the Lord chooses in one of your tribal areas – there you may do everything I am commanding you. 194
12:15 On the other hand, you may slaughter and eat meat as you please when the Lord your God blesses you 195 in all your villages. 196 Both the ritually pure and impure may eat it, whether it is a gazelle or an ibex. 12:16 However, you must not eat blood – pour it out on the ground like water. 12:17 You will not be allowed to eat in your villages your tithe of grain, new wine, olive oil, the firstborn of your herd and flock, any votive offerings you have vowed, or your freewill and personal offerings. 12:18 Only in the presence of the Lord your God may you eat these, in the place he 197 chooses. This applies to you, your son, your daughter, your male and female servants, and the Levites 198 in your villages. In that place you will rejoice before the Lord your God in all the output of your labor. 199 12:19 Be careful not to overlook the Levites as long as you live in the land.
12:20 When the Lord your God extends your borders as he said he would do and you say, “I want to eat meat just as I please,” 200 you may do so as you wish. 201 12:21 If the place he 202 chooses to locate his name is too far for you, you may slaughter any of your herd and flock he 203 has given you just as I have stipulated; you may eat them in your villages 204 just as you wish. 12:22 Like you eat the gazelle or ibex, so you may eat these; the ritually impure and pure alike may eat them. 12:23 However, by no means eat the blood, for the blood is life itself 205 – you must not eat the life with the meat! 12:24 You must not eat it! You must pour it out on the ground like water. 12:25 You must not eat it so that it may go well with you and your children after you; you will be doing what is right in the Lord’s sight. 206 12:26 Only the holy things and votive offerings that belong to you, you must pick up and take to the place the Lord will choose. 207 12:27 You must offer your burnt offerings, both meat and blood, on the altar of the Lord your God; the blood of your other sacrifices 208 you must pour out on his 209 altar while you eat the meat. 12:28 Pay careful attention to all these things I am commanding you so that it may always go well with you and your children after you when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.
12:29 When the Lord your God eliminates the nations from the place where you are headed and you dispossess them, you will settle down in their land. 210 12:30 After they have been destroyed from your presence, be careful not to be ensnared like they are; do not pursue their gods and say, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do the same.” 12:31 You must not worship the Lord your God the way they do! 211 For everything that is abhorrent 212 to him, 213 everything he hates, they have done when worshiping their gods. They even burn up their sons and daughters before their gods!
12:32 (13:1) 214 You 215 must be careful to do everything I am commanding you. Do not add to it or subtract from it! 216 13:1 Suppose a prophet or one who foretells by dreams 217 should appear among you and show you a sign or wonder, 218 13:2 and the sign or wonder should come to pass concerning what he said to you, namely, “Let us follow other gods” – gods whom you have not previously known – “and let us serve them.” 13:3 You must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer, 219 for the Lord your God will be testing you to see if you love him 220 with all your mind and being. 221 13:4 You must follow the Lord your God and revere only him; and you must observe his commandments, obey him, serve him, and remain loyal to him. 13:5 As for that prophet or dreamer, 222 he must be executed because he encouraged rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt, redeeming you from that place of slavery, and because he has tried to entice you from the way the Lord your God has commanded you to go. In this way you must purge out evil from within. 223
13:6 Suppose your own full brother, 224 your son, your daughter, your beloved wife, or your closest friend should seduce you secretly and encourage you to go and serve other gods 225 that neither you nor your ancestors 226 have previously known, 227 13:7 the gods of the surrounding people (whether near you or far from you, from one end of the earth 228 to the other). 13:8 You must not give in to him or even listen to him; do not feel sympathy for him or spare him or cover up for him. 13:9 Instead, you must kill him without fail! 229 Your own hand must be the first to strike him, 230 and then the hands of the whole community. 13:10 You must stone him to death 231 because he tried to entice you away from the Lord your God, who delivered you from the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. 13:11 Thus all Israel will hear and be afraid; no longer will they continue to do evil like this among you. 232
13:12 Suppose you should hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you as a place to live, that 13:13 some evil people 233 have departed from among you to entice the inhabitants of their cities, 234 saying, “Let’s go and serve other gods” (whom you have not known before). 235 13:14 You must investigate thoroughly and inquire carefully. If it is indeed true that such a disgraceful thing is being done among you, 236 13:15 you must by all means 237 slaughter the inhabitants of that city with the sword; annihilate 238 with the sword everyone in it, as well as the livestock. 13:16 You must gather all of its plunder into the middle of the plaza 239 and burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. It will be an abandoned ruin 240 forever – it must never be rebuilt again. 13:17 You must not take for yourself anything that has been placed under judgment. 241 Then the Lord will relent from his intense anger, show you compassion, have mercy on you, and multiply you as he promised your ancestors. 13:18 Thus you must obey the Lord your God, keeping all his commandments that I am giving 242 you today and doing what is right 243 before him. 244